Slackery News Tidbits

It is the kind of week already where I had to go find a calendar so I could put the correct date in the headline. So it seems like a good time to catch up on Austin film news, and refresh my memory about a few recent items. Here's what we've got:

• News 8 Austin broadcast a great story last week on the locally founded American Genre Film Archive, which is working to protect and restore exploitation, horror and action films. Be sure to watch the video.
• The Least of These, which Jenn Brown and I both enjoyed at SXSW 2009, is now available on DVD through IndiePix. This documentary focuses on Texas detention centers for families who are believed to have entered this country illegally. It's an eye-opener, and just writing about this makes me wonder if the conditions have changed at all in the past year. I hope so.
• The SXSW website has started a new weekly feature called Humpday Highlights (no points for guessing on which day this feature will appear), in which they post some video from a past festival event that they feel warrants attention. Their first entry, just in time for the Cyrus opening in Austin last Friday, is video from the 2010 Film panel "The Kids Are Alright," which includes Jay and Mark Duplass, Katie Aselton, Bryan Poyser and Geoff Marslett. There's also a full podcast from the panel you can listen to.

Here's the latest Austin film news:

• Joe O'Connell has the scoop on Richard Linklater's intended next film: Bernie, set in East Texas, perhaps starring Jack Black. Linklater referred to it as his "Fargo in East Texas."
• O'Connell also has some photos to share from the set of Doonby, the John Schneider-starring film currently shooting at local Spiderwood Studios.
• Local teenage filmmaker Emily Hagins (Pathogen, The Retelling), the subject of the documentary Zombie Girl, is trying to raise funds to finish her third feature, My Sucky Teen Romance (it's a vampire movie).
• Speaking of Hagins (and funding), Austin Film Society has just published a video promoting the Texas Filmmakers Production Fund, and Hagins is one of the filmmakers interviewed. You also might see TFPF recipients Kyle Henry, Sandra Guardado, Kat Candler, and David and Nathan Zellner, among others. You can find it on YouTube.

It's Monday morning and time for a roundup of Austin film news! Let's see what's cooking:

• The Austin Critics' Table Awards focuses on art, music and theater (and not film -- what, film isn't art?) but the group's 2010 awards include a local film composer, Graham Reynolds (A Scanner Darkly, I'll Come Running, Holy Hell). Reynolds won the John Bustin Award for Conspicuous Versatility. In addition, Golden Hornet Project, of which Reynolds is a founder (and the group's Facebook page also includes Tim and Karrie League among its Board of Directors), took home the Symphonic Performance award for "Symphony VI." You can hear some of Reynolds' work with film scores on Wednesday, June 23 when he performs a score he composed during a Paramount screening of the 1927 silent film Wings.
• I just found out that I'm not going to be able to attend Austin Film Society's gala Make Watch Love Film party this Friday, June 18. I'm a little disappointed. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't be there. Sign up/get tickets to attend now, there's still space available.
• IFC Films has announced it has acquired the distribution rights to Wake, which played SXSW this year. You'll be able to catch the film through video on demand, via the IFC Midnight program. The movie was written and directed by Houston filmmaker Chad Feehan.

Let's see what's afoot in the Austin-related film news this week.

• Local filmmaker Bob Byington's film RSO [Registered Sex Offender] is now available online as a "pay what you like" movie. You watch the first "chapter" of the comedy for free, then get access to the rest after you donate some amount of money through PayPal. You also can buy the DVD for $10 (including shipping) at that link. The cast includes Kevin Corrigan (whom I just saw in Please Give), local filmmakers Andrew Bujalski and Richard Linklater, and musician Bob Schneider, who also appeared in Byington's film Harmony and Me. 
• Well, we were slacking a bit (thus the name) and missed the first screening in the new Austin Film Society Essential Cinema series: "A Summer of Restoration: Selections from Milestone Films." However, the series runs through August 7, so there are still plenty of movies to enjoy. The movies are screening on Saturdays at noon at Alamo Ritz. Check out the Austin Chronicle article about Milestone Films and the movies they restore and/or pick for distribution. I'm looking forward to seeing Charles Burnett's Killer of Sheep on a big screen, myself.

