Short Cuts

Hope Floats

I Love You, Don't Touch Me

Opening this week in Austin are two new movies with local ties: Hope Floats and I Love You, Don't Touch Me. Hope Floats, the Lynda Obst production (that was co-executive-produced by star Sandra Bullock) was shot in Smithville early last summer. (Come to think of it, that was about the same time that another Twentieth Century Fox production - The Newton Boys - was also shooting around these parts. Smithville turned out to be a lovely choice for the film, which uses the small-town atmosphere as a key creative element. Also thrilled with the film's use of local color are the folks at Texas Rebel Radio KFAN-FM (107.9) in Fredericksburg. (It's said to be a favorite stop on the radio dial for Obst whenever she frequents her Hill Country home.) In one scene, Harry Connick Jr. is prominently wearing one of the station's
T-shirts and the clip is getting lots of national exposure in trailers, TV commercials, and a Garth Brooks video for the film... nice advertising, if you can get it. I Love You, Don't Touch Me by Julie Davis is a low-budget indie film that was quite a popular feature when it debuted a year and a half ago at Sundance '97. It managed the enviable feat of getting sold to a distributor at the festival. The producer's reps responsible for that sale were Rana Joy Glickman (producer of Full Tilt Boogie) and Elizabeth Avellán (producer of From Dusk Till Dawn and the Robert Rodriguez film currently in production). Who says there are few opportunities for women in film?...

Hollywood script doctor Aubrey M. Horton will give a free lecture, "Screenwriting: Sex, and Violence," on Wednesday, June 3, 7:30pm, at Book People. He'll also teach two screenwriting workshops at St. Edward's University - a four-week ($110) and an eight-week ($320). June 13 is the deadline for application. Call 835-7639 for more info...

Also, check out this week's "Film Listings" for info about the start-up of the Austin Film Society's new series called A Summer Free-for-All.