Friday Night Lights and Lone Star star Adrianne Palicki is the new Wonder Woman in David E. Kelley's pilot for NBC. More here.
Uh, and that's not her in the photo...
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
'Friday Night Lights' Palicki is new 'Wonder Woman'
Friday Night Lights and Lone Star star Adrianne Palicki is the new Wonder Woman in David E. Kelley's pilot for NBC. More here.
Uh, and that's not her in the photo...
Darko's Richard Kelly headed to 'Corpus Christi'
UPDATE: It's finally being made and shot in Austin and Corpus Christi. Read more recent news here.
Certainly the next big film to be made in Texas, Richard Kelly, the guy behind Donnie Darko, is writing and directing the thriller Corpus Christi, Variety reports. And, yes, the film is set in Corpus Christi, Texas.
The story is about: " a mentally unstable Iraq war veteran named Paciencia "Patience" De La Rosa, who forges a strange friendship with his boss Ralph Salverson, the wealthy and politically ambitious owner of a supermarket chain."
It's expected to shoot in Corpus in July, with casting happening right now.
Sounds like potentially the best art about Corpus since Bret Anthony Johnston's short stories.
Divine image in Play-Doh?
This mysterious image appeared in some Play-Doh yesterday. Is the universe calling me to sell it for $1 million on eBay?
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Pee Wee Herman coming to SXSW!
Yep, it's official. Pee Wee Herman will be at SXSW in March. He announced it on his Twitter page today with the comment "The stars at night, are big and bright..."
More on panelists here.
Rip Torn, Renee Zellweger, 'Friday Night Light' in Texas Film Hall of Fame
The Texas Film Hall of Fame is a semi-swanky celeb-gazing fest put on by the Austin Film Society that opens the South By Southwest Film Festival every year. The names of honorees are released in drips and drabs in advance of the March 10 event at Austin Studios.
Our first names for 2011 are Rip Torn, Renee Zellweger and the TV show Friday Night Lights (not to be confused with the movie and the book). Kyle Chandler, Connie Britton are accepting and Jesse Plemons, Dana Wheeler-Nicholson and Brad Leland are in attendance for Lights as it celebrates its swan song.
Along with them, presenters will include usual suspects Catherine Hardwicke, Luke Wilson, Richard Linklater and Thomas Haden Church.
The host is seemingly non-Texan Wyatt Cenac of The Daily Show fame. But wait! He grew up in Dallas and attended Jesuit College Preparatory School.
More names will be released soon, I'm sure. My next guess is Owen Wilson. Wanna take odds?
Saturday, February 12, 2011
'Chase' stops running, what's next in Texas film/TV?
They've made my SHOT IN TEXAS "premium content" on the Dallas Morning News site, but here it is from today's paper...
'Chase' shuts down after NBC pulls it from schedule
By JOE O’CONNELL
NBC pulled Chase from its schedule just days before production on the show officially ended in North Texas this week. Five episodes remain unaired, and the move means the series probably won’t be back for a second season. The network earlier reduced the episode order from 22 to 18 after poor ratings.
Chase was the last of the major network series shot in Texas to close shop. It follows North Texas-shot Lone Star and The Good Guys, and Austin-shot My Generation and Friday Night Lights. Lights ended it fifth season on DirecTV this week, though the season won’t air on NBC until April.
All of the series faced ratings woes while also proving the mettle of Texas crews and bringing money to the state. Each episode is estimated to bring in at least $1 million in local spending.
If North Texas officials get their wish, the television production frenzy will continue.
“We do have projects that are looking,” said Janis Burklund of the Dallas Film Commission. “And that includes television pilots — plural — and features.”
Certainly the possibility with the highest profile is TNT’s modern-day take on Dallas . It was recently announced that Larry Hagman, Patrick Duffy and Linda Gray have all signed on for the series pilot, which will focus on the original characters’ children.
There was no word at press time that Dallas would shoot in Dallas, but Burklund remains cautiously optimistic. “They’re looking at their options,” she said of TNT reps. “I think we will know fairly soon.”
Also possibly on the horizon is the Dallas-set Good Christian Bitches , based on Kim Gatlin’s book of the same name. ABC has ordered a pilot presentation for the soap-like show from Sex and the City’s Darren Star.
The television floodgates opened after the 2009 Texas Legislature made its filming incentives payment more flexible and upped overall two-year spending to $60 million. The increase was seen as too little to attract a lot of major films, but perfect for network television. The current budget crunch is likely to shrink that amount considerably. An early proposal dropped it to $10 million for the next two years.
This week, Gov. Rick Perry proposed adding another $20 million on top of that for an even $30 million, as well as opening the possibility that additional funds could be added to the program if they could be freed up elsewhere.
The new session also brought a new leader to the Texas Film Commission, Dallas native Evan Fitzmaurice, who is keeping a politically low profile and letting legislators handle the politics of film incentives.
“There’s a process at work, and as a film commission, we are eager to answer their questions as we have in the past,” he said.
