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Austin Movies Inc.
July 5, 2011
Production update: 'Getting Back to Abnormal'
Title: ‘Getting Back to Abnormal’
Writers-Directors: Louie Alvarez, Andy Kolker, Peter Odabashian, and Paul Stekler
Synopsis: “Documentary about how New Orleans, America’s most unique and functionally dysfunctional city, has recreated itself five years after Katrina, interweaving stories about politics, housing, the making of HBO’s Treme, and a host of characters, including James Carville, Brad Pitt, and David Simon,” Stekler said via email. “The first collaboration in a decade by the same film team that produced the four hour ‘Vote for Me: Politics in America,’ winner of Emmy, Peabody, and duPont-Columbia awards.”
Next Step: After a year and a half of filming, film is in post-production, scheduled for completion in early 2012. Would premier at SXSW, do the festival circuit, and then be broadcast nationally by PBS, either on POV or Independent Lens.
Photo by Rodolfo Gonzalez/AMERICAN-STATESMAN
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November 4, 2010
Jack Black makes public address announcements at Westlake High School
Having already made a name for himself as a teacher in “School of Rock,” Jack Black returned to the world of education this week when he popped into Westlake High School to commandeer the school’s public address system for afternoon announcements.
Following introductory notes by principal Linda Rawlings Tuesday, Black grabbed the microphone and, speaking with a Texas accent, told students he was taking over their radio waves. He then proceeded to finish the announcements while having a little fun with the pronunciation of Pflugervile.
Black was at the Westlake campus Tuesday and Wednesday shooting scenes for Richard Linklater’s new film “Bernie” at the Westlake Community Performing Arts Center. In his announcement, which apparently had surprised students scrambling for their phones to record the moment, Black called “Bernie” a “very independent think piece.”
The dark comedy co-starring Shirley McLaine and Matthew McConaughey is based on “Midnight in the Garden of East Texas,” a Texas Monthly article written by Skip Hollandsworth, who co-wrote the screenplay with Linklater. The film will recount the bizarre mystery involving Bernhardt “Bernie” Tiede, an assistant funeral home director in Carthage, Texas who admitted to murdering Marjorie Nugent, who, according to Texas Monthly, was “the richest widow in an eccentric town full of rich widows.”
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July 22, 2010
'Temple Grandin' hits DVD
Austin-made drama “Temple Grandin”, a biopic starring Claire Danes as the livestock and animal behavior expert with high-functioning autism, comes to DVD on Aug. 17.
The well-received HBO movie co-stars Julia Ormond. The DVD list price is $26.98, and it will be available on Netflix as well.
Read Statesman TV writer Dale Roe’s review HERE. You will have to scroll down a bit.
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July 15, 2010
Extras call for Robert Duvall movie
Golfers, golf fans and families are needed as extras for the movie “Seven Days in Utopia,” starring Robert Duvall and Lucas Black that will be filming in Fredericksburg July 29 through Aug. 10. The movie is based on the “inspirational” novel by area writer David Cook.
How to get involved:
Attend the casting call. No appointment or acting experience is necessary. It’s at 1 to 7 p.m. Saturday, July 17 and 1 to 6 p.m. Sunday July 18 at The Inn on Baron’s Creek, Walch Haus Conference Center, 308 South Washington St. in Fredericksburg. Call 830-965-6601 with questions.
Apply by mail. Email your name, best contact phone number and a recent photo to UtopiaExtras@gmail.com.
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July 6, 2010
Fundraiser for Emily Hagins vampire romance
Remember teenage Austin DIY filmmaker Emily Hagins, the semi-famous director/writer of bloody zombie flick “Pathogen,” made when she was a tween?
Well, she’s working on a new movie, “My Sucky Teen Romance,” — a vampire picture — and she needs funds to complete it. Hence, a benefit concert starring Elizabeth McQueen of Asleep at the Wheel will be held at 7:30 p.m. July 21 at Scholz’s Garden. The show is free, but donations are welcome.
More about Hagins, who’s now 17, and her films HERE.
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'Harmony and Me' available all over the place
Austin filmmaker Bob Byington’s very funny, creeps-up-on-you comedy “Harmony and Me” — which boasts a 92% rating at Rotten Tomatoes — hits the DVD shelves July 13.
After a successful festival run, the movie, starring Justin Rice, will also be available at Amazon and Netflix. Watch it instantly HERE.
The DVD features deleted scenes, a “making of,” a rehearsal and a Q & A.
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July 2, 2010
'Spy Kids' screens free Saturday
The 2001 Austin-shot family film that was made cheaply and made a bundle, Robert Rodriguez’s “Spy Kids” gets a FREE screening at 3 p.m. Saturday at the Texas Spirit Theater at the Bullock Museum. Everyone is welcome.
Adding coolness to coolness, Elizabeth Avellan — producer of “Spy Kids,” “Grindhouse,” and the upcoming “Predators” and “Machete” — will be there to chat up the popular movie. Family-friendly activities precede the movie, so come early.
Details HERE.
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June 15, 2010
Opening date named for 'Great Directors' doc
Back in April we wrote this squib:
Opening in New York in July is a new documentary, “Great Directors,” described as a “celebration of films and filmmaking starring 10 of the worlds most acclaimed, provocative, and individualistic living directors.”
Who are the 10? Bernardo Bertolucci, David Lynch, Stephen Frears, Agnes Varda, Ken Loach, Liliana Cavani, Todd Haynes, Catherine Breillat, John Sayles and … Richard Linklater.
Very cool. It’s a great starter pantheon that leaves room for ample argument and intellectual fencing. (Who’d you add? Subtract? Where’s Kiarostami? Godard? And so forth.)
Back then we didn’t have an Austin date, but the Arbor reports it will open here Aug. 6.
More about it HERE.
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June 7, 2010
'Spider' script reading
A script reading of Kat Candler and Chris Mass’ new feature comedy “The Spider in the Bathroom” — read by actors Dana Wheeler-Nicholson and John Merriman — happens at 6 p.m. Sunday at Cap City Comedy Club (8120 Research Blvd.) The Austin Film Festival-sponsored event is free to the public. Info HERE.
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June 1, 2010
UT alumnus wins Student Academy Award
Ruth Fertig and her documentary “Yizkor” have won a Student Academy Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Last year Fertig earned her Masters of Fine Arts in Radio-Television-Film at the University of Texas.
“‘Yizkor,’ which means “Remembrance” in Hebrew, is the story of a woman’s struggle to keep herself and her children alive in a concentration camp during the Holocaust. The story, based on Fertig’s grandmother’s experience during the Holocaust, was her MFA thesis film at UT,’ a UT release says.
Fertig’s previous film, “Two Spirits,” aired on PBS and Free Speech TV. Her first film, “The Cockroach Project,” premiered on the Documentary Channel this year. She will receive her award June 12 at the 37th Annual Student Academy Awards competition in Los Angeles.
Fertig is the third RTF alumnus to win a Student Academy Award since 2002.
More about “Yizkor” HERE.
Update: Fertig learned over the weekend (June 12) that “Yizkor” won the Gold Academy Award out of Gold, Silver and Bronze. That’s a first place!
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May 28, 2010
'Elvis and Anabelle' finally gets its close-up
At last. The romantic-fantasty “Elvis and Anabelle,” filmed in Austin in early 2006 and produced by the University of Texas Film Institute, is ready for a big audience. It played festivals, but now it will air Sunday, June 13 on Lifetime.
And the movie arrives on DVD July 20.
Written and directed by Will Geiger, “E&A” stars Max Minghella (Elvis), Blake Lively (Anabelle), Joe Mantegna, Mary Steenburgen and Keith Carradine.
More about the movie and the Lifetime broadcast HERE.
Read our interview with Steenburgen from spring of 2006, when the film was shooting in Austin, HERE
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May 26, 2010
Willie Nelson wants Lohan
After a stint in Austin last year shooting Robert Rodriguez’s grindhouse flick “Machete,” star/scofflaw Lindsay Lohan could be returning to Texas to shoot an “adventure comedy” produced by Willie (later, pigtails) Nelson.
This is according to E! Online, which reports that Lohan “was fitted for yet another SCRAM bracelet (Monday) despite her protestations that it might get in the way of upcoming projects,” including the Texas picture.
More from E!:
“Lohan is in talks to play a character called “Lieutenant” in the Willie Nelson-produced adventure comedy “The Dry Gulch Kid,” which starts shooting in the Lone Star State this summer, E! News has learned exclusively.”
Nelson, it’s said, is trying to lure Matthew McConaughey, Owen Wilson and Woody Harrelson for the pic.
Read the full report HERE.
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May 25, 2010
Coen brothers wrap 'True Grit' in Austin
The Coen brothers’ updating of the John Wayne western “True Grit” wraps Thursday and Friday in downtown Austin, including at the Capitol. Expect some street closures, detailed below.
Most of the film was shot in Granger and Blanco, but the crew needs scenes set in Memphis, and it looks like the Austin Club and the East Wing of the Capitol will stand in for parts of the Tennessee city, according to Bob Hudgins at the Texas Film Commission.
The Austin Club at 110 East Ninth Street
The Coens have changed the original ending of the 1969 classic, Hudgins says. They’ll be throwing dirt on the streets for that old-timey look and, according to the Transportation Department, which is blocking off streets, “film crews will temporarily alter the appearance of these streets to resemble the early 1900s, including the removal of a modern light pole, pay station, and signs.”
The crew will use the East Wing of the Capitol to play the Memphis train station, Hudgins says. They will shoot after hours on Friday, the very last day of the production, which began in April. The remake stars Matt Damon, Jeff Bridges and Josh Brolin.
Here’s the official release from the Transportation Department:
Filming on E. Ninth St. to Affect Traffic Thursday, Friday
Road closures will take place between 5 a.m. Thursday, May 27 and 11 p.m. Friday, May 28 along East 9th Street between Congress Avenue and Brazos Street and along the alley just east of Congress between East 8th and 10th streets for a film production.
Austin Police Department officers will be on hand to help detour traffic and ease delays through the area. Alternate routes are suggested including eastbound along 7th Street and east and west along 11th Street.
Read the story about the Granger part of the shoot HERE.
More about the new-fangled “True Grit” HERE.
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May 19, 2010
'Winnebago Man' gets theatrical release
Starting July 9, the rest of America will get a chance to witness the cinematic sensation that has drawn raves from SXSW attendees, Conan O’Brien, Alec Baldwin and thousands of YouTube viewers. Austin filmmaker Ben Steinbauer’s documentary “Winnebago Man” is a salty portrait of Jack Rebney, a ticking time bomb of a Winnebago salesman. The movie’s theatrical tour begins in New York and should undoubtedly make its way down to Austin soon thereafter.
