Celebrity Sightings

If you're not planning to spend the weekend ACL Fest-ing (or hiding from ACL Fest in another city), local filmmaker Richard Linklater is offering you the chance to see his latest movie as a benefit for groups helping with the Bastrop wildfire disaster.

Linklater's movie Bernie was partially shot in Bastrop, and in fact Linklater owns some property there himself. As the Austin Chronicle reports, he decided to turn what was originally a private cast-and-crew screening of Bernie into a fundraiser to help fire relief efforts in Bastrop. He enlisted Austin Film Society and j.k. livin (Matthew McConaughey's production company) to co-host this event, which will take place on Sunday at the Paramount.

Linklater and one of the film's stars, Jack Black, will be at the Bernie screening on Sunday. I hope to be on the red carpet to get a few photos of them. Linklater and Black were last at the Paramount together about 8 years ago -- the Austin premiere of The School of Rock was in September 2003. The above photo is from that event. I've posted a few more fun pictures from that premiere after the jump, including one with Roky Erickson. Austin Film Society has a Flickr set you can view.

I've worked a number of local red carpets since that fateful first one with Kevin Smith for Clerks 2 in 2008. Sometimes celebrities sneak past, jam up into mobs, or bring family and friends who block the cameras' view and start taking their own pictures. At the Texas Film Hall of Fame Awards, everyone entering the event walks on the red carpet and it's often difficult to figure out whom to photograph. (I take pictures of everyone and sort it out later. That handsome unfamiliar gent might turn out to be Adam Yauch.)

The red carpet for the Slacker 2011 premiere at the Paramount last week was one of the strangest I've encountered so far. The movie was divided into 24 scenes, each of which had its own separate cast and crew. That's a lot of people. And about 80 percent of them walked the red carpet that night, sometimes in groups, sometimes straggling behind. I have no idea who the kids are in the above photo, although I did spot them when I saw Slacker 2011 later that evening.

Austin film fans were treated to two very special events last week as the Alamo Drafthouse on South Lamar hosted advance screenings with special guests for both Fright Night and Conan the Barbarian.

At the Fright Night screening, stars Dave Franco, Anton Yelchin and Christopher Mintz-Plasse showed up for a post-movie Q&A, as shown in the above photo.

Mintz-Plasse, who was in Austin for his third Drafthouse premiere (Superbad and Kick-Ass were #1 & #2, respectively) dominated the Q&A with the comfort and confidence born of familiarity with Austin audiences, while Yelchin and Franco were generally more shy and reserved, as you can see in the following picture.

The Long Center was transformed into a carnival setting and red carpet on Saturday, August 13, for the gala premiere of the Austin-shot movie Spy Kids: All the Time in the World in 4D. Austin Film Society hosted this benefit screening for the Dell Children's Medical Center and the Texas Filmmakers' Production Fund.

The attendees for the event included not only a lot of very happy kids but also filmmaker Robert Rodriguez, producer Elizabeth Avellan, new Spy Kids Rowan Blanchard and Mason Cook, and the original Spy Kids, Alexa Vega and Daryl Sabara, who are also in this fourth installment in the series. I was out of town and missed the whole thing, sadly, but fortunately AFS has published a lot of great photos from the event, some of which I'm happy to share here.

Why the Long Center? I found out when I saw Spy Kids 4 this weekend (my review). In the movie, the exterior of the secret spy headquarters is in fact the Long Center. My guess is that it was very convincing for people who don't live in Austin; I thought it was amusing myself.

Check out the whole AFS photo set from the premiere on Flickr. For another viewpoint on the day, you might enjoy reading AFS intern Lauren Hill's behind-the-scenes account.

Watching True Legend for a second time last week brought back memories of my favorite red carpet event of 2010, when director Yuen Woo-ping was in Austin for the world premiere at Fantastic Fest. After the screening, Yuen was awarded a Fantastic Fest Lifetime Achievement Sword -- yes, a sword -- which was presented by artist RZA (pictured above).

Master Yuen and RZA worked together on the Kill Bill movies. RZA spoke about how Yuen's work influenced his music as well as his first venture into filmmaking directorial debut with The Man with the Iron Fist, co-produced by Eli Roth. See more photos of RZA with Yuen Woo-ping event after the jump.

