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Inside Movies

Thursday, February 02, 2006

• A sleeper hit at last year's Sundance Film Festival was Austinites Jay and Mark Duplass' comedy 'The Puffy Chair.' The movie has finally landed a distribution deal with Roadside Attractions and DVD-by-mail outfit Netflix. The Hollywood Reporter writes: 'Under the joint venture, Roadside will release the film theatrically (in June), co-financing all prints and advertising with Netflix. The companies will split video and TV release costs, with Netflix co-promoting the theatrical release on its Web site.' — Chris Garcia

• Tyro director Jason Reitman will accompany his film 'Thank You for Smoking' to the South By Southwest Film Festival in March. Reitman, son of director and mega-producer Ivan Reitman ('Animal House,' 'Ghostbusters'), adapted Christopher Buckley's satirical novel about big tobacco and drafted Aaron Eckhart, William H. Macy and Katie Holmes to act it out. Reitman joins other SXSW attendees Mary Harron, who brings 'The Notorious Bettie Page,' Ron Mann, who presents the world premiere of his doc 'Tales of the Rat Fink,' director John Sayles and Henry Rollins, who will mouth off about pop culture. Other confirmed films include 'The Oh in Ohio,' 'Al Franken in God Spoke' and the Warchowski Brothers' 'V for Vendetta,' www.sxsw.com. — C.G.

• Buzz is strong for Turk Pipkin's globe-trotting doc 'Nobelity,' which had a special showing last month in Austin with former Gov. Ann Richards in attendance and singing its merits. Shot on digital video in America, France, England, India and Africa, the film follows local celeb Pipkin as he picks the minds of nine Nobel laureates, including Desmond Tutu, about war, peace, love, the environment and what we need to do to save our beleaguered planet. The film gets its world premiere March 16 at the Paramount Theatre during SXSW and should hit theaters during the Earth Day weekend, April 20-22. Check out the trailer at www.nobelitythemovie.com. — C.G.

• Steve Mims and his vaunted Austin Film Works — local launch pad for scores of indie filmmakers — are harnessing technology to get their work watched. Four shorts by Film Works students can be downloaded to desktops and iPod Video for free at www.austinfilmworks.com. — C.G.

• No surprise that Austin beat out all Texas cities in film and television production budgets in 2005 — its sixth consecutive year holding the title. Austin pulled in about $78 million in film production budgets, according to the Austin Convention and Visitors Bureau, with 20 film and TV projects, including 'How to Eat Fried Worms,' 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Origin' and MTV's 'Real World Austin.' — C.G.

• The Ransom Center is fêting late, legendary Method acting teacher Stella Adler with the multimedia series 'Stella Adler and the American Theater,' Feb. 17 through March 9 at various venues. Adler taught the greats, from Brando to DeNiro, and many in between, including the consummate Elaine Stritch. Lectures, a talk by former Adler student Peter Bogdanovich and a trio of films — 'On the Waterfront,' 'Bonnie and Clyde' and 'Taxi Driver' — animate the series. Details at www.hrc.utexas.edu/adler. — C.G.

• PJ Raval is a name bandied about the local film scene a lot. The award-winning young director and cinematographer is a certifiable rising star chased by predictions that he'll be going big time. Raval is the subject of the Austin Gay and Lesbian International Film Festival's new Filmmaker Series, featuring three narrative shorts, three animated shorts, a music video and a preview of the in-progress feature doc 'Best Kept Secret.' This Raval retrospective happens at 8 p.m. Feb. 23 at the Arbor. Info at www.agliff.org. — C.G.

• Submissions wanted: Women filmmakers, actors, speakers and poets can submit their work to the fifth annual Blowin' Up a Spot! Film Festival: A Woman's Perspective, happening April 27-30 in Austin. Deadline is March 1. Go to www.blowinupaspot.com. 693-0794, Ext. 1. ... Fire your 10-page screenplay to the Upstart Short Script Contest by April 30 to have writer-director Sidney Brammer look it over. Brammer will produce the winning script. Get details at www.upstart.citymax.com. — C.G.