Film News

BY JOE O'CONNELL

Austin gets Pitt, Dallas dumps Travolta, Denzel pays up

Ready for a thick slice of post-Christmas celeb gossip, Texas-style? As
we told you way back in September, Terrence Malick is planning a spring
shoot hereabouts of Tree of Life, his long-gestating project with Sean
Penn in the cast. What we didn't tell you is Brad Pitt, according to
Variety, is in talks to replace Heath Ledger. Meanwhile, John Travolta
is no longer attached to the big-screen version of TV's Dallas, which
may or may not shoot in Big D. It gets weirder. New York Post's "Page
Six" column says the film, years in the planning, is now going from
drama to kitschy comedy. And in East Texas, Denzel Washington left a $1
million tip after a premiere screening of his The Great Debaters at
Marshall's Wiley College, which was the real-life backdrop for the
debate team featured in the movie. Washington's bucks will go to revive
the school's debate team.

Remake it, and they will come

The Alamo Drafthouse's latest side project is aimed at you, the goofy
wannabe filmmaker. It's FilmmakingFrenzy.com, a website devoted to the
wackiest filmmaking contests the Alamo can conjure. First up is Rewind
Kindly, inspired by the Michel Gondry's film Be Kind Rewind, which opens
Jan. 25 and features Jack Black as a guy who accidentally erases every
movie at a local video store and attempts to reconstruct them by acting
them out. In that vein, contest teams will have until Jan. 18 to
complete an up-to-five-minute, homemade, low-budget remake of a popular
Hollywood film. I'm envisioning either Being There with Chance the
gardener strolling down South Congress or perhaps Fargo done with
Claymation, but a Star Wars remake is a safer bet. Entries will screen
at the Alamo.

And the rest ...

Count director Richard Linklater, actor Luke Wilson, and Zadi Diaz,
creator of the Web series EPIC-FU, among judges for the Greenlight
Awards honoring the best online episodic series. The awards are
sponsored by ON Networks and South by Southwest Film. More at
www.onnetworks.com/contest/register/greenlight... Alina Fernández
Revuelta, daughter of Cuban leader Fidel Castro, has signed a deal with
Austin-based Artists Relations Group to tell her life story on the big
screen... Villa Muse Studios is taking a step toward its planned 2008
groundbreaking with the hiring of Barry Bongiovi to manage the recording
complex and Ed Evans as technical director. The plan is for a production
and postproduction facility for film, television, game development,
animation, advertising, video, and restoration... Disney Channel fans
may not know that As the Bell Rings, a series of two- to five-minute
sitcom shorts set outside a principal's office and airing on the
network, was shot at Del Valle High School... Visual effects pro Eric
Pham of Austin has optioned a script titled Kid Spaghetti with plans to
produce, according to InkTip.com... Reel Women has its First Monday Mix
schmooze fest from 6 to 8pm, Jan. 7, at Opal Divine's upstairs balcony
Downtown... Go ahead. Wish me a happy birthday today. It's what all the
cool kids are doing.

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