In the meantime, enjoy this very much Not-Safe-For-Work trailer featuring music from Band of Horses:
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May 5, 2010
'Machete' trailer to blow minds
Harry Knowles, our compadre at Ain’t It Cool News, got another personal insider scoop. Writes he, weird punctuation and all:
Earlier today Robert Rodriguez and Danny Trejo dropped by my house with a package. Rodriguez is calling this his “Illegal” trailer (for “Machete”). You see, Robert talked Fox into letting him put together a Cinco De Mayo message for ARIZONA — given. Well, the way things are in Arizona at this moment — it is kinda insane that there is a movie that was shot over a year ago waiting to be released that is about - THIS EXACT ISSUE … but if, Danny Trejo and buddies went Revolution Wacko as a result.
Watch the NSFW “Machete” trailer, mouth agape, HERE.
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April 29, 2010
Blaze Foley doc screens
Austinite Kevin Triplett will present a sneak-peek of his documentary “Previously Unknown: The Legend of Blaze Foley” at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Studio 4D in the CMB Building at UT. A panel discussion with Triplett, Larry Monroe and friends of Foley follows.
Film descrip:
Born in a tree house, killed in a friend’s living room and 86’ed from his own funeral, Blaze Foley is now a bona fide country music legend. His heartfelt songs are covered by Merle Haggard, John Prine, Willie Nelson and Lyle Lovett. Incorporating rare recordings, original artwork and archival material, BLAZE FOLEY weaves a tale of caution and inspiration for all artists, demonstrating how easily an everyday man can fail in the business world and yet succeed as a legend.
Details HERE.
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April 19, 2010
Script readings at UT
The UT Film Institute launches its spring Reading Series this week. It runs through May 3 at the AVAYA Auditorium (ACES 2.302), 201 E. 24th St. at UT. Readings are free and open to the public.
The official word: “Over 50 of Austin’s finest actors, directors and writers present five ‘work-in-progress’ readings of future feature length films.”
And they are:
7 p.m. Tuesday: “The Outsider” by Julie Puckrin. When a woman returns to the rural town she fled from following her sister’s death ten years ago, she becomes the target of a deadly stalker. Director: Miguel Alvarez. Moderator: Stephen Harrigan.
7 p.m. April 26: “The Jumper of Maine” by Andrew Lanham. A paramedic with Tourette’s Syndrome becomes involved with a young mother and daughter who have ties to his tragic past. Director: Dana Wheeler-Nicholson. Moderator: Andrew Smith. (Note: This one takes place at the Austin Film Society Screening Room, 1901 East 51st St.)
7 p.m. April 27: “On Death and Dying: A Comedy” by Christina Burlison. A woman fakes her own death and ‘haunts’ her dysfunctional family to find out how they really feel about her. Director: PJ Raval. Moderator: Stuart Kelban.
7 p.m. April 28: “Malleable Shapes” by Thomas Cook. A lonely shape-shifter suffering an identity crisis searches to find out what he/she/it truly is. Director: Ryan Cannon Moderator: TBA.
7 p.m. May 3: “Black Tuesday” by Mark Gerchak. When a Dust Bowl drifter’s advances are rebuked by a local woman, the drifter uses the townfolks’s superstitions to exact revenge on the woman and her family. Director: Berndt Mader. Moderator: Alisha Brophy.
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April 16, 2010
'Machete' set for Labor Day weekend release
Robert Rodriguez’s Austin-shot “Machete” will hit theaters Sept. 3, according to Variety.
More, via Variety:
Twentieth Century Fox and Robert Rodriquez will wield their machetes over Labor Day weekend.
Studio has set Rodriguez and Ethan Maniquis’ “Machete” for release in theaters on Sept. 3. Pic is based on Rodriguez’s fake trailer for “Grindhouse.”
Rodriguez and Maniquis co-directed the film from Rodriquez’s script.
“Machete” stars Danny Trejo as a blade-wielding Mexican ex-Federale who is double-crossed by a crooked politician. Robert De Niro, Jessica Alba, Michelle Rodriquez and Lindsay Lohan also star.
The “Machete” trailer generated big interest when airing on YouTube.
The trailer that got their blood pumping HERE.
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April 15, 2010
Last chance to catch 'Lovers of Hate' on-demand
A Sundance and SXSW hit and a movie I called “a sharp psychosexual comedy,” Bryan Poyser’s much-loved “Lovers of Hate” has only two days left on Time Warner’s Video-on-Demand service — today and Friday. (It will stay on Cablevision and Comcast through June 15.)
Find your on-demand availability HERE.
Poyser also tips us that his movie will play a few dates at the Alamo Ritz in mid-June, so keep your eyes peeled. Meanwhile, “Lovers of Hate” continues a busy festival run.
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April 14, 2010
New film names Linklater one of the greats
Opening in New York in July is a new documentary, “Great Directors,” described as a “celebration of films and filmmaking starring 10 of the worlds most acclaimed, provocative, and individualistic living directors.”
Who are the 10? Bernardo Bertolucci, David Lynch, Stephen Frears, Agnes Varda, Ken Loach, Liliana Cavani, Todd Haynes, Catherine Breillat, John Sayles and … Richard Linklater.
Very cool. It’s a great starter pantheon that leaves room for ample argument and intellectual fencing. (Who’d you add? Subtract? Where’s Kiarostami? Godard? And so forth.)
No Austin date yet for Angela Ismailos’ film, but we’ll keep you posted.
More about it HERE.
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April 12, 2010
'Six Gun' shoots to cable on-demand
Austin-shot western “Six Gun” is now available on-demand on Time Warner cable, to be followed by a summer DVD release. You can watch it for $4.99 on channel 1001.
The tangy oater was directed by Scott Perry, written by Luke Hill and stars Tommy Hill, Bill Wise and Sue Rock. Score by the Bad Livers. A little more HERE.
Official descrip:
When three cowboys show up dead, Tommy, a hard-drinking, retired bounty hunter whose ranch is on the brink for foreclosure, must saddle up one more time to stop the bandit and collect a ransom. Prepare yourself to go back in time to the real old west, when he takes the law into his own hands and kills anyone in his way.
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April 6, 2010
Local movies hit the small screen
Starting today, Andrew Bujalski’s highly acclaimed Austin dramedy “Beeswax” is available on Time Warner Cable’s Movies on Demand on channel 1000. About the movie HERE.
Austin filmmakers PJ Raval and Jay Hodges’ fine documentary “Trinidad,” an intimate tour through the “sex change capital of the world” in Colorado, arrives on DVD and airs on the LOGO channel on April 24. The film’s site HERE.
Read our interview with Raval and Hodges HERE.
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April 2, 2010
'Artois' on DVD; the Zellners zell-out
“Artois the Goat,” an Austin-made sleeper hit at SXSW 2009, is coming to DVD — and you can pre-order a copy and learn all about the movie and watch a trailer — HERE.
Cliff and Kyle Bogart’s sophisticated romantic comedy is indeed about a goat named Artois. And it’s about cheese, fine, artisanal cheese. Shot in and around Austin in lush, pastoral hues, starring a strong local cast and boasting a top-tier score by Brian Satterwhite, the film is an offbeat charmer, strange and lingering.
Austin’s famous, funny Zellner brothers present ZELLNEROIDS!: Zellner Bros Short Film Cavalcade at 7 p.m. Monday at the Alamo Ritz. Films include Sundance veterans ‘Fiddlestixx,’ ‘Foxy and the Weight of the World’ and ‘Flotsam/Jetsam.’
Tickets, info HERE.
Check out the Zellner’s site, with all their work, HERE.
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April 1, 2010
"Red, White and Blue" tops the Boston Underground Film Festival
Last year, the Alamo’s Tim League co-produced the low-budget, ultra-violent thriller “Red, White and Blue,” directed by Simon Rumley and shot in Austin.
The revenge psychodrama, starring a drawling, greasy Noah Taylor and Amanda Fuller, has polarized audiences with its gruesome, unrelenting finale. Powerfully disturbing, it’s one of those movies that shakes you to the point of ickiness.
“Red, White and Blue” premiered at Rotterdam and recently played SXSW to sold out crowds. And now it’s won Best of Fest Narrativve at the Boston Underground Film Festival. Proof HERE.
Our interview with star Noah Taylor during the making of the movie HERE.
The film’s trailer HERE.
Also, in exciting local-ish film news, former Austinite Margaret Brown has won a Peabody Award for her heavily lauded documentary “The Order of Myths,” which wowed them on the festival circuit, including SXSW, before airing on PBS. It also won an Independent Spirit Award.
The Peabody body says: “Margaret Brown’s exploration of two Mardi Gras traditions in Mobile, Ala., one white, one black, is highly original, moving and insightful.”
More about the film, now on DVD, HERE.
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March 30, 2010
Casting call: One-armed woman
Joe O’Connell got the scoop on this weird one (his link HERE):
Paramount Pictures is seeking a WOMAN MISSING HER LEFT ARM to be a photo double in the film, TRUE GRIT, a new film by Joel & Ethan Coen.
Character description: Photo double for adult Mattie Ross: This woman must be MISSING HER LEFT ARM. Optimally, she would be around 5’8”, 138 lbs, slender to medium build. However, we are open to various looks.
To submit: Please do so asap! Send photos, measurements & contact information to texascasting2010@gmail.com. Photos should be non-glamorous, simple snapshots (incl face and body. It’s best to wear a tank top & shorts). Measurements should include height, weight, bust, waist & hips. Include age, phone numbers & place of residence. Approrpriate candidates may also call our office at 512-637-6775.
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March 29, 2010
Kyle Henry's UT cautionary tale screens April 6
Austin filmmaker Kyle Henry’s now-classic and suddenly timely all-over-again doc “University Inc.” gets a special screening at 7:30 p.m. April 6 at the Texas Union Theatre at UT. It’s free.
Here’s an informative note from Henry about the show:
Ironically, ‘UNIVERSITY INC.,’ a documentary about the corporatization of higher education at the University of Texas-Austin, will screen at The Texas Union Theater, the very theater that the Union Film Program ran. The film documents the program’s demise as a paradigm for corporate mismanagement at the university. The screening is sponsored by the Student Friends of the Cactus Cafe and the TSEU. Should be a rabble rousing good time, proving yet again that the more things change in the Austin, the more UT’s power arrangement stays the same. Perhaps this time the kids at UT and the citizens of Austin will figure out the right pressure to apply to make the Tower and the Union Board accountable.
