Slackery News Tidbits, November 5

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Here's the latest in Austin and Texas film news.

  • Open Road Films has acquired the rights to Austin-based director Robert Rodriguez's Machete Kills, Austin Movie Blog reports. The locally shot film is the sequel to Rodriguez's 2010 movie Machete. In the sequel, Danny Trejo's title character is hired by the U.S. president (played by Charlie Sheen) to hunt down an arms dealer. The film also stars Austin native Amber Heard, Antonio Banderas, Jessica Alba and Lady Gaga. 
  • The Alamo Drafthouse is calling on local filmmakers and film lovers to help eradicate the cinematic disease that is talking and texting during movies with its "No Talking, No Texting" Filmmaking Frenzy PSA contest. Video submissions must not exceed 60 seconds in length and are due Nov. 21. All submissions will then be posted on Badass Digest for public viewing and voting until Nov. 28, in which case preliminary winners will be chosen for each Alamo Drafthouse market. The final winner will be chosen by a panel of judges, including Tim League, Alamo Drafthouse CEO and founder. 
  • In more Drafthouse news, Drafthouse Films has acquired the U.S. rights to the Danish documentary The Act of Killing. The film, which screened at this year's Toronto and Telluride International Film Festivals, is a journey into the memories and imaginations of former Indonesian death squad leaders, expected to open theatrically next year.
  • Director Jonathan Caouette will be present for a Q&A at all three Austin Film Society-sponsored screenings of his three films beginning 7 pm tonight at the Alamo Drafthouse Ritz. The Houston native's 2003 autobiographical film debut Tarnation documents his early life as a gay youth growing up with a schizophrenic mother through home movies; his second film Walk Away Renee picks up where his first left off, finding Caouette on a road trip with his mentally ill mother Renee from Texas to New York; All Tomorrow's Parties takes a decisively different approach, covering what has been described as one of the most unusual and artistically exciting modern music festivals. The documentary features numerous bands, including Sonic Youth and Grizzly Bear, among others.
  • We may have said auf wiedersehen to Halloween this year, but the guys behind the short film No Way Out, about a lost and frightened man (played by A.J. Bowen) trapped in a basement with something unnatural, want to keep the spirit alive. The short, directed by Austinites Kristoffer Aaron Morgan and written by Eric "Quint" Vespe of Ain't It Cool News, screened at last year's Fantastic Fest and can now be viewed from the safety and comfort of your computer via Bloody Disgusting