Why that 'Chaos' announcement didn't happen

The big announcement of a Chaos series pickup by CBS didn't quite happen this past week. Instead Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert were instead talking about the overall leap in major network TV series production in North Texas.

Nellie Andreeva gives us the reason behind it all: A disagreement between 20th Century Fox Television (which is making the show) and CBS over the initial number of episodes. This also gives a little background for why North Texas-shot The Deep End didn't survive.

So will the show, for which the pilot was shot in Los Angeles with Brett Ratner directing (that's him in the photo), be made in Big D? Probably, but not for certain.

The article also gives a rundown of the Chaos cast: Freddy Rodriguez, Eric Close, James Murray, Tim Blake Nelson and Carmen Ejogo.

'True Grit' wraps this week in Austin.

Here are the details of filming of the Joel and Ethan Coen remake of True Grit that will close some downtown Austin streets tomorrow. Here's a photo of the construction for the shoot.

Here also are a few stray photos from the Blanco shoot that have yet to make it on the blog. If a search engine brought you here, you might want to look around at quite a few other photos from filming in Blanco and Granger.

'Elvis and Anabelle' gets DVD release--finally

Looks like Austin-shot Elvis and Anabelle starring Blake Lively (Gossip Girl) will finally get a U.S. DVD release on June 20. The film premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival in 2007 and has aired a couple of times on Lifetime (another airing is slated for June 7--set that Tivo).

Will Geiger's odd story of a dead beauty queen who comes back to life and falls in love with her embalmer has reached a sort of quiet cult status despite its lack of distribution before now. It was a product of Burnt Orange Productions, the ill-fated film production arm of the University of Texas.

Here's a bit more about the film.

Photo from 'Tree of Life'

Perhaps the first still photo to show up from Terrence Malick's Tree of Life, which shot largely in Smithville, Texas. Still no word on when the film itself will see life....

Chaos has to wait; but TV series flood Texas

FYI--A shorter version of this ran on the Dallas Morning News blog today, and a version combined with a DMN writer's feature will appear Thursday. Here's my take from Dallas City Hall on Wednesday afternoon:

North Texas-based 'Chaos' series awaiting CBS confirmation

BY JOE O'CONNELL
filmnewsbyjoe@yahoo.com
on Twitter: joemoconnell
joeoconnell.com

DALLAS—Three television series will shoot simultaneously in North Texas this summer, and a fourth might join them in the fall.

What was to be a major announcement by Gov. Rick Perry and Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert at Dallas City Hall of a fourth television show shooting in North Texas ended up being a “maybe.” Twentieth Century Fox Television execs on Wednesday said they have yet to get confirmation of a pickup by CBS of Chaos, a spy series set to star Stephen Rea (The Crying Game). If picked up, they expect to shoot 13 episodes of the midseason replacement in the fall.

Perry said the flurry of major network television production is a sign Texas has been “established as a preferred location.”

Already shooting in North Texas is The Good Guys for Fox, which recently added seven more episodes to its original 13-episode order. This summer the show is expected to compete with NBC’s Chase and Fox’s Lonestar (former Midland) for North Texas locations and crew. In Austin, the ABC series My Generation is primed to lens this summer as well.

“It’s a good problem to have,” Janis Burklund of the Dallas Film Commission said of the demands on the North Texas crew base. “Yes, it’s going to stretch us a bit, but that’s how we’ll grow.”

North Texas’ television resurgence began when Prison Break shot here for two seasons beginning in 2006, said Twentieth Century Fox vice president Jim Sharp. That led to shooting the short-lived series The Deep End. But the area’s history as a television hub dates back further to Walker, Texas Ranger, a show for which Burklund worked as a location scout.

It’s all part of a trend to shoot network television shows outside of Los Angeles due to that area’s poor incentives and changing physical landscape that has made finding locations more difficult. Texas now hopes to attract some of the longtime California crew members to the Lone Star State.

The Legislature approved in 2009 an increase in state filming incentives funding from a two-year total of $22 million to $62 million and added flexibility in how the funds can be meted out. Perry said since then 206 projects have come to the state, creating 28,500 full-time jobs and attracting in-state spending of $184 million.

On average, each episode of a television series shot should drop more than $1 million in the local economy, Bob Hudgins of the Texas Film Commission said.

Why is Dallas the big winner? Leppert said it’s a mix of great locations and a large pool of talents crew members.

“It means jobs and additional visibility for North Texas, Dallas and all of Texas,” he said.

A key indicator is the current disparity between Dallas and Houston, which was in the 1990s a leading Texas filming location. Fox’s Lonestar is set in both the oil industry of Houston and Midland. Executives are taking what was termed a look at Austin as a filming location on Thursday, but long ago ruled out Houston.

Also set in Houston is Chase, the NBC series from Warner Bros. It also ruled out shooting in Space City. 20th Century Fox had to move quickly on the series, said Garry Brown, the show’s co-executive producer and former Walker, Texas Ranger producer who has been one of the pivotal voices behind the North Texas film resurgence.

“There was more to offer to us immediately here in Dallas,” Brown said. “They (Houston) need to build their crew base up, and they’re working on it.”

During the film industry’s lean years earlier in the mid-2000s when film and television projects were lured to states offering hefty incentives, the Houston film crews dissipated. Dallas, as a center for filming of commercials, industrial films, animation and videos, kept its crews largely in place. Now the problem is making sure there are enough workers here to handle three television shows shooting in North Texas this summer, and Chaos potentially joining this in the fall.

New TV series lensing in Dallas is 'Chaos'

I'm sitting here at Dallas City Hall waiting for Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert and Texas Gov. Rick Perry to join 20th Century Fox execs in announcing the series Chaos starring Stephen Rea (The Crying Game) will shoot in North Texas this summer, joining The Good Guys, Chase and Lonestar (formerly known as Midland. More in a bit...

Four TV series shooting in Dallas at once?

That's the word as I hit the road for a press conference with the guv, Dallas mayor and Fox execs Wednesday at Dallas City Hall. More tomorrow. A fourth series shoot is expected to be announced that will add to The Good Guys, Lonestar (formerly Midland) and Chase.