It's Memorial Day, and I suppose everyone is outdoors today, grilling or having picnics and/or dealing with relatives. But for those of you sitting at home, eager for Austin film news (I have no idea who this would be, besides myself), here are a few updates.

• For some reason, Willie Nelson was all over the news last week. He cut off his signature pigtails, which led a lot of people to quail in fear as though he were Samson. The Austin City Council voted to rename part of Second Street after the musician. And there's some movie-related news: Nelson's currently producing the feature The Dry Gulch Kid, scheduled to shoot somewhere in Texas this summer, and casting is in progress. Johnny Knoxville will star, but the news that got media outlets astir was that Lindsay Lohan is in talks to appear in the film. Lohan was in town last year for the Machete shoot. Other names being thrown about as possibilities for roles in the film are Woody Harrelson, Matthew McConnaughey and Owen Wilson, all of whom are no strangers to Austin.
• Have you registered for your Austin Film Festival Producers Badge yet? Do it today, and you'll be entered into a contest to win lunch with Texas writer/director John Lee Hancock. Yes, it has to be today ... go now.
• The Burnt Orange Productions feature Elvis and Anabelle is finally going to be available for all of us to see, Joe O'Connell reports. The locally shot film toured the film-fest circuit but was unable to land distribution. Now it's playing on Lifetime (next airing: June 7) and will be released on DVD on June 20. Elvis and Anabelle stars Max Mingella as a mortician and Blake Lively as a small-town beauty pageant queen. The cast also includes Mary Steenburgen, Joe Mantegna, David Carradine ... and local TV reporter/film critic Victor Diaz. Hopefully we'll be able to get our hands on a copy of the movie to review for you.

Mmm, Austin movie news tidbits. So delicious. So hard to resist. Here they are, fresh off the -- yeah, I'm tired of this metaphor too. Just check out the news below.

• Filming on the Coen brothers' True Grit moves from small Central Texas towns to downtown Austin this week, and will be shooting at the Austin Club and part of the State Capitol on Thursday and Friday nights. Austin Movie Blog has the details, including street closures. If anyone manages to get some pictures, let us know.
• Joe O'Connell, who has been posting photos from nearly every location of the True Grit filming (Jeff Bridges with an eye patch!), also has had time to keep track of the myriad TV pilots shot in Central Texas that are in development and/or being picked up by the networks. Latest count appears to be four TV shows shooting in Dallas, plus one new Austin-set TV show, My Generation, that may shoot here, and another one in development that's set in Austin. Follow O'Connell's site to get the details -- I can barely keep up with Austin film, much less Central Texas TV productions.
• Frederick Wiseman's documentary Boxing Gym, which focuses on Richard Lord's Boxing Gym here in Austin, premiered at Cannes last week. Over at Austin Movie Blog, Charles Ealy has the scoop. Now someone please show the movie here? (Or maybe not. It'll just make me want to join the gym again.)

Let's see what's been going on with Austin-related film news lately:

• Austin Film Society is celebrating 10 years of Austin Studios with a big Make Watch Love Movies party on June 18 starting at 6:30 pm. Admission is free for AFS members, Texas film crew and Austin Studios neighbors, although you can help sponsor the event if you choose. The event will honor Moody Anderson as well as Alison Macor's book about Austin film, Chainsaws, Slackers, and Spy Kids. Elizabeth Avellan, Mike Judge, Richard Linklater and Robert Rodriguez will be hosts.
• The Paramount Theatre is looking for five "volunteer publicists" -- bloggers who will spread the word regularly about the joys of the theater's Summer Classic Film Series. In return, you get an all-access pass for the film series. Too bad I don't already have a website devoted to this sort of thing or I'd be right there in line. Deadline is tomorrow so act fast.
• Nueva Onda kicks off its 2010 monthly Movie Nights on Thursday with three short films: Flat Daddy, a work-in-progress documentary about military families; the short-short To Do That from local filmmaker Jason Brenizer; and Manos de Madre, the story of a Guatemalan woman forced to live on a garbage dump, which played at the Hideout during SXSW this year. Also, check out the new Nueva Onda Movie blog for info on upcoming screenings.

