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Slackery News Tidbits: October 7, 2013

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Here's the latest Austin film news. 

  • FilmBuff has announced it will release Austin filmmaker Don Swaynos's flick Pictures of Superheroes (Debbie's review and Jette's interview), which screened at last year's Austin Film Festival, on Oct. 15 via iTunes, Amazon, Vudu and other online streaming outlets. To celebrate, the cast and crew are hosting a special screening at Violet Crown on Thursday, Oct. 17 at 8 pm, with a post-film Q&A. The quirky comedy follows Marie, who, after being dumped and fired on the same day, takes a housekeeping job with an overworked businessman and the messy roommate he's forgotten about.
  • Harry Ransom Center is planning a 2014 exhibition around the movie Gone With the Wind, but is asking for help to raise the necessary $50,000. The HRC houses the archives of the film's producer, David O. Selznick -- and several gowns from the film.
  • Austin-based documentarian Heather Courtney's Emmy-nominated film Where Soldiers Come From (Jette's review and Jordan's article), about the lives of small-town childhood friends who enlist in the U.S. National Guard after graduating high school, is now available for institutional streaming licenses through distributor New Day Digital.
  • The Hill Country Film Festival is now accepting short and feature-length film submissions for its 2014 festival, which takes place May 1-4 next year. The early-bird deadline is Nov. 15, but you've got potentially as late as March 14, 2014 (although fees are higher by then).

Fantastic Fest 2013: Randy Moore, 'Escape from Tomorrow'

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Going to Disneyland as a child, I heard there were cameras in the bushes. My mom's best friend, a California native, said she had considered working there in her youth and heard that employees who didn't cooperate with the "Disney way" were immediately terminated. This knowledge (or hearsay) helped dissuade me years later from applying to the Disney College Program.

So when I heard that writer-director Randy Moore had shot his debut Escape From Tomorrow at both Disneyland and Walt Disney World, without requesting permission, I became intrigued: If there really are cameras in the parks bushes, why would Disney executives allow a film to be created on their soil that has such blatant disregard for the company's image?

There are no cameras in the park's bushes ... or is that what Disney wants us to think?

Fantastic Fest 2013 Photos: 'Machete Kills'

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Touted as the largest genre film festival in the country, Fantastic Fest wrapped Thursday for its ninth year of subversive entertainment in the new Alamo Drafthouse Lakeline. This was the first year since its inception in 2005 that the eight-day festival was not held at the Alamo on South Lamar, causing some annual festivalgoers to reminisce about their glory days bowling and drinking at The Highball, located in the same strip center as the theater. This was part of the first-day chatter overheard while people waited to get in the theater for Machete Kills, the Fantastic Fest opening-night film making its world premiere.

Despite the venue change, festivalgoers and industry insiders alike seemed to live in the moment, wearing their badges or holding their tickets with pride. Helping the mood was one of the cars from the film, on display outside the theater (pictured at top). The post-film Q&A was also energizing.

"I'm so proud to be a part of this," actor Danny Trejo said during the Machete Kills Q&A, talking about his participation in the film and Fantastic Fest. Trejo stars as the eponymous character, which he's played in several films. 

Slackery News Tidbits: September 30, 2013

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Here's the latest Austin film news (with a video at the end). 

  • Special effect makeup artist and actor Tom Savini (Dawn of the Dead) will be live and in the flesh tonight (Monday) at 7:30 pm in the Austin Film Society Screening Room for a Moviemaker Dialogue. Austin filmmaker Clay Liford (Gayby) will speak with Savini about his career on both sides of the camera -- Savini has had acting rolls in From Dusk Till Dawn and Machete Kills -- and as a director (the 90s remake of Night of the Living Dead).
  • Last year's SXSW events had a $218 million economic impact on the City of Austin, reports Silicon Hills. The two-week long SXSW conference last March was the largest ever, with more than 155,000 total conference and festival attendees (defined as any individual who attended at least one SXSW activity).
  • The distribution arm of the Alamo Drafthouse, Drafthouse Films, has acquired the North American rights to Fantastic Fest 2013 selection R100. The comedy-drama, which takes its name from the Japanese movie rating system, whose equivalent to NC-17 is R18, tells the story of an ordinary man who joins a mysterious club. VOD, digital and theatrical releases are planned for next year. 

