My next documentary is 'Rondo and Bob'

The cat has clawed its way out of the bag. I'm working on a documentary called Rondo and Bob about The Texas Chain Saw Massacre art director Robert A. Burns and the actor Rondo Hatton, whom Bob Burns was obsessed with. (See more at the web site here: Rondoandbob.com

Robert A. Burns

 Austin American-Statesman columnist John Kelso made the announcement in his column:


Joe O’Connell is doing his part to promote Austin’s eccentricity.

O’Connell, an old newspaper guy who has written about film for several Texas papers, is shooting a documentary about the late Robert Burns, the man who put the gore in the original “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” movie.

In case you haven’t been keeping up with your blood and guts horror classics, Burns did the macabre artwork for the film. Although you wouldn’t guess he’d head in that direction if you met him; Burns was a real sweetheart, a soft-spoken guy with what I suspect was a genius IQ.

There’s never been another one like Robert Burns. They didn’t throw away the mold, because there was no mold. Although his South Austin home was a bit moldy.

Rondo Hatton

Burns lived in a two-story dust-collector in South Austin furnished with props from “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.” There was the arm chair, so-called because of the prosthetic arms Burns attached. When I visited Burns, a battery-powered rubber hand was crawling across the floor upstairs with a knife run through it, a prop Burns put together for an upcoming film project.

Burns made these masks.

What project? Who knows? But I’m betting it wasn’t “Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm.”

During my visit Burns sat me down and showed me the massacre movie on a small TV. His review? He had one complaint: All that screaming from characters being hacked to pieces made the film extremely loud.

Read the rest here.

The movie extra passes on

My piece about Odell Grant over at The Austin Chronicle begins like this:

Photo by Joe M. O'Connell

Nobody had a face like Odell Grant. The lines curlicued and dug deep like an etching of the totality of time. Then he’d break into a grin and his light eyes would ignite with mischief and reckless youth.

Odell only semi-jokingly called me his agent. I’d written a 2006 Austin Chronicle story about his life’s improbable last act as a film and television extra capable of stealing a scene, and he was convinced with my guidance he could become a story. Two years ago we met for lunch for the last time and he regaled me with tales from the set. “I was embalmed and buried in the low-budget film Elvis and Annabelle,” Odell says of the film in which he is featured as a dead coach. “I had my funeral. Nobody I know of has met their pallbearers.”

That was just a test run. Odell died for real Tuesday at age 79 surrounded by family and Jeanne, his wife of more than 50 years. The couple used to travel the state selling crafts at Sami shows, their daughter Lisa continuing the family tradition before she turned real estate agent.

Read the rest here.

Why your cell phone photos aren't art

 My mini-rant over at The Austin Chronicle:

"Caroline was at the hospital waiting for word on her daughter. At 77, Caroline's face was distinctive and beautiful. I approached from across the room, took a knee, and asked if I could take her portrait. I was testing out a medium format film camera I'd bought on eBay for cheap, I explained. From her purse, Caroline pulled out a photo of her with her husband in 1955 and held it in her lap. Snap. Then I took a digital pic. Snap again. Email to Caroline's family. Post on Facebook.

Here's the deal you already know: That film camera is a relic. It takes beautiful photographs, but I haven't had a home darkroom since the Nineties, so the film will go into the mail (once I get around to it) to a processing house which will snail mail it back to me. The pink of Caroline's cheeks will likely be more vibrant, the soul reflected in her eyes more soulful, but time will have marched forward."

Read the rest here.

Fear drove Hitckcock, author says

My conversation with Michael Wood about his new Alfred Hitchcock bio for  Kirkus Reviews:


The famed director Alfred Hitchcock’s secret to success? He was afraid.
 
That’s Michael Wood’s take in Alfred Hitchcock: The Man Who Knew Too Much, a thoughtful peek into the director’s work and psyche released as part of the Icons series, which has in previous volumes delved into everyone from Jesus to Stalin to Edgar Allan Poe. Hitchcock is most famed as the master of suspense, and the book submits that it points back to his youth when Hitchcock was consumed by the fear of being stopped by a policeman.

Read the rest here.

The homeless man who became a movie star

From Gary Poulter's Facebook page.

