Celebrity Sightings

On a sunny Friday afternoon during Fantastic Fest, festgoers seated on the benches outside Alamo Drafthouse on South Lamar noticed something unusual: a mural being painted on the Drafthouse wall nearby. An artist painstakingly worked on a mysterious figure, then text in bloody lettering, then a few gory touches. I took several photos during the process (posted after the jump), but Debbie's the one who snapped the almost-finished artwork you see above.

The gentlemen in the photo who are not wielding a brush are actor AJ Bowen and writer Simon Barrett, who both worked on the Adam Wingard thriller You're Next ... which is thefilm being promoted in the mural. You're Next was recently acquired for U.S. distribution by Lionsgate, and as a result, only screened one time during Fantastic Fest. I'm told it was an extremely popular screening even at midnight and up against the Fantastic Debates (where I was at the time).

Cinematographer William Eubank made his writing and directing debut earlier this year with Love (aka Angels & Airwaves Presents Love), a late addition to this year's Fantastic Fest lineup. Eubank was joined on the red carpet on Wednesday by executive producer Thomas DeLonge and lead actor Gunner Wright. The filmmakers were caught by a surprise special guest: Richard Garriott, real-life astronaut and star of Richard Garriott: Man on a Mission, who moderated an engaging Q&A after the Fantastic Fest screening. 

Love is an inspirational and lovely cinematic journey into the past and future. After losing contact with Earth, astronaut Lee Miller becomes stranded in orbit alone aboard the International Space Station. As time passes and life support systems dwindle, Lee battles to maintain his sanity ... and simply stay alive. His world is a claustrophobic and lonely existence until he makes a strange discovery aboard the ship. The film was funded by the musical group Angels & Airwaves, led by Thomas DeLonge of Blink 182.

Check out more photos from the special screening after the jump.

Are we there yet? Despite skipping midnight screenings and limiting my alcohol intake to free beer in the Shiner Theater, I've hit the wall more times than I can count this year at Fantastic Fest 2011. Special guests Dominic Monaghan and Elijah Wood (seen above) recuperated with the requisite caffeine after a late night of Fantastic Feud. For those who missed the annual hosted event by Scott Weinberg of FEARnet, Monaghan captained the international team that was thoroughly trounced by the American team led by Wood. 

I can only blame my festival fatigue on the Fantastic Fest programming which has kept me in the theater for 4-5 movies a day. Despite thoughts of "I really should sit this screening out," I've stayed the course and not been disappointed in my decision. Find out after the jump which films confirm my selection of Todd Brown of Twitch as my all-time favorite Fantastic Fest programmer.

The filmmakers behind the black comedy Julia X 3D hosted a press meet-and-greet event at the Highball yesterday as part of Fantastic Fest 2011. Producer and writer P. J. Pettiette (Bad Dreams, Jennifer's Shadow) made his directorial debut at Fantastic Fest 2011 with this film starring Kevin Sorbo (Andromeda, Hercules) and Valerie Azlynn. Co-producer Claudie Viguerie and director of photography Jason Goodman were also on hand to answer questions about Julia X 3D, which debuted in the Sunday night midnight screening and runs again today at 12:15 pm.

Due to a health emergency, lead actor Kevin Sorbo was unable to attend in person but participated via Skype as seen above. Sorbo attributed his visit to the emergency room Sunday night to too much work and travel, but is expected to be well enough to arrive in time for today's screening. Although he seemed rather exhausted, he was in high spirits and shared some of his personal memorabilia as he spoke from his home office.

Check out more photos from the Julia X 3D meet and greet after the jump.

Day Five marks the beginning of the second half of the fest. Many of the filmmakers and industry people have left, and new fans arrive attending with second-half badges. The tone of the festival becomes more relaxed, but unfortunately, the FEARnet-sponsored free ice-cream truck has departed. Some of the better parts of the fest are still yet to come. As I'm writing this, the awards are about to begin, hosted by Devin Steuerwald. Jette will be covering the results separately. I'll end the day with the signature party, Fantastic Feud.

I began the day with movie film that has made waves at the fest this year, earning a runner-up in the Fantastic Fest Audience Award category. Juan of the Dead (Juan de los Muertos) is a unique interpretation of the zombie apocalypse. Set and shot in Cuba, Juan pokes fun at the same films that serve as its inspiration and includes several jabs at the political situation. Juan, the titular character, is an affable screw-up who spends his days fishing from a raft and sneaking into his lover's boudoir while her husband is away. When zombies start to appear (the state media reports the phenomenon as political dissident attacks sponsored by the U.S. government), Juan and his friends decide they're better at zombie killing than the government and attempt to turn a profit by starting a business exterminating for their neighbors. As the zombie plague grows out of control, their plans must evolve from control to escape. This was a lot of fun, full of surprises and interesting kills.

