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Ben McKenzie stars in a loaded ‘Gun’
Austin’s Ben McKenzie, formerly of TV hit “The O.C.,” is starring in the filmed stage play “Dalton Trumbo’s Johnny Got His Gun,” based on Trumbo’s celebrated and harrowing anti-war novel.
We tell you because the movie gets its world premiere at 7 p.m. Sept. 22 at the Paramount Theatre, with McKenzie there. The special screening is a fund-raiser for the Mark Cuban Foundation’s Fallen Patriot Fund. The movie opens Sept. 26 at the Dobie.
Learn more about it HERE.
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A pair of great new media resources
Mary Celeste Kearney at UT’s RTF department alerts us to her cool new site Girls Make Media, “honoring and mobilizing girls’ media production,” she says, adding, “Hopefully, the site will become a rich resource that is useful to media educators, media researchers, and, of course, girls themselves!”
We’ve perused it, and it really is an extremely well-done, thorough and practical resource center that you should bookmark. We did. See it HERE.
Another outstanding outreach program for filmmakers from the Austin Film Society is the Texas Filmmakers’ Travel Grant, starting Sept. 1.
Says AFS: “The program will help offset travel costs for Texans whose films are invited to prestigious film festivals and events around the world, with small travel stipends given out on a rolling, year-round basis.”
Considering gas and flight costs, we respond: Yesss!
$10,000 a year will be set aside for the program. Read all about it HERE.
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Matthew’s coming back to town
Matthew McConaughey’s coming to his old stomping (and naked dancing) grounds for the red carpet world premiere of “Surfer, Dude,” the comedy he’s made with his old pal from Longview, writer-director S.R. Bindler, who’s best known for the magnificent 1997 doc “Hands on a Hard Body.” McConaughey’s j.k. livin’ production company is behind the new feature.
A fundraiser for the Austin Film Society, the screening is Sept. 3 at the Paramount Theatre (713 Congress Ave.). Bindler and other cast members will be in attendance.
“Surfer, Dude” will open exclusively in Austin on Sept. 5, then roll out to select cities later.
The film co-stars Woody Harrelson, Scott Glenn, Willie Nelson and Alexie Gilmore.
Official movie description:
In SURFER, DUDE, longboarding soul-surfer Steve Addington (Matthew McConaughey) returns to Malibu for the summer to find his cool hometown vibe corrupted. New sponsorship demands Addington to expand into Virtual Reality Video Games and Reality TV. Unwilling to participate in this new digital reality, he chooses to spend his summer surfing his home break. But in a twist-of-fate, the waves go flat and stay flat. Out of money, his expense accounts canceled, and betrayed by his buddies, Addington is backed into a harsh corner. He must endure the insanity that comes with no waves or give into “the Man” and his new, reality-altering machines.
Members of AFS and the Paramount may buy tickets starting Monday. Non-member tickets go on sale Aug. 23 through GetTix (or 866-443-8849), or the Paramount box office.
Check the film’s site HERE.
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Linklater’s latest at Toronto
Richard Linklater works fast. Seems it was mere weeks ago we reported that he’d wrapped his latest film “Me and Orson Welles” in London.
Since then a rough-cut has screened at Austin Studios and the film will join an exciting slate of American movies at the Toronto International Film Festival, running Sept. 4 through 13. (Expect it in theaters next year.)
Zac Efron, Claire Danes and Ben Chaplin star in the theater drama based on Robert Kaplow’s novel. More about the movie HERE.
Efron in ‘Orson’
Other Toronto titles: Darren Aronofsky’s “The Wrestler”; Steven Soderbergh’s “Che”; Charlie Kaufman’s “Synecdoche, New York”; and Kevin Smith’s raunchy “Zack and Miri Make a Porno.”
Illustrious Austin screenwriter Anne Rapp hosts “Write What You Know, Then Make The Rest Up” as part of the Austin Film Festival’s Conversations in Film series.
The seminar happens at 3 p.m. Aug. 24 at the Renaissance Hotel (9721 Arboretum Blvd.), followed by a screening of “Cookie’s Fortune,” one of the Robert Altman films she wrote, at 5 p.m. at the Alamo Lake Creek.
$17; $12 for AFF members. Go HERE or call 478-4795.
Seating is limited.
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Film festival updates
At last: SXSW film is accepting movies for its 2009 iteration in March. This is a call for entries, peepos!
Go right HERE.
And in other fest nooz, the second wave of creepy, crawly, kooky Fantastic Fest flicks has been announced. Step right up, here.
