Hello, goodbye, 'Leftovers,' and thank for all the miracles

The good news: HBO is back in Austin at this very moment shooting the third and final season of The Leftovers. Austin serves as the show's Miracle, Texas, in a world torn asunder by the sudden disappearance of 2 percent of the population. Much of the cast returns from season two.


The bad news: The Austin stay will be done in the blink of an eye, with the bulk of the season lensing in Australia. Indiewire has a great breakdown on how this fits into the plot.

For once, this isn't about the shrinking Texas film incentive funding that sent Robert Rodriguez packing to New Mexico. It's really about where the story itself is headed. And can we really be upset when Austin kidnapped the series for its second season after the first was shot in New York state? And, hey, The Son is rising in Austin (and needs extras!), so no worries, mate.

The Leftovers remains some of the best television out there. Based on Tom Perrotta's novel of the same name, the series has a fine pedigree with Damon Lindelof, the showrunner for Lost, at the helm. Read my Austin Chronicle interview with the show's executive producer Mimi Leder for more on that.

Robert Rodriguez sends 'From Dusk Till Dawn' to New Mexico

Rodriguez and Linklater (photo by Joe O'Connell)

Cuts to Texas film incentives have a new casualty: Austin-based Robert Rodriguez likes to shoot at home, but he's setting up the third season of his El Rey network's From Dusk Till Dawn series in New Mexico with filming beginning as I type this. The first two seasons shot in the Austin area, of course. But money talks and Rodriguez walks. As have other recent Texas-set shows.

This is what happens when the Texas Legislature slices and dices its two-year film incentive program budget from $95 million to $32 million. In recent years, the incentive program has been most effective at attracting TV series to the state, including Austin-shot American Crime and The Leftovers. The former shot in Austin for both of its two seasons, while the latter shot its second season around Central Texas. The Leftovers already has a third season commitment while American Crime's future is unknown. Will either return to Austin? Stay tuned, but don't get your hopes up. At least we still have Richard Linklater. Right, Rick? Gulp.

'American Crime' returns to Austin for second season

When I interviewed American Crime creator John Ridley for The Austin Chronicle prior to the show's 11-episode run on ABC, he hinted that a second season was possible and that it likely would lens in the Austin area as the first season did. Correct on both. 

(Read down for even more TV shooting in Austin....)

According to Deadline, both Felicity Huffman and Timothy Hutton will come back for season two, which will center on an entirely different crime. The first season was an ambitious telling of the impact of a double murder on the lives of the victims' and suspects' lives. Ratings weren't spectacular, but it received plenty of critical acclaim and is expected to garner award nominations for its deft handling of issues of racial and class divides in America.

"TV has overtaken film here of late," Gary Bond of the Austin Film Commission said of the welcome Austin film industry news. 'I like it. Steady work for our crew. The gift that keeps on giving."

Indeed, Robert Rodriguez's series From Dusk Till Dawn is shooting its second season around town, and HBO's The Leftovers relocated and is currently lensing its sophomore season to Austin. ABC's Shonda Rhimes pilot The Catch shot here recently and just got picked up to series. No word on if the series will shoot in Austin, but insiders say it is a distinct possibility.

The American Crime announcement also comes as the Texas Legislature hammers out just how much funding in the coming two years will go to the state's Moving Image Industry Incentive Program, which allocates bucks to attract films, television and video game production to the Lone Star State. Some of the official silliness has including attacks on actor Sean Penn's political views (he had a role in Terrence Malick's Oscar-nominated The Tree of Life, which shot in Texas five years ago) as an excuse to cut funding. Those in the know have said in recent years that current Texas incentives are more attractive to television productions than films, which often veer across the Texas border to Louisiana or New Mexico.

Ridley told me incentives were indeed a factor in bringing to the show to Texas. They'd also looked at Georgia and both Louisiana and New Mexico. A lot of that was the wide variety of locations, with Ridley praising the Hays County Courthouse in San Marcos in particular as a welcome find for the many judicial scenes. 

