SXSW Sum Up Day #1

The 2007 SXSW Film Festival is officially underway in Austin, Texas and one only needs to look at Bill Paxton and Isla Fisher walking around Congress Avenue to understand two things – Austin remains as laid back as ever and the festival is getting bigger names. While documentaries and truly independent films are getting their due, the first night of SXSW played host to the official opening night gala The Lookout, Out of Sight screenwriter Scott Frank’s twisty noir that starred Fisher, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Jeff Daniels and Matthew Goode. (Watch for interviews on Premiere.com this week.) While that Miramax thriller played at the grand downtown Paramount Theatre, Disturbia, the DreamWorks update of Rear Window starring Shia LaBeouf, was screening only a couple streets over. (And no, he didn’t confirm that he would be playing Indiana Jones’ son, calling them “rumors.”)

However, Richard Linklater would confirm his next project at a panel he attending on Saturday, saying that he was currently writing a film about the freshman year of college, and after the panel, he was attending a University of Texas baseball game for a documentary he’s working on about Texas coach Augie Garrido He also would go on in the panel to talk about the disappointing release of Fast Food Nation, a film that he said Fox Searchlight prexy Peter Rice told him simply didn’t have a payoff. (Linklater would go on to plug the DVD though, which we would advise too.)

Meanwhile, Bill Paxton told a variety of great stories at his panel moderated by the Associated Press film critic Christy Lemire, mostly involving his father. Paxton, who was inducted into the Texas Film Hall of Fame the night before, told the audience that while his father had been generally supportive of his career choice, he added, “you picked a really fucked business.” Paxton also went on to tell tales about why he will never use his friendships with other filmmakers like James Cameron and Tom Hanks to further his career (he had a bad experience with Hanks), how he once brought a fake ticking time bomb to an audition to be memorable (he got the role…and also a slap on the wrist from his agent at the time), and why he watches Home Alone every time before he directs something (Paxton said every shot in that film continues the story.)

But that’s all for now. I’m currently at the world famous Alamo Drafthouse for the premiere of the Zooey Deschanel comedy Flakes. More tomorrow after the eagerly anticipated Grindhouse panel with Robert Rodriguez…

-Stephen Saito

Comments

[chris]

So how was Flakes?

[Stephen]

As a big Zooey Deschanel fan, Flakes was a disappointment, but check out the blog later for more thoughts from SXSW.