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Slicing up ‘Pineapple,’ and an odd Elvis sighting
Like “Super Bad,” its companion-piece bro, “Pineapple Express” is being overrated beyond comprehension. We are so over Seth Rogen. In his secondary role, Danny McBride is twice as funny as Rogen and the likable but whatever James Franco. And no one seems to notice how much it lifts — whole scenes and sentiments — from its Apatow predecessor “Knocked Up.”
An earlier stoner movie sums it up in its title: “Half-Baked.”
There.
Update: It just dawned on us that Seth Rogen’s g.f. in Pineapple Express is Amber Heard from Austin.
Heard has done lots of stuff, including these Austin-shot films: “Friday Night Lights,” “All the Boys Love Mandy Lane” and the just-finished “Ex-Terminators.”
Scan her CV HERE.
In totally unrelated news featuring another kind of smoking …
Elvis Mitchell, former New York Times critic, nice guy and BFF with SXSW film, got popped with a wad of cash and his ubiquitous Cuban cigars, and you can read about the movie-ready bust HERE.
Just strange.
Elvis, stogie
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‘Mad’ man comes to Austin Film Festival
Matthew Weiner, writer, producer and director of AMC’s too-hot “Mad Men,” and some others have been added to the roster of panelists at the Austin Film Festival, Oct. 16-23.
Read more HERE.
At-risk youth are the target during the Mobile Film School’s Bowl-a-Rama fundraiser, sponsored by Confidence Bay. It happens 6 to 11 p.m. Saturday at Saengerrunde Hall and Scholz’s Biergarten in Austin.
Bowling, demonstrations, auction, live music, food — what’s not to like?
Open to all. Details and tickets HERE.
You remember the scene in “Knocked Up” in which Seth Rogen and Paul Rudd’s characters ingest a certain psychedelic fungus before they attend a Cirque du Soleil performance?
We’re not suggesting anything — not us! — but the famously flamboyant Quebec circus spectacle is splashing onto Austin movie screens in all its blinding hues and mind-warping theatrics. Under the banner “Cinema for the Senses,” the concert film is called “Delirum: Imagination Takes Flight.”
Woolly, weird, sometimes grandiose, sometimes embarrassing, the show plays Aug. 20, 21, 23 and 24 at the Gateway.
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Extras wanted for ‘Friday Night Lights’
Paid extras are needed for the third season of NBC’s “Friday Night Lights,” which shoots in Austin. Hiring runs through Nov. 26. Parts include football players, coaches, trainers, cheerleaders and fans.
Get your photo and apply at HERE. It’s free. Questions? Call: 707-7934.
Some details, via the talent agency:
Core Panther football players, ages 18 to 24, must not be now playing or intending to play football in college as this will jeopardize your NCAA eligibility. Football experience strongly preferred but not required, but you should look like a high school football player.
Core Panther cheerleaders, ages 18 to 24, must have previous cheerleading experience.
Fans, all ages, all types, willing to sit in the stands and cheer on our Panther team.
It’s not necessary to “activate” and Agency Pro account in order to be booked for work on “Friday Night Lights.” Upgraded packages will be offered but are definitely not required.
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Black is Back
One of the most recognizable faces and biggest names at each year’s Austin Film Festival is returning to town this year. Shane Black is one of the sharpest writers in Hollywood, and he crafts stories from the mic on the stage at AFF panels as well as he does behind a typewriter (or however he writes his screenplays). Black took Hollywood by storm with his screenplay for “Lethal Weapon,” a movie that helped revive and reinterpret the buddy movie.
The writer has been to probably more AFFs than any other writer and was recognized with the Distinguished Screenwriter Award in 2006, the year after he brought the wildly entertaining “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang,” a film he both wrote and directed, to Austin in 2005. The panel of Black, Sydney Pollack and David Milch in ‘06 was one of the best we’ve seen at the fest. Expect to be enlightened and entertained by this talent who always shoots-from-the-hip.
For more information on the Austin Film Festival, visit their Web site here.
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Special AFS screenings
Tickets are free, first-come-first-served. Get them, and learn about the films and filmmakers, HERE.
All shows at the Alamo South:
Sean Baker presents “Take Out” at 7 p.m. Aug. 20
Cheryl Dunye screens “The Watermelon Woman” at 9:30 p.m. Aug. 20
Juan Carlos Zaldivar presents “90 Miles” at 7 p.m. Aug. 21
And take an early look at AFS’ Essential Cinema Series “The Third Wave: Contemporary German Cinema,” running Sept 9 — Oct. 14. Details HERE.
