Slackery News Tidbits, December 21

I've been out of town for the past week, and the best way to catch up on Austin film news is to share it with everyone. Hopefully at least some of the following items are news to you, too.

• RIP to actress Brittany Murphy, who was not a Texan but played one on TV, very convincingly, for over a decade as the voice of Luanne Platter (a name I have always adored) on King of the Hill. Murphy also had a role in Robert Rodriguez's film Sin City. She died on Sunday; some news sources are reporting heart failure, others attributing her death to natural causes. She was 32.
• We've mentioned the search for the young female lead in the Coen brothers' remake of True Grit a couple of times. Looks like last month's Austin auditions didn't turn up that perfect actress, so Paramount is now holding an online casting call for teen girl hopefuls. The film will be shot at least partially in Central Texas in Spring 2010 -- Blanco County News reports the Old Blanco County Courthouse may be one location used next April or May. [via @tamarlovesu on Twitter]
• I missed a few of the local connections in last week's Golden Globes nominations, but luckily the Austin American-Statesman found them all and published a handy list.
• Congratulations to local filmmaker Heather Courtney, who has just won a $50,000 grant from the United States Artist Fellows Program. Austin Movie Blog reports that Courtney is currently working on a documentary feature about Michigan National Guard members stationed in Afghanistan. In 2007, Courtney received a Texas Filmmakers Production Fund grant for a project called Where Soldiers Come From, which sounds like the same film. I reviewed Courtney's previous documentary, Letters from the Other Side, when it played SXSW 2006 -- an effective, quietly compelling portrayal of how women in Mexico were affected by changes in U.S. laws about undocumented workers.
• In one of those weird coincidences, I was cleaning my desk an hour or two ago, found a business card for actress T. Lynn Mikeska, and tried to remember where I met her -- oh, yes, Austin Film Festival. Then I started catching up on my Austin Chronicle reading and lo and behold, there was Mikeska, along with someone else I recently started following on Twitter, local editor Don Swaynos (I heard a rumor he's actually a neighbor.) Mikeska and Swaynos are part of a local filmmaking collective called Jollyville Pictures that Marc Savlov profiled; check out the full article online.
• Fantastic Fest 2009 attendees who loved the British comedy Down Terrace -- or who missed the movie -- will be pleased to hear that the film has just been added to the lineup for Slamdance 2010. Down Terrace won the Next Wave award at Fantastic Fest.
• The Slamdance shorts lineup, which was also announced, includes the supposed world premiere of the short film Joey and Jerome's Artistic Meaningful Indie Movie, which was shot in Houston. "World premiere" is a load of hooey -- I caught that short at Texandance Film Festival in New Braunfels in June. It's a pretty funny spoof of indie/mumblecore films, including the Manic Pixie Dream Girl stereotype. And according to the film's website, it's played a number of fests, so I'm wondering if Slamdance has made a typo. But then I think fests get a little crazy with the whole drive for "premieres" sometimes.