The next part of the day was the Short Fuse: Horror Shorts program, which included nine short films from around the world. One of the highlights of this program was Austin-produced No Way Out (read Rod's interview with writer Eric Vespe and director Aaron Morgan). Fest regulars Dennis Widmyer and Justin Duprie, who hails from Corpus, wrote and produced the exceptional horror-comedy short Curtain, which makes The Exorcist look tame by comparison. Other great shorts included The Unliving and How to Rid Your Lover of a Negative Emotion Caused by You!, the runner up and winner of the Fantastic Fest Horror Shorts Award, respectively.

Screening before the delightful Icelandic movie Summerland at Fantastic Fest this week is a clever short film by actors -- and brothers -- Shiloh and Rider Strong. The Dungeon Master features a nerdtastic performance by Alexander Polinsky of Charles In Charge as a wizard/dungeon master who turns the tables on a group of bullies. Both of the Strong brothers were at the fest on Friday to present their short, and during the Q&A they revealed they have acquired funding to turn the Dungeon Master concept into a full-length feature.

The script was light and funny, relatable to gamer nerds and regular mortals alike. In addition to Polinsky, stars included Adam Busch of TV's Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Travis Schuldt of Scrubs and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and Jason Marsden. You might recall Busch was at Fantastic Fest last year with the comedy Drones.

The Dungeon Master screens again at Fantastic Fest in tandem with Summerland on Wednesday, September 28 at 6:45 pm.

I'm one of the "Sleep is the enemy" festival attendees that Jette mentioned in her Fantastic Fest 2011, Day 3 dispatch, although this year I paced my first couple of days by leaving before midnight movies. After a day away from Fantastic Fest on Saturday for the Texas Craft Brewers Festival, I was ready to kick it into high gear.

Unlike Rod's report in Fantastic Fest, Day 2, I'm still working out the kinks of using the online reservation system and almost missed getting into the screenings on my wish list. Thankfully the Fantastic Fest staff work wonders in meeting attendees' needs by remaining courteous and flexible -- note the new line for Super Fans to pick up their boarding passes, and the added screenings.

At the fest's halfway mark, Sunday was fueled by tasty coffee and an overstuffed breakfast burrito at a brunch screening of The Corridor. Filmed in Halifax, Nova Scotia, this film was a good fit for Fantastic Fest as it balances a psychological thriller with survival horror and science fiction sprinkled on for good measure. The film's strengths -- character development, art and sound design, and casting -- outweighed the final scene that left some viewers disappointed. The filmmakers treated the sensitive subject matter of mental illness very well while bringing humor and suspense into the mix. Not vilifying the mentally ill protagonist while demonstrating the bonds and unmanning of the lead characters was a refreshing change.

While I know many film-festgoers who pack five movies into a day plus parties and declare "Sleep is the enemy!" I'm not one of them. I'm a two-flick-a-day woman, maybe three if I don't have any writing assigments due. I almost never go to midnight movies or late parties and am generally Cinderella-like about my evenings.

Saturday was an exception: I went to four Fantastic Fest screenings -- two were shorts collections so technically I saw nearly two dozen films -- and attended a midnight event after that. And now I'm up at 9 am on a Sunday morning so I can get my tickets for the day and write this dispatch. I'm not sure I could do this every day for a week; I admire the stamina of those who do.

I had an amazing stroke of good luck getting tickets Saturday morning -- everything I wanted, including the famous Fantastic Debates, which are so popular I've never been able to attend. It was in fact too good to be true, as I found out later that day that a ticketing glitch massively overbooked the Debates and any ticket over #150 would be invalid. I had #271. Fortunately, I was able to land a spot in the photographers' pen, but more on that later.

Last Sunday at the Paramount, Austin filmmaker Richard Linklater opened up what was originally a cast-and-crew screening of his latest movie, Bernie, to the public as a sneak-peek fundraiser for Bastrop wildfire relief. The dark comedy was shot in Central Texas, including Bastrop and Austin. At last count, I heard that the event raised more than $70,000.

I was on the red carpet to catch a few photos of Linklater and one of the film's stars, Jack Black, who attended the screening. I probably don't need to tell you that's Black in the above photo. A lot of fans showed up with items for Jack Black to sign, ranging from posters to shirts to guitars. He was very accommodating, as you can see below.

Last week, I attended a special "Cut Loose with Footloose" advance screening of Footloose hosted by Alamo Drafthouse on South Lamar and Paramount Pictures. Actor Kenny Wormald and director Craig Brewer (pictured above) were at the event for a Q&A after the movie. I've posted more photos from the event after the jump.