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More horror for del Toro
Former Austin hero Guillermo Del Toro — enjoying good buzz for his “Hellboy II” hit — has a new horror project, The Hollywood Reporter writes today.
Del Toro, Miramax not ‘Afraid of the Dark’
Remake will mark distributor’s first horror outing
Guillermo del Toro and Miramax will produce a remake of the horror-thriller telefilm “Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark,” the specialty distributor’s first big dive into genre filmmaking under president Daniel Battsek.
Comic book artist-writer Troy Nixey will make his feature directorial debut with the adaptation of ABC’s 1973 cult classic. Del Toro is adapting Nigel McKeand’s teleplay with Matthew Robbins, his writing partner on the 1997 horror film “Mimic” for Miramax’s former genre label Dimension. …
“Dark” centers on a young girl, sent to live with her father and his new girlfriend, who discovers sinister creatures that live underneath the stairs. …
The film is in its early stages; research and development of the monsters hasn’t begun yet, and other producers might come aboard. Moviegoers can expect an upscale creature feature along the lines of del Toro’s “Pan’s Labyrinth,” with an emphasis on distinctive characters in keeping with the Miramax slate.
Directed by John Newland, the original telefilm (known as “Nightmare” in Europe) gained a cult following through syndication and home video release.
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Do we really want to see ‘Inglorious Bastards’?
Last Tuesday night, the Alamo South sneaked in a screening of “The Inglorious Bastards,” the 1978 Italian WW-2 action flick on which Quentin Tarantino has based his latest screenplay “Inglorious Bastards.”
The original — starring Bo Svenson and Fred Willamson and directed by Enzo G. Castellari — is a fabulously clunky, mediocre genre picture, the kind of B-pulp that makes QT drool and pant. And you can watch him do so on the brand-new special three-disc DVD of the Castellari movie, out this week. A fun video chat with QT and Castellari is one of the bonus features.
But the movie simply isn’t special or interesting on almost any level — there are some neat explosions, but the armed combat stuff is flat, tinny and “Hogan’s Heroes”-esque — and word is QT’s mammoth, two-part redux is weak. (Look up “indulgence” in your Webster’s, goes the cliche, and you will find QT’s mug.)
Variety provides the latest on QT’s version today. Why aren’t we excited?
Universal eyes Tarantino’s ‘Bastards’
Studio may partner with Weinstein Co. on pic
Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglorious Bastards” may soon find a home at Universal.
Studio is in negotiations to partner with the Weinstein Co. to bring the World War II drama to the bigscreen. Although deal points are still being ironed out, insiders say a pact is imminent.
The “Pulp Fiction” helmer and Harvey Weinstein met with five studios last week about co-financing the film, and it came down to Paramount and Universal. Par, which wanted to distribute the film in foreign territories, balked at a component of the pact that dealt with how grosses would be accounted given the way that Tarantino’s “Kill Bill” contract was structured.
Tarantino recently met with Brad Pitt to play the role of Aldo Raine, though that deal is said to be a long way from closing. Pitt and Universal will need to mend fences following bad blood over Pitt dropping out of U’s “State of Play” last year at the eleventh hour.
Shooting is scheduled to begin on “Inglorious Bastards” in the fall in Germany and France.
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UT film grad knocks ‘em out at Outfest
In its coverage of Outfest 2008: The 26th Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, IndieWire features UT film grad Angela Cheng and her short family drama “Wicked Desire.”
It calls Cheng a “unique filmmaking voice” and bunches her with “10 short film helmers making some noise at Outfest.” (See the full list HERE.)
Outfest wrapped last week. Cheng now lives in Brooklyn. Learn more about her and her short HERE.
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Movie memorabilia for sale
Everyone likes movie props and memorabilia. Some of you even yearn to own it.
Go to it: A fat sale of the stuff happens noon to 5 p.m. Friday and 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at Austin Studios (1901 E. 51st St., Stage 2). Items are culled from Texas movies made here during the past 16 years, including “Spy Kids,” “Secondhand Lions,” “Varsity Blues,” “Tree of Life,” “The Hitcher,” “There Will Be Blood,” “Friday Night Lights” and more.
Email questions to Debbie: dchaber99@yahoo.com
Stuff, stuff and, whoa, more stuff. All movie stuff. All for sale.
A treasure trunk from the ‘Spy Kids’ trilogy
Another On-Demand movie channel comes to Austin’s Time-Warner Cable, and it goes like this:
“Eurocinema is the first movie channel dedicated to presenting award-winning European and international films — the majority of which, rarely, or never reach U.S. theaters, rental stores, or television — to a wider audience. … Eurocinema offers no movies in English, no Oscar winners, and pretty much no movies that anyone has heard of.”
