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Be one of the first to see Predators before the nationwide release! Tickets are going on sale tomorrow, June 24th at noon. This is definitely something you won't want to miss. Come on, Topher Grace has been drinking massive amounts of protein shakes in an attempt to beef up for his character. We owe it to him to at least watch it, but we owe it to ourselves to be one of the first. more ›

Director and Austinite Robert Rodriguez filmed the music video for local musician Bob Schneider's latest song, "40 Dogs (Like Romeo and Juliet)", in the midst of his post-production work on Machete and Predators. The video features Kat Dennings, the early-twenty-something actress of Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist, as the love interest -- and Rodriguez's cute son plays Schneider's kid. As the video features Austin spots such as Zilker Park, the Lamar bridge, and the Hey Cupcake! trailer (among others), it seems the city is a predominant fourth character. [IFC] more ›

In a surprise move few saw coming, Lindsay Lohan landed a job—a real, honest-to-goodness paid acting gig. Confirmed via Lohan’s Twitter and a plethora of gossip sites, it looks like the crazy bus is about to make a stop. Destination: Austin. more ›

At yesterday's signing of HB 873, the bill providing incentives for the film and media industries in Texas, director Robert Rodriguez announced that he intends to shoot a slew of new movies at his Austin-based Troublemaker Studios. more ›

Last night's Texas Medal of Arts awards honored former First Lady Laura W. Bush for her work with the Texas Book Festival and the President’s Committee on the Arts in Humanities, filmmaker Robert Rodriguez, and KLRU-TV's Austin City Limits program, among many others. more ›

For the first time ever, Fangoria is bringing their Weekend of Horrors event to Austin. A pantheon of famous horror movie actors and directors, including Austin's Robert Rodriguez, will be appearing/speaking/signing autographs (IN BLOOD - just kidding) at the convention locale, the Renaissance Austin Hotel. more ›

Providing intricate details on creating a pretty simple food item, Austin director Robert Rodriguez takes the viewer through a ten-minute tutorial on making the perfect breakfast taco. While working on DVD material for Sin City, late nights created mean cravings, and what does every Austinite crave when it's not quite dinner, not quite breakfast? That's right. Using a recipe borrowed from his grandmother, Rodriquez doesn't just throw eggs on a tortilla with one measly... more ›

For those of us who are dying to see Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino's Grindhouse, April just isn't coming fast enough. We mean, have you seen the trailer for this thing? Zombies! Carnage! A girl with a gun for a leg! We're foaming at the mouth just thinking about it. Anyhow—to tide us over until April, Mr. Rodriguez has teamed up with SXSW and the Alamo Drafthouse to present a Grindhouse Double Feature at Republic... more ›

SXSW today announced an exciting new contest they're sponsoring with director Robert Rodriguez, in anticipation of the upcoming Rodriguez-Tarantino double feature, Grindhouse. Filmmakers are invited to submit their best "grindhouse trailers" for a fictional feature-length film, in the same vein as those being made by celebrity directors Eli Roth and Rob Zombie. Rodriguez (Sin City, Spy Kids, Once Upon a Time in Mexico) himself will judge the best submissions and share these at a... more ›

While we were away for the holidays, Austin's big movie project of 2006 has been making some waves. Dimension Films has unveiled the official website for the Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez collaboration Grindhouse, and the HD trailer is now available at Yahoo! Movies. For those who hadn't heard, both directors filmed in and around Austin throughout 2006 on this B-movie double bill. Rodriguez's "Planet Terror" is a zombie flick, while Tarantino's "Death Proof"... more ›

After months of rumors, rumblings and hubbub, we're finally starting to see some actual footage from the new Robert Rodriguez / Quentin Tarantino collaboration Grindhouse. Last night's Spike TV Scream Awards (hosted by the Girls of Grindhouse: Rosario Dawson, Rose McGowan and Marley Shelton) gave viewers a short sneak peek at the upcoming film, and of course it took less than 24 hours for someone to post that shit to GooTube. This quasi-trailer is our... more ›

Before the Austin Film Society announces their Texas Film Production Fund grants tomorrow, they’ve got a gift for the rest of us: A screening of Gas Food Lodging with director Allison Anders in attendance at The Alamo. Anders brings a strong woman’s voice and vision to independents that have been praised for their unapologetic and gritty truth. Named a Nicholl Fellow in its inaugural year, she has written and directed standout indie features, Mi Vida... more ›

Standing before thousands of screaming geeks at this weekend's 2006 San Diego Comic Con International, Quentin Tarantino announced the cast "Death Proof," one-half of a double-feature collaborative project entitled "Grindhouse" that he'll be working on with Austin director Robert Rodriquez. From wiki: A "grindhouse" is an American term for a theater that showed exploitation films; it is also used as an adjective to describe the genre of films that played in such theatres. While just... more ›

