From universe to Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson filming in Texas, the Lone Star State is quickly becoming Hollywood 2.0. With more film studios popping up across the state, one highly-anticipated Central Texas studio is planning to start rolling cameras next year.
Line 204 CEO Alton Butler told MySA that his new 204Texas film studio in Bastrop County is set to begin construction on September 2. Over the past few years, the project has faced several setbacks with the city, but now some of its studios are slated to be completed by the second quarter of 2026.
"We should have four stages built by probably six months to seven months," Butler said.
The first part of the project was initially expected to be completed by the end of this year. However, Butler said construction was delayed due to a water supply permitting issue with the Certificate of Convenience and Necessity (CCN), which allows a city utility to provide water to a specific area. This ended up leading to the creation of their own public water system to support the project.
"We were going to tap into their water, well they couldn't handle it," Butler said. "So it kind pushed us back to create our own public water system on the property. So now we're in the tail end of that."
204Texas is an extension of Butler's successful production company (Line 204) in Los Angeles, which provides stage and production equipment for media giants like Netflix, Warner Brothers, Paramount, Hulu and Disney. In 2021, Butler purchased a 546-acre property in Bastrop County near the Colorado River to create 204Texas, a self-sustaining film-play-stay hub designed to house actors, crews and basically everything needed for movie magic.
Construction on the studios was delayed for two years following back-and-forth incentive changes with the city, but it was ultimately annexed to Bastrop County in 2023 because the necessary incentives for the project exceeded the city's economic budget. State tax film incentives will help fund the new studios, an investment that Butler explained can benefit Texas' economy by hiring local crews and partnering with state universities to offer jobs and internships.
Once fully operational, 204Texas will create 747 jobs and generate $105 million for the area's local economy, according to Bastrop County's 2024 financial impact analysis. In 10 years, it's expected to bring in $1.9 billion.
"The long planned film studio in Bastrop County is about to become a reality," Adena Lewis, Bastrop County's director of Tourism and Economic Development told MySA. "The process of planning and permitting with our development services team have gone very well and Bastrop County looks forward to supporting the work of this studio."
204Texas joins a slew of other film studios in Texas, including Taylor Sheridan's SGS Studios in North Texas, ATX Studios in Austin, Southside Studios in Dallas and three more set to open this year in the DFW. Chuck and Shazam actor Zachary Levi is also planning a $100 million, 75-acre film studio in Bastrop, but Butler said he's not worried about any competition as 204Texas' location and amenities are so unique.
"I'm not worried about that because, again, we have such a different project when it comes to, let's just say, pretty much any of the other guys that are building," Butler said. "They don't have four miles of riverfront that they can use of the Colorado. They don't have pastures on site. They don't have a full beach on site. They do not have a forest on their site. We have all of that."
He added that he's excited for 204Texas and the new and existing film studios working together to form a strong Hollywood-like ecosystem in Texas.
"I think Texas is really has a chance of being that Hollywood 2.0," Butler said. "The more studios that open up in Texas, the better off we are as a film industry, because it creates such an ecosystem off of that. We all feed off each other, like here in L.A., you know, Warner Brothers, if you're Warner Brothers, you might need a light at Universal, or if you're at Universal, you might need some wardrobe for Paramount...so it's going to make us all stronger."
Although the exact completion date for 204Texas has not been set yet, Butler estimates that first four studios will be finished before July 2026. He says the project will be completed in phases with 11 buildings for now, to allow more opportunities to grow organically.