'Swingtown' extras

CBS pilot Swingtown is interviewing male and female extras from ages 18-40 for high school scenes as well as adult scenes this Friday and Saturday in Austin for filming between March 12-19 (the high school scenes during spring break, natch). Come by 501 N. I-35 between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. either day dressed as a '70s hipster and expect to get your photo taken. More info is upcoming at bethsepkocasting.com.

When the competition gives up

OK, this is that odd, delicate subject I can't avoid any longer. You see I'm an old beat newspaper reporter. I used to cover city hall, schools, the county courthouse, etc. in a myriad of small to mid-sized towns. A best reporter's job (in my mind) is to put a blanket over the area in question and strive to capture its essence for the reading public.

When I started writing about the Texas film industry 10 years ago, it was mainly about getting to see movies for free. One day I decided to write a column, thinking Texans would like to know what's going on in their burgeoning film scene. I, of course, was such an idiot that I didn't realize Jane Sumner had been doing just such a column at the Dallas Morning News for a couple of decades. Jane creamed me. She was a beat reporter who knew her beat up and down. Over time I slowly started to catch up. Sometimes I beat her to the scoop.

My column was picked up by the Austin American-Statesman in 2000 and ran there until 2004, when I jumped ship because of disagreements over the column's future form as it moved to the paper's XL entertainment section. Shortly after it was picked up by The Austin Chronicle. About the same time Jane Sumner left the Morning News and a year later my column debuted there as well.

Meanwhile my old pals at the Statesman had their own form of the film industry column in the XL as planned. That is until the tabloid shrank so much that the column dropped. Their solution was to move film news to a Web blog, where it appears to mainly consist of press releases and links, you know bloggy stuff like you see here.

That's all well and good, but I can't help but be amazed that they have yet to mention anywhere either online or in print the TV pilot I told my readers about a month ago or the indie film starring Julia Roberts that I confirmed last week (after noting the film a few weeks before that). All this at a time when many in the film industry are fighting for state incentives to stay competitive.

The old beat reporter in my misses my own perception of competition (slap me around if I'm sounding pompous here. Ouch!)I also miss the two-newspaper cities we not too long ago had in Dallas, Houston and San Antonio (Austin, too, if you go back to the Austin Citizen). I can't help believing we'd all be better off with more, not less.

Who killed 'Idiocracy' and why?

So I finally got around to seeing Mike Judge's Austin-shot film Idiocracy last night. I saw it on DVD, of course, since it was just barely released to theaters--one week in five cities with next to no publicity.

We're not talking Academy Awards here, but Idiocracy is a pretty good movie -- in the 2.5 to 3 star range. So why did the Hollywood corporate weasels kill this film? I have a few theories.

+ It wasn't funny enough. They were expecting yuck yucks a la Porky's or Beavis and Butt-Head. But, duh, was Office Space aimed at the lowest common denominator? Oh, right, they stepped on that Judge film, too. But now it's a cult hit on DVD of the highest standing. I have yet to meet a college student who hasn't viewed it at least five times.

+ Not enough sex. Even the deleted scenes are pretty tame when it comes down to it. Sure, there's low-brow sex humor, but it's pretty mild. I'm betting they begged Judge to add some monster jigglers.

+ It makes fun of corporations by name. Surely they had to get permission, but in the end Fuddruckers is referred to by the most obvious of names and Costco and Starbucks are full of prostitutes for sale.

+ It's smart. Yes, this is social commentary on the dumbing down of America much as Office Space was a treatise on the trap of a corporate job. It's good and sometimes subtle, too. For instance, Judge envisioned a future where almost everybody is mixed race. But he didn't spell that out. You had to figure it out for yourself.

The truth is Judge is most interested in making fun of the world he grew up in and lives in now--the world that "elected" George W. Bush twice. Judge does it damn well, and is the closest we've got to a Will Rogers or Mark Twain of the big screen. Check out the very literate (and often not) discussion at IMDB for proof that this film resonates.

I urge you to go out and watch Idicracy if only to prove the corporate weasels wrong once again.

One complaint: Why cut the great joke about search for the Museum of Art, which was actually the Museum of Fart. Funny! Low brow! If one there were some boobs in there...

Judge is said to be at work on another film. Let's hope this one gets the full release his work deserves.

Will they ever make the 'Dallas' film?

It's looking less likely by the day with the announcment that the presumed director is pregnant with twins. Only John Travolta's commitment to play J.R. gives this oft-delayed film legs. It's a shame given the efforts by the Dallas Film Commission to keep filming in Big D and out of little La. (alas). That's Louisiana to you nonpunsters, not the City of Angels.

Julia Roberts coming to Austin

Read my latest FILM NEWS column in The Austin Chronicle. for the details on both a star-studded film and a TV pilot shooting in late March. Plus the latest on the film incentives front.

Swingtown

It's confirmed. The CBS pilot will shoot in Austin next month. Grant Show of Melrose Place fame is starring. (Read my column Thursday for news of a much bigger star also coming to Austin in March.)

I can already hear the opening credits:

Let's make some romance
You know the night is fallin'
And the music's callin'
And we've got to get down to Swingtown...

Separated at birth?

is it just me? Tell me it's not just me...