The screening will be followed by a panel discussion with Henry, members of Student Friends of the Cactus Cafe and others.
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March 21, 2010
'Beeswax' DVD comes with cool marketing sting
Andrew Bujalski’s indie sleeper-hit dramedy “Beeswax” — an all-Austin affair, as we’ve said many times — is heading to DVD on April 6.
And they’re promoting it with a celluloid-lover’s wit. First, buy the DVD. Then, enjoy the game that’s involved. You can win something fantastically singular (and yummy).
What IS this cryptic cartoon? Read on …
On April 6, Cinema Guild will release Andrew Bujalski’s film “Beeswax” — one of Manohla Dargis’ (NY Times) picks for Top 10 of 2009 … Everyone who purchases a DVD from this initial run will receive a strip of 16mm film from an original laboratory print of the film in a collectible card. Each of these pieces of film is unique — yours could come from any shot or shots in the film, but there won’t be another like it out there.
One shot in the film features what those of us who grew up with up cable movie channels knew as “brief nudity” — a shot of the character Scott (played by Austin’s David Zellner) naked from behind just as he’s pulling up his shorts — and one lucky DVD consumer will find that arresting image when they open up their DVD box. While we believe that that is quite a prize in and of itself, we’ve decided to make it a “Golden Ticket” and offer you another prize if you can demonstrate that you’re the one that’s received that special piece of film!
Get full, fun details, such as what you can win, HERE.
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February 5, 2010
LBJ movie shooting outside Texas?
Despite recent and thorough location scouting, from Austin to South Texas, veteran writer-director Robert Benton still doesn’t know if he can shoot his in-the-works biopic of President Lyndon Johnson in Texas at all.
The hitch is becoming more and more common, and no less painful for the local film community: Other states offer richer tax breaks for filmmakers than Texas does, so productions are flocking to New Mexico, Michigan and Louisiana to get more bang for the buck.
Local movie insiders say Benton is aching to shoot at least part of the untitled project, which he wrote, in his home state. (Benton, who won the directing Oscar for “Kramer vs. Kramer” and writing Oscar for “Places in the Heart,” was born in Waxahachie.)
“If I can get a week in Texas I’ll be lucky,” a local quotes him as saying.
HBO, which is producing, wants to film in Louisiana and Georgia. Once officially greenlit, the production will begin in late spring.
Location scouting for the project has been energetic, says Bob Hudgins, director of the Texas Film Commission. Benton has looked everywhere from Austin to Llano, Taylor to Georgetown, Fredericksburg to Alice.
“It was not a small scout,” Hudgins says. “We’re in the running.”
If the state loses a picture about iconic Texan LBJ, “That would be really hard to bear,” he says.
Last year’s Drew Barrymore roller-girl movie “Whip It!” was set in Austin, but only a couple of pick-up shots were actually filmed here. Michigan lured the production with incentives.
Everyone agrees this is a different case.
“It will be very interesting to see how they shoot South Texas outside of Texas,” Hudgins says.
Benton
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February 2, 2010
'True Grit' extras wanted
Here’s the true dirt on extras casting for the Coen Bros.’ remake of the western “True Grit,” being shot this spring in the Austin area, directly from the studio:
PARAMOUNT PICTURES IS SEEKING EXTRAS FOR A NEW COEN BROTHERS FEATURE FILM “TRUE GRIT.” The film shoots in TX (Austin area, incl Granger & Blanko) during March, April & May of 2010.
Looking for reliable people to portray looks specific to the 1870’s and 1900. Start growing your hair now! Seeking: Unique “character” faces. We are most interested in people with natural features.
HAIR NOTES: If you want to be considered, start growing your hair now! Women should have long hair that is not colored in anyway— no highlights, full head colors or semi-permanent colors. Men should have some length, especially on top. Crew cuts are not suitable, as the hair will not have time enough to grow. Men should grow their facial hair, incl. beard, moustache, sideburns.
BODY TYPES: People from this time period did not have modern enhancements, meaning they did not have braces, implants, etc. They weren’t weight lifters— people worked hard, but not in a gym. Body types were most often average to slim. Women will be wearing corsettes and long dresses.
OTHER: We are most interested in people willing to work more than one day. Looking for responsible people w/ flexible schedules. 10 years of age & older. All minors must have consent of parent/guardian & must indicate date of birth. If you don’t have a resume, please list any performing/background experience you may have.
TO SUBMIT: There are two ways to submit. Preferred is in-person (ONLY on dates, below)! If this is impossible, you may submit by mail. Follow instructions below.
In-Person Interviews: (bring legal form & copy of I.D.) SEE SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS BELOW!
Austin Studios, 1901 East 51st. St. (Red Bldg.), Austin TX 78723
Thurs, Feb. 4: 11am - 7pm
Fri, Feb. 5: 11am - 7pm
Sat, Feb. 6: 11am - 7pm
Mail Submissions: SEE SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS BELOW!
Austin Studios, c/o Extras Cstg / Debbie DeLisi, 1901 East 51st. St. (Red Bldg), Austin TX 78723
SUBMISSIONS MUST INCLUDE: Headshot & one page resume, if you have them. Also, you MUST include CURRENT SNAPSHOTS (face & body). List all pertinent contact information, incl your place of residency & anything else we should know about you. Remember: THIS A PERIOD FILM. If you want to be considered, it’s best to send us a natural, current photos (no makeup or glamour). All submissions are non-returnable. Incl age, height, weight, measurements, etc. List any scheduling conflicts (4/23 - 5/26). Preference will be given to those w/ flexible schedules. If you want to be considered, start growing your hair now!
Extras Casting Director: Debbie DeLisi
HOTLINE: 212-330-9357
texascasting2010@gmail.com (Submissions will NOT be accepted via email. Email address is for general inquiries only)
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January 27, 2010
Avant-garde filmmaking course
Get all that small print HERE.
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January 25, 2010
Topher Grace in town for 'Predators'
Actor Topher Grace was spotted with his posse over the weekend at Austin Books & Comics. Why Grace, why Austin, why now?
Cuz he’s making “Predators,” the Robert Rodriguez-produced reboot of the sci-fi-thriller “Predator,” parts of which were shot in Bastrop and at Rodriguez’s Troublemaker Studios. (The rest was done in Hawaii.)
See who co-stars with Grace (“That ’70s Show,” “Spider-Man 3”) in the film HERE.
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Rodriguez takes 'Machete' to Fox
For his Austin-shot action-comedy “Machete,” Robert Rodriguez is breaking from his longtime hermanos the Weinsteins in favor of Fox. That’s the buzz. Here are the details.
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January 21, 2010
Austin ranked No. 5 for moviemaking cities
Each year MovieMaker magazine ranks the 10 best cities for indie filmmakers, and each year Austin gets juggled up and down the final list like it’s the mag’s own little plaything. Enough.
In 2008 we were No. 1. (One!)
In 2009 we were No. 10. (Ten?!)
Now, in 2010, we are No. 5, smack in the middle. (Hmph.)
MovieMaker’s criteria:
Cost of living, employment opportunities, housing costs, crime rates and quality of life, state and city financial incentives, access to talent, size and closeness of the local moviemaking community, ease of shooting (i.e. amount of red tape), local production resources and movie-related vendors, exposure to other moviemakers and film sets, educational opportunities and number of local screening options, including film festivals.
The full list:
Albuquerque, NM
Los Angeles, CA
Shreveport, LA
New York, NY
Austin, TX
Stamford, CT
Boston, MA
Detroit, MI
Philadelphia, PA
Seattle, WA
More on this year’s list, with a soupcon of insight, HERE.
Here’s the 2009 list.
Here’s the 2008 list.
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January 11, 2010
History of Austin film in one big book
Keep an eye out for professor, author and former freelance Statesman film critic Alison Macor’s definitive history of Austin film, “Chainsaws, Slackers, and Spy Kids: 30 Years of Filmmaking in Austin, TX,” hitting shelves in March from University of Texas Press.
The 346-page tome chronicles the people and movies that put our burgh on the celluloid map, from Tobe Hooper and Eagle Pennell to Richard Linklater and Robert Rodriguez. It drops in on the city’s surplus of film fests, the Austin Film Society and the Alamo Drafthouse phenomenon. Indispensable.
More about the book HERE.
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January 4, 2010
'Harmony and Me' opens at the Alamo South
Love, angst and music mingle in Bob Byington’s Austin-made comedy “Harmony and Me,” getting a special run Sunday through Jan. 14 at the Alamo South.
Coming off the festival circuit, the low-budget, semi-improvised film lurches to wry, deadpan beats and, alongside “Humpday,” is one of 2009’s best rom-coms, even if that’s not quite what it is. Worth a look. Starring Justin Rice, Kevin Corrigan and Austin’s own Bob Schneider.
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Submit your short to Faces of Austin
This just in …
The Faces of Austin, a multimedia program of the City of Austin’s Cultural Arts Division, is conducting a call for entries to exhibit short films on-demand on the widescreen video displays in the Atrium of City Hall. Featured works highlight Austin’s unique sense of place and diverse cultural identity and showcase the creative talent of Central Texas filmmakers. The deadline for film submissions is January 13.
Selected films from the Call for Entries will also be shown in a public screening in City Council Chambers during the People’s Gallery exhibition opening Feb. 19 and then on-demand on the City Hall video displays and on Channel 6 video on-demand.
Application, details HERE.
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December 22, 2009
Rodriguez and Trejo talk about 'Machete' and more
So they let some online journalists visit the Austin set of the Robert Rodriguez-produced “Predators” (what about us?!), and the folks at Collider.com spoke to actor Danny Trejo, who shot Rodriguez’s “Machete” earlier this year in town and has a part in “Predators,” as well as Rodriguez, who discussed “Sin City 2” and an all-new “Spy Kids.”
Trejo’s HERE.
Rodriguez is HERE.
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December 16, 2009
Austin doc-maker wins huge grant
Austin documentarian Heather Courtney has won a $50,000 grant from the United States Artists Fellows program. Each year, the group awards 50 unrestricted grants of $50,000 to artists of all disciplines from across the country.
Courtney joins poet and novelist Sapphire, Houston artist Rick Lowe, playwright, actor and stage director John O’Neal, actor-playwright Anna Deavere Smith, among others.
Courtney, whose films include “Letters from the Other Side,” is currently working on a film that “follows a group of 20-year-olds from her hometown in northern Michigan before, during, and after their National Guard service in Afghanistan.” Courtney has been making several sojourns to Afghanistan to make the doc.
