Harry Connick, Kris Kristofferson, a Jonas brother and Willie Nelson make a film?

UPDATE: That should be "a" Jonas brother, as in the youngest one. and Sara Hickman and her daughter are also likely to have a role in this very musical cast.

Extras info is here.

I've been hearing rumblings about the film adaptation of Turk Pipkin's story When Angels Sing, and it looks like it's about to start filming in Bastrop.

A casting call from Beth Sepko Casting & Third Coast Extras for photo doubles today asks for:

Adult Male- light-gray hair 5'9 - 5'11 thin to medium build
Adult Male- brown hair 6'2 - 6'7 medium build

The first is likely Kris Kristofferson, the second Lyle Lovett, (or perhaps extra-tall Pipkin, who surely will have a cameo role at the least) who are both set to star with Harry Connick Jr. and Willie Nelson. Hometown hero Tim McCanlies (Secondhand Lions) is directing and Elizabeth Avellan is among the producers. Oh, and the Jonas brothers are somehow in this one, too.

Looks like a February and March shoot.

The story:
Michael was eight years old on the Christmas Day he lost his brother David. The day had started out well-Michael and David opened their presents and, much to their delight, they both received ice skates from Santa. With great excitement they set out to the pond behind their grandparents' house in New Mexico to try them out. But the pond wasn't safe, and David never made it out from its icy cold depths. For Michael, the meaning of Christmas changed forever that day.

Thirty years later Michael (Connick) is the neighborhood Grinch. "To me the only wonder of Christmas is not why that tragedy marked me so," Michael says, "but how the rest of my family can seem so completely unscathed." He scowls at his neighbors' fervent holiday traditions and at his own children, who want nothing more than to string Christmas lights through their front yard. But when another holiday disaster strikes and his own cherished young son loses his spirit to live, Michael searches deep within himself to root out the anger, the fear, and the pain of the past. Can he bear to remember exactly what happened that Christmas day? And will he make peace with this past for the sake of his own children?

Hailee Steinfeld wins Acadamy Award...Wait a minute!

OK, it's just a nomination at this point, but Hailee Steinfeld lucked out to be put in the supporting actress category, and should be a major favorite to win for her role in True Grit (which was really a leading role).

Oh, and, yes, True Grit is also up for a few other awards, including best picture and best director(s) for the Coen brothers!

Remnants of 'True Grit' remain in Granger

Granger, Texas, is Fort Smith, Arkansas, in the Coen brothers' True Grit. I took a lot of photos of the set during its formation and right up until filming. (You can also find photos of the filming on my site if you look around. Just do a search for "Granger.")Today, I again visited the town to see what remnants of the filming remain and to provide a bookend to earlier photos. You can see some of the Old West signage remains on the mostly vacant buildings in the one block of downtown Granger. Buildings constructed specifically for the film are gone--most were only facades.

Take a look and compare to earlier photos here that were taken right before filming began.


Signs for the undertaker remain on this building, which is quite vacant.


This funky shop looks as out of place in modern-day Granger as it would in the film.


More of the signage from the film. Granger's red brick was covered with dirt for the filming and is now returned to its original state.


This bank is next door to where the film's gallows were.


The Granger post office was hidden behind a facade during filming, though customers were led into it by crew to do business during filming.


You can see why the filmmakers liked the look of the wide road.


More signage remaining from the shoot.


This mural was painted over the filming in such a manner that they could restore it to its original look. Nice trick!


A funky antique store was in the thick of things during filming when the sign outside read "post office."


A church is near the corner where antique wagons were stored for the shoot.


Some more film signage.

Joe Lansdale to make film of his Xmas zombie tale

Joe Lansdale is one of Texas' finest writers (here's an interview I did with him in 2009, and he's got a little cred in the movie biz as well after Don Coscarelli made his short story "Bubba Hotep" into a film of the same name a few years ago. Now Lansdale is beating the filmmakers to the punch. His son Keith Lansdale is adapting Joe's about-to-be-released story "Christmas with the Dead" for the big screen. Joe will executive produce and they'll do it all in his hometown of Nacogdoches in June with students from Stephen F. Austin State University assisting.

Here's the story: "“It was a foolish thing to do, and Calvin had not bothered with it the past two years, not since the death of his wife and child. But this year he decided, quite suddenly, that tomorrow was Christmas Eve. And zombies be damned, the lights and decorations are going up…”

An entire film shot on an iPhone4?

That's what Austin filmmaker Elizabeth Spear and other folks behind Brokedown Films claim is the case with Afghanistan war feature Little Gods, which was shot on an iPhone4 in a Georgetown, Texas, quarry. She is offering the film for $3.99 as a download.

Here's what she says about it: "Little Gods has done what has never been done before - making a movie with no perceived cost. What does this mean for Apple and its iPhone4 users? Everything."

UPDATE: Apparently South Korean director Park Chan-wook also has made a film on an iPhone. Who was first? I dunno.

Rob Thomas sets little league pilot

Austin resident Rob Thomas has sold a pilot to Fox titled Little in Common. According to The Hollywood Reporter, it's about families whose children play little league sports.

It's not all the guy behind Veronica Mars has in the works.

Jeff Nichols' 'Take Shelter' sold to Sony

Even before his film Take Shelter is to bow at the Sundance Film Festival later this month, Austin filmmaker Jeff Nichols (Shotgun Stories) is celebrating its sale to Sony Pictures Classics.

In the film, "Michael Shannon (Revolutionary Road, Boardwalk Empire) and Jessica Chastain (The Tree of Life) star as two parents living in Ohio with a six-year-old deaf daughter. When Shannon starts to have nightmares, he keeps his fears and anxieties to himself and obsessively erects a storm shelter in the backyard. His concerned family and community come second to his unspoken fears of what his dreams signify."