MOVIES

Catch wisdom of filmmaker's famous friends on radionews

From John Pierson's Master Class to Michael Madsen's ghost friend, Austin is popping with movie-related news.

By Chris Garcia
AMERICAN-STATESMAN FILM WRITER
Friday, June 27, 2008

Movie news permeates Austin, and sometimes we must pause to organize it all. This week's column is a due compendium of local movie miscellanea, more of which is available at the Austin Movie Blog at austin360.com/movies.

Among University of Texas professors with rock-star status is John Pierson, the storied Radio-Television-Film instructor, who arrived at UT earlier this decade with a fat résumé listing his IFC television program "Split Screen," his best-selling movie business memoir "Spike, Mike, Slackers and Dykes" and years as one of indie film's most important producer's representatives.

Pierson has clout and sway. And lots of famous friends. That muscle pulls major players from film and television to Pierson's Master Class, long, casual interview sessions conducted before a live audience in the "Austin City Limits" studio at UT. Pierson, rangy and amiable, interviews longtime friends and acquaintances with an expansive, good-humored tack.

Only the privileged, lucky and enrolled get to attend these special conversations, but KUT (90.5 FM) airs select shows in keenly edited one-hour formats, with two guests getting 30 minutes each. The new season, recorded during the spring semester, airs at 11 a.m. Sundays, beginning this week with Steve Buscemiand David Simon. I got to listen to a few.

The Master Class lineup:

11 a.m. Sunday — Buscemi (pronounced, we learn, "Boo-semmy") sounds a little nervous, and later admits he is, during this career-delving dialogue, tracing his days as a New York fireman before discovering theater, then appearing on television's "Miami Vice" (in which Willie Nelson beats him up) and becoming a director in his own right. Why did Quentin Tarantino cast him as Mr. Pink in "Reservoir Dogs"? "You look like a criminal," the actor recalls QT telling him.

Fresh off a sizzling streak with the critically worshipped HBO series "The Wire," Simon emanates street-smart authenticity. He talks about his years as a former police reporter at The Baltimore Sun and how it sharpened his appreciation of the American city. Troubled urban centers enthrall Simon, as do crime and Greek tragedy, which deftly twine in his shows. He's now working on a project set in New Orleans.

"I actually do believe that cities matter," Simon says, "and I think that's what we were saying with 'The Wire.' "

11 a.m. July 27 — "South Park" co-creator Matt Stone and Bravo president Lauren Zalaznick. With the satirically incisive "South Park," Stone and Trey Parker molested chaste TV formula and vaulted Comedy Central to cable stardom. Pierson points out how "South Park," with its ruthless cultural acumen, explains our world to us.

He reminds Stone that he and Parker have lampooned some rather prominent celebrities. Like Mel Gibson.

"He's a crazy loon and anti-Semite," says an excited Stone. "But there's just something awesome about a crazy guy with $500 million who wants to (make) movies!"

11 a.m. Aug. 31 — Director Charles Burnett ("Killer of Sheep") and director Chris Smith("American Movie").

Listen to past Master Classes, featuring Kevin Smith, Spike Lee, Mark Cuban, Gus Van Sant, Richard Linklaterand Joe Dante at rtf.utexas.edu/masterclass/.

Michael Madsen sees dead people.

The extra-crispy-throated Madsen(along with the formerly bionic Lee Majors) stayed at the Driskill this month while shooting the low-budget political thriller "Conflict of Interest" in Kyle and Lockhart. The Driskill is, of course, lousy with ghosts. The front desk offers a two-page catalog of all the spirits wafting through the grand mansion's gilded halls. Including this puckish ghoul, described at www.whatwasthen.com:

"Another apparition (at the Driskill) is the 4-year-old daughter of a U.S. Senator. She haunts the grand staircase leading from the mezzanine down to the lobby. The little girl was playing unattended with a ball when she slipped and fell to the marble floor at the bottom of the stairs and was killed. The front desk staff has heard the child bouncing the ball down the steps and giggling."

My source, who is close to the film's production, says that Madsen, known for murderous tough-guy roles ("Reservoir Dogs," "Kill Bill"), complained that the little girl haunted his room. Not sure what she did — tickled him? poured him a drink? cut off his ear? — but Madsen thinks she came because (drum roll) he plays a U.S. senator in the movie.

Smartest ghost ever.

Pre-production is under way for the University of Texas Film Institute's maiden outing without its for-profit arm Burnt Orange Productions, which is on official "hiatus" as it trawls for more funding. The film, a noirish thriller titled "Dance with the One," is being made under the UTFI Feature Film Lab banner with a team of students, UT film alums and local movie professionals. Shooting starts July 14 in Austin.

The film institute and Burnt Orange team formed in 2003 with the aim of making three low-budget features a year using UT film-student sweat, Hollywood pros and private money. (Students were paid with course credit.) They produced four films through 2006, two of which, the poorly received psycho-thriller "The Quiet" and the ribald spoof "Homo Erectus," landed national distribution. National Lampoon picked up "Homo Erectus" and will release it July 11 in Austin.

More here about "Dance with the One" as the production rolls on.

Austinite Jeff Nichols' taut southern drama "Shotgun Stories" blindsided viewers at last year's Austin Film Festival, where it won the top feature award and went on to nab an Independent Spirit Award nomination and praise from Roger Ebert, who called the movie a "great discovery." It arrives Tuesday on DVD.

Lean and mean, Nichols' precociously assured debut marinates in rural gothic dread and drips with languid, trailer-park poetry. It moves at a studied slow-boil to tell a Shakespearean tale of a blood feud, revenge and fratricide. A taciturn Michael Shannon heads the cast, but setting and culture are equally prominent characters, much as they are in the similarly flavored human sags of "Shotgun" producer David Gordon Green ("All the Real Girls"). Moody shots of Monet skies and cotton fields are woven with spare, perfumed dialogue that lingers in the ear.

Nichols, 29, will next direct "Goat," a drama based on Brad Land's bestselling memoir, co-written with Green and produced by heavyweights Scott Rudin and Christine Vachon.

"Hancock," the unlikely superhero comedy starring Will Smith opening here Wednesday, is better in its first 15 minutes than "The Incredible Hulk," "The Love Guru" and "Get Smart" put together. I'm just saying.