From United States Artists:
Through a rigorous evaluation process, panels of experts in the arts selected the 55 winning artists (including five collaborative pairs) from among 348 nominated applicants from 45 states. USA Fellowships are awarded to artists of all career stages who demonstrate artistic excellence, unique artistic vision, and significant contributions to their fields.
Learn more about USA and see all recipients HERE.
A little more about Courtney HERE.
Heather Courtney
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December 8, 2009
Local doc wins award
Austin filmmaker Nancy Schiesari’s documentary “Tattooed Under Fire” has nabbed an award from the Women Film Critics Circle, a 48-member-strong organization of women critics and scholars from around the world.
The group hands out several year-end awards, and we’re not sure which one Schiesari’s film received. We’ll tell you when we find out.
Update: Schiesari’s film won the Courage in Filmmaking award in the documentary section of the prizes.
Schiesari is a film professor at UT and a faculty member at the Austin Museum of Art. “Tattooed Under Fire,” a co-production of KLRU, aired on PBS last month. The doc is set at Fort Hood. Here’s what Austin360 TV critic Dale Roe wrote:
Schiesari’s documentary centers on the military ritual of getting inked, interweaving the personal stories of six central characters — and their relationships to the war in Iraq — with the visual expressions of their tattoos (River City Tattoo Parlor, a place where many of the Fort’s war-bound and returning soldiers go under the needle, is located across the street from the base).
More about the film, including a trailer, HERE.
More about the Women Film Critics Circle HERE.
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Zellners' 'Goliath' hits DVD
Speaking of Austin’s Zellner brothers (see entry below), their feature-length debut “Goliath,” which premiered at Sundance in 2008, will be out on DVD on Jan. 12.
Made in Austin, the deadpan-bizarre comedy follows a recently divorced guy’s life as it crumbles apart when he loses his cat Goliath, the only thing he still cares about.
Watch the trailer HERE.
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December 2, 2009
Locals get their movies into Sundance 2010
The all-important Sundance Film Festival has accepted at least three movies by Austin filmmakers for its 2010 edition in January in Park City, Utah. But we can only mention one today, as the fest hasn’t officially made all its announcements.
Still, we have this: Bryan Poyser’s comedy “Lovers of Hate” is running in the fest’s prestigious main feature competition, a place where many an indie is plucked from obscurity, so this is a big deal. It’s up against 14 other titles, which star the likes of Orlando Bloom, Mark Ruffalo and Natalie Portman.
Starring Chris Doubek, Heather Kafka and Alex Karpovsky, Poyser’s film follows “how the reunion of estranged brothers is undermined when the woman they both love chooses one over the other.”
“Lovers of Hate” was shot in Park City and Austin. Poyser, director of artist services at the Austin Film Society, is known for the Austin features “Dear Pillow” and “The Cassidy Kids.” More about “Lovers of Hate” HERE. Read Poyser’s blog HERE.
Get the full Sundance competition line-ups HERE.
Poyser
In other important indie film news, with an Austin twist, the annual Independent Spirit Awards noms have been named. Local ties:
Lynn Shelton’s unorthodox bromance comedy “Humpday” — co-starring former Austin actor/director Mark Duplass (“The Puffy Chair”) — has been tapped for the John Cassavetes Award, given to the best feature made for under $500,000.
Producer Dia Sokol is up for the Piaget Producers Award for getting behind Andrew Bujalski’s all-Austin-made feature “Beeswax” and SXSW fave Joe Swanberg’s “Nights & Weekends.”
Complete list of Spirit nominees HERE.
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UT student docs get national showcase
Short documentaries by University of Texas film students will be airing nationally on The Documentary Channel beginning in spring in a special partnership between the cable channel and the UT Documentary Center — a deal that was three years in the making.
According to UT, “The Documentary Channel will have exclusive U.S. broadcast rights to select films from UT student documentary filmmakers for 18 months. These films will be showcased on The Documentary Channel’s ‘DOC U,’ a platform for student work, during the first quarter of 2010.”
The first four films to be broadcast are Ruth Fertig’s “The Cockroach Project,” Berndt Mader’s “Pay Dirt,” Christina Kim’s “Dreams in All Sizes” and Anthony Penta’s “A Casebook on Remote Viewing”.
The shorts were made in Radio-TV-Film classes and picked by a panel of RTF faculty and Documentary Channel programmers. The Documentary Channel is HERE.
‘Dreams in All Sizes’
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December 1, 2009
Coen brothers coming here for 'True Grit'
Looks like the mighty Coen brothers will be making their reboot of the classic 1969 John Wayne western “True Grit” in these them parts, with the shoot revving up in March.
Sources say Joel and Ethan Coen are scouring areas east of Austin, rustic, old-timey places like Elgin, Taylor and Granger (for the railroad there). They’re looking for scrub and farmland and want to be “as close to Austin as possible.”
“They are seriously, seriously looking,” we are told.
The Coens are no strangers to Austin and Texas. They made their 1984 debut “Blood Simple” in town and shot parts of “No Country for Old Men” in the state.
Matt Damon, Jeff Bridges and Josh Brolin are slated to star in the remake of the revenge tale. The original, an Oscar-winner directed by Henry Hathaway, starred Wayne, Glen Campbell, Robert Duvall and Dennis Hopper. Bridges will inhabit Wayne’s memorable role as Marshall “Rooster” Cogburn.
The Coens are also looking at Utah, Arizona and New Mexico for the film’s finale, a big shootout set in the Rockies. Evidently, Texas just can’t supply that kind of landscape.
The production will be headquartered in Austin. The film is set for a 2011 release.
The Coens, looking ‘Grit’-ty
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November 23, 2009
A peek at Pipkin's new feel-good doc
Turk Pipkin’s latest inspirational documentary “One Peace at a Time” celebrates its theatrical launch with two screenings Dec. 4 at the Arbor. Each show is preceded by a reception party at Manuel’s Aboretum. The first reception is at 5:30 p.m., followed by a 7 p.m. screening of the film. The second is at 7:30 p.m., followed by a 9 p.m. screening. Tickets are $50 HERE. Proceeds benefit construction of Mahiga Hope High School in Kenya.
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October 31, 2009
On your mark, filmmakers, get ready, set ...
UT’s Texas Student Television — the (interesting factoid alert) only FCC licensed student-run television station in the country — is doing one of those make-a-movie-as-fast-as-you-can contests, in which participants breathlessly, sometimes heedlessly, write, shoot and edit a short film in a devilishly restricted bracket of time.
The hitch: Competing filmies have to feature specific elements into their pix that are chosen by outside parties and only revealed at the start of the race. Go!
The actual movie-making jam, the 24-Hour Film Race, happens Nov. 13. A screening of the hasty artworks happens Nov. 19 at Spider House.
For both the race and screening, go HERE
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October 28, 2009
'Zombie Girl' to air on TV
Austin-made doc “Zombie Girl: The Movie” — a heartening and hilarious and damn cool chronicle of 12-year-old Austinite Emily Hagins’ successful attempt to shoot her own feature-length horror film — will make its boob-tube debut on Dish TV’s Documentary Channel on Friday.
Full details and air dates HERE.
Read our interview with the makers of “Zombie Girl” HERE.
Emily Hagins, the ‘zombie girl’
Speaking of Central Texas-made horror flix, Carolyn Banks’ Bastrop-shot “Invicta,” a genre mash-up crackling with romance, comedy and killer fire ants, will be available on DVD in time for Xmas.
Go to the “Invicta” meme HERE, where you will also be able to snatch up the DVD in the next few weeks.
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October 27, 2009
TXMPA's big fall bash
Update: This event has been postponed until December. We’ll have new details later.
Live music, dinner, drinks, dessert, a silent auction and hobnobbing with local film folks animate the Texas Motion Picture Alliance’s second annual Spaghetti Western Fall Fundraiser Party at sunset Sunday at Star Hill Ranch in Bee Cave.
Dubbed the biggest local party of the year for film, TV, commercial and video-game makers, the soiree boasts music by The Tiny Tin Hearts and Erik Larson & Peacemaker, dinner by Ciao Chow and a big crowd of industry pros and state leaders.
Tickets are $60 general, $50 for TXMPA members. Doors open at 5:30 p.m.
Details and tickets HERE
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October 18, 2009
'Winnebago Man' rolls to town
One of the best films from this year’s SXSW was Austin filmmaker Ben Steinbauer’s sensationally entertaining, funny and heartwarming doc “Winnebago Man.”
The movie has since been on the festival circuit worldwide, mopping up awards, and is making a special one-night pit-stop in town at 8 p.m. Oct. 27 at the Monarch Event Center in the Lincoln Village Shopping Center. There’s a reception before and after the film, plus a Q and A with Steinbauer and producer Joel Heller. The special sneak peek is co-presented by the Austin Film Society and Screen Door Film.
Get tickets HERE.
Read our write-up about “Winnebago Man’s” SXSW premiere HERE
‘Winnebago Man’
In other Austinish movie news, we’re told that Dean Cain (“Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman”) and Bai Ling (who was nutso hilarious in “Crank: High Voltage”) are shooting the mixed martial arts film “Circle of Pain” in town.
The movie’s here through Oct. 30.
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October 6, 2009
Austin film viewable at HBO On Demand
Austin filmmaker John Estrada’s short “Taco! Taco!” won the HBO/New York International Latino Festival Short Film competition and is now available on HBO On Demand through October. You can view it any time in the comedy section or the pelÃculas y mas section.
Estrada, a 2007 UT film grad, received $15,000 in funding from HBO to produce and direct the film based on his original script entry. The short was filmed in Austin and stars Joseph Thomas Campos, Sesar Sandoval and Dimitrius Pulido.
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September 22, 2009
'Rock Opera' turns 10
Wow, that went fast. Bob Ray’s legendary underground all-Austin feature “Rock Opera” is turning 10. How’d that happen?
So Ray is holding a rare theatrical screening of the movie at 8:30 p.m. Oct. 10 at the Alamo South, with a cast reunion and live music from bands featured in the rambling, pot-choked, rock ‘n’ roll comedy.
Also on tap: Clips from Ray’s documentary work-in-progress “Total Badass” and a selection of Ray’s short animated “CrashToons,” which have been shown at Playboy.com and on Turner Network’s Super Deluxe.
Local bands Voltage and Pocket FishRmen will jam at the after-party at the all new Highball, next door to the theater.
Tickets HERE.
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September 18, 2009
Linklater's latest
Richard Linklater is in casting mode for his next project “Liars (A-E),” a road trip comedy starring Kat Dennings and written by Emma Forrest.