"There were other places where we could have done a good job, but Austin ended up being the right place," he said. "Beyond our headline cast there was a really, really deep group of actors that delivered."

Look for the series to shoot in July, when Texas temperatures soar. It's something Ridley told me he did not look forward to in a second season. "Everything else is wonderful, it’s a terrific environment, but the weather…," he said.

'Sonny' finally set for HBO

The conjecture is Lawrence Wright's God Save Texas will make fun of Rick Perry, Wendy Davis and company, and it very well might. But the truth is the series just put into development by HBO dates back to 2000 when Pulitzer-winning author Wright penned a screenplay called Sonny's Last Shot with hopes of directing it himself. Then he transformed the screenplay into a stage play after HBO at that time nixed the story.

That story was inspired by Texas Democrats hiding out in 1979 to kill a bill in the Legislature, only in Wright's story they hid out in the back of the Alamo. Right before the stage play premiered in 2003, Dems did in fact run off--to Oklahoma--to unsuccessfully kill a bill.

The potential HBO series is described thus: "... an idealistic cowboy who, looking to save his ranch and marriage, tries to get elected to the Texas Legislature, where he becomes the target of the powerful energy lobby and learns how to survive in the crazy, brutal world of Texas politics." The original screenplay also had that cowboy, Rep. Sonny Lamb of West Texas, fathering a love child with feisty Rep. Angela Jackson of Houston, a character with a hint of Rep. Dawnna Dukes of Austin, Wright previously said.

Back in 2000 the play got a table reading with newby actor Dan Gattis taking the lead role. Gattis went on to serve as a state representative from 2002-2010.  His father, Dan A. Gattis, is currently Williamson County Judge.

Yes, Mike Judge's 'Office Space' (sorta) would make a great HBO series

It's actually called Silicon Valley, but it's clearly a reimagining/updating of Mike Judge's Austin-shot cult classic Office Space, which, by the way, according to my totally and completely unscientific polling has finally fallen off the radar of current college students.

Watch the HBO series trailer and argue amongst yourselves. The show premieres April 6.

Texas indie filmmakers score big

It's been a good week for Texas independent filmmakers.

Rooney Mara and Casey Affleck.

At the Sundance Film Festival, IFC purchased domestic rights to Dallas auteur David Lowery's Ain't Them Bodies Saints and sent his already soaring career into orbit. It stars Rooney Mara, Casey Affleck and Ben Foster, and is about "an outlaw who escapes from prison and travels across Texas to reunite with his wife and the daughter he's never met before."

Meanwhile, HBO ordered a comedy pilot from brothers and former Austinites Mark and Jay Duplass. They'll write and direct the half-hour pilot titled Togetherness. It's about "two couples living under the same roof who struggle to keep their relationships alive while pursuing their individual dreams."

Maybe that MovieMaker Magazine love has some merit, but perhaps they ought to extend it statewide.

Connie Britton and Kyle Chandler nominated for Emmys

The series itself didn't get the love, but Friday Night Lights stars Connie Britton and Kyle Chandler both are nominated for Emmy Awards, it was announced this morning.

Read my recent Dallas Morning News column for more on Britton. I give her a good chance at a win. Chandler faces tougher competition, but don't count the coach out. Don't forget that he was previously Emmy nominated for his "explosive" guest spot on Grey's Anatomy. It's Britton's first nod.

The series also got a writing nomination for the episode "The Son," penned by Rolin Jones.

Austin-based casting director Beth Sepko was nominated for two Emmys--one for FNL and another for the Austin-shot HBO film Temple Grandin, which I finally watched this week. I give it four hooves up (kidding). Temple Grandin is up for best Outstanding Made-For-Television Movie and its star Claire Danes is up for best actress.

See the full list of nominees here.

HBO picks up Dallas-set show

HBO has picked up 12 Miles of Bad Road. Will it shoot in North Texas? Not likely as HBO folks indicated early on that most of the show will be shot in Los Angeles, Another Texas-set show, Reba, goes off the air on the CW on Feb. 18.