While Fort Worth gets the headlines for SGS Studios and San Antonio announces its 45% incentive package, a Houston-based film investment fund has been quietly building a slate of commercial action films — and has two projects in active development heading into 2026.
The Sam Houston South West Film Investment Fund (SHSWFIF) is not a grant program or a government initiative. It's a Texas LLC with oil-and-gas money behind it and a philosophy borrowed from the patch: manage risk carefully, find projects with proven track records, and bet on the right wells.
Who They Are
Founded over a decade ago, SHSWFIF started as a prints-and-advertising financier — providing $8M–$30M in P&A and backstop P&A financing for films with production budgets up to $70M. They've funded tens of millions in P&A for commercially successful pictures.
Since the pandemic, the fund shifted strategy: now a combination of P&A and equity financing. When the right project appears, they can fund a net production budget up to $60 million. Capacity to finance up to three projects per year.
The investor base: primarily Southwestern U.S., mostly oil and gas industry veterans. Their pitch to themselves is that film investment and oil investment rhyme — manage risk, partner with proven operators, and wait for returns.
Current Slate (2026)
Two projects in active development:
Thunder Run: The Armored Strike to Capture Baghdad
- Director: Simon West (Con Air, The Mechanic, The Expendables 2)
- Source material: Thunder Run by journalist David Zucchino — the Pulitzer Prize-winning account of the 3rd Infantry Division's armor assault into Baghdad in April 2003
- Genre: Military action/historical drama
- Status: Optioned January 2026; in development
Simon West is a legitimate commercial action director. This is exactly the kind of project SHSWFIF was built for: proven genre, proven source material, established director, built-in marketing story (Pulitzer Prize book = credibility, military audience = built-in audience).
Shot Down
- Source material: Shot Down by Steve Snyder — the non-fiction story of the B-17 bomber Susan Ruth and the surviving crew members who evaded capture in Nazi-occupied Europe after being shot down over Belgium in 1944
- Genre: WWII survival drama
- Status: In development since July 2025
Shot Down is a smaller, more intimate story — a single crew, a single plane, a remarkable escape. The kind of film that's been proven commercially with Dunkirk, The Finest Hours, and streaming hits like Band of Brothers. Lower budget ceiling than Thunder Run, potentially higher upside in the current streaming market.
The Business Model Is Smart
SHSWFIF has identified exactly where the commercial market lives in 2026: not $150M blockbusters, not pure streaming originals, but high-quality genre films with production budgets well below the Hollywood average that can do a limited theatrical run and land efficiently on a streaming platform.
Their framing: "A limited run of at least a couple of weeks still has the power to generate substantial awareness for a motion picture prior to its debut on a streaming platform."
That's not a hedge. That's the current playbook for mid-budget commercial filmmaking.
The Texas Angle
SHSWFIF's stated mission is to promote filmmaking in the Southwest and maximize existing infrastructure. They've lobbied for Texas film incentive legislation. Their long-term goal includes a Sam Houston Film Studio — a purpose-built production complex in Texas that doesn't exist yet.
Neither Thunder Run nor Shot Down has announced a Texas shooting location. Gulf War and WWII films often go to Eastern Europe or Morocco for budget reasons. But if SHSWFIF is serious about its Texas infrastructure mission, the question is whether one of their upcoming projects comes home.
With Houston's HFFIP now active and San Antonio offering the best combined package in the state, the math is there if the locations work.
Worth Watching
SHSWFIF is not splashy. There's no press release machine, no announcement event, no Twitter account. It's a fund built by quiet investors who make long bets. Thunder Run with Simon West attached is the most actionable project they've put forward publicly.
If it gets made and it gets made in Texas, that's a bigger story.
SHSWFIF: samhoustonswfilmfund.com
Texas Productions: texas.film/productions