Gary Poulter looked like the stereotypical homeless guy you might see in Austin: big smile, skin wrinkled from the sun and alcohol abuse, hair like white cotton candy. He's been my obsession for recent months as I tried to track down his real, human story. I didn't want to just know the guy on the streets. I wanted to know the guy who played Little League, the guy who fell in love, the guy who went off the tracks.

Courtesy Debbie Altis.

Read my piece in today's Austin Chronicle for the results. Poulter's sisters Maria and Debbie opened up to me. The casting agents who chose Gary for David Gordon Green's film Joe (which by no coincidence opens today) sat down with me and production coordinator Shanti Delsante. Without these folks there would have been no story. I give them big thanks.

In the modern meta-world, there's also at least one article about the article, this one at Gawker. Now that level of writing about writing makes me smile.

Striking a nerve for (Southwest) Texas State

For several years I've been blogging college football over at The Austin Chronicle. (I'm a former Chron film columnist and have been writing for them for almost a decade.) For the most part it's been about the Texas Longhorns, but last year I decided to write weekly about Texas State University's first year in FBS football.

This year I've been lukewarm about continuing, but a Facebook back-and-forth led me to whip out this piece. Then I discovered the sports editor had changed in the interim and the new guy was already out at the Austin City Limits Music Festival. It took  a few emails to even find out who he was, then a couple more to find someone to post it online.

In it I make a couple of points: It's time for Texas State to be taken seriously by the area media (both Austin and San Antonio), the Bobcats are a good team with a solid defense and a freshman quarterback who is capable of doing magic, and--most important--they play on Austin TV today against the Ragin' Cajuns!

Oh, and I urged Longhorn fans to consider watching because, frankly, their team is going nowhere this year. (For the record, I've been a UT football fan since age 8 when my Dad started taking me to games. I'm also a two-degree grad of the school that shall always be known as Southwest Texas State University, and that's my license plate above.)

Then BANG. The post spread like wildfire through Twitter and Facebook, particularly the latter where it has racked up 4.6 4.8 4.9 thousand likes as of this moment (the number keeps climbing). I can only credit that to a potential fan base (the team's, not mine) that is untapped and ripe for the taking. 

It's an interesting reminder of the power of social media. Thanks for reading. Now go watch the game!

'Machete' sues Texas, but Rodriguez wants not part of it

Perry OKs film incentives in 2010.

 

The never-ending saga of the Texas Film Commission's denial of filming incentive funds to Robert Rodriguez's satirical slasher film Machete, well, continues.

According the the Houston Chronicle, papers have been filed in Austin seeking $8 million in incentives denied in late 2010. But now Rodriguez says he doesn't support the lawsuit and actually appears with Gov. Rick Perry in a commercial urging businesses to move to the Lone Star State. Perry signed 2009 film incentives legislation at Rodriguez's Troublemaker Studios surrounded by politicians and movie props.

It's all part of a twisted saga that includes radio conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, former Texas Film Commish Bob Hudgins--who left the job with a sexual harassment claim clouding the picture but whose efforts effectively created the film incentive program--and an oddball and quite vague "content clause" approved by the Legislature that restricts funding for projects that show Texas in a bad light.

A side effect of the story is the various film commissioners who have followed Hudgins (three to be exact) are no longer allowed to speak to the media and instead refer media reps to Perry's press office, which seldom returns calls.

Elephant Gun takes aim at photography

I'm pleased to be part of a new photo collective Elephant Gun. Check out the photos (Mine are here) and dive into true creativity. It's gritty. It's real. It's art.

By the way, the image you see is my shot of movie director Richard Rush speaking on camera for Love & Other Stunts, the documentary film I'm making about legendary indie stuntman Gary Kent. The folks at Elephant Gun were particularly taken with the image. Thanks for including me in the Gun, guys!

E.T.'s Henry Thomas in Texas Film Hall of Fame

                                                                                    Photo by Joe O'Connell

 My report from the Texas Film Hall of Fame for the San Antonio Express-News:

AUSTIN — If Henry Thomas hadn't become an actor, he'd likely have spent his adult life saving and rehabilitating horses. Instead he was inducted Thursday into the Texas Film Hall of Fame.
Save for a lucky break in an open audition for the 1981 film “Raggedy Man” (directed by Jack Fisk and starring Fisk's wife, Sissy Spacek), Thomas, who called himself a “pretty good horseman,” might have missed out on a career spanning more than 30 years — including memorable roles in films such as “All the Pretty Horses” and “A River Runs Through It.”

