Paramount

Two of Austin's most-loved theaters are showing their support for the community with special screenings during Edible Austin Eat Local Week. Kicking off December 5, this week provides opportunities for Central Texans to explore and celebrate the abundance of local food by eating out and shopping at participating area restaurants and markets. Money raised by participating businesses will go towards YouthLaunch's Urban Roots, a youth development program that uses sustainable agriculture to effect change for 14- to 18-year-olds, and to nourish East Austin residents who have limited access to healthy foods.

On Saturday, December 5, the Paramount Theatre presents a special screening of the powerful and inspiring food documentary Fresh, which has been compared to the eye-opening Food, Inc. Joel Salatin, who is featured in the film, will join Fresh director/producer Ana Sofia Joanes for an audience Q&A after the screening. Ticket prices are $15, $25 and $100. The limited $100 tickets include reserved seating and admission to a pre-screening reception with Joanes, Salatin and other featured guests in the State Theatre lobby. The reception will feature Austin's top chefs preparing locally sourced food tastings and local beverages. The event will also provide opportunities to meet and connect with many of Austin's local food nonprofit and support groups. Tickets are on sale now.

Here are a few news items related to Austin films and filmmaking from this week. Well, I say "a few," but once I started digging them up, it's actually been a pretty busy week! The news includes updates on local filmmakers' projects, awards, casting news, and other useful info.

• Austin company B-Side Entertainment has just announced that Sundance Film Festival will use the company's scheduling engine for its 2010 online film guide. If you're going to Sundance next year, you'll get to use the very helpful Schedule Genius program to fit all the movies you want to see into the most efficient time possible. B-Side also powers the film guides for local festivals Fantastic Fest, Austin Film Festival, Austin Asian American Film Festival and aGLIFF, and provides an unofficial guide for SXSW.
• Bad news for local filmmaker Richard Linklater (pictured at right): As part of Miramax's big cost-cutting drive this month, they have put his romantic comedy Liars (A to E) on hold. Movieline reports that Linklater doesn't have another project currently in the works yet, although we suspect it won't be long before he's his usual busy self. [via Austin Movie Blog]
• Speaking of Linklater, Austin Film Society would like you to know that tickets are still available to the Austin gala screening of his latest film, Me and Orson Welles, on Monday, November 30 at the Paramount. Linklater will be in attendance along with two of the film's stars, Zac Efron and Christian McKay.

Austin Film Festival soared into the skies with the closing-might film Up in the Air, which included a rousing intro and Q&A by Jason Reitman. Yeah, there were other films, but I was in a mood for a major release that night. Plus, it was only a few blocks away from the closing night part at Annie's Cafe.

Before the film, Jette and I had a quick dinner at Parkside Cafe.  She knows I wasn't exaggerating about how great the food was. Service was just as good this time, and the chef even came out to check on us. I don't know if that happens all the time, but maybe it was the fact I ordered the marrow. Whatever the case, he and his team make really good food. 

Up in the Air is a solid, funny film, in the haha only serious kind of way.  The aerial shots alone are worth it, but watching Vera Farmiga and George Clooney is a guilty pleasure, they have such great chemistry.  Reitman was a hoot, almost Kevin Smith-esque in his energy and jokes, but without the profanity. Or toilet jokes. 

I took the above picture at Austin Film Festival 2008, without knowing who it was or which film was being promoted. I was working the opening-night film's red carpet and suddenly, down the block came these guys carrying a coffin. Naturally I shot a photo or two.

During the recording of Slackerwood Podcast #15 late last week, Chris Holland and AFF Film Program Director Kelly Williams discussed the feature Simmons on Vinyl, one of the selections for this year's festival. One of them joked that "This year, Mark Potts and Cole Selix won't be lugging a coffin around, like they did for The Stanton Family Grave Robbery last year." Eureka!

So the guys in this photo are almost certainly Potts, Selix and Kevin Costello, who co-wrote The Stanton Family Grave Robbery and brought it to AFF along with their coffin. Simmons on Vinyl is directed by Potts and co-written by Potts and Selix. I wonder what kind of prop they'll carry around AFF this year?

P.S. Slackerwood Podcast #15 is on its way -- it's still being edited. It'll be well worth the short wait.

