Film News

Author! Author! Sublett, Ahlgren Aim for Big Screen

Jesse Sublett's painfully enjoyable memoir, Never the Same Again: A Rock 'n' Roll Gothic, improbably blends the tales of his rock career at the helm of the Skunks, the murder of his girlfriend, and his battle against cancer. The book has now been optioned by producer Paul Hardister with Drew Southern tapped to direct for the big screen. Meanwhile, David Permut and Steve Lee Jones are producing a feature version of Austin author and financial analyist Paco Ahlgren's sci-fi adventure novel, Discipline, which is about a man's psychological battle with an enemy he cannot see. Ahlgren's first novel, it won the 2008 Eric Hoffer Award.

Adair's Bob Wills Love Doesn't Fade

Dwight Adair is a true-blue Western swinger. His Bob Wills documentary, Faded Love, screened at the South by Southwest Film Festival in 2005 and is available on DVD. Now he's added the online Bob Wills Radio, featuring interviews with Wills cohorts such as Leon McAuliffe and other artists influenced by Wills. You can listen for free at www.bobwills.com.

And the Rest ...

Tickets go on sale to the general public Aug. 3 for the Paramount Theatre's world premiere of Mike Judge's Extract, with Judge and star Jason Bateman in attendance. Tickets are available at GetTix (866/443-8849 or www.gettix.net) or the Paramount box office. The screening benefits the Texas Filmmakers' Production Fund, and Austin Film Society members can purchase tickets now at www.austinfilm.org... Short film entries for the Austin Film Festival's Young Filmmakers Competition are due Aug. 1. Get the details at www.austinfilmfestival.com... Francois Larosa has completed a Telemundo pilot called El Exito Para Las Cuatro that he describes as a female Entourage. It features four Latinas looking for success in acting and modeling in Austin... Bryanne Cooke, a 20-year-old first-time filmmaker, is drawing buzz for her The Wrong Girl script. Now filming locally, it's a black comedy about regret that's been described as "part pulp, part myth, part love poem"... The first images from UT grad Wes Anderson's stop-motion animation The Fantastic Mr. Fox can be viewed at www.aintitcool.com/node/41720. The film is out Nov. 13... This is the 127th "Film News" column I've written for The Austin Chronicle and the last. Thanks to Louis Black for the opportunity and to my editors Kimberley Jones and Shawn Badgley for putting up with my odd sense of humor. Major applause for all of the up-and-comers who make Austin film such an exciting, vibrant world to observe in constant motion. Consider this my martini shot. Cheers!