Don Stokes, president of the Texas Motion Picture Alliance, said cutting incentive funding now could halt the flow of television series to Texas.
“We’re prepared to look at a smaller appropriation,” he said. “We just feel it merits more than $30 million because of the jobs we bring to the state.”
The film group has commissioned an economic impact study aimed at proving that . The study is due March 1 from the Texas Association of Business.
Bonus footage
Fitzmaurice spent five years in Los Angeles as an entertainment attorney before joining Perry’s legal staff. He’s a graduate of Greenhill School in Addison. While attending the University of Texas, he wrote music reviews for The Daily Texan and played bass in the band Second Season. … When Angels Sing, a Christmas story directed by Tim McCanlies (Secondhand Lions ) and based on Turk Pipkin’s book, is currently shooting in Austin. The cast includes Harry Connick Jr., Connie Britton (Friday Night Lights ), Willie Nelson , Kris Kristofferson and Lyle Lovett.
'Chase' shuts down after NBC pulls it from schedule
By JOE O’CONNELL
NBC pulled Chase from its schedule just days before production on the show officially ended in North Texas this week. Five episodes remain unaired, and the move means the series probably won’t be back for a second season. The network earlier reduced the episode order from 22 to 18 after poor ratings.
Chase was the last of the major network series shot in Texas to close shop. It follows North Texas-shot Lone Star and The Good Guys, and Austin-shot My Generation and Friday Night Lights. Lights ended it fifth season on DirecTV this week, though the season won’t air on NBC until April.
All of the series faced ratings woes while also proving the mettle of Texas crews and bringing money to the state. Each episode is estimated to bring in at least $1 million in local spending.
If North Texas officials get their wish, the television production frenzy will continue.
“We do have projects that are looking,” said Janis Burklund of the Dallas Film Commission. “And that includes television pilots — plural — and features.”
Certainly the possibility with the highest profile is TNT’s modern-day take on Dallas . It was recently announced that Larry Hagman, Patrick Duffy and Linda Gray have all signed on for the series pilot, which will focus on the original characters’ children.
There was no word at press time that Dallas would shoot in Dallas, but Burklund remains cautiously optimistic. “They’re looking at their options,” she said of TNT reps. “I think we will know fairly soon.”
Also possibly on the horizon is the Dallas-set Good Christian Bitches , based on Kim Gatlin’s book of the same name. ABC has ordered a pilot presentation for the soap-like show from Sex and the City’s Darren Star.
The television floodgates opened after the 2009 Texas Legislature made its filming incentives payment more flexible and upped overall two-year spending to $60 million. The increase was seen as too little to attract a lot of major films, but perfect for network television. The current budget crunch is likely to shrink that amount considerably. An early proposal dropped it to $10 million for the next two years.
This week, Gov. Rick Perry proposed adding another $20 million on top of that for an even $30 million, as well as opening the possibility that additional funds could be added to the program if they could be freed up elsewhere.
The new session also brought a new leader to the Texas Film Commission, Dallas native Evan Fitzmaurice, who is keeping a politically low profile and letting legislators handle the politics of film incentives.
“There’s a process at work, and as a film commission, we are eager to answer their questions as we have in the past,” he said.
Don Stokes, president of the Texas Motion Picture Alliance, said cutting incentive funding now could halt the flow of television series to Texas.
“We’re prepared to look at a smaller appropriation,” he said. “We just feel it merits more than $30 million because of the jobs we bring to the state.”
The film group has commissioned an economic impact study aimed at proving that . The study is due March 1 from the Texas Association of Business.
Bonus footage
Fitzmaurice spent five years in Los Angeles as an entertainment attorney before joining Perry’s legal staff. He’s a graduate of Greenhill School in Addison. While attending the University of Texas, he wrote music reviews for The Daily Texan and played bass in the band Second Season. … When Angels Sing, a Christmas story directed by Tim McCanlies (Secondhand Lions ) and based on Turk Pipkin’s book, is currently shooting in Austin. The cast includes Harry Connick Jr., Connie Britton (Friday Night Lights ), Willie Nelson , Kris Kristofferson and Lyle Lovett.
Friday, February 11, 2011
Fionnula Flanagan in 'When Angels Sing'
Winner of the award (given out by me) of the sexiest older woman, Fionnula Flanagan is another interesting name to join the cast of Tim McCanlies' directed/Elizabeth Avellan produced When Angels Sing, which is currently filming in Central Austin. The film is based on the book by Turk Pipkin and has a very interesting cast including Harry Connick Jr., Connie Britton, Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson (he's been on the set this week), Sara Hickman (singing with her daugther Lili!) and Lyle Lovett. Oh, but unconfirmed reports have that spare Jonas brother out of the film.
See more about the film here. It shoots through March in Austin and Bastrop.
Oh, and for you Connick fans: He will end his film shoot with a show at the Long Center on March 26. Tickets are available here.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
