Posted on 05/23/2010 4:04:33 PM PDT by DogByte6RER
Drama unfolds as violent Robert Rodriguez film seeks tax break from Texas
Should Texas taxpayers provide financial support for a violence-packed movie that plays off the tensions gripping the state and the nation in the raging debate over illegal immigration?
That's an emerging question as a new movie from Austin filmmaker Robert Rodriguez generates controversy that's reaching all the way to Gov. Rick Perry's office at a time when the state faces massive financial problems and is embroiled in the immigration debate.
Rodriguez is finishing up his latest film, Machete, about an assassin from Mexico working as a day laborer in Texas and battling a Mexican drug lord, as well as politicians opposed to illegal immigration. He says the controversy is overblown.
The movie, which uses the Texas Capitol as a backdrop in at least one scene, is generating plenty of buzz, not just for the immigration controversy but also for a star-studded cast that includes Robert De Niro, Lindsay Lohan, Jessica Alba, Don Johnson, Cheech Marin and Steven Seagal. Quentin Tarantino is the producer of the movie, set to hit theaters Sept. 3.
Several conservative bloggers have called the film inflammatory in light of growing tension over an Arizona law cracking down on illegal immigration. And some are outraged that the Texas Film Commission may grant Rodriguez's Troublemaker Studios tax incentives for shooting the film in the state.
"We need to get the funding at the state level stripped out of the film commission if they do not stop this," conservative radio host Alex Jones said.
Austin-based Troublemaker Studios applied for the tax incentives before the start of shooting. Under a state law passed in 2009, the Texas Film Commission can deny the incentives if a film includes content that's inappropriate or portrays Texas or Texans negatively.
(Excerpt) Read more at star-telegram.com ...
Rodriguez makes enough $$$ with his Hollywood production company. He doesn't need to leech off of the state.
Then again, with Obamunism in full play, it would seem that corporate leeching is the new Amerikan way.
(YouTube Video) Machete Says F*#%! Arizona
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ar4Fgyqv2wo&feature=player_embedded
Alex Jones?
LOL!
Alex Jones?
LOL!
Yeah. You’d figure all this Hollywood socialists would be more than happy to pay taxes.
Robert Rodriguez? Liberal nutjob
Your turn....
We don’t need to be giving the movie industry but the heel of our boot.
Just wondering if it says somewhere in the Texas state constitution that taxpayers can be dunned to pay for someone, anyone, making films - of any variety...
I noticed on the YouTube trailer that the film features Cheech Marin as a shotgun wielding Catholic priest and the sign of the cross is illuminated onto both the priest and “Machete” vigilante/killer.
I wondered after watching the trailer if this character is supposed to be some sort of Che Guevara re-incarnation and if this movie isn’t just some Aztlan reconquista wet dream of of movie...
If they wanted to go for realism, they should have their “hardy hero” playing a Mexican Mafia hit man, trying to ethnically cleanse Los Angeles of black people.
But that would put it into the “documentary” sub genre.
I want to make a documentary about the billions of tax dollars lost to illegal immigrants. It would also show the lost jobs, depressed wages and crime that we get for all those tax dollars.
I live in Austin and over the years have met Robert on several occasions and know people that work with him, but know nothing about his politics.
However, I do know that our Republican governor, Rick Perry loves to give incentives to the movie industry.
As for me, I am opposed to those incentives no matter what the subject matter of the movie.
That one needs to be ignored. It’s trash and it will stir things up to the point where some Mexican will begin something and Americans will finish it.
HELL NO!!!
Film your disgusting violence inciting crap elsewhere
you money hungry liberal.
“...Aztlan reconquista wet dream of of movie...”
I’ve read elsewhere that identical description of this movie.”
=========================================
MY TEXAS FILM COMMISSION FUNDING APPLICATION
FILM TITLE: "SCREWED BY MEXICO"
The Hollywood paradigm: sex, lies and videotape
ABSTRACT The Associated Press reported that Maria Elena Gonzalez related female migrants were “forced to strip by abusive Mexican police officers, supposedly to search them, but the purpose is to sexually abuse them." Jose Ramos, 18, reported “that extortion by Mexican border police occurs at every stop on their migratory route. Until migrants are left penniless and begging for food.”
According to AP: “Others said they had seen migrants beaten to death by Mexican police, their bodies left near the railway tracks to make it look as if they had fallen from a train. "If you're carrying any money, the Mexican police take it from you," said Carlos Lopez. "Federal, state, local Mexican police--all of them shake you down. If you're on a bus, the Mexican police pull you off and search your pockets, and if you have any money, the Mexican police keep it all and say, 'get out of here.' ”
Mexican police shake down motorists on bogus traffic stops on a regular basis----it's like going through a toll booth. The Mexican police demand money on the spot, or your car gets impounded.
All of the "shakedowns," “hate” and “abuses in Mexican law enforcement” as reported by the Associated Press befell Central American migrants who enter Mexico.
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