A look at what Richard Linklater has been up to...

Hey folks, here's what Richard Linklater has been up to hear in Austin, and I figured that I'd answer this scooper's question after his scoop. 4 hours till my plane... So much to do... So little time...

Harry--

Hey, long-time reader, first-time blah blah, too. My wife and I had the opportunity to attend "A Conversation with Richard Linklater" at the Wexner Center for the Arts here in Columbus, OH this past Thursday, Feb. 3. The center is hosting a retrospective of Linklater's works, and every one of his movies is coupled with one of his faves by other directors (SOME CAME RUNNING, CARMEN JONES, PICKPOCKET, etc.)

It was a great one-on-one conversation, led by the Wexner's Dave Filipi; I felt like I was front-row center on one of those Actors Studio things on Bravo, minus the butt-munch host.

My purported scoop? Well, Linklater's next project is actually something for the aforementioned Bravo, an *animated* feature called WAKING LIFE. Richard is shooting the thing on digital video and then letting the fellas who did SNACK AND DRINK (a short that aired on MTV, I believe) do this pretty damn amazing computer animation treatment of the footage. Not slick, high-sheen animation, either--much more like hand-drawn stuff. Linklater showed us a scene on video that will later be animated; the flick stars Wiley Wiggins, one of my faves from DAZED AND CONFUSED; it's kinda funny to see him now that he's 22 (yup, he really was in his early teens in DAC). Apparently the whole notion of the film came from the fact that Wiley has been having a lot of "waking dreams" these days. The scene we were shown featured Wiley going into a movie theater--apparently, he will float everywhere in the finished film--and watching a film of a moviemaker friend of Linklater's going on very intensely (and weirdly) about, uh, moviemaking. OK, so this part really does kinda crawl up its own navel, but it *was* funny.Think the JFK assassination nut scene in SLACKER. Actually, Linklater told us the style of the movie is going to harken back somewhat to SLACKER, with stories unwinding along a linear path. The animation is going to add the dreamy element.

What I sorta wondered to myself is whether this pretty damn small (but interesting) project is the fallout of his NEWTON BOYS debacle...i.e., is he poison with the money boys right now or what? Still, Linklater came off as funny, intelligent, and thoroughly approachable and "regular". I wish him a lot of luck.

So there you go, Harry. Really enjoy the site!

"Sam Checker"

To answer that last question Mr Checker.... No. Shooting this small film is just what he's currently up to. Linklater is one of the most curious filmmakers I've ever had the honor of knowing. I first met Rick when he was a student at U.T. Pre SLACKER, and he came in to buy some Lobby Cards from me at CITY WIDE GARAGE SALE... If memory serves... he bought cards for CAPE FEAR, VISIT TO A SMALL PLANET and BLOODY MAMA. Well, ya know.. He'd come in... buy some posters and we'd talk film. Rick is an experimenter. He likes to do radically different things... to experiment with film. Play with linear and nonlinear... different story structures and well now... even going in and toying with 'what an animated film is'. As for THE NEWTON BOYS... given that FOX completely fucked him on his marketing... playing the film up as "STUDS WITH GUNS" when it was a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT TYPE OF FILM. It should never have been marketed as an ACTION WESTERN... that was the furthest thing from Linklater's purpose or finished film. Rick could have easily turned around and simply signed on to one of the many 'director for hire' projects floating in the classified ads of Talent Agencies... but he decided to work on a couple of things. First this film. Two... Campaigning in Austin to get the abandoned Airport Facility and converting it into an AUSTIN FILM STUDIO... which was just passed unanimously here in Austin two days ago! And working up a film project with Mike Judge that they are co-producing for DIMENSION FILMS called STUART. Plus... he's been writing and working up ideas for future projects. So... was this Richard's reaction to the performance of NEWTON BOYS??? No. He's just being Linklater in Austin. And he's quite a lot of fun to see in motion.