Read more here.

Help us complete the ultimate stuntman documentary!

 OK, it's official. The IndieGoGo campaign to fund the completion of my doc Love & Other Stunts about stunt legend Gary Kent is a go as of this very moment. (Hat goes out and bumps you in the chest.)
Please visit the site and consider dropping a few dollars in the coffers here:  http://igg.me/p/309171/x/2068884

Here's more info you will find on the site.--Joe O'Connell

 

The most interesting man in the world

I was at a writing conference in the late '90s when I met a white-haired hustler with a Burt Reynolds mustache and a knowing grin. He introduced himself as Gary Kent and told me about a cult biker film he'd starred in called Satan's Sadists. That night I tracked down a copy of the film and watched it, then I tracked down Gary and wrote a couple of articles about his unique film career doubling Jack Nicholson and Robert Vaughan,  and staging stunts and special effects sequences for notable directors Peter Bogdanovich, Monte Hellman, Richard Rush, Al Adamson and Don Coscarelli for movies including Hell’s Angels On Wheels, Psych-out, Targets, Bubba Ho-tep, and the noir Westerns The Shooting and Ride in the Whirlwind.


One day I told Gary someone should make a documentary about his life and career. Then I realized that someone is me. Gary agreed and opened his archives of personal photos and home movies to me and provided contacts for his long-time film industry friends and his family.

 

I've written about the film industry 15 years, including as a columnist for The Dallas Morning News, Austin American-Statesman and The Austin Chronicle and as a contributor to Variety and Video Business. I'm also an award-winning fiction writer, novelist and photographer. I'm a storyteller.

The documentary begins following Gary's journey with the release of his memoir Shadows and Light: Journeys with Outlaws in Revolutionary Hollywood. But I soon realized this film is about more than a guy who makes movies. Gary has faced bigger challenges in his personal life: his wife and soulmate's battle with alcohol and an abusive mother; his own struggle to sucker-punch cancer. The documentary gets to the heart of a survivor who learned how to take a fist to the gut, stand up and try life again.

It's time for the martini shot

We've got a lot of footage in the can, but this campaign will fund final shoots, editing and permissions to use film clips in the documentary. An editor is lined up and waiting. Gary is on board 100 percent, and isn't shying away from the grittier parts of his personal story being revealed. Your donation will assure this project is completed.

Why you should help

Gary Kent's story is one worth telling. You'll see from the brief video above that he is a compelling, charasmatic, good guy with an amazing film career and personal story worth telling. My aim to see this film screen at both mainstream and genre (horror, biker, sci-fi) film conventions like Cinema Wasteland. Both domestic and foreign televisions, DVD and streaming sales will follow.

Did you check out these perks for participating in our campaign? First edition copies of Gary's memoir are at this point ultra-rare. Come have lunch with us, pretty please?

Spread the word!

Please post a notice of this campaign to your Facebook page. Blog about it. Send a note to Filmnewsbyjoe at yahoo dot com and ask me questions. Let's cement Gary Kent's place in film history.

My top 10 stories of 2012

The Swim Test

I  continued to pump out writing both personal and about film/literature in 2012. Check it out, with the lede (it's in the photos) buried at the end.

(Here's my 2011 list, as well my top 10 stories of the 2000s.)

10. I've been blogging about the University of Texas Longhorns football team for The Austin Chronicle for a few years now. This year I decided to chronicle the rise of the school that shall always be known as Southwest Texas State as it advanced to Big-Time Football. My rule? Write as little about football in the blog as possible. Sometimes I even write about murder.

9. SEX! Yes, I said SEX! As in talking to Suzy Spencer about her new book Secret Sex Lives: A Year on the Fringes of American Sexuality, which is part memoir, part journalistic look at SEX. That includes orgies, hookups and, yes, SEX. Did I mention SEX?

8. Jim Sanderson is one of those Texas writers whose work comes out from the smaller presses, but is indeed worth checking out. I talked with him for the San Antonio Express-News. In 2011 I had reviewed another of his books for the Austin American-Statesman.

7. I don't get to actually write reviews enough, but that's been changing. I enjoyed reviewing Don Coscarelli's new film John Dies at the End for The Austin Chronicle. Also a pleasure to put my two cents in for the Austin American-Statesman on Carolyn Osborn's lovely new novel.

