The Ninth Annual Texas Film Hall of Fame induction ceremony, held last night on the site of the old Austin airport, was quite the damp, frigid shindig -- part all-star love-in, part call to arms. Amidst the inducting -- and feted this year were the likes of Powers Booth (SMU's own), Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke, J.R. Ewing hisself and Arkansan Billy Bob Thornton ("My family comes from Richardson, Garland and Greenville") -- there was also the demand that Texas legislators fund a bill that would allow the state to offer at least $100 million in incentives to filmmakers currently shooting in New Mexico and Louisiana. Insisted last night's emcee, Thomas Haden Church, he's got three Texas-set projects lined up -- and all of them are shooting elsewhere, including in Melbourne, Australia, and Canada. "There are thousands of people here and in Dallas and Houston and throughout the state in need of work," Church said. "Let's make tonight count."
Church told the well-heeled audience, which included the likes of Kinky Friedman and Beastie Boy Adam Yauch, that New Mexico's bringing in $400 million in movie business -- "a shitload of money by anybody's measure." To which Larry Hagman offered, later, "As my mother said, if you spread the bullshiut around, it all comes back," as he too demanded the state up the measly $22 million set aside for production companies and studios considering shooting in Texas.
But enough about business. At some point today, we'll have video of Luke Wilson accepting the Hall of Fame award for Rushmore -- a film in which he appears for all of, what, two minutes? Till then, after the jump is some video I shot of Church's introduction of the night's inductees -- including Wilson, roasted till medium-well by the night's host. The picture's of low quality, the woman next to me thought the whole thing high-larious, but the comedy is top-notch. Close your eyes and pretend it's radio.