Rebecca Hall (“Vicky Cristina Barcelona”) is in talks to co-star, according to Variety, which continues: “Hall will play a woman who is dumped by her rocker fiance on the eve of Barack Obama’s presidential election victory. She takes a road trip with a pal (Dennings) to Obama’s inauguration, and visits various ex-boyfriends to retrieve lost items.”
Other sources reveal that Linklater’s also working on the drama “Last Flag Flying” with Randy Quaid and a sequel to his hit comedy “School of Rock,” “School of Rock 2: America Rocks” with Jack Black starring and Mike White writing.
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September 12, 2009
Local filmmaker takes festival prize
Austin filmmaker Jen White’s maiden feature “Between Floors” just won the best director award at the Atlanta Underground Film Festival, and heads to the Boston Film Festival next week.
The film “examines the human condition through a uniquely claustrophobic lens, intercutting between five stuck elevators and the people trapped inside them,” according to the filmmakers.
More about the movie, including the trailer HERE.
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September 9, 2009
Zellner brothers rock with Octopus Project
We somehow missed this, but now we see it: It’s Austin’s Zellner brothers’ whacked music video for Austin’s The Octopus Project. Watch the witty curio, flittering with visual wonders, at Spoutblog HERE
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Linklater baseball doc at iTunes
Richard Linklater’s documentary about UT baseball coach Augie Garrido “Inning by Inning” is now available for rental ($3.99) or purchase ($14.99) at iTunes. Go HERE.
Get ready for this winter movie thing: The Austin Nordic Film Fest opens in town Feb. 27. No schedule yet, but you can read a tiny bit more HERE.
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August 18, 2009
Austin-related films opening this year
Opening dates for movies are a fluid thing, which is a pain when you’re trying to pin down a title of particular interest.
This has been especially true with a couple of Austinish films, namely Richard Linklater’s terrific “Orson Welles and Me” and Terrence Malick’s ever-mysterious, Smithville-shot “The Tree of Life.”
Linklater’s coming-of-age theater drama premiered a year ago at Toronto and enjoyed a special sneak peek at SXSW this year. Malick’s long-gestating epic filmed partly in Smithville last year with Brad Pitt and Sean Penn.
Anyway, it appears we have some confirmed opening dates for these films and three other Austin-linked movies:
Robert Rodriguez’s Austin-made family comedy “Shorts” opens this Friday.
After its world premiere tonight at the Paramount, Mike Judge’s comedy “Extract,” starring Jason Bateman, opens Sept. 4.
“Whip It,” a roller-derby dramedy starring Ellen Page and Drew Barrymore (who also directs), opens Oct. 9. The film, like the book it’s based on, is set in Austin, though only a few scenes were shot here.
Linklater’s London-shot “Orson Welles and Me” is slated for Nov. 25
Malick’s “Tree of Life” is set for Christmas.
Brad Pitt (center) in “Tree of Life” and the Smithville house that plays a large role in the film
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August 6, 2009
Lohan tumbling toward Austin
Lindsay Lohan — dabbling scofflaw, scandal-magnet, actressy sort of person thing — is winding her way to Austin this month to make the new badass-looking Robert Rodriguez joint “Machete.”
We are so delighted — swoon, whee! — and the Beauty Bar should be too, according to those crack reporters/our pals at Austinist. Read their saucy bulletin HERE.
This …
… meets …
… this.
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July 16, 2009
Austin animator named one to watch
Filmmaker Magazine (“The Magazine of Independent Film”) puts Austin’s own Geoff Marslett on its annual “25 New Faces of Independent Film” in its summer ‘09 issue, which features Quentin Tarantino as the cover-boy.
“This year’s crop of 25 New Faces consists, as always, of new film artists whose work we feel passionately about but also, in this year of change, people who are redefining the notion of a career in film,” writes Filmmaker‘s editor Scott Macaulay.
Marslett is one of those local guys you see at movie events and parties, but he’s mostly busy working on his animated feature “Mars,” a romantic comedy featuring astronauts going to Mars. The film features live action, too, including former Austinite and “Humpday” co-star Mark Duplass. He’s also an animation instructor at UT, and some of his former students are helping out on the big film.
Read about Geoff and some of his fellow up and comers HERE.
Geoff Marslett (photo: Filmmaker Magazine)
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Michael Moore gives props to Austin films
Filmmaker-provocateur Michael Moore has handpicked a trio of Austin-made movies to screen at his annual Traverse City Film Festival, running July 28 through Aug. 2 in the Michigan town of Traverse City.
Declaring Austin (rather belatedly) “the new hotbed of American independent cinema,” Moore will screen Ben Steinbauer’s funny and culturally probing doc “Winnebago Man” and Bob Byington’s twin low-fi comedies “Registered Sex Offender” and “Harmony and Me” for the Straight Outta Austin program.
Nice exposure for the home team. More about the festival HERE.
Read Shannon McGarvey’s recent interview with Byington HERE.
Ben Steinbauer’s ‘Winnebago Man’
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July 9, 2009
Rodriguez chats up 'Predators'
Scooping us — just a little — the LA Times catches up with Austin’s Robert Rodriguez to discuss his in-progress remake of “Predator,” which he wrote and is producing.
Expect our own report soon with RR, whose kid-friendly “Shorts” comes out in late August.
The story starts like this:
Fifteen years ago, a young-gun filmmaker named Robert Rodriguez was hired to write a new “Predator” film and now, looking back, he can chuckle at the final product he delivered. “It was this crazy, intense off-world story and there was just no way it could be made. The technology wasn’t there yet.”
That was then, but this is now. “Predators,” as it will be called, is happening and Rodriguez is producing. I sat down with him for a pleasant lunch at the Four Seasons Hotel and, as our sons sat together munching French fries and drawing pictures, he explained his plans for the summer 2010 sci-fi release.
“It’s the story from that script I had written way back then,” Rodriguez said. “They had hired me to write a ‘Predator’ story while I was waiting to do ‘Desperado’ back in 1994. It was crazy, this thing I came up with. So then fast-forward to now and, like, six months ago, they found the script and called me up. ‘Hey, we want to redo this franchise and we found your old script. This is where we should have gone with the series! We want to move forward.’ And that’s what we’re doing.”
Read the whole entry HERE.
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July 7, 2009
The latest on Rodriguez's premiere of 'Shorts'
We mentioned here last week that Robert Rodriguez is throwing a big shindig for the local premiere of his latest family-friendly film “Shorts” on Aug. 16 at the Paramount Theatre. After the screening of the Austin-made, Day-Glo kids fantasy about a magic Rainbow Rock that grants wishes, a full-blown carnival with games and rides will unfold on Congress Avenue outside the Paramount.
The screening happens at 2:30 p.m. Aug. 16 and all proceeds — every cent — go to the Thoughtful House Center for Children. Expect a red-carpet event with the filmmakers and some of the cast, which includes many children — including Rodriguez’s son Rebel Rodriguez — plus James Spader, Jon Cryer, William H. Macy and Leslie Mann.
Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. Wednesday at www.GetTix.net and the Paramount box office (713 Congress Ave.). $30 for the movie and carnival. VIP badges, including a VIP lunch and special seating, are $125.
“Shorts” opens in theaters Aug. 21. It’s rated PG.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Categories: Austin Movies Inc.
July 6, 2009
Local filmmaking round-up
The feature “Five Time Champion” recently wrapped in Smithville, starring Betty Buckley, Dana Wheeler-Nicholson (“Friday Night Lights”) and John Gries (Uncle Rico in “Napoleon Dynamite”). The drama was written and directed by Berndt Mader, a former Radio-Television-Film student at UT, and some current and former RTF students worked on the film. Mader’s script went through the University of Texas Film Institute’s Script and Production Labs. More about “Five Time Champion” HERE.
We’re told that UTFI’s first feature (without Burnt Orange Productions) “Dance with the One,” which shot in Austin last year, is “locked.” It’s in post-production at UT and the filmmakers hope to have it done by summer’s end. Sundance 2010 is their first target. Read our on-set visit of “Dance with the One” HERE.
Out in lovely Bastrop, Carolyn Banks has wrapped and canned her first feature film “Invicta.” The tagline says it all: “Love, greed and fire ants mix it up in rural Texas.” Learn more about the “horror tra-la,” as the puckish Banks puts it, HERE.
“Invicta”
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July 1, 2009
Robert Rodriguez premieres his new one, 'Shorts'
When Robert Rodriguez debuts his family-friendly films in Austin, he likes to go all-out. For his latest Austin-made kids movie “Shorts,” a Day-Glo fantasy, a carnival with rides and games will spill out in front of the Paramount Theatre before the show.
The screening, the film’s local premiere, happens at 2:30 p.m. Aug. 16 at the Paramount. Proceeds go to the Thoughtful House Center for Children. Expect a red-carpet event with the filmmakers and some of the young cast.
Tickets and details HERE.
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Modigliani looks beyond 'Crawford'
Following the success of his doc “Crawford” — enjoying a second life at Hulu and Netflix — Austin filmmaker David Modigliani is working on his second feature doc, “61 Bullets.”
Here’s his pitch for it: “Fiery Louisiana Senator Huey Long was assassinated in 1935 by a young doctor with a 3-month-old baby and no clear motive. Now, 74 years later, that baby is out to clear his father’s name. And the bottom line is that he’s probably right. 61 BULLETS follows Dr. Carl Weiss Jr.’s mission to recover a bullet from Huey Long’s buried body, exonerate his father, and overturn Louisiana history before it’s too late. The quest for exoneration is a unique angle on bona fide whodunit — the biggest American political assassination between McKinley and Kennedy.”
The director has done some shoots in Louisiana and is actively seeking funding and all that other indie filmmaking fun.
Modigliani is also at work on THIS.
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June 29, 2009
Alamo honcho taps film production
The Alamo Drafthouse is getting into the producing racket — or at least the Alamo’s co-founder Tim League is. League, also co-founder of Fantastic Fest, is putting his name as executive producer on a new “slacker revenge movie” called “Red, White and Blue,” directed by Simon Rumley (“The Living and the Dead”).
The film is in production in Austin and stars Noah Taylor (“Shine,” “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”), Amanda Fuller (“Buffy the Vampire Slayer”) and Marc Senter (“Cabin Fever 2”).
Rumley’s film “The Living and the Dead” was a smash at Fantastic Fest, where it won five awards. Producers say to expect “Red, White and Blue” to be a deep-dish Austin effort, with favorite local spots and local extras.
