Yep, NBC cancels Texas-shot 'Revolution'

Photo by Joe O'Connell

It's official. The Bartlett, Texas, (and Austin) shot NBC series Revolution has been canceled.

Wasn't I just predicting this would happen?

Over on Twitter, hopeful fans are latching onto the hashtag #RelocateRevolution. 

Will 'Revolution' get a third seasion (a second in Texas)?

Photo by Joe O'Connell

I drove through Bartlett, Texas, the other day and saw the courthouse facade for NBC series Revolution was packed up, the headless statue that usually rests in front of it moved behind a fence. The show's metal gate remained in place. I took these (and word from solid sources) as signs the folks behind the show are ready to come back to the small town not too far from Austin.

The show moved to Texas after a first season shot in North Carolina. I wrote a bit about it for The Austin Chronicle.

Photo by Joe O'Connell

But will the series survive into a third season? The final word is expected in the next couple of days, but Variety hints it's not looking good: "Revolution started out with promise in 2012-13 when it was assisted by a lead-in from The Voice. But its sophomore year has been an uphill climb after it moved last fall to the lead off slot on Wednesday."

The bottom line, as always, is cash, and Revolution may be too expensive. Stay tuned. And while you're at it, here are some more photos from the set and a few more and some folks in costume.

On the 'Revolution' set in Bartlett

 My report for The Austin Chronicle on NBC's Texas-shot second season of Revolution:

Evan Cauduro, 11, heard about it from friends at school. Then his family was at a dinner party where a woman talked about the call for "weird people." At home, Evan rushed to the computer and began to sign himself up. His father Paul uploaded two photos – one of Evan in his baseball uniform and another from the boy's school science fair. Soon Evan was staying up all night in grungy clothes. He ran dangerously close to an oncoming horse. And you might just see him as a background extra on Sept. 25 when the NBC series Revolution debuts its second season, its first as a Central Texas-shot phenomenon.
 
The show is headquartered in Austin for a 22-episode sweep that will continue into May, says Gary Bond, head of the Austin Film Commission, but cameras have been popping up at Decker Lake and in Maxwell, downtown Taylor, Cedar Park, and elsewhere. The conventional wisdom is each episode results in $1 million in local spending. "That's the wonderful thing about television," Bond says. "It's the gift that keeps on giving. The potential for them to be here five years is there."

Read the rest in The Austin Chronicle here.


See photos from the Bartlett set here.

More views of the 'Revolution' set

My schedule keeps taking me through Bartlett, Texas, where NBC's TV series Revolution has taken up residence. The latest episode being shot seems to have a Halloween theme. It was at the end of a rain storm when I came through, so the set was mostly deserted and I could get out of my car--most times lately the set perimeter is swarming with cops from many area police departments--and take some pix of the entrance, including it's door made of old tires. Many burned out cars were on the edges of the area.

I couldn't figure out if a guy selling art made of old cans was part of the show or just an odd neighbor. Honk and he'd come out to take your cash.

'Revolution' courthouse sprouts in Bartlett

The TV series Revolution has taken over tiny Central Texas town Bartlett for shooting of its second season. That includes construction of the facade of a burned-out courthouse at a downtown intersection. It's held up by plywood and features the "Town Rules." In front of it sits the remains of a statue. The show shoots through April in the Austin area.

 Here are a few shots of actors/extras in costume.

'Revolution' settles in for Texas shoot

I was passing through the tiny town of Bartlett, Texas, today when I spotted the little yellow sign that productions put out to steer cast and crew to a shooting location. This one read "Nano." I wasn't sure what that could be, but the size of the production and the hinty name (the plot of Revolution has nanotechnology causing a blackout) sez it has to be the NBC series which moved its base from North Carolina to the Austin area recently. These are probably just extras in costume, but the guy on the left looks a lot like show star Billy Burke...

Nicolas Cage invades Texas 'Hot Spot'

Nicolas Cage took a break from filming in downtown Taylor to play a game of pool with a local. Cage has been all over Central Texas small towns--Bartlett, Granger, Smithville--of late shooting David Gordon Green's Joe and is based on Larry Brown's novel of the same name.

The official description: "Joe is the story of an ex-con who becomes the unlikeliest of role models to 15-year-old Gary Jones, the oldest child of a homeless family ruled by a drunk, worthless father. Together they try to find a path to redemption and the hope for a better life in the rugged, dirty world of small town Mississippi."

Cage, who plays the title character, was in downtown Taylor near the venerable Louie Mueller's Barbecue on Monday with the street closed off. Film trivia buffs might note that he was filming on the same street that was home to the car lot in noir cult film The Hot Spot from director Dennis Hopper. The same block was recently used to film much of original The Texas Chain Saw Massacre co-writer Kim Henkel's new film Boneboys.

On Tuesday, the Joe set had moved just out of town to a rural house amid plowed-under cornfields (see the photo). The setting was a whorehouse, said Deby Lannen, head of the city of Taylor's Main Street Program and also the go-to person for film projects in the city near Austin. Taylor was recently certified as a "Film-Friendly City" by the Texas Film Commission.

Green, who earlier this year moved to Austin, home to his mentor Terrence Malick, appears poised to go back to his indie, George Washington roots with this latest film. Of course, now he wants to do a big-screen version of Little House on the Prairie.

Oh, and that little film Green was shooting in Bastrop last summer that I thought might perhaps be Suspiria? It's Prince Avalanche, his adaptation of an Icelandic road comedy. They have roads in Iceland? And Paul Rudd was in Austin but was too miniscule to be noticed? I'll give $5 and a hug to the first person who can confirm that Rudd is a tiny guy with a giant head. Takers?

'Kings of the Evening' to finally hit theaters

Kings of the Evening, which shot near Austin in Bartlett in 2007, has finally found distribution, director Andrew Jones confirms. Expect a small theatrical release by February 2010 through Indican Pictures followed by a wider release for television, DVD and video on demand.

Starring fashion model Tyson Beckford and noted actor Glynn Turman, the film is set in the Deep South in the Depression era. Amid tough economic times, a group of African-American men dress in their finest and compete to be the movie title's King of the Evening. Gary Bond of the Austin Film Office has repeatedly championed the film for its quality. Here's what I wrote about it last year in The Austin Chronicle: http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/column?oid=oid%3A668715