Slackery News Tidbits, July 6

After a long weekend, why not get back into the swing of things by catching up on Austin-related film news? Here's what you've been missing:

• Congrats to former Austinites Jay and Mark Duplass, whose latest film Cyrus cracked the top ten at the box office last weekend ... despite being on only 77 screens. Two of those screens are in Austin (Alamo South and Arbor) in case you haven't seen the movie yet yourself. Read Don Clinchy's review, or my interview with the Duplass brothers, for more details.
• Okay, this is cool: Austin Film Society has compiled a YouTube page with trailers and clips from all the movies that are Texas Filmmakers Production Fund award recipients. In some cases, like Pigeon Impossible, you can watch the entire short film online. Go take a look, but make sure you've got some spare time, because it's addictive.
• One great advantage of all the Alamo Drafthouse cinemas now being run under one umbrella: Alamo Lake Creek is starting a free Summer Kids Camp just like the ones at Alamo Village and South. This week, bring tissues and head over there for The Iron Giant. By the way, if you're in Houston/Katy, Alamo Mason Park is also included in the series. Of course, we've updated our 2010 Guide to Free (and Cheap) Summer Movies with this info.
• If the summer movies in our listing aren't enough for you, head over to ColdTowne Theater on Thursday nights this month, where they are performing live commentary tracks to blockbuster films. You can nominate and vote for the films they will perform. (via Austin Movie Blog)
• Over at the blog United States of Cinemerica, blogger and frequent Paramount filmgoer G. Barraza has created postcard graphics for a number of this year's Paramount Summer Movie Series selections. Lots of fun and a creative look at the series, so check it out.
• I love the Grindhouse posters, and enjoyed reading this Austin360 article by Chris Garcia profiling local artist Kurt Volk, not only responsible for those posters but for much of Troublemaker Studio's graphic art since then.
• Speaking of which, filmmaker Edgar Wright, who has a Twitter account, dropped a hint recently about some possible news. On Monday, he tweeted: "So, get this, tomorrow I am doing a commentary on 'Don't'. Some of you will know what that means is finally happening." I believe this means that the movie Don Clinchy describes as "the finest film ever shot on Burnet Road" is finally coming to DVD in its theatrical cut of double-feature plus fake trailers ... although I guess we can't call the Machete trailer "fake" anymore. Yes, I mean Grindhouse, although I'd like to point out to Don that Dazed and Confused was shot partially at Top Notch on Burnet Road, so he might want to rethink his statement.