Last week, Austin Film Society held a sneak preview of the movie Everything Must Go with a special guest: the film's star, Will Ferrell. You may remember he was here a couple of years ago for a screening of Semi-Pro in which everyone emulated the movie's keen fashion sense. This time, no terrycloth sweatbands were present.

Slackerwood wasn't there, but AFS and Roadside Attractions have graciously shared the above photo as well as some video from the event, which we've embedded after the jump. If you've got photos of your own, feel free to share a link in the comments. And if you missed the preview too, Everything Must Go opens tomorrow here in Austin. We'll have a review for you in the morning.

It may seem a bit off-topic to feature an interview with a craft brewer on Slackerwood, but Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head Craft Brewing is no stranger to the film and television industry. As the star and host of the Discovery Channel's Brewmasters, the secrets behind his off-centered brewing techniques have been revealed to the general public. Calagione also selected Austin and Alamo Drafthouse to help him host the Off-Centered Film Fest (OCFF), which features short films from aspiring filmmakers.

I spoke with Sam Calagione by phone before his arrival in Austin, and here's what he had to say about the OCFF as well as the overlap between film and brewing.

Slackerwood: You've been in Austin for the Off-Centered Film Fest (OCFF) for several years now?

Sam Calagione: This is the fifth anniversary. I've come personally to Austin for the film fest every year.

What inspired the expansion of the OCFF for this year?

Calagione: I think we've expanded the program as a result of expanded excitement in craft beer in general -- also the enthusiasm that we have for working with the Alamo Drafthouse, which we think is just the perfect off-centered collaborator for us.

SXSW on St. Patrick’s day is always chaotic, and the only way today could have been more so was if it was a Saturday. Crazy crowds. Apparently the shuttles were really backed up because of The Strokes playing Auditorium Shores today. Attending screenings makes it hard to schedule cabs because of late starts and Q&As (not complaining, merely pointing it out).

Everyone I know who took the shuttle were reporting 45-90 minutes -- unless I was on one apparently.  I made it to five screenings today, and made it through four. After an incident with someone rushing into an empty seat caused my drink to spill in the beginning of the subtitled Andante, the distraction made me completely disinterested in following the movie. The Ritz waitstaff handled it well, but the whole incident just made it impossible to get into the film. 

I have a dozen more good photos from last night's premiere of The Beaver, and a million things I could say about the movie, but I have five minutes. Jodie Foster was at the Paramount last night for the first public showing of her latest film, The Beaver. The film was scripted by Austin writer Kyle Killen (who also wrote the short-lived TV series Lone Star). The cast includes not only Foster but also Anton Yelchin (or as my husband calls him, "Chekhov"), Jennifer Lawrence and Mel Gibson as the man who communicates with help of a beaver puppet.

Foster introduced the film and started the Q&A alone, then brought out Yelchin and Killen, pictured above. I hope to meet Killen in person at some point because I interviewed him over the phone for SXSWorld magazine -- the issue that's available at ACC right now, in fact. I haven't seen the magazine myself yet and hope to have time to stop at the convention center and pick one up this afternoon. If you missed Killen last night, he'll be showing unaired episodes of Lone Star at Alamo Drafthouse next month, and we'll post more info about that later.

Gotta run. Hope to see some of you downtown today.

Light day, schedule wise. I was going to see two screenings, but only ended up making the world premiere of The Beaver. I really do want to see The Innkeepers, but with a three-hour gap and a less-than-pleasant experience as an audience member, I wasn't up for dealing with crowds for three more hours.

The Beaver is the story of a man (Mel Gibson) coping with major depression through a puppet. Screenwriter Kyle Killen is an Austinite, and his "quirky" script topped the Black List, which showcases the best unproduced screenplays.  Director and co-star Jodie Foster and actor Anton Yelchin came to town for the screening, with Foster flying in from the Paris set of her latest film, Carnage. Deflecting the issue of scandals surrounding Gibson, Foster focused on the film and the script.  Jette interviewed Killen for SXSWorld magazine, so pick up a copy to read more about him; you can find them at ACC, and conveniently just outside the Vimeo theater.