Jim Sanderson evokes 3 San Antonios in new novel

I talked with Jim Sanderson about his new novel Dolph's Team for today's San Antonio Express-News. I had previously reviewed Sanderson's story collection Faded Love in the Austin American-Statesman.

Austin Film Society snaps up 'Slackerwood'

This is a fascinating development. I'm a fan of Jette Kernion's blog Slackerwood. Here's the scoop in a press release from the Austin Film Society (which was founder fittingly by Slacker director Richard Linklater):

The Austin Film Society is excited to announce that it will become the publisher of Slackerwood, Critic's Pick for "Best Austin Movie Blog" in The Austin Chronicle's 2011 Best of Austin. Supplanting AFS's longtime journal, Persistence of Vision, Slackerwood will continue to cover the Texas movie scene with Founder and Editor-In-Chief Jette Kernion remaining at the helm.

"Jette has built a great resource for our regional film community, we all read Slackerwood every day," said AFS Executive Director Rebecca Campbell. "This partnership will allow us to promote our community in new, dynamic ways." AFS Director of Marketing Agnes Varnum will serve as Managing Editor and the publication will host an editorial committee comprised of local filmmakers, journalists, and AFS Board Members. In addition, AFS staff and interns will contribute to the website.

"Over the last 5 years, Slackerwood has grown from a personal blog to a dedicated group of volunteer contributors," said Kernion. "Being published by AFS will mean a home for Slackerwood long into the future and exciting new ways for us to reach out into the community we serve."

Slackerwood and AFS will host a party on February 1, 2012 at 6 PM at Red's Porch (3508 S. Lamar Blvd.) to celebrate the transition. All media are invited to attend. Snacks and beer provided by Red's Porch and NXNW.

Slackerwood began 5 years ago as the personal movie blog of Jette Kernion, focusing specifically on the Austin film scene. Today, Slackerwood has an 10-person staff of writers devoted to reporting and reviewing all aspects of the Austin film scene. Slackerwood provides coverage of all the local film festivals, promotes upcoming special screenings and reviews movies made in Austin or by Austin filmmakers, and strives to share the latest news about films in production in Austin and Central Texas. The name "Slackerwood" was chosen to emphasize the independent DIY spirit of Austin and local filmmakers' tendencies to follow their own path.

Dude, "Lone Ranger" uncooly nabbed for pot brownies

Yes, The Lone Ranger is mostly filming in New Mexico, but at least Texas got to arrest Armie Hammer, who stars as the masked man, for trying to bring pot brownies into Mexico from the Lone Star State.

'Tree of Life' gets Oscar noms

Yes, Smithville-shot The Tree of Life got nominated for best picture, best cinematography (Emmanuel Lubezki) and best director Academy Awards. Will director Terrence Malick show up? Did Bridesmaids really get a screenplay nomination and Life didn't? That's another story...

Oh, and Brad Pitt got nominated for best actor--not for Life but for Moneyball.

Oh, and Belgium film Bullhead was nominated for best foreign film. Why should you care? Austin's Alamo Drafthouse's distribution arm snapped up right to the film and will distribute in theaters soon. Party at Tim League's house tonight, right?

Oh, and good to see high-school-football doc Undefeated up for best documentary. I saw it at the South By Southwest Film Festival and loved it.

'Lone Ranger' starts New Mexico shoot in February

It looks like big-budget The Lone Ranger with Johnny Depp as Tonto will be almost entirely a New Mexico shoot, according to this New Mexico newspaper report and this report that says filming will be in Albuquerque, Santa Fe and elsewhere through August. No mention of any Texas shoot despite earlier scouts in the Marfa/Alpine area. Also no mention of Louisiana, which had been in the filming mix.

Elizabeth Gabel, a casting agent in New Mexico, has more info, including that extras will first be used in March.

Also of interest, this site lists some cast names I hadn't seen before, including Tom Wilkinson, Dwight Yoakam, Barry Pepper and Timothy Hutton. Armie Hammer is the Lone Ranger.

It also appears the working title (which could just be an attempt to lower the film's profile while shooting) is Silver Bullet.