Slackery News Tidbits: March 24, 2014

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Here's the latest Austin and Texas film news.

  • The historic Dobie Theatre, located in the Dobie Center mall off the University of Texas campus, is scheduled to reopen after renovations as a first-run movie house by the end of this year, Austin Business Journal reports. The four-screen theater closed in 2010 and was the original home for Austin Film Society screenings.
  • A production company behind last year's Austin-shot, action-comedy Machete Kills filed a request with Travis County District Judge Scott Jenkins for an injunction against the current rules regarding applications for the Texas Moving Image Industry Incentive Program, according to The Austin Chronicle. Machete Productions argues that the movie met all reasonable criteria for the fund, and that it should be eligible for a reimbursement from the state for the $10 million in qualified spending. The company's attorney says its application was denied because of "inappropriate content." A hearing date has not yet been set.
  • Machete Kills co-writer/director Robert Rodriguez commented on the lawsuit, posted on Austin Movie Blog. Rodriguez says he is in no way affiliated with Machete Productions and that this financier was made well aware that Machete Kills would not qualify for a production incentive. He goes on to say that he will not be cooperating with the company, does not approve of the lawsuit and stands with Texas. 
  • In festival news, the Hill Country Film Festival recently announced three of its official selections: Austin filmmaker Andrew Disney's comedy Intramural, which makes its world premiere during Tribeca Film Festival next month; the SXSW 2014 world premiere Before I Disappear (Don's review), chronicling a day-in-the-life of a suicidal New Yorker forced to babysit his precocious niece; and the documentary Lord Montagu, co-scripted by Bradley Jackson, who also produced Intramural. The Fredericksburg festival, which takes place April 30-May 4, will announce the remainder of this year's fifth anniversary lineup later today.
  • Other announcements include the new home of local digital media company Rooster Teeth Productions in Stage 5 of Austin Studios. The company is scheduled to being production next month. 
  • Austin Film Festival's On Story will host a conversation about making a short movie with local/Texas masters of the craft Kat Candler, David Lowery and Miguel Alvarez Sunday, March 30 at 2 pm at the Harry Ransom Center. 
  • Speaking of Candler, the UT student organization that she founded in 2010, Women in Cinema, will host a post-production panel with Angela Pires (Trash Dance), Allison Turrell (Stuck On On), Lauren Sanders (Hellion) and Sandra Adair (Dazed and Confused) on Thursday, March 27, from 7-9 pm in Studio 4D of the CMB Building on the UT campus. RSVP to the event here
  • In distribution news, Austin Film Festival's 2013 world premiere The Odd Way Home, which follows an odd couple on a journey through the American Southwest, will be released theatrically in select cities this summer, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
  • AFF news continues: Alum and native Texan Ryan Piers Williams' movie X/Y, starring fellow AFF alum America Ferrera and rapper-turned-actor Common, has been selected as one of the 12 movies in Tribeca's World Narrative Competition
  • SXSW 2014 award-winner The Case Against 8, a behind-the-scenes look inside the case to overturn California's ban on same-sex marriage, will be released theatrically on June 6 by HBO Documentary Films and will debut on the cable network June 23.