They also say: “An unashamedly tough and uncompromising movie, ‘Red White & Blue’ is a fearlessly frank, gut-wrenching romance and a merciless exploration of the futility of violence. Like Rumley’s ‘The Living and the Dead’ before it, the movie — with its casual nudity and scenes of extreme violence — is no doubt destined for controversy.”
Sweet.
Senter, Rumley, Fuller, League and Taylor, posing badd-like
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June 16, 2009
New Central Texas rep named for TXMPA
Local producer, filmmaker and ubiquitous film guy about town Paul Alvarado-Dykstra has been elected the new Central Texas Representative of the Texas Motion Picture Alliance for the period of 2009 — 2011.
Shelly Schriber was elected as Alvarado-Dykstra’s Alternate, he tells us.
Congrats to both. More about Paul right HERE.
Paul Alvarado-Dykstra
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June 11, 2009
A Texas indie wants your vote
It’s always nice to champion homegrown talent, so go vote now for Texas filmmaker Robbie Pickering’s movie “Natural Selection” in the Netflix Find Your Voice Film Competition.
Contestants have posted three-minute clips of their projects, and you can vote by going to the site and watching Pickering’s clip. Ten clips have been selected as semi-finalists. The winner gets more than $350,000 to finish their feature film.
“Natural Selection” — starring lanky DJ Qualls and produced by Paul Jensen and Brion Hambel — is the only Texas flick in the bunch.
The top five vote-getters move to the finals and are then judged by the likes of Josh Brolin and John Sayles for the big prize.
View and vote right HERE.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: Austin Movies Inc.
June 4, 2009
'Order of Myths' at iTunes
“The Order of Myths” by part-time Austin filmmaker Margaret Brown is now available at iTunes for rental or purchase. The acclaimed documentary, which won an Independent Spirit Award and heaps of praise, looks at racial divisions during Mardi Gras in Mobile, Alabama. Find it HERE.
Movies pop out of Texas as from a jack-in-the-box, and the tiny-budget, Texas-made comedy “Funny Books” is one you might’ve missed in the flurry.
No more. Set in a comic book shop and made by UT grads, “Funny Books” gets a special screening at 8 p.m. June 26 at the Millennium Youth Entertainment Complex (1156 Hargrave St.).
Producer Twitchy Dolphin Flix (fine name, that) calls its second feature a “comedy told by comic fans for comic fans and non-fans alike. The movie features a cast of four-color characters as they navigate the outrageous customers and hilarious situations found on any given Wednesday in the friendly, neighborhood comic store.”
Sounds rather “Clerks”-y.
Get tickets and watch the film’s trailer HERE.
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Local director makes film that 'Matters'
Austin filmmaker Angela Torres Camarena’s short film is only one of 12 that’s been picked for the ninth annual Media That Matters Film Festival. The New York-based fest “showcases short films that inspire audiences to think, laugh and take action on today’s most pressing social issues.”
Camarena’s film chronicles the struggles of five siblings in America after their mother is deported to Mexico. Watch it HERE.
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David Carradine dies
More obit here.
Here’s my interview with Carradine from the set of the Austin-made comedy “Homo Erectus” (which has since been renamed “Stoned Age”). It took place in November 2005.
David Carradine has long skinny legs that are stretched out like bamboo poles, naked, knobby, porpoise-smooth. They are exposed from the ankle to way up the thigh, several unsettling inches past the tan line to scary areas that make one’s eyes avert in a violent spasm. He looks supremely relaxed and casual, sunk deep in a chair with those bare legs leveled at the floor, elbow propped on an arm rest to keep the cigarette in his fingers close to his faintly duckish lips.
“This is only half of it,” Carradine says with a swell of pride. “I throw fur on top of it all.” He points to a heap of fake black fur on the floor of his actor’s trailer, which rests on the magnificently dusty moonscape of a limestone quarry in North Austin. Scenes from the movie “Homo Erectus” are being shot here, one of the film’s many locations, including Hamilton Pool and Enchanted Rock, that suggests prehistoric landscapes. (A limestone quarry? How very “Flintstones.”)
“And in the movie my hair is sticking straight up like this,” says Carradine, teasing out long, wild gray-blond strands to make a static-electric blast. “Out to here.”
What are you going to do when playing a caveman but go with it? Carradine seems to be having fun with the role of Mookoo, the blustering chief of his cave tribe. His son Ishbo, who is goading his species to evolve, is played by a Woody Allenish Adam Rifkin, the film’s writer and director. Talia Shire plays Carradine’s cave-wife and Ali Larter (“Legally Blonde”) plays Rifkin’s elusive dream girl. “Homo Erectus” is the third low-budget feature produced by the University of Texas Film Institute and its for-profit arm, Burnt Orange Productions.
Carradine’s last major role was the title villain in Quentin Tarantino’s martial-arts revenge opus “Kill Bill,” the success of which hurled the actor back into public view after a disappearance that seemed to have lasted decades. Actually, it did last decades. His most recent watchable film before “Kill Bill” was the Jesse James western “The Long Riders,” co-starring his brothers Keith and Robert. That was 1980.
“Playing in ‘Kill Bill’ helped,” Carradine says. “Up until then everyone was saying ‘Grasshopper.’ Now everyone says ‘Bill.’ “
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May 28, 2009
HBO rounds up 'Rodeo'
Austin filmmaker Brad Beesley’s hit doc “Sweethearts of the Prison Rodeo,” which wowed ‘em at SXSW this year, has been acquired by HBO. It will air on HBO’s Cinemax in September.
HBO describes the movie thusly: “It goes behind prison walls to follow convict cowgirls on their journey to the 2007 Oklahoma State Penitentiary Rodeo, a purely American event that’s part Wild West show and part Coliseum-esque spectacle where convicts compete against one another for a small amount of cash and a little bit of pride.”
In a statement, Beesley said, “I’m truly thrilled for the women featured in the film — their remarkable stories made this possible. There’s no better place than HBO to share our documentary with the U.S. — it’s a perfect home.”
Read Charles Ealy’s write-up of the film during SXSW HERE.
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May 9, 2009
'Unforeseen' at iTunes
Laura Dunn’s ravishing and moving Barton Springs doc “The Unforeseen,” winner of awards and critical accolades, is now available for viewing at iTunes, courtesy of Cinetic Media, where former Austin film figure Matt Dentler tips us off on the offer. Saves you a trip to the vid store, right?
Watch it HERE.
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May 1, 2009
'Beeswax' gets picked up
Andrew Bujalski’s all-Austin drama “Beeswax” has been snagged by The Cinema Guild for U.S. distribution. The film played the Berlin and South by Southwest film festivals to mostly kind reviews.
See the item at IndieWire.
(Side note: Andrew is getting married Saturday in Austin, so a huge second congrats to him!)
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Student movies, free
Check out the end-of-semester shorts by students of Kat Candler’s stupendous Script to Screen classes from 10 a.m. to noon May 9 at the Alamo South.
The program is free, and you can learn more about it, Kat and her classes HERE.
We don’t know who this man-child is, though we reserve the right to assume he is either a) in one of the short films, b) a student filmmaker, or c) both. If you can figure it out, call your senator and win a Fudgesicle.
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Roller derby feature whips up release date
“Whip It!” — the movie written for Austin by a former Austinite (Shauna Cross) but only partially (itty-bittily) filmed here — has an opening date: Oct. 9.
With its lavish tax incentives, Michigan stole the shoot from its Texas roots, except for a couple days of pick-up shots around the Congress Avenue Bat Bridge. It’s a Texas roller derby picture. Writes Fox Searchlight:
The directorial debut of Drew Barrymore stars Ellen Page (Juno) as Bliss, a rebellious Texas teen who throws in her small town beauty pageant crown for the rowdy world of roller derby. UT alum Marcia Gay Harden (Mystic River, Pollock) plays Bliss’ disapproving mother, while Kristen Wiig (Saturday Night Live) and Juliette Lewis (Old School) play roller-derby stars. Also starring Eve, Jimmy Fallon and Daniel Stern.
We’re pretty sure this is Kristin Wiig …
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April 29, 2009
Linklater crowned 'maverick'
We’ve always considered Richard Linklater a maverick filmmaker — a totally independent voice that bucks hoary molds and does it his way — and now the Woodstock Film Festival has officially sainted him with the title.
Linklater will receive the 2009 Honorary Maverick Award at the 10th annual festival Oct. 3 in Woodstock, New York.
“Richard Linklater’s singular approach to filmmaking — always inventing and re-inventing the art in fresh and exciting new ways, coupled with his unwavering support of independent filmmakers— makes him the ideal recipient of our honorary Maverick Award,” says an organizer. “We’re thrilled that he accepted our invitation and can’t wait to host him here in Woodstock, where he’ll find a thriving film community, reminiscent of the one in Austin, which he so closely nurtured.”
Replied Linklater in a statement: “Although the term ‘maverick’ was greatly devalued in last year’s election cycle, I’ll humbly take on this honor and as a Texas filmmaker help reclaim the term in the tradition of the famous Texas cattleman Samuel Maverick who refused to brand his cattle.”
Austin’s reigning maverick
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April 25, 2009
Mike Judge says bye to Hank Hill
Mike Judge won’t talk to me (was it something I wrote?), but he chatted with The New York Times about his work, etc., HERE.
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April 24, 2009
Cameron Diaz eyeballing Austinites' script
“Bobbie Sue,” a script by Austin screenwriters Russell Leigh Sharman, Owen Egerton and Chris Mass, is in the hands of Cameron Diaz, who is close to signing onto the project for Warner Bros., Variety writes.
“Story centers on a hard-charging female ambulance chaser whose mindset makes her the ideal candidate to be the face of a prestigious law firm when a powerful client is sued in a sexual discrimination case,” the trade reports. “Dana Fox (‘What Happens in Vegas’) is polishing the screenplay.”
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Rodriguez's plate is super-full. As usual.
Just in from Variety:
Robert Rodriguez is ready to cut a wide swathe, and his plans include re-launching the “Predator” franchise for Fox and co-directing “Machete.”
For the later, the filmmaker will create a feature out of the blade-wielding antihero who appeared in a mock trailer that was part of “Grindhouse.”
Rodriguez is eyeinga June start date in Austin for “Machete,” a film that is financed and produced by Overnight Productions, with Danny Trejo starring as the title character.
Machete is a Mexican ex-Federale with a gift for wielding a blade, who hides out as a day laborer, who is double-crossed by a corrupt state senator.
Rodriguez wrote the script and will direct the film with Ethan Maniquis, his longtime editor. The film is being produced by Rodriguez, Rick Schwartz of Overnight Productions and Aaron Kaufman.
