Film News

No good deed goes unpunished. Just ask Kevin Triplett at Mopac Media, who came to the rescue of fellow film folk whose computers were damaged in a recent Guadalupe Arts Center fire. He may title his next movie Breaking and Entering, as that's what thieves did to his office, making away with a bevy of cameras and the Macintosh G4 computer on which he'd been editing his eight-years-in-the-making Blaze Foley documentary. He was cleansing one of those cameras of smoke damage for Picture Box Productions from that aforementioned fire.

"I was hoping to finish it within the year," Triplett says of his doc about the legendary singer-songwriter, which he'll have to begin editing again from scratch. "I still think I can get back on schedule despite this." And despite insurance that covers only a tiny fraction of the $23,000 loss. Police have alerted pawn shops and Triplett is keeping an eye on eBay. "I've been real impressed with the film community, how they came out in support after the fire and now how they've come out in support of me."

Taylor-Made: A coming-attractions poster for Sandra Bullock's Miss Congeniality 2 adorns the Howard Theatre in downtown Taylor. A block away, Bullock herself has been busy filming scenes for the Truman Capote biopic Every Word Is True, in which she portrays author Harper Lee. Passersby have done double-takes at the 1950s-era pointy-finned automobiles parked in front of downtown shops hawking ancient washing machines and cool-cat tuxedos. Shooting continues in the Austin area through April.

No More Yankees, Ever: Joan Crawford as Scarlett O'Hara? It could've happened, and you can see the proof this Saturday as part of fun filmic events during Explore UT, which invites the community to explore the 40 Acres with myriad free events. Crawford's Gone With the Wind screen test will be shown at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center starting at 11am. Other coolness planned includes showcases of film faculty and student work, an examination of John Ford's Westerns, a basic editing course, and the (buhaha!) origins of the vampire. See details at www.utexas.edu/events/exploreut.

And the Rest: Related to unsung Alamo heroes Gregorio and Ana Esparza? MGU Productions wants to interview you on camera Friday, March 4, at Alamo Hall in San Antonio for posterity. Contact filmmakers at [email protected]... Georgetown is getting a multiplex. Cinemark plans to open a 10-screen theatre in Simon Properties' Wolf Ranch development at the intersection of I-35 and Highway 29 in July... Stacy Schoolfield's feature doc Rescue Me, about animal rescue volunteers, including gubernatorial candidate Kinky Friedman, is one of 10 projects selected for the Working Films at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art residency. Recent UT film grad P.J. Raval won the Student Heritage Award from the American Society of Cinematographers and will be profiled this spring in American Cinematographer magazine... Brian Satterwhite of Austin is wrapping the score for Houston-shot Mr. Hell with the aid of local musicians David Neubert, Joanna Winters, and Katie Morrison. Next up, Satterwhite scores Nick Jayanty and Justin Gilley's short, "Young Mutt," and Mustafa Razvi and Robert Garza's short, "Priya"... Syndicated courtroom television series Judge Alex begins shooting in Houston any day now... The Mexico-shot feature Veritas, about a comic-book hero who comes to life and starring Sean Patrick Flanery, Amy Jo Johnson, and Tyler Posey, is shooting a few additional scenes in Dallas... See the trailer to Richard Linklater's A Scanner Darkly at www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2665143?htv=12&htv=12.

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