Filmmaker, AFS founder, and diehard Austinite Richard Linklater was in Cannes last month to present A Scanner Darkly, the rotoscoped film adaptation of Philip K Dick's dystopic novel, and Fast Food Nation, based on Eric Schlosser's expose on the fast food industry. At the same time, the Criterion Collection -- famous for its fabulous reissues of landmark films from the likes of Fellini, Kubrick, Godard, and Lang -- released a special edition of Dazed and... more ›

As mentioned earlier, the Austin Film Society begins selling tickets at 8 a.m. today for QT7: The Best of Quentin Tarantino. Sales are restricted to AFS members only (you can buy one for $20), and a sellout is expected. more ›

While we all know and love the eclecticism of the Alamo Drafthouse, sometimes we feel there is literally no rhyme or reason to a particular event. Not that this is a bad thing: they just keep us guessing, that's all. Case in point: Kevin Smith (writer/director of Clerks and Chasing Amy) is hosting a midnight screening of the Kid-N-Play movie House Party tomorrow night. We haven't a clue as to why, other than that Smith is in town lecturing at UT's film school. If you are a Silent Bob fan, or just love silly teenager movies and PG-rated rap, reserve your seats here. Admission is free, but reserved tickets require purchase of a $10 food/drink voucher. more ›

The first annual Fantastic Fest kicks off this week, beginning on Thursday night and running through Sunday. Fantastic Fest is the brainchild of Paul Alvarado-Dykstra and Tim McCanlies, and they have compiled almost two dozen feature films from a dozen countries. This new festival showcases the latest live-action and animated films in the genres of sci-fi, horror, and fantasy. The lineup includes: previews of Jon Favreau’s Zathura, Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller’s Sin City:... more ›

Oh, Austin. There's just always going on. For the past couple of days, there have been several giant trucks parked along our street and an abundance of cars in our neighborhood. Turns out someone's shooting a movie at the Austin Diner on Burnet, right around the corner from where we live. The crew has set up camp in a nearby parking lot, and the extras have been instructed to park along the residential streets. As we were driving by in somewhat of a daze on our way to work (yes, we have real jobs!) this morning, we noticed lights, cameras, and other miscellaneous film equipment set up around our beloved Austin Diner. We also saw someone in a white cowboy hat - *gasp* could it have been Austin wonderboy Robert Rodriguez? We couldn't tell for sure. more ›

Austin's burgeoning reputation as a major film hub is largely bolstered by massive blockbuster directors like Richard Linklater and Robert Rodriguez, but at the other end of the spectrum are a plethora of local filmmakers with a wealth of unexhibited talent. To showcase the latter works - which are often entertaining and sometimes briliant - is a local film collective called Screen Door. They exist largely to "showcase the talents of local and national... more ›

While Austin begins to define itself as the "new American film capital", the exhibit opening Saturday at the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum celebrates the past 100 years of filmmaking statewide. Texas Movies will cover the spectrum of Texas film history from the earliest productions companies and film footage to contemporary Texan directors, such as Wes Anderson and Robert Rodriguez. The exhibit honors homegrown filmmaking with artifacts from over 80 films made in Texas,... more ›

Nearly five months ago, seven Austinites showed their movie at the Sundance Film Festival. Now three are headed to France for Cannes, which runs May 11 to May 22. Among the lucky are Robert Rodriguez’s "Sin City" (shocker) which will compete in the main program. A low budget thriller called "Room" by Kyle Henry, a University of Texas alumnus, is showing in the Director’s Fortnight program. Keun-Pyo Park, a UT graduate film student, will screen... more ›

We played hooky on Friday to spend a little over two hours letting Robert Rodriguez, Mickey Rourke and Co. kick our ass in "Sin City." more ›

It seems Austin has been getting a lot of attention from late night TV shows recently. Adding to this PR buzz was Robert Rodriguez who appeared on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson promoting his latest, Sin City. Robert talked mostly about bringing in Frank Miler to co-direct the film, his family, and his DIY work ethic. But he did squeeze in a couple of nice things about our little city. When the sometimes painful to watch Craig Ferguson asked if Austin was “hip and cool”, he responded by saying “it’s eclectic”. Austin…eclectic…Who knew? more ›

Sin City, a movie based on the excellent and very dark comic of the same name, will be having a special premiere here in Austin on the 31st. Tickets are not cheap, but we think it'll be a small price to pay to see this film at the Paramount with Robert Rodriguez in the house. The movie was shot to look like the art of the comic book, which was written and illustrated by... more ›