"Son" set to rise in Austin with Sam Neill

 Look for a 10-part AMC TV adaptation of Philipp Meyer's novel The Son to set up shop in Austin for a summer shoot. 

The acclaimed novel has been described as a "multi-generational saga of power, blood, land, and oil that follows the rise of one unforgettable Texas family, from the Comanche raids of the 1800s to the to the oil booms of the 20th century." University of Texas prof Don Graham regularly includes the novel in the his well-known Life and Literature of Texas course along side the works of Larry McMurtry and Cormac McCarthy.

Sam Neil plays Eli, the family patriarch who was kidnapped and raised by Comanches, an experience that colors his world view.

Also in the cast are  Henry Garrett (Poldark), Zahn McClarnon (Fargo), Paola Nunez (Reina de corazones), and Sydney Lucas (Fun Home). The show was written by Meyer, Lee Shipman and Brian McGreevy. It's expected to air in 2017.

Now if someone would finally adapt Billy Lee Brammer's The Gay Place (which is also on Graham's syllabus) for TV or film we'd be set with major Texas novels being brought to the big (or little) screen. Oh, I could also go for a faithful adaptation of Dan Jenkins' Semi-Tough minus the silly new age twaddle added to the Burt Reynolds version. Pretty please?

Young actor joins Duvall in 'Night in Old Mexico'

Jeremy Irvine (War Horse) will play the grandson to Robert Duvall's grandpa in A Night in Old Mexico, the Bill Wittliff-penned film which we told you about two weeks ago. Latest reports confirm almost all of the filming will be in Brownsville (doubling for Mexico). At one point Austin was looking likely as a shooting location. It's a reteaming of Wittliff and Duvall, who wrote and starred respectively in the TV adaption of Larry McMurty's novel Lonesome Dove.