Slackery News Tidbits, August 1

It's been such a busy week for Austin film that we needed a second news roundup. Here are the highlights:

• Fantastic Fest announced the first films in its lineup on Monday. The headline news is a red-carpet premiere of Dredd 3D, although no news yet who will be on the red carpet. The film's star, Karl Urban, was at Fantastic Fest in 2010 for the movie Red (my best photo here). Will he return? In addition, 17 other films were announced, including Wrong, the latest film from Rubber director Quentin Dupieux. No Austin or Texas films yet, but I've got my fingers crossed (coughBoneboyscough).
• The part of the Fantastic Fest announcement that pleased me most is a sidebar series programmed by Kier-La Janisse, one of the original Fantastic Fest programmers before she returned to Canada to program genre fests there. The "House of Psychotic Women" films tie into Janisse's new book of the same name, described in the press release as: "an autobiographical exploration of female neurosis in horror and exploitation films. Anecdotes and memories interweave with film history, criticism, trivia and confrontational imagery to create a reflective personal history and examination of female madness, both onscreen and off." I'm in. The movies include Joseph Losey's Secret Ceremony from 1968; the 1978 film The Mafu Cage, directed by Karen Arthur, in which Carol Kane plays Lee Grant's feral sister (!); and The Entity, a 1982 film starring Barbara Hershey.
• Drafthouse Films' 26-part anthology The ABCs of Death will have its world premiere in September at ... not Fantastic Fest, but the Midnight Madness sidebar (PDF) at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). Thanks to the Austin Chronicle for the heads up. I'd be surprised if it didn't make its way to Fantastic Fest later that month, though. Midnight Madness will also include Aftershock from Chilean director Nicolas Lopez, whose film Santos was produced by Elizabeth Avellan and played Fantastic Fest 2008; and John Dies at the End, from Don Coscarelli (Bubba Ho-Tep). As Jordan noted on Monday, the TIFF lineup also includes the documentary Shepard & Dark from part-time Austinite Treva Wurmfeld -- the movie's editor is Sandra Adair and composer is Graham Reynolds.
• Local filmmaker Steve Mims has started a new blog, Cinema Notebook, which he plans to update monthly. His first entry is an audio interview with Paramount programmer Jesse Trussell. It's a lovely site and l look forward to future entries.
• The Color Wheel screens this weekend at Alamo Drafthouse Ritz. The cast of this independent film from Alex Ross Perry includes Austin filmmaker Bob Byington (and in fact Perry appears briefly in Somebody Up There Likes Me). Byington interviewed Perry about the film for the Austin Chronicle; check it out.
• If you missed Fat Kid Rules the World at SXSW this year (like I did) despite hearing your friends rave about how very funny it is (like mine did), you have a second chance to see it in Austin. Tugg is running a special screening on Thursday, August 16 at Alamo Slaughter. For Tugg films, you have to reserve your ticket in advance and the screening only takes place if a certain number of tickets are reserved. The movie is directed by Matthew Lillard and won the Narrative Spotlight audience award at SXSW.
• Speaking of SXSW, the festival has announced it is "open for business" for 2013, and you can start purchasing badges and making hotel reservations now.