Making sense of the Texas film industry

My latest SHOT IN TEXAS column in The Dallas Morning News looks at where things stand for the Texas film industry going into the January session of the Texas Legislature.

My guest stint on 'Writing on the Air'

Francois Pointeau mans the microphone.

You can listen to me talk writing, admit my bad vision and read a bit from my novel-in-stories Evacuation Plan on the KOOP-FM show "Writing on Air" in Austin, Texas by clicking here.

A nursing home Christmas

A few images I shot in a nursing home that is crowded with Christmas.

'The Good Guys' is gone for good

Fox has not officially canceled Dallas-shot The Good Guys; they just won't order more episodes that the 20 that have already aired. With a reduction in episodes ordered for Chase, the television flurry in Big D looks to be drying up. More from me on this Saturday in The Dallas Morning News.

Perry names interim Texas film commish

This just in. Perry has named a temporary replacement for Bob Hudgins as head of the Texas Film Commission. Hudgins stepped down Nov. 30 amid sexual harassment allegations that he has denied.

The replacement is an entertainment attorney and has ties to both Austin and Dallas:


Gov. Rick Perry today named Evan E. Fitzmaurice interim director of the Texas Film Commission. The commission supports Texas’ growing and diverse media industries, and helps increase Texas’ competitive position worldwide as a production destination.

Fitzmaurice will head to the Film Commission after a stint in the Governor’s General Counsel Office. Before joining the Governor’s Office, he practiced law in Los Angeles at the entertainment law firm of Jackoway Tyerman Wertheimer Austen Mandelbaum Morris and Klein P.C. While representing the firm’s writer, director, actor and producer clients, Fitzmaurice focused on film, television and digital production company financings and related transactions.

Fitzmaurice practiced transactional law at the international firm of K&L Gates LLP in Los Angeles and Dallas, and in the Dallas office of Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell LLP. He is a member of the State bars of Texas and California, and a past member of the Beverly Hills and Dallas Bar associations.

Additionally, Fitzmaurice co-produced the 2007 independent documentary, A Lawyer Walks Into a Bar, which premiered at the 2007 South by Southwest Film Conference and Festival, won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2007 AFI Dallas International Film Festival, and appeared at several other film festivals.

A Dallas native, Fitzmaurice received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas at Austin in 1993 and a law degree from the University of Texas School of Law in 1999.

Major Applewhite next to flee Texas Longhorns?

The previous rumor was Major Applewhite would be the next offensive coordinators for Mack Brown's Texas Longhorns. Now reports have him following Will Muschamp to the University of Florida. Looks like Texas fans will get the usual medicine of a rare losing season--an almost new coaching staff. Brown gets to stay and try to find a "coach in waiting" to replace Muschamp and the gang.

'Ruth's Locket' highlights pain of Alzheimer's

I've been meaning to mention Gene Burns' upcoming production of Ruth's Locket for a while now. The short film is about "characters robbed of their past and present, and the connections between the two. The central plot revolves around the loss of a second chance at one’s first love due to the loss of memory."

Set to shoot this month in San Marcos, the film is a nonprofit project that Burns, a longtime actor who wrote the script and will direct, describes as a labor of love based on his own parents. Filmmakers are seeking donations to keep the project going. Check out more about the film and how to contribute to the cause here. Filmmakers are halfway to their financial goal.