Joe M. O'Connell

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Malick's 'The Tree of Life' to premiere at Cannes

Yes, Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life will premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, just a year later than expected and in competition. It's the only film from a U.S. director in competition this year. Largely shot in Smithville, it stars Brad Pitt and Sean Penn.

Bill Hader eyeing script from Austin's Chris Mass and Owen Egerton

I posted this on Twitter a good while back, but forgot to blog it: Bill Hader of Saturday Night Light is attached to a script from Austin's own Owen Egerton (Mr. Sinus) and Chris Mass (Chalk).

From the Saturday Night Live blog:

Henchmen is based on a script written by Russell Sharman, Owen Egerton, and Chris Mass, with Akiva Schaffer and Hader currently reworking it. “The film is about two guys who don’t realize it, but they’re two henchman for like the badguy in a Bourne movie and then they slowly figure who that they’re working for the wrong guys, but like doing it in the actual style of a Bourne movie,” said Hader.

David Koresh says 'Waco' still swirling

That's actually John Leguizamo, who is set to portray David Koresh in Waco, the movie about the seige on Mount Carmel near Waco. In an interview this month, he describes the film as "still in the development process." Recent reports had it filming soon in Detroit utilizing Michigan's film incentives. The cast--if this controversial film ever gets made--is expected to include Kurt Russell, Adrien Brody and Sharon Stone.

Thursday, April 7, 2011

'Spy Kids 4' sends post production to Michigan

Want to know Robert Rodriguez's reaction to the Texas Film Commission denying incentives to Machete? Read this from The Detroit News:

Spy Kids 4 has been approved for post-production work in Michigan and has qualified for the Michigan film incentives, the Michigan Film Office announced today.

The film, which already has been shot, will be converted from 2-D to 3-D at Speedshape, a post-production facility in Birmingham. The Film Office reported that around $4.5 million will be spent on the process, and the production will receive around $1.8 million in tax credits.

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Austin-shot 'Meet Jane' remains not-so aloof

Little Ricky sez "pick up my show!"

UPDATE: New shoots of the pilot apparently have been taking place of late in Austin! An extras notice dated April 1 (no fooling) sought upscale business and model types ages 40-70 for a shoot this past Sunday. Also sought was a photo double for Schroder, so he's still on board and apparently 5'10" tall and weighing int at 160 lbs.

OK, I'm finally checking back on the status of Meet Jane, and the potential Lifetime series remains moored in the land of perhaps. According to Deadline.com "Meet Jane remains in contention and may be retooled." The pilot shot in Austin and starred Molly Parker and Rick Schroder.

Apparently that retooling is a go...

Monday, April 4, 2011

Allen Shamblin wins song of the year again

Just how many country music awards are there? At any rate, Allen Shamblin's song "The House that Built Me" as sung by Miranda Lambert won again as song of the year. This time it was the Academy of Country Music awards. He also won song of the year at the CMAs. If you want to know Allen's story (and figure out who that other guy is in the photo above), go here.

The real 'Fast Times at Ridgemont High'

The 1982 film Fast Times at Ridgemont High is based on Cameron Crowe's experiences posing as a student at San Diego's Clairemont High School in 1979--he wrote a book about the experience first. Here are a few pages from the school's 1979 yearbook. Is that Jeff Spicoli I see lurking in one shot?

For more on the film, check out this Facebook page.

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