6. The Austin Chronicle gave me some great opportunities for star gazing and listening during the South By Southwest Film Festival. Willem Dafoe proved smart and interesting, and a joy to photograph. I also got to hear from Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane who brought along a surprise guest when talking about his film Ted.

5. Everyone else was interested in Matthew McConaughey moving to Austin, but no one but me seemed to pay attention when Dallas native Meatloaf also moved to the Capital City. I reported on it for The Dallas Morning News during the Texas Film Hall of Fame ceremonies. I also took some good pix.

4. Certainly one of the more interesting assignments during SXSW was to talk to the director of Girl Model, which looks at very young and very poor women plucked out of their Siberian homes and taken to the Japanese modeling world, most likely to be cast aside shortly, shaken and broken.

3. I voluntarily dropped my Texas film industry column from The Dallas Morning News a year ago. That follows columns in The Austin Chronicle and Austin American-Statesman on the subject dating back to 2000. I continue to blog about the film industry here (and write the occasional scoop about the industry elsewhere), but it's the personal pieces like the touching story of my friend Louise Shelby that matter more.

2. I was given a nice year-end gift from The Austin Chronicle when I was asked to go to the set of indie Western Red on Yella, Kill a Fella AND take photos there, including of cult actor Michael Berryman. Notice photos creeping more and more into this yearly list?

1. The most important piece I wrote this year is the most personal. It's about my son teaching me a lesson as he learned to swim. It ran in The Williamson County Sun.

Here's to 2013, where I'm continuing to put pen to paper (or more likely keystroke to computer). Look for more news soon in the way of fiction writing....

My 21 best photos of 2012

Hattie

It's a tough statement to make when you take photographs every single day, but these are the 21 favorite photos (as of this moment) I shot in the year that just ended. I participated in the 365 project on Flickr as well, and these photos were probably all in this larger, daily-photo set.

Hattie was my favorite portrait of the year (see my 100 Strangers project here). She is 88, cares for her blind husband in Granger, Texas, and was dressed up for an outing to the HEB grocery in Taylor when I asked to take her photo.

Newly-hatched cardinals

I had just seen a cardinal mother outside my window leave her nest with a chunk of eggshell in her mouth and knew I had to take this shot of the fresh baby birds. The third, unhatched egg? It's not a cardinal. See the full story in photos of the birds developing here.

My wife and I went to see Tom Petty perform in Austin, Texas, but found ourselves instead mesmerized by the woman interpreting the show for the hearing impaired. Her name is Barbie and she is now my friend on Facebook.

I was looking to shoot some sort of daily photo at sunset when my son took off across this field behind our house. The light was perfect and reminded me of an Andrew Wyeth painting and/or a shot from a recent Terrence Malick film.

Sign language

My Wyeth painting

See my full set of top photos from 2012 here. Happy New Year!

On the indie set of Western 'Red on Yella, Kill a Fella'

Here's my report for The Austin Chronicle from the set of Duane Graves and Justin Meeks' Western Red on Yella, Kill a Fella. You can also see a slideshow of my photos, including cult actor Michael Berryman in action.

The pair report that Boneboys, which they directed from Kim Henkel's script, is this close (see my fingers inching together?) to a sale.

Spencer's new book examines 'Secret Sex Lives'

Suzy Spencer gets her photo snapped for our Austin Chronicle interview.

Check out my interview with Suzy Spencer (it's all about sex) in today's Austin Chronicle about her new book Secret Sex Lives. (Did I mention the sex?) Here's the beginning (which is somewhat about sex):

Meeting Suzy Spencer at the IHOP to discuss her book Secret Sex Lives: A Year on the Fringes of American Sexuality seems both appropriate and wrong. Scanning the mostly middle-aged and older crowd, I can't help but wonder if these are the very people in the book – the sometimes sad, sometimes funny folks prowling Craigslist for extramarital sex partners, swinging, swapping, and playing out new and oh-so-naughty roles.

"The first advice I got was to meet my sex sources at the IHOP," Spencer says. "It's because of all of the security cameras. I was told to sit where the camera would be pointed at them." She points up, and I see the camera staring down at me. "They're just regular everyday people," she says of her sources. "The majority of them you wouldn't think were doing this if you met them on the street. For instance, the guy I call Coyote in the book is a regular good old boy who just happens to cheat on his wife."