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Monte mulls movies
I had breakfast with legendary director Monte Hellman last week after he screened three of his movies, including “Two-Lane Blacktop,” at a packed Alamo Ritz.
We talked about lots of things — which you can read about in full in the American-Statesman Life section Thursday — including names and titles in today’s cinema.
Here’s Hellman, frank and forthright:
“A picture like ‘There Will Be Blood’ is harking back to the greatness that was old Hollywood. It’s really an homage to the best of Hollywood. I love that film. They went out on a limb with the ending, but I applaud that. It didn’t work that well for me, but that’s the way movies should be made. The director should go with his gut and do something really daring like that and the hell with everybody.”
“I enjoyed ‘No Country for Old Men’ because I think Javier Bardem is such a great actor, though I didn’t think he had to even get out of bed to do the role. But I thought it was a seriously flawed movie. When a movie has to take its emotional impact out of a voice-over at the end, then forget it. If you have to be able do it with the visuals and the story, not by becoming literature instead of film. I don’t think (the Coen brothers) could escape their awe of the literature. They lost me with that.”
“I won’t see anything with Russell Crowe in it. I think he’s really inflated. I would like him better if he wouldn’t try to do all these different accents that he can’t do very well. Most of these guys can do them, like Guy Pearce does a great American accent, and Christian Bale. But Crowe is always slipping between accents and trying to do everything. It drives me nuts. I don’t think he can act at all. I hated ‘A Beautiful Mind.’ I liked him in ‘The Insider’ up to a point, but I never believed him. The make-up was bad. I’m always aware that he’s acting.”
“I think Quentin Tarantino is an interesting genius. He’s just fascinating to watch. He doesn’t, and he never will, make a movie about life. He’s making movies about movies and there’s a limit to how far you can go with that.”
“I still love Wes Anderson. I like everything by Paul Thomas Anderson. They’re lead by their own inner voice rather than anything outside of them. It’s authentic. It doesn’t matter if their movies don’t always work. It works because it’s authentic, that’s all.”
Monte Hellman last week at El Sol y La Luna, talking movies.
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‘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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What film folks are on the Fortunate 500 list?
Michael Barnes over at Out & About reminds film fans to check out his annual Fortunate 500 list of worthy Austin movie figures. See this year’s list HERE.
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Rodriguez, Rose and ‘Red Sonja’
Comic-Con is in full swing, and there’s wads of cool news about the Robert Rodriguez-produced and (his girlfriend) Rose McGowan-starring comic-book adventure “Red Sonja” pouring out of the ginormous annual geek-fest.
Read some juicy news from Cinematical HERE.
And check out film — and romance — news about RR and RM at IMDB HERE.
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Austin flicks taking on NYC
Two films with Austin ties that made splashes at this year’s Sundance are getting New York releases this weekend: Margaret Brown’s “The Order of Myths” and the Duplass Brothers’ “Baghead,” which enjoyed its first run in Austin.
“Order of Myths” has nailed a wowsy 100% rating at Rotten Tomatoes so far (read it here), while “Baghead” has earned a solid (if mystifying) 93% rating, which you can read about here.
Best of luck to both films in Gotham.
We mentioned here in May how the Dobie’s bookings seemed to be suddenly split between indie fare and mainstream blockbusters — a curious development for a longtime art house venue, whose owner, Landmark, has prided itself on an artsy rep.
(You can read our Dobie report here).
Now we read this at Patrick Goldstein’s LA Times blog, in which he notices how an LA Landmark theater is doing the same:
The Landmark, the Westside of Los Angeles’ premiere art-house oasis, where discerning adults can sip cappuccino, munch on vegan cookies and see their favorite new existential French thriller or auteur-driven drama, is full of … studio popcorn movies!
Half of the Landmark’s 12 screens are devoted to showings of “The Dark Knight” and “Mamma Mia!,” the two current box-office hits. The complex is still offering such art-house favorites as “Mongol” and “The Wackness,” but in very small portions.
When Landmark first arrived, its top executives assured neighborhood activists that it wouldn’t be showing “Spider-Man”-type blockbusters, which could attract boisterous teenagers to the area. Has it abandoned those promises? Or has it simply adjusted to the marketplace, which has been a disaster for art-house productions?
Read the whole entry, which includes a story explaining the switcheroo, here.
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Berg wrestles Hercules
Peter Berg — director of Austin-shot feature “Friday Night Lights” and executive producer of the Austin-made TV show of the same name — will develop and direct a new Hercules epic for Universal, Variety reports.
