Hollywood star Zachary Levi is making some big plans. As Hollywood continues to flounder, Levi has his sights on a big deal in his new home in Texas.
The Shazam! star recently revealed that he is trying to bring the film industry to Austin as movie and TV production continue to flee California, according to Variety.
Levi came out very strongly against taking the COVID vaccine and his outspokenness sat very badly with many in far-left Hollywood. And his endorsement for Donald Trump compounded the issues many in the industry had against Levi.
“I know that there are people that would prefer not to work with me now because of my opinions,” he said, though he admitted that he does not know any specific names. He added that he knew that this might happen when he began speaking out, and said,”I didn’t make this decision blindly or casually.”
Zachary Levi is seen on February 18, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Raymond Hall/GC Images)
But Levi’s hope to launch a film startup in Texas, that he is calling Wyldwood Studios, comes as Hollywood continues to fall and other locales show how attractive they could be to the industry. Texas, for instance, is looking to push big money into improving its film facilities and Levi is right there, ready to take advantage of that.
“Charlie Chaplin and Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks and all those O.G.s knew it over 100 years ago. Hollywood was broken then, and we needed a better system,” Levi explained.
“This industry is crumbling around us. In order for us to survive, we need to have a space for artists that will foster certified organic human-made content,” said. “AI is about to be the nail in the coffin. And we wonder why L.A. has become the Detroit of the entertainment industry.”
Levi has already moved to Texas, one of the first to flee California. But he is not the only one. He has been joined by such high profile industry insiders as podcast king Joe Rogan and popular actor Woody Harrelson. And Levi thinks that his possible studio venture outside of Hollywood has a lot of possibilities.
“While there are some people who might prefer not to work with me anymore, there’s a lot of people on that side of the political spectrum who are even more inclined to hire me and to want to do business with me because ‘I need some people who voted another way,’” Levi told Variety.
“They see that what I did was at great risk. And they were like, ‘You know what? I give you a lot of props for that because that’s not an easy thing to do.’ And I go, ‘I appreciate that.’”
He also said that heard from many in the industry that appreciate the stances he’s taken. “I’ve gotten messages from lots of people who I won’t name but who were very grateful to me for taking the stand that I took,” he said.
Meanwhile, it is full force ahead as Levi begins to raise the $40 million to get the idea off the ground. He is planning a pair of 20,000-square-foot soundstages two amphitheaters, a boutique hotel, cabins and a farm-to-table restaurant, to sit on a 76-acre plot he bought for the project along the Colorado River.
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