You can read the rest (which is full of talk about SEX!) here. Enjoy.

'Road Stories' photo exhibit is up

Nicholas welcomes you to my latest photo show!

My photo show titled "Road Stories" is up at Star Co. coffee shop in downtown Round Rock, Texas, for the month of May. A party is set from May 12 from 5-7 p.m. featuring a reading of road poems by W. Joe Hoppe.

You can also find the show online here.

My top 10 stories of 2011

I did some interesting nonfiction writing in 2011, but also found the opportunities for a free-lancer to be teasingly ephemeral like a batch of bright fake flowers appearing from a magician’s sleeve then as quickly evaporating. Here are my highlights from the year:

10. I’ve been penning a The Dallas Morning News column about the film industry for the past six years and previously wrote similar columns for the Austin American-Statesman and The Austin Chronicle dating back to 2000. It was a long run, but I decided to stop with my December column. I need to focus my energies elsewhere, in particular on my fiction writing.

9. Writing about writing was a hallmark of the year. My long interview with Tom Grimes appeared in The Writer's Chronicle, the magazine of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP), and I got to talk to some writers I admire a lot, including A.G. Mojtabai.

8. The Austin Chronicle was kind enough to ask me to do some pretty extensive coverage during this year’s South by Southwest Film Festival. And, yes, I got to meet both Pee Wee Herman and Elmo!

7. I've been reporting on the Texas Film Hall of Fame festivities for The Dallas Morning News for years, but I know you'd really rather see the photos.

6. Austrian filmmaker Barbara Eder told me about how her dangerous experience as a foreign exchange student led to the film Inside America.

5. I've tended to do more book interviews than reviews, but I somehow managed to transform myself into the Austin American-Statesman's go-to reviewer of Texas fiction. At least until the bottom dropped out and the paper pretty much stopped generating its own reviews and replaced them with wire service reviews. And then the editor changed (see my note above). Ouch! My favorite book to review? Mat Johnson's Pym.

4. Actor Paul Giamatti is a cool guy, but interviewing Win Win director Tom McCarthy along with Giamatti was a double treat.

3. My wife Tiffany is a big fan of the TV show The Waltons, so I planned a surprise trip to Schuyler, Virginia, the home of the very autobiographical story’s author, Earl Hamner. The Dallas Morning News asked me to write this piece about the small town intrigue surrounding the show's local roots and also ran a lot of my photos.

2. I’ve been blogging at The Austin Chronicle about the Texas Longhorns football team for a few years now. I shared the chore this year and tried to advise my counterpart to write as if no one is reading, to play with the form, to never ever make it boring. My favorite sports piece this year actually had a point to make about coaches training their defensive players to lead with their helmets.

1. The writing I’m most proud of from this past year wasn’t officially published anywhere, and it wasn’t necessarily my best work. It was instead personal and it had to do with loss. Jacob Payne lived much of his life in a wheelchair and had many lessons to offer all of us about living fully. I have now written obituaries for both of my parents and my brother Casey, who died in an accident on Halloween. I’m still processing it all, Last night I dreamed I was dreaming about my mother and Casey. No doubt Casey enjoyed the trick of visiting me in that complicated fashion. Casey’s friend, the singer/songwriter Bob Livingston, said Casey’s death is a reminder to all of us to hold tight to this “sweet, sweet life.” I couldn’t say it better.

Saying goodbye to my brother Casey

I created the photo above by taking an older photo of my brother Casey and shooting it in the same spot in what was my late father's house this past week. In a sense it allows Casey to come home one last time. Casey died this past week in India when he fell from a train platform. The photo is featured on the web site Dearphotograph.com.

My sister Clare and I wrote the following obituary for Casey, which appeared in the Austin American-Statesman.



Casey John O'Connell died in an accident at a train station in Kerala, India, on Oct. 31.

He was born in Austin on June 11, 1956, to William Robert O'Connell and Wylma Louise “Cassie” O'Connell Ruelke, who both preceded him in death.

Casey graduated from Austin High School where his great joy was acting in plays as part of the Red Dragons. He later appeared in local productions, including at Zachary Scott Theatre, and was an occasional movie extra. He taught himself to juggle and ride a unicycle, and he rode his bicycle everywhere, including a cross-country trip with his oldest brother Wroc.

