The title of the Lincoln Center's New Directors/New Films prestigious annual series is perhaps misleading. New to them, maybe: We've already known about Bob Byington for years. His new film, Harmony and Me, which was shot locally and stars Bishop Allen frontman Justin Rice, was announced yesterday as part of this year's slate (an honor, we presume, which runs a very close second to winning the Austin Chronicle Short Story Contest, which Bob did back in 2005.) The Museum of Modern Art Film Society's New Directors/New Films 2009 series runs March 25 through April 5.

A writer certainly flexes different muscles when working on a novel versus script, so it makes sense that he'd have to tap different social skills to navigate the shark-infested waters of NY's publishing houses and L.A.'s movie biz. Three Austin writers will have something to say about that on Tuesday, Feb. 17, at a panel titled "Hollywood vs. New York: Three Writers' Perspectives," which is jointly presented by the LBJ Future Forum and the Texas Book Festival. Dishing on the panel will be screenwriter/novelists Stephen Harrigan (The Gates of the Alamo), Owen Egerton (Marshall Hollenzer Is Driving), and Shauna Cross (who adapted her own YA novel, Derby Girl into the film script Whip It! for Drew Barrymore). Sarah Bird moderates. The panel is open and free to the public, but registration is required. For more info on how to RSVP, go here.

Local art collective Austin Video Bee will celebrate the release of its second collection of thematically linked shorts, titled "2," on Feb. 19 at the Carousel Lounge (1110 E. 52nd St.) from 7:30pm to midnight. For this go-round, Bee members were asked to team up with a guest artist to make a video "loosely dealing with the theme of binaries, pairs, duplicates, twins or any other understanding of the number 2." The 12 videos kick off at 8:30pm; musical guest Cari Music goes on at 10:30pm. Check out AVB's blog here for more info. Stumped over what the heck AVB is? Check out this Chronicle profile from March '08.

How many Coraline's can one book spawn? At least one more than Henry Selick's stop-motion version currently dazzling critics and audiences alike. Word is out that a musical, off-Broadway version of Neil Gaiman's button-eyed book, created by, among others, snarky heartacher Stephin Merritt of The Magnetic Fields, is well underway. From the site Film in Focus: "The Coraline musical has its roots in the relationship between Gaiman and Merritt, who first met over a decade ago. Merritt, the brilliant and prolific pop musician who is the mastermind behind the Magnetic Fields as well as a number of other cult bands, was introduced to Gaiman by mutual friend Chris Ewen, Merritt’s bandmate in the Future Bible Heroes, and from there a friendship grew. They shared a mutual admiration of each other's work, and Gaiman and Merritt began to look for opportunities to collaborate in the future." Color us intrigued and purchasing plane fare to NYC.

Here's a twist on the old Zen brain-teaser: When a piece of office equipment falls in the city does it make a sound? The answer is a resounding yes if it it occurs in front of the Paramount Theatre just prior to the 10-year anniversary celebration of the release of Office Space, Mike Judge's hilarious send-up of cubicle culture. I couldn't see what was happening through the multi-ringed throng of people surrounding the sidewalk sacrifice, but the sound of smashing metal and punctured plastic was unmistakable. Co-sponsored by the Fantastic Fest and SXSW, the demolition was inspired by the hallmark scene in Office Space during which the principals maliciously violate a malfunctioning copier, the preshow event was a cathartic warmup to the evening. Inside the packed theatre, the audience cheered as each character appeared onscreen. The communal anticipatory laughter indicated just how frequently this DVD bestseller has been viewed at home. A bust during its commercial release, the DVD has gone on to become Fox's golden goose. The reasons for this still defy perfect explanation. The huge audience response certainly seemed revelatory to the 10 or so cast members (many of whom hadn't seen the film in 10 years), who reunited onstage after the screening. Among those in attendance were John C. McGinley, Stephen Root, Gary Cole, David Herman, Ajay Naidu, Diedrich Bader, Paul Wilson, and others. When asked during the Q&A if he would do anything different if he were to make the same film with the same budget today, Judge replied that the only thing different is that he would no longer be able to afford Scrubs star McGinley.

Rep. Dawnna Dukes, D-Austin, scored a big victory last session by finally getting cash for the Texas Moving Image Industry Incentive Program (aka the film incentives.) The general feeling with the program's first two years is "good idea, needs some work," which is why she's back with House Bill 873 to fix the problems (see last issue's coverage here.) [UPDATE: Joe O'Connell has some interesting comments from the Texas Motion Picture Alliance in this week's issue.] It's not exactly what Texas Film Commission Director Bob Hudgins wants, but he's enthusiastic that the changes will have increased pay-off without selling the family silver (like a lot of people say Louisiana did.) The issue for Hudgins is that the current system works on total production budget, which requires the production accountant his office hired to go through every single receipt from every single production. He explained, "If this became a program about only wages, which the (original) bill started as, that's a lot easier than comparing total expenditure." It's not just a workload issue, but an accuracy question. "That's the fastest way to lose a program – to not live up to the rules," he said. So what exactly does the new bill propose?

Got a movie playing at SXSW? We'd love to get our meaty paws on a screener. Shoot us an e-mail at [email protected] and tell us all about it.

Various industry sources report that President Obama would like to address the nation three times this month. He’s calling a press conference on Monday, Feb. 9, will make a “brief appearance” on Feb. 16, and make a longer address on Feb. 24. It’s strongly presumed that the current economic climate is among the topics he would like to talk to the American public about. Because he wants to appear in prime time, broadcast networks are grumbling that “his economic stimulus package apparently does not extend to the TV networks.” The networks anticipate losing about nine million dollars in ad revenue, according to the Washington Post. Uhm….whatever happened to the airwaves belonging to the American public?

In case you haven't heard the news, a newly released audio tape of Christian Bale is making the rounds, and boy howdy is it a blast. Apparently unaware that his mic was hot, the already too-intense-for-his-own-good actor launched into a lengthy, epithet-laden outburst while on the set of Terminator: Salvation. The unfortunate target of his rage was DP Shane Hurlbut, who likely has some form of PTSD (that would be Post Terminator: Salvation Disorder), so vicious was Bale's harangue. Fittingly, however, the web has bitch-slapped Mr. American Psycho right back: musician and producer RevoLucian has remixed the verbal assault into a borderline addictive club track that's sure to be a floor-filler for at least another 72 hours, or until Mel Gibson finally breaks down and joins Hamas, whichever comes first. The mashup, dubbed "Bale Out", is available for listening on RevoLucian's Myspace page or as a free download via his Twitter. [audio-1]