Slackery News Tidbits

It's Monday morning and a great time to hear all the latest Austin news, or even refresh yourself on some older news after a hopefully long and enjoyable weekend. Here's what we've got:

• Filmmaker Spike Jonze will be speaking to John Pierson's UT master class -- and as many other students as they can fit in the space -- on Tuesday night. But that's not the only reason he's in Austin. According to MTV News, Jonze is collaborating with Canadian band Arcade Fire on a short film, which will be shot here in Austin. I think the trailer of Jonze's Where the Wild Things Are that was accompanied by Arcade Fire's "Wake Up" was actually better than the full-length feature, so I'm looking forward to hearing more about this short film.
• Just found out that local filmmaker Emily Hagins's latest feature, The Retelling, will play at Texas Frightmare Weekend in Dallas at the end of this month. (Be warned, the TFW website has annoying audio.) Hagins will be at the April 30 screening and will hold a Q&A afterwards. The fest's movie lineup also includes Survival of the Dead, 2001 Maniacs: Field of Screams and the Dallas-shot horror film The Final. We've yet to see a public screening of The Retelling in Austin, and hope to hear about one soon.
• If you don't read Joe M. O'Connell's site regularly, you miss a lot of interesting film news and photos. Lately, he's been making frequent visits to Granger, the Central Texas town where the Coen brothers will be filming True Grit within the next month or so, and taking photos to show how the town is being transformed for the period Western. Pretty cool. I wish someone would let him sneak on the set during the actual filming and report back.

To be frank, SXSW is still kicking our butts here at Slackerwood. We still have more reviews and features for you and we're trying to get them finished and published in the next few days. It's all wonderful stuff and you'll love it, but in the meantime, actual non-SXSW-related film news has been happening here in Austin, and for Austin movies. Some of this news is a little stale by now, but maybe you were caught up with SXSW too and missed it.

So here's a nice bundle of Austin film news, much of it good news related to distribution.

• The locally shot film Artois the Goat, which premiered at SXSW 2009 and won awards at several film festivals last year, will be appearing on DVD in April. IndiePix will be distributing the charming movie about a young man pursuing love and the perfect cheese. Read Jenn's review for more info.
• Another SXSW 2009 film, Winnebago Man, landed U.S. theatrical and DVD distribution this month from Kino International. The documentary will be released this summer and fall, starting in July in New York. No word on when it'll hit Austin, but since director Ben Steinbauer and producer Joel Heller live here, hopefully we won't have to wait too long.
• We're not done yet. I haven't mentioned the distribution deal for Best Worst Movie, the documentary about the cult success of Troll 2 that also premiered at SXSW 2009 ... remember Zack Carlson's tattoo? New distribution company Area23a will start touring the movie in cities in April, and the first city will naturally be Austin, Texas. Alamo Drafthouse and The Highball will host a gala opening-night screening and party on Friday, April 23, and then will run here for at least a week before it hits New York and LA.

Two days to SXSW. Two days to SXSW. Here's the latest Austin film-related news, some of which will be of particular interest to SXSW-goers, but some of which is about free stuff for everyone.

• If you have a SXSW Film badge, you can use it not only for the usual conference and movie access, but also to see Motorhead perform on Wednesday night at Austin Music Hall.
• And you don't need a badge at all to head over to the Apple Store in Barton Creek Mall for two free Meet the Filmmaker sessions during SXSW. On Saturday, March 13 at 3 pm, journalist Aaron Hillis will interview filmmaker Emmett Malloy, whose music documentary The White Stripes: Under Great White Northern Lights is playing SXSW and will also be available via cable TV VOD starting March 12. On Monday, March 15 at 7 pm, local filmmaker Bryan Poyser will discuss his latest film, Lovers of Hate, which is playing SXSW and will also be available on cable TV VOD when the fest starts.
• Did we mention yet that IFC has bought the international distribution rights to Lovers of Hate? The film premiered at Sundance and was sold to IFC before it plays SXSW. Congrats to Bryan Poyser and his producers, cast and crew.

I realize I'm repeating my own joke with the headline, but it's too good not to reuse ... and when will I get to use it again? Ahem. Anyway, here's the Austin film-related news, starting with awards:

• Sandra Bullock, who owns local restaurant Bess and co-owns Walton's Fancy and Staple, also does a spot of acting when she's not running local businesses. Last night, she took home the Best Actress Oscar for her role in The Blind Side.
• The night before, she won a Razzie for her role in All About Steve ... and showed up at the awards ceremony, where she gave out DVDs of the film to all the Razzie members in attendance. Very nice.
• Austin was also represented at the Oscars by Ryan Bingham, who along with T-Bone Burnett won an Academy Award for Best Song, "The Weary Kind," from the movie Crazy Heart. Not only did Bingham and Burnett cite the work of the the late local musician Stephen Bruton on the film, but Jeff Bridges also remembered Bruton in his speech after winning Best Actor.

Believe it or not, film news is happening in Austin that has nothing -- really nothing -- to do with SXSW. Here's a sample:

• On Sunday afternoon, author Alison Macor will be reading/signing her book Chainsaws, Slackers, and Spy Kids: Thirty Years of Filmmaking in Austin, Texas. I intend to be there and am looking forward to a good read ... well, probably not until after SXSW, unfortunately. (I know me. I'll read the book while trying to do fest prep. Sleep is the enemy, as Debbie keeps telling me.) Over at the Austin Chronicle, Kimberley Jones has an interview with Macor, and you can read an excerpt from the book about The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. The book signing is on Sunday at 3 pm at BookPeople.
• Austin Film Festival has announced a discount on Lone Star Badges for the 2010 fest -- they're now only $75 through March 7. Also, anyone who purchases a Lone Star Badge during this time frame is eligible to win a free upgrade to a Weekend Badge ($255 value) during the Oscars -- Moviemaker has the details on this contest. See their website for details. The Lone Star Badge is a one-day conference pass that also gets you first-tier admission into all films, so it's a very good deal at this price.

