Short Cuts

Yes, But What About Iron Giant 2: The Metal Years? Dept: With South By Southwest Film 2002 already half over and the music end of things set to begin by the time you read this, the action at the Austin Convention Center is nonstop and almost entirely dressed in black. (And what is it with that? I broke out some white denims, and you should have seen the eyebrows arch.) As in past years, downtown is swarming with Sony mini-DV cams and their owners, shooting geek-on-the-street interviews and packing the fest's five theatres to the rafters. So what's the big news so far? Tim McCanlies (The Iron Giant, Dancer, Texas Pop. 81) has inked a deal with New Line Cinema to direct the film Second Hand Lions from his own script. The project will be the company's first film under their new and as-yet-unnamed family films division. "It's one of those scripts that everyone in Hollywood loves," says McCanlies, "but it's a little scary because it doesn't do any of the normal things that Hollywood movies do. But they read it, loved it, and we're about to do it." McCanlies notes that ideally the film would be shot in Austin and surrounding areas, although "the dreaded Canada discussion has yet to be had," so no firm location has been established. Speaking on New Line's decision to jump into the notoriously choppy waters of family film production/distribution, McCanlies says "the movies that I loved best as a kid, and even now, are so-called family films, like To Kill a Mockingbird. Since there's a young protagonist, it gives us a chance to be a kid again and be free of all the cynicism that we adults have put on, to be able to feel things emotionally anew."... In other late-breaking SXSW Film news, Alexandra Pelosi's buzz-monster and opening night sellout Journeys With George, which was on the verge of being purchased, is now the subject of a fierce bidding war after Variety and other publications ran laudatory reviews... George Ratliff's Hell House, a SXSW documentary feature selection, was acquired by 7th Art Releasing this weekend... There's still time, if you hoof it -- SXSW Film day passes have dropped to an exceedingly reasonable $30, available for purchase at Waterloo Records.