Slackery News Tidbits: September 23, 2013

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Here's the latest Austin and Texas film news. 

  • Polari (formerly aGLIFF) has just announced its 26th annual festival lineup, which includes Austinite Yen Tan's drama Pit Stop (Debbie's Sundance review), PJ Raval's documentary Before You Know It (Don's SXSW review) and Clay Liford's short Slash, which just played Fantastic Fest last night (Debbie's interview). The oldest film festival in Austin takes place Oct. 16-20. 
  • Acquisition news from Fantastic Fest: IFC Midnight acquired the North American rights to the scifi-horror flick Almost Human, according to IndieWire. The film, about a man's search for the killer behind a series of grisly murders, will screen again tomorrow at Alamo Lakeline. 
  • The Elijah Wood-fronted Grand Piano, which had its world premiere Friday at Fantastic Fest, has been picked up for U.S. distribution by Magnet for a planned 2014 release, the filmmakers announced. Eugenio Mira's thriller will screen again on Tuesday at Alamo Lakeline. Keep an eye out for Jette's review.
  • Austinite David Gordon Green's (Prince Avalanche) latest film, Manglehorn, will begin filming in Austin this fall, reports Deadline. The drama, starring Al Pacino and Holly Hunter, follows an eccentric man trying to come to terms with a past crime that lost him the love of his life.

Slackery News Tidbits: September 16, 2013

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Here's the latest Austin and Texas film news.

  • Austin Film Festival has been awarded a $25,000 TexTreasures Grant to preserve five years of its audio and video collection, North Dallas Gazette reports. The collection will then be housed at Texas State University in San Marcos. The grant from the Texas State Library and Archives Commission. Among many other awards, the commission also approved a $49,500 grant to the Round Rock Library System for a "makerspace" collaboration to benefit middle-school students with STEM and art projects.
  • Breaking Bad's Aaron Paul is starring alongside Juliette Lewis in Austinite Kat Candler's Hellion, according to Deadline. The indie feature drama, currently in production around Central Texas, stemmed from Candler's award-winning short film of the same name, about a seven-year-old who falls prey to his older brother's mischievous ways in a small Texas refinery town. Fellow Austinite Jonny Mars, who appeared in the SXSW 2012 short, is returning for the feature, along with Austin producer Kelly Williams. Other local connections include executive producers Jeff Nichols (Mud) and Sarah Green (The Tree of Life). 
  • The Austin Chronicle reports that the Texas Book Festival (Oct. 26 and 27 at the State Capitol Building in Austin) has announced its 2013 lineup. Film-related connections include Austin filmmaker Owen Egerton (Everyone Says That at the End of the World), Lynda Obst (Sleepless In Hollywood: Tales from the New Abnormal in the Movie Business), SXSW Film Producer and Senior Programmer Jarod Neece (Austin Breakfast Tacos: The Story of the Most Important Taco of the Day) and screenwriter/author Stephen Harrigan. 

Ready, Set, Fund: Of Monsters and Men

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Ready, Set, Fund is a column about crowdfunding and related fundraising endeavors for Austin and Texas independent film projects.

Tinker Bell just didn't cut it for me as a kid. I was more about the depictions of changelings that I read about in the half-price Scandinavian mythology books my family members thought made "nice" Christmas gifts. Needless to say, when I read about the Indiegogo campaign for the independent "unreliable documentary" Preternatural I got excited -- and wished I had $35,000 to give its filmmakers. 