Let's see what the latest Austin and SXSW film news is today.

• The big big news: Robert Rodriguez is bringing a rough cut of Predators, which he's produced, to SXSW. He and director Nimrod Antal will present a "First Look" at the movie, which was partially shot in Austin, on opening night (Friday, March 12) at Alamo Ritz at 10:15 pm. The dark side of this news is that the bigger Ritz theater only holds about 200 people, maybe a few more if they squeeze folks into the balconies. Even though the event is open only to SXSW badgeholders, you'd probably have to line up outside the Ritz before the opening-night film even starts in order to get a seat. (People are already talking about lining up that afternoon.) So sadly, I'm unlikely to be reporting on this event myself.
• In addition, the SX Fantastic "Super Secret Screening" has been announced: it's the world premiere of 13, Gela Babluani's bigger-budget remake of his 2006 film Tzameti. The film stars Jason Statham, Mickey Rourke, Ben Gazzara and (Fantastic Fest favorite) Alexander Skarsgard.
• SXSW film passes are now on sale: $70 for eight days, which is an excellent deal for second-tier access to a lot of good movies around town. Individual tickets are $10 so if you see 8 movies you're ahead financially (plus, ahead in the admission lines). You can buy passes at Alamo Ritz, South Lamar, and Village, and at Waterloo Records. Look for our special guide for passholders and ticket buyers next week.

Here's the latest Austin-related film news. We saved the Quentin Tarantino bit for last, so don't forget to keep reading after the jump.

• Tickets are now on sale for Alamo Drafthouse at Lake Creek's Evil Dead triple-feature on Friday, March 26. Did the tickets actually go on sale starting on Ash Wednesday? I can't verify that but if it's true, that's pretty cool. In fact, it's groovy. If you haven't ever watched all three movies back to back (to evil back), I highly recommend it, especially in a theater full of fans.
• Over at The Auteurs, you can now watch five films -- for free -- that have played the True/False Film Festival. One of those films is The Order of Myths, directed by then-Austinite Margaret Brown, about Mardi Gras in Mobile, Alabama. Get yourself a Moon Pie and settle down to see this one -- here's my review from when it played SXSW 2008.
• SXSW 2009 feature The Square is set to open in U.S. theaters on April 9. Apparition picked up Australian actor/stuntman Nash Edgerton's feature directorial debut for U.S. distribution shortly after it had built up some good buzz during SXSW.

Here's the latest Austin-related film news:

• The SXSW Film schedule for 2010 is now available. Get ready to try to cram as many films and events into eight days as you can. We are putting the final touches on our annual SXSW Film Festival Venue Guide as well as some other guides, so keep an eye out.
• Speaking of local film festivals, Cine Las Americas has just unveiled their poster for the 2010 fest, which takes place from April 21-29 this year.
• Busy tonight? I'm planning to head over to the Harry Ransom Center around 7 pm, myself. Steve Wilson, the Associate Curator of Film, will lead a free tour of the HRC's current "Making Movies" exhibit. The HRC has all kinds of movie-related goodies archived, and while I don't know exactly what they're displaying now, it's all good.

Here's the latest Austin-related film news this week:

• Cinematical has posted a teaser trailer for Simon Rumley's Austin-shot horror film Red White & Blue, which is playing SXSW next month. I do believe a great deal of that trailer is set at the Broken Spoke. And Debbie, is that your house where all the, er, shenanigans are occurring? (Speaking of shenanigans, this is not a G-rated trailer by any means.)
• Over at The Dallas Morning News, Joe O'Connell tells us that a new TV pilot is shooting in Austin next month called Gen Y. Two other pilots will be shooting soon in Dallas, too.
• On the other hand, Chris Garcia reports that Waxahachie native and UT alumnus Robert Benton's biopic of Lyndon B. Johnson may not get to shoot in Texas. Apparently HBO prefers the film incentives in Georgia or Louisiana over the Lone Star State. (What would LBJ think?) It's weird, because HBO shot Temple Grandin here in Austin a couple of years ago when the incentives weren't as good as they are now. Go figure.
• On a related note, the film The Texas Killing Fields, starring Sam Worthington, will start filming in April ... in Louisiana. Could be worse. Could be Michigan.

Here's the latest Austin film-related news:

• The newest additions to the 2010 Texas Film Hall of Fame Awards: actor Lukas Haas (Witness, Convicts), who used to live in Austin; and Waiting for Guffman, filmed in Austin and Lockhart. Catherine O'Hara will accept the award on behalf of the Christopher Guest film. Tickets are still available for the award ceremony at Austin Studios on March 11.
• Local filmmaker John Bryant's feature film The Overbrook Brothers, which played SXSW 2009, will be released on IFC On Demand on Feb. 17. (Bryant is second from left in the photo above, taken during an Overbrook Brothers Q&A.) That link includes a trailer, which I feel doesn't quite do the comedy justice. You'd do better to watch Bryant's 2006 short Momma's Boy, now available on Atom, which was remade as the first part of The Overbrook Brothers. The short co-stars Steve Zissis, who was also in the Duplass brothers' film Baghead, which leads us to ...