This year's Fantastic Fest has featured several gala events that brought all kinds of people to the historic Paramount Theater. Last Friday, Zombieland was the featured premiere. Moviegoers could be "zombified" by makeup artists from Eerie Industries, which also assists with the special effects for Zombie Manor, a haunted adventure in Arlington. Zombie Manor brought along some of their star zombies, who walked the red carpet before the living celebrities arrived. Director Ruben Fleischer and co-stars Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg and Emma Stone were in attendance for the special screening. The event was open to the public as well as Fantastic Fest attendees.

The horror comedy Zombieland focuses on two men -- Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) and Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) -- who have found a way to survive a world overrun by zombies. I saw a press screening earlier in the week, and had to resist referencing Columbus's "Zombie Rules" afterwards.

The Paramount Theatre has been hosting all kinds of fun extra events this summer to accompany their Summer Classic Film Series: live performances, special treats, contests -- even manicures (Breakfast at Tiffany's, natch). But the downtown theater outdid itself last Thursday night for the film series' closing-night party before a screening of Lawrence of Arabia: actual camels outside the theater.

According to the Paramount's Executive Director, Ken Stein, the theater procured the noble beasts from Texas Camel Corps. (I was wondering where one found camels in Austin, even during drought conditions.) Stein noted on his blog that a few protesters parked a van proclaiming "animal cruelty" nearby. However, judging from the Paramount's Flickr set, the camels were popular with theatergoers, ushers and anyone who walked down that section of Congress Ave. at the time. Apparently there were belly dancers too, but I couldn't find any photos of that particular attraction.

Although the Summer Classic Film Series is over for 2009, the Paramount often shows movies during times when few live performances are scheduled, such as the Thankgiving and December holidays. The theater will also be a venue for splashy premieres and big-name films this fall at Fantastic Fest and Austin Film Festival.

I've got a couple more photos to show you after the jump:

The world premiere of Mike Judge's new film Extract took place on Tuesday night in Austin at the Paramount Theatre, with star Jason Bateman (pictured above with Judge) and others attending. The premiere was a benefit for the Texas Filmmakers' Production Fund. It's been a big week for Austin Film Society (AFS), with the recent announcement as reported by Jette of the TFPF grants awards announcement and now a major premiere benefiting the fund. I spoke with actors from Extract as well as AFS founder and filmmaker Richard Linklater, who was in attendance supporting fellow Austin filmmaker Mike Judge and the TFPF benefit. 

Jenn interviewed Mike Judge for Slackerwood earlier that day, so rather than inundate him with questions I did ask him the one question that was in the back of my mind:

Red carpet events continue in Austin this week, and I cut my Cinemapocalypse experience a few hours short at 7:30 am so I could rest before another special event on Sunday afternoon.

Writer/director Robert Rodriguez, producer Elizabeth Avellán, and cast members Jimmy Bennett, Trevor Gagnon, Devon Gearhart, Jake Short, Jolie Vanier and Rebel Rodriguez walked the red carpet this past weekend at the Paramount Theatre for a special screening of their new movie Shorts. The event was a benefit for local organization Thoughtful House Center for Children, and included a free post-screening carnival including rides, sno-cones, cotton candy and more. Danny Trejo, whom I photographed at Cinemapocalypse, made an appearance as well as Richard Linklater. Rebel and Racer Rodriguez worked the red carpet like pros, answering questions and posing for photos.

When I'm working the red carpet I will rarely ask folks the same question, but due to Robert Rodriguez and Elizabeth Avellán's strong involvement in the Texas Motion Picture Alliance and film incentives I wanted to hear from both of them on the subject. Here's how they answered the following question:

The Paramount Theatre is holding a raffle right now to benefit the theater's youth outreach program. The website doesn't say what the deadline is for buying raffle tickets, but they're announcing the winner on September 23, so I assume it's shortly before that date.

The winner gets to hold a private film night at the Paramount and invite anyone they want -- up to 1,100 audience members total. The website says you can show "the movie of your choice" but it also says restrictions apply, which probably means No Porn, although you'll have to win to find that out for sure. You can't charge admission for the event, either.

On Friday, the romantic comedy (500) Days of Summer opens here in Austin, at Arbor and Alamo South. But this isn't the first time the movie has screened in town -- it was the closing-night film for SXSW 2009. I managed to take a few photos that evening. Everyone wanted to get a shot of the two stars, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel, pictured above.

Slackerwood will be posting a group review of the film on Friday, so come back tomorrow and find out what we thought of it. And after the jump, I've got a couple more photos from the SXSW screening.