Not immediately clear is whether Rodriguez and Overnight will find a way to use the irresistible marketing slogan that appeared in the “Grindhouse” trailer: “This time, they (bleeped) with the wrong Mexican.” It is the first non-studio movie that Rodriguez has directed since “El Mariachi.”
For Fox, Rodriguez has scripted “Predators,” a film that will bring back the dreadlock-sporting alien hunter who originated in the 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger hit “Predator.” While a sequel didn’t become a hit, Fox kept the alien sharp by launching the “Alien Vs. Predator,” a wildly profitable series that has racked up strong grosses and DVD sales, wit little or no gross out the door.
While Rodriguez juggles these projects, he’s also directing his script “Nerveracker” for Dimension Films, with Bob Weinstein setting a 2010 release.
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April 20, 2009
Austin film in 'Harmony' with Vegas
Robert Byington’s Austin-made feature “Harmony and Me” is pacing the festival circuit, where it’s garnering attention and nabbed a review in Variety. It screens next in June at CineVegas Film Festival in Las Vegas.
The movie’s produced by Austin’s busy Anish Savjani and co-stars notable locals Alex Karpovsky, Jerm Pollet and Bob Schneider, who plays a wedding singer, a notch below what he does in real life.
Here’s the lede from Variety’s review of the film:
A sad sack (Justin Rice), masochistically fixated on the woman who dumped him receives cold comfort from the assorted loonies he calls friends, family and co-workers in Bob Byington’s Austin-set sophomore outing. A mumblecore film without the mumble, “Harmony and Me” eschews the fits and starts, tensions and complexities of present-tense immediacy in favor of sly, absurdist one-liners, paring everything down to comic essentials. Bristling with wry wit and peopled with a rogue’s gallery of disaffected losers, this rhythmically timed (if indifferently shot) micro-budgeter could garner niche play based on its unexpected narrative intersections with current mainstream comedy.
Read the full review HERE
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April 17, 2009
Free sneak peek at 'Dance With the One'
Last summer the bold and novel University of Texas Film Institute shot an Austin-based drama with a low budget and high expectations. The movie, “Dance With the One,” is now complete.
Almost. The filmmakers and UTFI want you to watch the film and provide honest feedback in what the industry calls a test screening. It happens at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Alamo Lake Creek (13729 Research Blvd.) and it’s free.
Seating is limited. RSVP via email to RSVP@AustinFilmFestival.com.
“Dance With the One” is written by Smith Henderson and Jon Marc Smith and directed by Michael Dolan. The cast includes Gabriel Luna, Xochitl Romero, Dana Wheeler-Nicholson, Barry Tubb, Gary McCleery, Mike Davis, J.T. Coldfire and Paul Saucido.
Read our story from the set of the film last summer HERE.
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April 9, 2009
Mike Judge getting hosed again?
Under the headline “Will Miramax Treat Mike Judge Any Better Than Fox Did?,” New York Magazine ponders the fate of the Austin filmmaker’s new comedy “Extract.” An extract:
After Fox put the least amount of effort possible into giving Mike Judge’s last two films, cult favorites “Office Space” and “Idiocracy,” anything even remotely resembling a supportive theatrical launch, we’re not the least bit surprised that Judge decided to find another distributor for his latest project. Unfortunately for both Judge and fans of his brilliance, Miramax currently has “Extract” scheduled to open on Labor Day weekend, which is traditionally a dead zone at the multiplex.
The rest of the item HERE.
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April 6, 2009
Austin films win big at Sarasota
A pair of Austin-made documentaries by University of Texas alums scored last weekend at the Sarasota Film Festival in Florida.
Ben Steinbauer’s “Winnebago Man” won best documentary feature and Michel O. Scott’s “Over the Hills and Far Away” won the audience award for best narrative documentary.
Steinbauer receives a United States distribution deal with First Run Features and a screening at the IFC Center‘s Stranger Than Fiction series. Both films earned raves during South by Southwest Film Festival last month.
Read Pat Beach’s SXSW interview with “Over the Hills” director Scott HERE.
Read our SXSW write-up of the “Winnebago Man” HERE.
Jack Rebney’s raspberry in ‘Winnebago Man’
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April 3, 2009
Actor Lou Perryman, Texan to his bones, dies
Lou Perryman, drawling character actor best known for his roles in Eagle Pennell’s landmark Texas indie features “The Whole Shootin’ Match” (1978) and “Last Night at the Alamo” (1983), was killed this week in a suspected homicide. His body, fatally wounded by an axe, was found Thursday in his Austin home. He was 67.
Perryman and Pennell, who died in 2002, were great friends, striking out in the scrappy dust-bowl of DIY filmmaking in the 1970s.
“(Eagle) did it on the sweat of his brow,” Perryman told me during an interview when Pennell died. “He hustled. We made it up as we went. He brought the best out of people, and that’s the heart of independent film.”
Perryman never made it big, but he enjoyed a run of bit parts in Hollywood fare, including “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2, “”Boys Don’t Cry,” “Poltergeist,” “The Blues Brothers” and television’s “Walker, Texas Ranger.”
Perryman in ‘Whole Shootin’ Match’
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PJ Raval's day in the sun
Austin director and cinematographer PJ Raval has a lot to celebrate these days. “Trouble the Water,” the documentary he shot (not directed), won top honors at Sundance in ‘08 and was nominated for this year’s documentary feature Oscar. Now it’s airing on HBO beginning April 23.
HERE’s the HBO schedule for air times.
But even bigger for Raval and Jay Hodges, also of Austin, is that “Trinidad,” the documentary they co-directed and co-produced, just won the documentary jury award at the Cleveland International Film Festival.
“Trinidad,” a moving, up close and personal chronicle of several lives in the so-called sex-change capital of the world, will screen at 7 p.m. Saturday at Rice University, then it’s off to the Independent Film Festival in Boston on April 26.
Read our interview with Raval and Hodges HERE.
Hodges and Raval
Go to the film’s site HERE, where you can watch the trailer.
Sex-change surgery in award-winning ‘Trinidad’
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April 1, 2009
Screenings round-up
Watch (now!) Austin filmmaker Bob Ray and CrashCam Films’ latest adult animation toons at Playboy.com. Do it HERE.
Salvage Vanguard Theater’s Micro-Cinema presents a feast of local film at Salvage Vanguard, April 12 — 14: Kat Candler’s feature “Jumping Off Bridges” and the short “Quarter to Noon”; PJ Raval and Paul Soileau’s short films; and Pepper Island Films’ “Polar Ops.”
$5 for one screening; $8 for both. Exact dates and times and everything else HERE.
‘Jumping Off Bridges’ (actually, just sitting on a bridge, but watch the film and … )
Speaking of Kat Candler — and when are we not? — she’s teaching her popular Summer Script to Screen class May 19 — Aug. 18 at Arts and Labor Productions (6601 Burnet Rd.).
To register: Contact Kat at katcandler@gmail.com, or 771-5863. Or go HERE.
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March 26, 2009
Arkansas considering tax incentives
Smack on the heels of the Texas House passing a bill approving film incentives Tuesday comes this report about Arkansas mulling the idea, via today’s New York Times:
“As states line up to lure filmmakers with higher tax incentives and other perks, Arkansas legislators are trying to catch up. After almost a decade of some of the least impressive rebates in the country, the state may gain on its movie-friendly neighbors with a 15 percent tax break for movie productions in the state. Legislation for the tax credit moves to the state senate floor Thursday, said State Rep. Rick Saunders, a Democrat from Hot Springs and the bill’s sponsor.”
Read the whole piece HERE.
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March 25, 2009
Film incentives fly through House
Good news for Texas film tax incentives, as reported by the American-Statesman’s Corrie MacLaggan HERE.
We got a response from Jeannette Scott, the Central Texas representative of the Texas Motion Picture Alliance, which has been lobbying to get incentives passed:
“The next step is for the House bill to go before the Senate to be heard and voted on. If we have no amendments proposed and the Senate passes the bill we will have our enabling legislation. At this point, we are cautiously optimistic about passage. The bigger challenge will be the next step — appropriations, aka ‘show me the money.’ ”
What do you think about giving financial breaks to draw more film production to the state? Leave a comment.
For more background on the incentives, including interviews with proponents such as Robert Rodriguez, click HERE.
More about the legislative push at the Texas Motion Picture Alliance site HERE.
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March 23, 2009
Inspiration at 24 frames per second
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February 24, 2009
From No. 1 to No. 10, Austin plunges as filmmaking mecca
Or so says MovieMaker magazine in its annual (dubious?) Top Movie Cities poll.
It’s true: Last year Austin ranked No. 1. This year we are No. 10. Crud.
(Last year our arch-nemesis Shreveport was No. 3. It has dropped to No. 4.)
How did we, the mighty, fall? Read all about it, with a chunk of salt, HERE. Also note that the mag defines the list as “The 25 best cities in the U.S. to ride it out as an independent moviemaker this year.”
Here’s the Top 10:
- Chicago, IL
- Atlanta, GA
- New York, NY
- Shreveport. LA
- Albuquerque, NM
- Boston, MA
- Stamford, CT
- Memphis, TN
- Milwaukee, WI
- Austin, TX
See last year’s list with some feisty reader reactions HERE
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February 16, 2009
Jason slices, dices, burns, mutilates opening records
Says Variety:
“Warner Bros./New Line’s redo ‘Friday the 13th’ scared up the best opening ever for a horror movie in grossing an estimated $42.2 million from 3,105 theaters through Sunday.”
The Austin-filmed movie, “breathing new life into the classic franchise, is on its way to posting the best four-day holiday gross ever for a R-rated pic. Studios will report four-day numbers for President’s Day weekend on Monday.
“Paramount is a partner on ‘Friday,’ which was produced by Michael Bay’s Platinum Dunes. Production budget was $19 million, meaning the film recouped those costs in its first day in release (Friday’s gross was $19.4 million.)”
It obviously makes the movie the best performing Austin-made film on the books. In contrast, Robert Rodriguez’s “Spy Kids 3-D” opened at $33 million and “Sin City” at $29 million. The “Texas Chainsaw Masscare” re-make, by the same peeps who did “Friday the 13th,” pulled in $28 million on its opening weekend in 2003.
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July 26, 2008
'Whip It' keeps firm Austin ties
Intrepid bulldog reporter Michael Corcoran updates us with this:
Although producers decided to bypass Austin, the setting of the roller derby revival flick “Whip It,” for incentive-laden Michigan, some Austin skaters are up north working on the movie. Keri St. Aubin, aka Rocky Casbah, and Chole Truheart, aka Sacralicious, are serving as body doubles for a couple of the lead actresses, including Drew Barrymore, who’s also directing.