Austin-based brothers Sean and Tim Cunningham (part of the team behind 2012's Austin-shot indie Sick Boy) have racked up more than 60 feature film credits (nine of those received VFX Academy Award-nominations), and they now aim to put terror back into fairy folklore. No more of this post-Victorian, Disneyfied ludicousness; with Preternatural, about modern-day monsters living amongst us in plain sight, we're talking "eat your face type of creatures" like changelings (typically the offspring of fairies that's been substituted for a human child), trolls, ogres, shifters and "much, much worse."

Slackery News Tidbits: September 9, 2013

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Here's the latest Austin and Texas film news:

  • The Houston Film Commission's Texas Filmmaker's Showcase will take place on Tuesday, Sept. 17 at 8 pm at The Marchesa. The 90-minute screening will include six of Texas-made short films selected by a jury panel, including Austin filmmakers Craig Whitney (Jordan's interview) and Kat Candler. Some of the filmmakers will be in attendance for a Q&A. Proceeds from the event will benefit the Austin Film Society Grant.
  • Drafthouse Films, the distribution arm of Alamo Drafthouse, announced its partnership with fellow distribution company Cinedigm for home-entertainment releases, beginning next year.
  • In more Drafthouse news, Fantastic Fest lead features programmer Rodney Perkins selected the Austin-shot short The Quiet Girl's Guide to Violence for Fangoria's latest installment of its "Screamers" series, available to watch online. The dark comedy premiered at Fantastic Fest 2012.

A Decade of Rockin' Life Lessons From 'The School of Rock' Reunion

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SOR Premiere (27)

A good part of my day is spent getting schooled, be it from my professors, mother or smart-aleck roommate. Spending another two hours of my life watching the musical development of a group of youngsters on the big screen during Thursday's The School of Rock ten-year reunion at The Paramount (my preview) may not have been the wisest decision, especially because I skipped class (is it still considered skipping when you notify your professors ahead of time?) and have homework due, but it was definitely more fun. 

Some of The School of Rock cast members had similar college woes, like Aleisha Allen, who says she recently graduated from Pace University. Allen played Alicia, one of the band's designated backup singers. Despite a degree in speech pathology and an education minor, the New York native says her musical aspirations haven't waned.

Slackery News Tidbits: September 2, 2013

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Here's the latest Austin film news.

  • Austin Film Festival announced more panels and panelists for this year's conference: writer Ron Nyswaner, whose credits include Philadelphia and The Painted Veil; producer Ben Blacker, who will moderate The Nerdist Writers Panel; Daniel Schechter, writer/director of Goodbye Baby; and David Shore, the creator of the TV series House, M.D., as well as a writer for The Practice and Law and Order. The full AFF Conference lineup will be announced later this month.
  • University of Texas in Austin alumnus Glen Powell is slated to appear in The Expendables 3 alongside Sylvester Stallone, Harrison Ford, Mel Gibson and Antonio Banderas, reports Austin Movie Blog. Powell got his start in movies with 2003's Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over and has appeared in more than a dozen TV and shows and movies, including Austinite Kat Candler's Jumping Off Bridges.
  • The Austin-made horror-comedy Saturday Morning Massacre (Jette's review) has received distribution under two different names in some markets, reports Austin 360. Fans can find the film under its original title at Redbox outlets around the country beginning Tuesday. According to the film's producers, Best Buy and iTunes are selling the film under the title Saturday Morning Mystery because of the school shooting in Newton, Connecticut. The movie, which screened at AFF 2012, is about a group of down-on-their-luck paranormal investigators and their beloved pooch, who embark on an adventure to debunk the ghost stories surrounding an abandoned mansion. 
  • The Tom Hanks-produced film Parkland (Ryan's dispatch), about the going-ons at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, has released its first theatrical trailer. The film is adapted from author and former prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi's book Reclaiming History: The Assassination of John F. Kennedy. It stars Paul Giamatti, Billy Bob Thornton and University of Texas alumna Marcia Gay Harden, among others. Parkland is scheduled for a Sept. 20 U.S. release, according to Deadline.
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