Joe M. O'Connell

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

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...

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

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.

Monday, May 24, 2010

Another Austin-set TV show?

It's only in development for ABC now, but Deadline Hollywood says the Taye Diggs-produced family cop drama Behind the Blue is about "a family of police officers – a female Chief of Police and her four adult children, all of whom are in some facet of politics and/or law enforcement."

More on this as it develops...

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Jeff Bridges with his 'True Grit' eye patch!

WHY IS IT ON THE "WRONG" EYE? Click here.

Some late-breaking photos from the recent True Grit shoot in Blanco at the old courthouse. Big thanks to the local who sent these along. (I did not take them. They were shot from across the street from the set where locals gathered to watch the filmmaking process.) They also offer the first photographic evidence that Rooster Cogburn's eye patch does indeed make an appearance in the film. With Jeff Bridges here is newcomer Hailee Steinfeld, who portrays Mattie Ross in Joel and Ethan Coen's version of the story.

(For a lot of photos from the True Grit set in Granger, including these from the hanging scene, take a look at my recent posts.)

Friday, May 14, 2010

My latest SHOT IN TEXAS column

Most of this has been covered already in the blog, but here's my latest SHOT IN TEXAS column in the Dallas Morning News about three TV series shooting in Dallas, one in Austin and True Grit in Granger. Enjoy.

Alex Jones vs. 'Machete'

As a longtime fan of Austin's version of access television (I haven't seen it in years since moving to the sticks where we are cable-less), I'm excited to see Alex Jones jump into the Texas film incentives fray. Specifically, he's decrying Robert Rodriguez's upcoming film Machete as too racist to merit those state bucks. Of course, Machete is suupposed to be a "brownsplotation" film, but, please, discuss...

ABC picks up Austin-set show 'My Generation'

It was called Generation Y until some boomer got ahold of it and retitled it My Generation for the Who's song. The pilot was shot in Austin and it certainly appears the show will, too, since the story itself is set in Austin. This means the lovely Jaime King will be all over the place.

Quots from show creator Noah Hawley's Twitter account:

As you may have heard the show has been renamed "My Generation." off to celebrate. More soon.

Generation Y has officially been picked up to series by ABC. I am thrilled and humbled. Thanks to all who helped. Let's make TV history.

That makse four, count 'em, four major network television series soon to be shooting in Texas. The other three are all in Dallas.

What they're saying about EVACUATION PLAN

"Tales alternately gentle, dramatic, surrealistic, that collectively affirm the beauty of being alive, even as they acknowledge that all of us face the necessity of making our own 'evacuation plan.' "
-- Brad Buchholz, Austin American-Statesman

" The chapters about Matt and the short stories demonstrate O’Connell’s ability to develop sympathetic, true-to-life characters using intriguing details and compelling dialogue. The stories remind us of those times when a brief encounter with a stranger left us wondering about that person’s past. In Evacuation Plan, O’Connell satisfies that curiosity. "
-- The Texas Observer

"It was very hard for me to put this book down. It carries us through the deepest meaning in life and most painful, most hopeful memories for a wide range of fascinating characters. Based in a hospice, this book could have easily resorted to cheap sensationalism, or whacked us upside the head with stereotypic melodrama, but instead it was respectful, honest, and tender. The characters will stay with you - you may even recognize some of them within your own life. "
-- Award-winning author Carmen Tafolla

"An excellent, thought-provoking diversion from our own inevitable plummet toward the grave, and we highly recommend it to you, the living."
-- Wayne Alan Brenner, The Austin Chronicle

"O’Connell has drawn some colourful and believable characters. The material relating to the hospice and terminal care rings true, all the way to reconciliation and forgiving."
-- Dr. Roger Woodruff, International Association for Hospice & Palliative Care

"The tales are nicely written, and some are quite compelling; “The Male Nurse,” for one, is a dreamlike reverie."
-- Texas Monthly

“Evacuation Plan: A Novel From The Hospice by Joe M. O'Connell is nothing short of remarkable … a novel that walks hand-in-hand with death and yet, somehow, the reader finishes the book feeling inspired to live.”
– The Paisano

"A wonderful blend of lives ordinary but with sometimes extraordinary elements. We all share these stories of life in some way, despite moments of harshness or unforgiving pain. There is always a common thread of humanity and ultimately forgiveness to be found, even if it's in the last moment of life."
-- Elaine Williams, author of A Journey Well Taken

"Reading Evacuation Plan is akin to unwrapping a series of small perfectly-chosen presents. Both human and humane, The book resembles a modern Spoon River Anthology with its vivid, touching glimpses into the lives of those in and around a hospice."
-- Tim McCanlies, screenwriter The Iron Giant, writer/director Secondhand Lions

"In Evacuation Plan Joe O'Connell does for the process of dying what Sherwood Anderson did for middle America in Winesburg, Ohio--he shows us in brief flashes the aching beauty of the grotesque, and shows us how extraordinary small lives and quiet deaths can be."
--John Blair, Drue Heinz Literature Prize winning author of American Standard

"Here's a book so rich with stories of the living, so filled with people's bountiful problems, as well as incidents of wry forgiveness, one realizes over and over the circling forces of life's completeness. It's not a sad tale nor a needless feel-good account but a balanced, sometimes comic, affirmation of what is here and what we all know is waiting."
-- Carolyn Osborn, award-winning short story writer

"The broken, the hopeful, the frustrated, the clueless, and the forgiving touch one another with words, remembrances, and hands. Inevitably, readers will quietly wonder about their own evacuation plan."
-- Will's Texana Monthly

O'Connell's protagonist skillfully navigates under the guise of a writer seeking raw materials for his craft in the stories of the dying, but mines and refines instead the stuff we're all made of. In this finely crafted novel, we come away with much more than the astute observation that many of the best stories begin at the end. But, then again, that notion is also worth a lot.
--Jesse Sublett, cancer survivor, rocker and author of Never the Same Again

"Joe O'Connell's Evacuation Plan--this Decameron of the hospice--encompasses a paradox. Death comes for everyone, but death is the only human universal because everyone dies, and witnesses dying, with private, unspeakable shame. Yet there are a few minutes left to speak. As people die, they tell stories which spawn new stories, which remind us that death is agony, a violent struggle, but so is living."
-- Debra Monroe, Flannery O'Connor Award winning author of Newfangled and Shambles