Okay, what happened here in Austin while I was out of town? Some interesting stuff:

• First of all, some great distribution deals for SXSW films. Marwencol, my favorite film of SXSW this year, has been picked up for U.S. distribution by Cinema Guild (which has also recently released Beeswax on DVD). Cinema Guild plans a theatrical release for this fall, which I hope includes Austin and other non-NY/LA cities. Read my review for more details about the film itself. 
• In addition, IFC has made a deal for the North American distribution rights to Aaron Katz's low-key detective movie Cold Weather, which also premiered at SXSW this year. IFC plans a simultaneous theatrical release (ahem, Austin please) and IFC On Demand release. This is another movie I enjoyed at SXSW this year, as you can see from my review.
• If you are at all interested in the Coen brothers' next movie, True Grit, keep an eye on Joe O'Connell's blog. Before the location shooting in nearby Granger officially started, he visited the town and took a lot of photos of the ways in which the town is being transformed. Now, although he hasn't been admitted on-set, a Granger resident took more photos during the shoot and sent them over to O'Connell. Fascinating images (which may or may not include Jeff Bridges). Apparently the production is now in Blanco, shooting at the courthouse.

Here's the latest Austin film-related news.

• Just a reminder that our Crazy Heart DVD contest ends tonight at 11:59 pm. You don't have to write anything fancy, folks, and it's a mighty nice DVD, so head over there and post something, whether it's "I loved Willie Nelson in Wag the Dog" or "I saw A Scanner Darkly, and Graham Reynolds's score was great" or even "I once spotted Lyle Lovett in the audience at an Austin Film Festival panel."
• I couldn't find any Austin movies at Cannes this year, but luckily Charles Ealy at Austin Movie Blog noticed one film with a local connection in the Directors Fortnight. Documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman (La Danse), was here in 2008 to shoot a movie about Richard Lord's Gym, titled Boxing Gym. This is especially interesting to me since I used to work out at Lord's Gym back in -- wow, about eight years ago. I still miss the place and if I had a more flexible schedule would be back there in a minute, literally sweating my butt off (no A/C). Can't wait to see the film.
• If you're looking for a movie-related road trip this weekend, head over to the DFW area this weekend to catch one of the three screenings in the Bengali Association of Dallas/Fort Worth Film Exhibition. The films are being shown in 35mm prints at the Cinemark Webb Chapel, and a couple of the filmmakers will be present. The website also promises hot samosas and tea with your movies.

Rise and shine, and let's see what the Austin film world has brought us this morning!

• The Austin-shot, Robert Rodriguez-written and co-directed movie Machete now has a release date: September 3, aka Labor Day weekend. Austin Movie Blog has more details about the movie that had its germination in a fake trailer featured in the movie Grindhouse. We're hoping Machete will fare better in theaters (and get better release treatment) than another Fox film shot in Austin that opened on the same weekend in 2006, Idiocracy.
• Dallas International Film Festival wrapped this weekend, and several Austin-connected films were included in the festival's awards. American: The Bill Hicks Story, which premiered at SXSW earlier this year, picked up the Texas Filmmaker Award -- the two filmmakers are British, but Hicks was from Houston and many of the interviewees were Texan. Austin filmmaker Amy Grappell picked up yet another award -- Best Short Film -- for her documentary Quadrangle, which premiered at Sundance earlier this year. And finally, Bob Byington's locally shot comedy Harmony and Me, which I reviewed at AFF last year, won a Special Jury Prize.