(Hmm, he didn’t tell me about it during our recent interview about his summer hit “Hancock,” an interview you can read here.)
“Hercules: The Thracian Wars” is written by Ryan Condal and “based on a five-issue comic book series by Steve Moore that debuted in May through Radical Publishing,” writes the trade mag.
Kevin Sorbo will not be starring.
Berg did tell me he’ll be directing a fresh take on “Dune.”
Hercules and his pet hamsters.
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Austin Film Festival to honor Sam Shepard
This year marks the 15th anniversary of the Austin Film Festival and Conference. Man, we’re old. The preeminent festival for screenwriters has made a national name for itself by not only screening a great selection of films, but by honoring the writers who so often go unappreciated.
This year the festival will honor legendary writer (and actor) Sam Shepard with its Distinguished Screenwriter Award on October 18 at the Austin Club. The Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Shepard began his writing career off-off-Broadway in New York in the early 1960s before beginning his screenwriting career in 1968 with “Me and My Brother.” Shepard would go on to win Pullitzers for his plays “Buried Child” and “Fool For Love,” which he adapted for the screen for director Robert Altman.
In addition to his prolific writing career, Shepard has left his mark on American film as an actor, as well, with an equally remarkable resume, starring in films such as “Days of Heaven” and “The Right Stuff.”
“Sam Shepard has changed the landscape of American film and stage with his work as a playwright, screenwriter and actor,” said Barbara Morgan, AFF co-founder and executive director. “His work represents the spirit of the Distinguished Screenwriter Award and we are thrilled to honor him.”
For more information or to purchase badges for the Austin Film Festival, go to their official Web site here.
While the films for this year’s fest will not be released until September, what follows is a partial list of A list of confirmed conference panelists:
- John August (writer/director “The Nines,” writer “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” “Corpse Bride,” “Go,” “Big Fish,” “Titan A.E.,” “Charlie’s Angels” and “Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle”)
- David Boxerbaum, APA Agency
- Curtis Burch, Latitude Productions
- Channing Dungey, ABC Studios
- Matthew Gross, ABC Studios
- Juliana Farrell, Groundswell Productions
- Andrew Form, Platinum Dunes
- Mickey Freiberg, ACME Talent & Literary Agency
- Brad Fuller, Platinum Dunes
- John Lee Hancock (writer “The Blindside,” “A Perfect World,” “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil,” “The Alamo,” director “The Alamo,” “The Rookie”)
- Patrick Hegarty- 2007 AFF Latitude Award Winner, videogame writer on “Ghostbusters,” “Eragon” and “Rataouille”
- Buck Henry (writer “To Die For,” “Protocol,” “What’s Up, Doc?,” “The Owl and the Pussycat,” “Catch-22,” “The Graduate”)
- Jake Kasdan (“Walk Hard,” “The TV Set,” “Orange County,” “Zero Effect”)
- Michael McDonald, ABC Studios
- Rachel Miller, Tom Sawyer Productions
- Jeff Nathanson (story credit - “Indiana Jones 4,” “New York, I Love You,” “Rush Hour (2& 3),” “The Terminal,” “Catch Me if You Can,” “Speed 2,” and writer/director of “The Last Shot”)
- Susan O’Connor, Videogame writer (“Gears of War” and “Bioshock”)
- Dan Petrie Jr. (“Beverly Hills Cop,” “The Big Easy,” “Shoot to Kill,” “Turner & Hooch,” “Toy Soldiers”)
- Chuck Sklar (“Everybody Hates Chris,” “The Chris Rock Show”)
- Bob Soderstrom, Screenwriter, 2002 AFF Screenplay Competition Winner
- Yaphet Smith, Screenwriter
- Eric Red (“100 Feet,” “The Hitcher,” “Near Dark”)
- Terry Rossio (“Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End,” “Dead Man’s chest,” “The Curse of the Black Pearl,” “Déjà vu,” “Shrek,” “The Mask of Zorro,” “Aladdin”)
- Robert Townsend (“Phantom Punch,” “Why We Laugh: Black Comedians on Black Comedy,” “Black Listed,” “The Meteor Man,” “The Five Heartbeats,” “Hollywood Shuffle”)
- Mark Vahradian, Di Bonaventura Pictures
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Hands on a Hard Body is one of my favorite movies. I’ve been waiting to see Bindler direct another one! Thanks for the headsup.
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This sounds like a great project! Can’t wait to see it. Linklater’s doing interesting stuff these days.
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