ON LOCATION

>From stick figures to stars, Austin's latest television prospects

While some film projects are at the ready from Austin names, there's
lots =

of
action on projects slated for TV, too


By Joe O'Connell

The Austin film scene has long awaited the next Robert Rodriguez or
Richard=


Linklater. The latest contender is an Argentina-raised engineer who has
penned a pair of software books and owes his budding success to the
Internet.

Jeffrey Travis, 32, is on the leading edge of the Lone Star State's
budding=


small-screen movement. Next week he'll shoot a few sample scenes for
"Except for Danny," a potential Fox television show. A full-fledged
pilot m=

ay
follow, and if that's picked up, expect the series to be shot locally.

Meanwhile, Christine Lahti is signed on for "Jack and Bobby," the WB
series=


pilot shooting in Austin starting next week with Lahti's husband, Thomas

Schlamme ("The West Wing"), producing.

And in Dallas, NBC is gearing up for "HUB," a high-profile pilot
featuring =


Heather Locklear and Blair Underwood in an airport setting.
Unfortunately, =


word is HBO may pass on Linklater's Austin-shot pilot, "$5.15/Hr." Calls
to=

his
office to confirm were not returned.

Travis' show, which features a crayon stick figure, is the more
improbable =

and
perhaps more exciting development. Consider his career a reverberation
of
the late '90s tech boom. With a master's in engineering from the
University=

of
Texas, he created one software company, worked for another, then
reconsidered his options when the latter's Austin office closed. He
decided=

to
chase a longtime dream and started making small films that he looked on
as =


homework assignments. He bought Rodriguez's book about guerilla
filmmaking and asked questions of any film pro he could find.

Travis and pals formed Project Seven, an effort to push themselves to
make =


seven short films in one year. Some got shown at film festivals. A
two-minu=

te
film about a kid (Travis' son Aidan) whose crayon goes out of control
made =

it
onto film Web sites including Atomfilms.com. A Fox development executive

saw the short, "What's Wrong With This Picture?" which includes flash
animation by David Young, and gave Travis a call.

"You always hear the hype about the Internet changing things — blah,
blah, =


blah — but in this case it really happened," Travis said.

Travis, a descendant of Alamo hero William B. Travis and the son of
missionaries, is trying to stick to his guns as the network weighs in
with =

script
suggestions. The final product may end up in Fox's Sunday night lineup
of
quirky family shows. This one features a family of prodigies and
4-year-old=


Danny, the average son. A stick figure drawing comes to life and tries
to h=

elp
the boy, but often creates chaos instead. One sample scene involves an
exploding television. If the pilot fizzles, Travis vows to remain
steadfast=

about
a film career, while keeping his day job as a software consultant.

Big screen news: Linklater is indeed set to direct an adaptation of
Philip =

K.
Dick's sci-fi tale "A Scanner Darkly," according to Production Weekly.
Look=

for
filming in Austin and a return to Bob Sabiston's rotoscope animation
used i=

n
"Waking Life." Steven Soderbergh and George Clooney are producing for
Section Eight films.

Robert Byington ("Olympia") wrote and will direct "Ghetto Blue" in
Austin t=

his
summer with a cast including Kevin Corrigan, Paul Rudd, Stephen Root,
Jon
Seda, Tom Guiry and Will Patton. Tom Richmond, who shot "Love and a
.45,"
will be behind the camera.

"The King," which is shooting in Austin and Corpus Christi with Gael
García=


Bernal, Sam Shepard and Daryl Hannah starring, is seeking funny and
embarrassing home videos to use in the film. Send your worst to
corpusllc@.... Those chosen get to visit the set for lunch
with c=

ast
and crew.

"Friday Night Lights" has turned out the lights in Austin and moved on
to
Odessa. After Odessa, the film shoots for a few weeks at the Astrodome
in
Houston.

Mike Judge's futuristic comedy "3001" has opened an Austin office and is

slated to start shooting next month.

No confirmation from Rodriguez's corner, but rumor is his
soon-to-be-filmin=

g
noirish "Sin City" will feature a unique semi-animated style. The
quietly b=

usy
auteur also has the Edgar Rice Burroughs science-fiction classic "A
Princes=

s
of Mars" on the burner.

ON LOCATION appears the first Friday of the month in the Austin
American-
Statesman. Got a tip about the Texas film industry? Send it to
Joeonlocation@...