He received his LVN degree from Austin Community College and took great joy in working with newborn babies at Seton Hospital. He went back to school to earn a degree in chemistry and physics from Southwest Texas State University where he worked in the chemistry lab. Early on he commuted to campus by bicycle from Austin and liked to tell of his collision with a house (it was on wheels and being transported down I-35).

He had lived for many years in India, where he taught math and science and met his wife Magali.

Casey could fall asleep sitting up while doing a crossword puzzle and still have a semi-coherent conversation with you (though he wouldn't remember it later). He liked to play card games into the night or until he started winning. He was a vegetarian who could eat endless amounts of food and never gain weight. He remained as limber as a teenager. He liked to talk and talk and talk. He was a kind and gentle soul who truly cared about people and always had a smile. He was mischievous, funny and could tell a great joke, but only a mathematician would get the punch line. He somehow managed to keep alive the joy in life that fades for most of us with our first gray hairs, and what was left of Casey's hair was solid white. Most of all he was a great brother to five siblings who will forever feel his absence.

He is survived by his wife, Magali O'Connell; sisters, Mary Ann O'Connell and Clare O'Connell of Austin; brothers, William Robert “Wroc” and Lorie O'Connell of North Carolina, Daniel Pius O'Connell and wife Tarla, and Joseph Matthew O'Connell and wife Tiffany of Taylor; a niece, Shanthi O'Connell; and nephews, Russell Harvey, Will Harvey and Nicholas O'Connell.

Memorials can be made to the Zachary Scott Theatre at Zachtheatre.org.

Shot in Texas: Mike Norris moves into spotlight

Mike and Valerie Norris.


By JOE O’CONNELL
Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News

As a maker of independent faith-based films including the upcoming I am Gabriel, Mike Norris has moved out of his iconic father’s shadow.

“I’m proud that Chuck Norris is my father,” he said. “I’m proud of his accomplishments. I just happen to make films that are a little different.”

Gabriel starts production next week in North Texas. It’s the story of a dying town awakened by miracles when a mysterious 10-year-old boy arrives. The cast includes a couple of “super” names: John Schneider (Clark Kent’s dad in TV’s Smallville) and Dean Cain (Superman in the ’90s TV series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman).

“It’s a very simple story, but it’s a good story,” Norris said. “I’m looking forward to seeing what we can make out of it.”

It’s the third faith-based film for Norris and his wife Valerie’s 2nd Fiddle Entertainment, which has also produced Maggie’s Passage and Birdie and Bogie. Despite the company name, the filmmaker is no second fiddle to his father, most famous for Walker, Texas Ranger.

Mike Norris grew up in Los Angeles as his father’s career turned from martial artist to action film star.

His father is in on the joke of “Chuck Norris facts” that have spawned T-shirts with messages like “Chuck Norris turned water into whiskey” — and even spotted one such message in a latrine while visiting troops in Iraq, Mike Norris said.

“I learned a lot from him: a work ethic, how to treat people,” Mike Norris said. “It’s only been a blessing to me to be his son.”

Mike moved to Flower Mound 15 years ago when he was directing episodes of Walker after a successful career in action films. He recently did stunts on the Dallas-shot series Chase for which his brother Eric Norris served as a second-unit director and stunt coordinator.

Gabriel came about after a chance encounter with Janis Thompson, who with her husband, Steve, owns Mom’s Café in tiny Justin. They had a general idea for a film. Norris caught the bug and wrote it out as a script. The 15-day shoot will take place entirely in Justin with Norris directing.

Norris works with MPS Studios in Dallas during production and post-production, then counts on Pure Flix Entertainment to get his films out to the Christian market. He has higher hopes for Gabriel.

“What I want to do is cut a nice trailer and send it out there,” he said. “You never quite know what is going to happen.”

Next up for Norris is Blind Faith, a film about a piano prodigy who loses his sight. And he’s in development on a faith-based horror film that may stretch the boundaries of both genres.

“I will do them all right here in North Texas,” he said.

‘Breakfast Club’

Barry “Bazza” Wernick was once the student body president at St. Mark’s School, which makes him the perfect choice to write and produce an adaptation of his and Matt Spradlin’s graphic novel Bad Kids Go to Hell, which recently wrapped production both in North Texas and at Spiderwood Studios outside Austin in time to make a splash at San Diego’s Comic-Con.

