Short Cuts

Sleep Now Yes Dept.: "We're all kind of dazed and confused right now," says South by Southwest Film Conference and Festival producer Matt Dentler, a fact confirmed by the extensive variety of hacking coughs we cataloged last Saturday evening as SXSW Film 04 (and Music) wound down. That didn't stop anyone from heading out to catch the final screenings of Fest programming, including Friday's 9:45pm showing of Morgan Spurlock's Super Size Me at the 1,300-seat Paramount Theatre. As it turns out, the film's distributor requested to SXSW that only 300 people be allowed into the historic theatre because, as Dentler relates, "Too many people had already seen the film. They didn't want too many people seeing the film in Austin before it was released here later in the year. Essentially, the first screening at the Paramount got too much publicity, and that got back to the distributors in New York. And that's kind of an old studio marketing technique that we deal with every year. They just don't want everyone seeing it at the Festival instead of during its initial release." Also notable vis-à-vis the deeply anti-McDonald's film were the scattering of lapel buttons (bearing the image of the Golden Arches with the none-too-subtle slogan "Obesity" emblazoned across them) casually tossed on the ground beside the drive-through sign outside of the McDonald's location at the Lamar and Barton Springs Road intersection. Our question is: What, if anything, did these renegade adbusters order? As for the Festival's overall numbers, well, they're not in yet, but advance word (bleary-eyed and groggy though it may be) is that everything was through the proverbial roof, with extra Festival passes having to be printed up at the 11th hour and screening after screening selling out and overflowing into the nearest street. Biggest tip for next year's Festival? Larger theatres with more seats, please... Back in the real world – what's left of it, anyway – casting news is trickling out regarding Robert Rodriguez's freshly announced adaptation of Frank Miller's Sin City, with The Hollywood Reporter naming Leonardo DiCaprio, Bruce Willis, Elijah Wood, Mickey Rourke, Brittany Murphy, Kate Bosworth, and Jaime King as having been "targeted" for various roles, while Benicio del Toro and Maria Bello are also short-listed. No info yet on who's slated for which role, but we're pretty sure Murphy won't be playing Marv.