Linklater's bitchin' early '80s movie is a go

Yes, Richard Linklater's long-awaited early '80s college film, tentatively titled That's What I'm Talking About, appears ready to shoot in Austin in October and November. It will "center on the start of something new, with the story about college freshman who are trying to make the baseball team."

Early casting has offers out for the three lead baseball players:  Glee’s Blake Jenner, Teen Wolf’s Tyler Hoechlin, and 22 Jump Street’s Wyatt Russell.


And, more important to Austin folk, here's the scoop from the extras casting notice: 

SEEKING EXTRAS: male and female, all ethnicities, all ages!!

**THIS IS A PERIOD PIECE from the LATE 70's to early 80's - will require longer hair on all guys and the ability to style to an 80's look on ladies!!

--Some specific types include:
-Experienced Baseball Players ages 18-25 (Should not currently be or intending to play college baseball as will jeopardize your NCAA eligibility)
-Frat Guys ages 18-25
-Sorority Girls ages 18-25
-Bartenders and Waitresses (experience preferred) ages 21-35
-Punk Rockers ages 18-30
-Country Western types ages 18-30
-Experienced Two-Steppers ages 18-30
-Baseball Coaches ages 25-55
-College Girls and Guys ages 18-25
-Experienced Disco Dancers ages 18-25
-Nightclub Doormen ages 21-35
-Experienced Pool Players ages 18-25
-College Professors ages 30-65
-Hippies
-Bikers
-Jerry Garcia types
-African American men and women
-Asian men and women
-Hispanic men and women
-People with Pre-1981 vehicles
-People with cars from the 70s
--and many other general extra roles!

So the "spiritual sequel" to Dazed and Confused (in which most of the high school kids were hippies) will include punkers, kickers, disco ducks and frat daddies. Plus, of course, lots of baseball players.

How do you apply to be an extra? Go to On Location Casting's Facebook page.

Richard Linklater hopes to lens 'Dazed' semi-sequel in the fall

Yep, that's what Richard Linklater said on Reddit when asked about the "spiritual sequel" to Dazed and Confused: "Hoping to make it this fall, actually. A college comedy. I feel like mixing it up with a big ensemble."

The fan response was, of course: "Be a lot cooler if you did."

Linklater has been trying to get the college story made for years.

Oh, and Linklater says his 12-year project Boyhood may finally see the light of day in 2014.

Fourth 'Transformers' film to shoot in Texas in June

My report appears in today's Dallas Morning News. It's behind a pay wall, so here it is in its entirety for you.

BY JOE O’CONNELL

Special to The Dallas Morning News

Michael Bay’s fourth big-budget Transformers film will shoot in the Austin area in June, bringing with it requisite car chases, robots and plenty of explosions.

The Austin Film Commission confirmed 3-4 weeks of filming in the small towns of Lockhart, Taylor, Elgin and Pflugerville. 

A Taylor bridge over the railroad awaits a robot siege.

A large Austin production office opened in March, but location scouting dates back to last November. There was initial interest in the Circuit of the Americas racetrack southeast of Austin, but instead the Austin Film Commission says the focus is on small towns that reminded Bay of Robert Frank’s 1950s photos collected in the classic book The Americans.

In Taylor, 30 minutes from Austin, a police chase will close downtown and a railroad overpass, said Deby Lannen, the city’s Main Street program manager. A car will be exploded in the city’s Robinson Park. “It’s pretty exciting,” she said.

“I know there will be things exploded in Taylor for sure. Some will be physical effects, some CGI,” said Gary Bond, head of the Austin Film Commission.

Lockhart’s Caldwell County Courthouse square will be another filming location, with Taylor and Lockhart combined into one fiction town on screen. Robots will chase down the good guys throughout Central Texas including in Elgin.

The bulk of the untitled movie is expected to lens overseas in China, where a reality television show will cast some roles. According to the web site ReelChicago, shooting will begin in Chicago in July, presumably after Texas filming ends. The Detroit Free-Press in March reported approval of $20 million in filming incentives on $81.9 million in anticipated spending there.

The first three Transformers films grossed $2.6 billion worldwide with the budget for the last two both in the $200 million range. 

No plot has been released for the film, but Mark Wahlberg will star along with Jack Reynor and Nicola Peltz. Wahlberg’s good-guy character’s home will be a farmhouse in Pflugerville. Bay has previously said the film will take a different direction with many new actors.

Bay's production company Platinum Dunes has a history of filming in Central Texas, including 2003's The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and its 2006 sequel, plus 2007's The Hitcher. 

The latest Transformers film is set for release in June 2014.