The horror-comedy focuses on a group of prep schoolers stuck in detention who get killed off one by one. Appropriately, Judd Nelson (The Breakfast Club) stars as the headmaster. Also in the cast is Ben Browder (Starscape).

Bonus footage

Mission Park, which stars Jeremy Ray Valdez and Vivica A. Fox, is being touted as the first major feature to shoot in San Antonio in a decade. The drama, directed and written by Bryan Ramirez, has just started filming. … Look for Austin-shot series The Lying Game to premiere on ABC Family on Aug. 15. The series pilot was shot in New Mexico.

SHOT IN TEXAS: ‘Dallas’ pilot begins 12-day shoot

My Dallas Morning News column (which actually runs Saturday but is already up on the Web site--oddly minus my byline).--Joe

NOTE: Larry Hagman on Sunday at 8 p.m. will be at the Texas Theatre, where the original Dallas series is being screened two episodes at a time weekly.

SHOT IN TEXAS: ‘Dallas’ pilot begins 12-day shoot here next week

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

The TNT series pilot for Dallas begins a 12-day North Texas shoot next week. The pilot follows the next generation of Ewings led by Jesse Metcalfe, Josh Henderson and Jordana Brewster. Larry Hagman, Charlene Tilton, Steve Kanaly, Linda Gray and Patrick Duffy from the original series are also on board.

“Just because a pilot shoots here doesn’t mean it’s going to stay if picked up,” warned Janis Burklund of the Dallas Film Commission. She has seen network shows such as Fox’s Good Guys come and go. Indeed, most of the original Dallas series was shot in Hollywood.

Dallas-set and Dallas-shot ABC pilot GCB, starring Leslie Bibb, Kristin Chenoweth and Annie Potts, recently wrapped production. Word of a series pickup is expected by mid-May.

A couple of canceled series shot in North Texas are also staging small-scale comebacks. The five unaired Chase episodes shot in Dallas will be broadcast beginning Saturday on NBC. And Lone Star creator Kyle Killen is staging a free screening of the fourth through sixth episodes of the canceled Fox series this Sunday in Austin at the Alamo Drafthouse-Ritz.

In 2009, Hagman, Dallas’ J.R. Ewing, wandered the Texas Capitol giving out fake $10,000 bills with his photo on them, successfully prodding legislators to increase filming incentives funding. But incentives are no longer such an easy sell.

With six weeks to go in the session, the Texas Legislature is hashing out the future of a filming incentives program that in 2009 awarded two-year funding of $60 million — with another $2 million for operating expenses and funding of a state film archive. This time the Senate is looking at two-year funding of $10 million, while the House is considering increasing that two-year figure to $30 million plus that spare $2 million for operations and film archive. The decision will likely be up to a House-Senate conference committee.

The industry, in a study expected to be released next week, contends the film, television and video-game industry has had a $1.1 billion impact since incentives were first funded in 2007, and a direct in-state spend of just less than $600 million. The study commissioned by the Texas Association of Business with the help of the University of Texas considers spending through 2010.

“It shows how effective we are at creating jobs,” said Don Stokes, president of the lobbying group Texas Motion Picture Alliance. “It shows the Texas program is the most efficient program out there.”

Competing states also are looking at either cutting back or eliminating filming incentives in this tight budget year. Still, New Mexico is considering a $45 million per year cap, far more than ever offered in Texas.

“Our program was designed from the beginning to be very conservative,” Stokes said, noting Texas’ strengths in trained film crews and varied filming locales. “As other programs across the country pull back and come back into reality, it makes Texas that much more competitive. We hope we end up with enough to keep Texas in the game.”
Burklund agrees. “We all know we’re going to take a cut,” she said. “I’m not panicking about it. We’re doing the best we can given the circumstances.”

Bonus footage

Dallas filmmakers Barak Epstein, Adam Donaghey, Jason Reimer and Eric Steele, working together as Aviation Cinemas, are launching what they term “crowd-funded” indie films and producing them directly from Oak Cliff’s Texas Theatre. The first project is The Verdigris, a music documentary executive-produced by Bradley Beesley (Okie Noodling) and featuring music by Beau Jennings. A donations-only performance by Jennings opened the effort at the Texas Theatre on Friday.

Book review: 'Nights of the Red Moon'

My review of Milton Burton's latest mystery novel Nights of the Red Moon was in Sunday's Austin American-Statesman.