Waco Miniseries Uses New Mexico As A Stand-In For Waco

Volatile Texas politics, and moves away from providing incentives to filmmakers, have meant that movies and TV shows about Texas are often filmed outside the state.

By Will BurneyFebruary 6, 2018 9:30 am,

From KWBU:

The Waco miniseries is well underway on the Paramount Network. The six-part series follows the Branch Davidians through the Waco siege, but Wacoans never saw a single film crew because the series was filmed in New Mexico.

The trailer shows wide open landscapes near where the Branch Davidian compound sits, featuring a bespectacled Taylor Kitsch as the Branch Davidian leader, David Koresh. However, those dusty wide-open spaces aren’t Texas. The series was filmed in New Mexico, which may seem unusual since Waco has seen its share of film crews with the hit series, “Fixer Upper.”

There are a host of films and TV shows that have filmed all across Texas over many years but New Mexico and other states are regularly becoming stand ins for the Lone Star State.

Take the History Channel series on Texas history “Texas Rising” which was filmed in Arizona.

In recent years states have begun an arms race of film incentive programs with Georgia, Louisiana and New Mexico all rising to the top. Texas’ program rebates up to 20 percent of money spent in the state if the production hires at least 70 percent of its crew in Texas. However, the program has had a funding problem over the years. The most recent blow came during last year’s legislative session. Between the bathroom bill and a bill to defund the program, some productions balked at filming in the state.

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