Weinstein Co. buys SXSW doc 'Undefeated'

High school football doc Undefeated has been purchased by the Weinstein Co., the film's co-director Dan Lindsay announced to a small group of viewers at the Westgate following Monday's screening. The film premiered Sunday night with some of the players in attendance. It follows an inner city Memphis team as it aims to win district and then win its first playoff game ever in the school's more than 100 year history. The filmmakers said the project began after they spotted an article about a football player who had moved in with a coach a la The Blind Side. Instead they found their main focus in a charismatic and chubby redhead who volunteered to coach the team. Lindsay said they watched other sports docs while spending eight months immersed in the high school team's season, but their greatest inspiration came from the film Glory and its powerful third act.

The film that was shown was just completed Thursday night, Lindsay said.

'Mandy Lane' may finally get release?

Yes, I loved All the Boys Love Mandy Lane when it screened at the South By Southwest Film Festival in 2007. Shot is Bastrop, it seemed to me an update on Heathers mixed with the sort of horror film that has come back in vogue in the last decade or so. And star Amber Heard, an Austin native, shines in the film, which was inexplicably shelved by the Weinsteins.

But the film got a secret screening at Comic-Con recently and there are hints it may finally get a release in the U.S. (It's already out on DVD overseas). Thanks for the tip from Slackerwood.com

Mandy Lane director Jonathan Levine (The Wackness) told me in 2007 that he looked for inspiration from two very Texas efforts, the original The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and NBC's series Friday Night Lights, as well as John Hughes' teen films from the 1980s.

"We thought it was interesting to take that [teen film] model and graft a horror film onto it," Levine said.

'Spy Kids 4' is in production?

I'm used to the secretiveness of the Robert Rodriguez camp (I even had to sign one of those ubiquitous confidentiality agreements when my nephew was an extra in the first Spy Kids), but it's always surprising how quiet the ramp up of production of a new film is. Here's a little hint from The Hollywood Reporter that the production of Spy Kids 4 is under way for the Weinstein Company with a release date set for August 2011. (IMDB.com lists the complete title as Spy Kids 4: Armageddon.) I know that casting has been active. Anyone know anything else?

Here's what Rodriguez told me in May:

Rodriguez said the “Spy Kids” reboot is for the Weinstein Co. and will include new child secret agents with actors — whom he did not identify — already in line to play the roles.

“I thought it could be good to reboot my own series,” he said. “That's my most loyal audience — not the film geeks, but the kids.”

The film's script already has been turned in.

“The Spy Kids Division has been closed down seven years ago,” Rodriguez said. “We will see some of the characters from the previous films.”