According to April Ritzenthaler of TXRD Lonestar Rollergirls, the league featured in the film, Juliette Lewis plays the captain of the Holy Rollers. Also, the former TXRD skater who goes by Smother Teresa has been training “Whip It” lead Ellen Page for several months in Los Angeles. “Whip It” is based on “Derby Girl,” the coming-of-age book by former Austinite Shauna Cross.
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May 29, 2008
Austin Movies Inc.: 'Baghead,' 'Dance with the One,' 'A Loud Color'
All sorts of items about Austin movies:
‘Baghead,” an Austin-made film that screened well at South by Southwest, will open here in Austin on June 13 before the East and West coasts.
The University of Texas Film Institute will make “Dance with the One” this summer. Among the local talent, UT Michener Center for Writers graduate Joshua Smith Henderson (Master of Fine Arts ‘08) wrote the script with Jon Marc Smith. The film will be directed by another Michener Center graduate, Mike Dolan.
Austin native Brent Joseph’s “A Loud Color,” which portrays one man’s post-Katrina experience, will premiere online at the Arts Engine’s Media That Matters Film Festival. The public site launched yesterday.
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May 28, 2008
Drew Barrymore's 'Whip It' and Austin/Michigan project
We’ve just confirmed: Drew Barrymore’s roller derby project, ‘Whip It,’ will split production between Michigan (and its 40 percent incentives) and Austin (with its authentic exteriors). So kinda like ‘No Country for Old Men,’ which divided its attention between incentive-happy New Mexico and exterior-rich West Texas.
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May 10, 2008
Heather Graham in town shooting
Heather Graham, Amber Heard and Jennifer Coolidge are in Austin filming the indie dark-comedy “Ex-Terminators,” directed by John Inwood, who has several episodes of TV’s “Scrubs” on his CV.
According to a publicist for ABC Pest and Lawn Services (!!), the film is taking advantage of ABC’s pest facilities, because the movie is “about a small pest control company that manages to ‘off’ (people’s) exes — ex-husbands, ex-boyfriends, etc.”
Shooting started this week at the ABC offices in Austin and will roll for several more.
See the film’s IMDB.com page HERE.
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May 8, 2008
Austin-made comedy debuts this weekend
“When is Tomorrow,” Austin filmmaker Kevin Ford and longtime friend Eddie Steeple’s locally made buddy comedy, premieres Saturday and Sunday at the Alamo Ritz, before moving to the Alamo South next week.
Steeples, best known as “Crabman” on TV’s “My Name is Earl,” performs stand-up before the weekend screenings. Ford will also be there.
Read our interview with Ford here, and find ticket info here.
Here’s the trailer:
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April 28, 2008
Mike Judge 'Extract'-s laughs
No word yet if he’ll make it in Austin, but Mike Judge is writing and directing the comedy “Extract,” with Jason Bateman in the lead.
The hometown humorist filmed his two prior features, the cult smash “Office Space” and the unjustly neglected “Idiocracy,” in Austin.
Bateman will play an extract plant owner beset by workplace and personal troubles, including a cheating wife. “Extract” will be the first feature from Ternion Productions, the new company Judge formed with John Altschuler and Dave Krinsky, according to Variety.
Judge, Altschuler and Krinsky write and produce the animated Fox show “King of the Hill” and are working on “The Goode Family,” an animated sitcom for ABC that will premiere next year.
Judge, Bateman
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April 25, 2008
Austin Movies Inc.: 'The Goree Girls'
“Goree Girls” — A big maybe. DreamWorks is producing an adaptation of Skip Hollandsworth’s Texas Monthly article about a falsely convicted woman who forms an all-female band in a Texas prison. Jennifer Aniston could star, and Texas writer-director John Lee Hancock (“The Alamo”) is rewriting Margaret Nagle’s script.
Austin Movies Inc. Updates: Keeping checking this page. Add your reports and thoughts in the commentary block.
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Austin Movies Inc.: Untitled Alejandro Escovedo documentary
Untitled Alejandro Escovedo documentary — Director Jonathan Demme (“Stop Making Sense,” “Silence of the Lambs”) should be in town soon to film Escovedo in concert at Las Manitas Avenue Cafe for a documentary about the Austin musical wonder, according to several sources.
Austin Movies Inc. Updates: Keeping checking this page. Add your reports and thoughts in the commentary block.
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Austin Movies Inc.: 'Kick the Can'
“Kick the Can” — A drama directed by Sol Tryon, whose comedy “The Living Wake” made a small splash at last year’s Austin Film Festival. Jesse Eisenberg, star of “Living Wake,” and Mark Webber, who starred in the Ethan Hawke-directed films “The Hottest State” and “Chelsea Walls” lead the cast. After opening an office in Austin and scouting for locations, the production is now in hiatus.
Austin Movies Inc. Updates: Keeping checking this page. Add your reports and thoughts in the commentary block.
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Austin Movies Inc.: 'Whip It!'
“Whip It!” — Austin native Shauna Cross joined a roller-derby team when she moved to Los Angeles after graduating from the University of Texas. She funneled her experiences into the young-adult novel “Derby Girl” which is the basis for her script, an Austin-set roller-derby dramedy. Drew Barrymore directs, and “Juno“‘s Ellen Page stars. Shooting is rumored to start this summer in Austin, but no solid deals have been inked yet.
Austin Movies Inc. Updates: Keeping checking this page. Add your reports and thoughts in the commentary block.
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Austin Movies Inc.: 'The Sno Cone Stand Inc.'
“The Sno Cone Stand Inc.” — Three 20-something stockbrokers want to bust out of the corporate rut and make a buck, so, of course, they open the confectionery kiosk of the title. The low-budget Austin comedy by first-time feature filmmaker Travis Knapp stars Morgan Fairchild and Tony Sirico of ‘The Sopranos,’ with cameos by local luminaries Michael and Susan Dell, Ruthie Foster and street-corner spectacle Leslie Cochran. No release date on the movie, which was made last year in town. www.thesnoconestand.com.
Austin Movies Inc. Updates: Keeping checking this page. Add your reports and thoughts in the commentary block.
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Austin Movies Inc.: 'The Two Bobs'
“The Two Bobs” — Monday, a five-week shoot began for this ultra-low-budget comedy written and directed by Austin-based Tim McCanlies (‘Secondhand Lions,’ ‘Smallville’). It’s a gaming spoof, produced by Anne Walker-McBay and Paul Alvarado-Dykstra, who are not talking about the project. The comedy stars Cody Kasch, Devin Ratray and Tyler Francavilla. McCanlies provides his own plot summary at IMDB.com: ‘Just as they finish their ground-breaking violent video-game masterpiece, the two gaming legends known as The Two Bobs discover that their precious game software has been stolen — and with it, their livelihoods, genius reputations, everything they own. To get back their game — and their lives —The Two Bobs and their fellow-geek employees Munch, Doofus and The Dark Prince are forced to ‘turn detective’ and plunge into the strange world of Christian Venture Capitalists, aged Dixie Mafia hoodlums and bizarre Internet Spammers that inhabit Austin.’
Austin Movies Inc. Updates: Keeping checking this page. Add your reports and thoughts in the commentary block.
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Austin Movies Inc.: 'Friday the 13th'
“Friday the 13th” — Filming began Monday all across the Austin area for this slasher rehasher, based on the 1980 original. Kids at a camp. A masked killer. Screams, blood, audience cheers. Michael Bay, in a producer’s hat, and director Marcus Nispel re-team following their 2003 Austin-shot ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ remake. It stars Amanda Righetti, Jared Padalecki and a creepy-looking Derek Mears as the sanguinary Jason Voorhees. It’s set for a Feb. 13, 2009, release.
Austin Movies Inc. Updates: Keeping checking this page. Add your reports and thoughts in the commentary block.
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Austin Movies Inc.: 'Tree of Life'
“Tree of Life” — Storied Austin auteur Terrence Malick is keeping a characteristically tight shroud on the production of his original, 1950s period piece, which continues its long shoot through June in Smithville and occasionally Austin. Brad Pitt, Sean Penn, a dog, a baby and a tall tree star in what IMDB.com describes as an action/adventure/drama/fantasy/sci-fi epic, and offers this plot outline: “In a mystical world of folklore, several individuals embrace in a race to find the Tree of Life, said to give immortality, fertility and other supernatural powers.’” An Austinite who worked on the film said that when Malick saw a butterfly land on an actor’s head, the director chased the insect around with the camera for a half hour. That’s signature Malick, who’s working again with illustrious cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki (‘The New World,’ ‘Sleepy Hollow’).
Austin Movies Inc. Updates: Keeping checking this page. Add your reports and thoughts in the commentary block.
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Austin Movies Inc.: 'Shorts'
“Shorts” — Robert Rodriguez returns to family-friendly fun with this fantasy feature, which the filmmaker has kept ‘super, super, super quiet,’ says Bob Hudgins, director of the Texas Film Commission. Structured in short episodes, hence the title, the movie started production this week. ‘A group of young outcasts are swept into an unexpected adventure when they find a mysterious box in their neighborhood’ is the plot summary flittering about online. LatinoReview.com got its hands on the script and describes it as ‘an acid trip for kids,’ loaded with childish gross-out gags. ‘There are spaceships, dung beetles, toaster people, crocodiles and much more,’ the site reports. Elizabeth Avellan produces at the team’s Troublemaker Studios.
Austin Movies Inc. Updates: Keeping checking this page. Add your reports and thoughts in the commentary block.
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Austin Movies Inc: ‘Me and Orson Welles'
“Me and Orson Welles” — Austin’s Richard Linklater and crew wrapped this theater drama April 12 in London, not Austin, but some post-production will probably happen here. Adapted from Robert Kaplow’s novel by Austin couple Holly Gent Palmo and Vincent Palmo, it stars Ben Chaplin, Zac Efron (“High School Musical”), Claire Danes and Christian McKay as Orson Welles. Set in 1937, it’s a coming-of-age tale about a teenager (Efron) who’s been cast in Welles’ Mercury Theatre production of “Julius Caesar.” It was shot in London, Isle of Man and New York.
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Austin Movies Inc.: 'Will'
“Will” — Gaelan Connell, Vanessa Hudgens (of “High School Musical”), Scott Porter (“Friday Night Lights,” “Speed Racer”), Alyson Michalka, Lisa Kudrow and David Bowie star in this teen musical melodrama, which filmed from Feb. 4 to April 2 across town. A nerd named Will (Connell) rises to hip heights using his musical prowess.
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