https://www.austinchronicle.com/daily/screens/2012-05-04/film-flam/
The ATX Television Festival lineup is coming into sharper focus, with an opening night featuring USA Network shows Royal Pains and Suits.
The inaugural fest previously announced a Friday Night Lights reunion event, and the latest press release about panel programming name-checks new bodies Scott Porter and Adrianne Palicki. Considering a good chunk of the cast set down stakes in Austin, we suspect a few more names to drop in. (Because wishing will make it so, right?)
Other shows screening at the inaugural fest include The League, with actor/writers Nick Kroll and Paul Scheer in attendance; Archer, with Judy Greer; Firefly, with writers Bed Edlund and Jose Molina; The Vampire Diaries, with creator Julie Plec and actress Arielle Kebbel; and Parenthood, with executive producers Jason Katims and David Hudgins, music supervisor Liza Richardson, and actors Jason Ritter and Michael B. Jordan (both of whom star in Katims' new NBC medical drama pilot County do we smell a sneak peek?). ATX Television Festival runs June 1-3; badge info to be found here.
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Production Happenings: Bryan Poyser started shooting last Sunday on a new film, an Austin-based comedy called The Bounceback. The cast includes Ashley Bell, Michael Stahl-David, Sara Paxton, and Addison Timlin. Poyser's last feature was 2010's Lovers of Hate, which happened to be shot by David Lowery, who happens to be a big ole buzz magnet after Deadline Hollywood reported that a heckuva cast – Rooney Mara, Ben Foster, and Casey Affleck – are attached to his new script, Aint Them Bodies Saints, "a contemporary story in the vein of Bonnie And Clyde." Lowery will direct Meanwhile, the cast for Robert Rodriguez's Machete Kills continues to swell; in addition to returning star (and recent Chron coverboy) Danny Trejo, the film will feature Jessica Alba, Amber Heard, Michelle Rodriguez, Demian Bichir, Mel Gibson, and now, sez Variety, Modern Family's Sofia Vergara. The sequel is set to roll camera this month.
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The L.A. Film Festival has always had a soft spot for Austin-made movies; this year it's opened its arms to Spencer Parsons' Saturday Morning Massacre. Spencer flew the coop to a teaching post in Chicago a while back, but he shot the film, a horror comedy with shades of Scooby-Doo, in April last year in Austin.
UT alum Todd Berger (The Scenesters) will premiere his latest, It's a Disaster, starring Julia Stiles, David Cross, and America Ferrera, at the L.A. Film Festival, and Steven Soderbergh's latest, the male-stripper-centric Magic Mike, will close the fest. Inspired by star Channing Tatum's pre-Hollywood career in erotic dancing, Magic Mike costars Austinite Matthew McConaughey. He's on a bit of a film festival spree right now (Killer Joe and Richard Linklater's Bernie – which is doing boss business, by the way). A couple more weeks and we've hit Cannes, the site of the world premiere of Jeff Nichols' Mud, starring McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon, and Michael Shannon. Nichols and McConaughey aren't the only locals with occasion to travel to Cannes this month: Students from Pflugerville ISD will attend the festival as part of the Cinema du Cannes Project. Program graduates Christian Nelson and Ulyses Castellanos will be screening their films at the Short Film Corner.
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April (Awards) Showers: A host of local productions received accolades in recent weeks. Austin-based TV production company The Texas Crew, which specializes in sports documentaries, took home prizes at the 33rd annual Sports Emmy Awards, with DP Terry Stewart winning for Outstanding Camera Work on the 2011 Ford Ironman World Championships; Texas Crew cameramen Jim Bowen, Matt Franklin, David Garcia, and Wilson Waggoner were also honored
Kayla Olson and Nate Locklear's web series Once You Leave won Best Drama and Best Actress for Olson at the 2011 Indie Intertube Awards. It also nabbed awards at the 33rd Annual TELLY Awards and was named as an Official Honoree for the 16th Annual Webby Awards. It's also a featured first-run series on OneMoreLesbian.com.
University of Texas students Micah Robert Barber and Huay-Bing Law were both named finalists for the 2012 Student Academy Awards, an annual honor bestowed by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Barber's "Falconer" and Law's "Benny" will both screen locally at the Longhorn Film Showcase, a program featuring nine of the best student films from UT's current crop of RTF students. That event – free and open to the public – takes place Saturday, May 12, 6pm, at the McCullough Theatre (2375 Robert Dedman Dr.).
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Looks like Richardson just got a whole lot cooler: The Alamo Drafthouse announced today plans to open its first Dallas-Fort Worth location with new franchise partner Iced Tea With Lemon LLC at the Richardson Heights Shopping Center at the intersection of Beltline Rd. & Central Expressway.
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Comments/questions/concerns? Give us a shout at filmflam@austinchronicle.com.
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