“Skirts the edge without going over, and judging from the raucous reception, twisted auds clearly do exist for such blatantly ‘wrong’ material.” -Variety

“Teenagers face unique psychological and physiological disruptions that are ripe for tales of horror…DEADGIRL mines the recesses of the hormone-wracked mind to create one of the most original American horror films in recent memory.” -Rodney Perkins, Fantastic Fest

One of Fantastic Fest 2008’s most well-attended and controversial films returns for a special limited engagement at The Alamo!  Exploring an abandoned sanatorium while ditching school, two high school burnouts discover a seemingly incapacitated girl strapped to a gurney in a secluded chamber. As time passes, the teens make a series of questionable decisions that put them, their friends and the audience itself on the spot. Debut directors Gadi Harel and Marcel Sarmiento craft a new breed of teen angst drama set against a backdrop of humor black enough to make John Hughes retreat to a fetal state.

Director Marcel Sarmiento in attendance on July 24!

Get tickets here.

An interesting request just came in through Twitter.  Apparently John Gholson is a little short on fund and can’t afford a Fantastic Fest badge this year.  What he lacks in sheckles, he makes up for in spades with raw American ingenuity.  He will draw anything that you request (other than hardcore porn) for a payment of $5 towards to cost of a badge.  How could we pass up such a heart-warming story.  Help a brother out and get yourself some $5 art.  I just ordered mine, a busty female cyclops astride a unicorn.  Hopefully it will be suitable for framing.

Speaking of Twitter, please follow @fantasticfest and @timalamo for all the latest news.  I am watching the feed!

Fantastic Fest and HorrorSquad present THE COLLECTOR with Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton in attendance!!

Over the course of my non-stop flick-hoppings, I’ve become a small and unofficial cog in the Fantastic Fest machine. (Let’s say I’m half-consultant and half-cheerleader.) Tim League and his Alamo team scour the globe for the best in horror, sci-fi, action, etc., but I’ve been known to drop those guys a line when an interesting flick crosses my path. (Or when I’m just really bored. Curse you, caller ID!!) So here’s some exciting news for those who A) live in Austin, B) love new horror movies, and C) are sure they can tolerate my presence for two consecutive hours:

July 22nd! 10pm! Alamo Ritz! THE COLLECTOR with Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton in attendance!! And they’re nice guys! Yes, the guys who wrote FEAST, SAW 4, FEAST 2, SAW 5, FEAST 3, SAW 6 and THE COLLECTOR will be at the theater to A) eat cheese fries, B) drink beer, C) watch their movie on the big screen, and D) stand up for a Q$A thingy! It’s going to be fun. I decree it to be so.

THE COLLECTOR, as you may know, was recently known as MIDNIGHT MAN, but it switched titles when it jumped over from Dimension to Freestyle. The plan is for the film to hit theaters on July 31 (which is why they couldn’t just hold it for Fantastic Fest: September is after July), and I’ve already heard from the likes of Ryan “Rotten” Turek, Rodney Perkins, and (yes) Tim League that this is one kick-ass horror show! And now a few words from first-time director Marcus Dunstan: “Well, we just received our R rating after four trips to the MPAA, and I’m happy to say that none of the film’s impact has been lost. Matter of fact, their notes made some scenes hit even harder! We’re beyond lucky to be a part of Fantastic Fest again, even if it is a few months early this time. Austin welcomed FEAST with open arms, and I am over-the-moon excited to bring THE COLLECTOR to a city that loves movies so much.”

In response, Tim League had this to say: “This movie rocks.”

Important notes:

Admission to this screening is free. 2009 Fantastic Fest badge-holders can RSVP in advance by emailing brad@originalalamo.com with “THE COLLECTOR ROCKS” in the subject line. Badge-Holders who rsvp will be seated first come, first served. Non-badge-holders are welcome to attend subject to availability; simply arrive at the theater 45 minutes before the show. For more information on Fantastic Fest, please visit the official website at www.fantasticfest.com.

The first wave of content for Fantastic Fest will be posted there on July 13!

-Scott Weinberg, the Horror Squad

Way back in March, I announced that we had commissioned Jon Vermilyea to produce artwork for the 2009 Fantastic Fest poster. Every year, the Fantastic Fest programmers go all out attempting to bring you things that you’ve never seen before. To me, the poster should be no different. With monsters being the theme this year, we set out to do something we’ve never attempted before. Instead of having a poster with the normal 2 dimensions that you are all accustomed to, we thought, “Why not up the ante and make it 3?!” Here we are…the day has come…I can’t wait any longer…Behold! This year’s 3D FANTASTIC FEST POSTER!

What do you all think? I can tell you that when I first saw the linework for the poster I said “shit” really loud. When I saw this final with color, I said something much worse.

Many of you might be asking, “Well, if it’s 3D, where are all the red and blue lines?” You will find none of that here. We used a very special process called Chromadepth. With your poster you will receive a pair of glasses. The special specks react with the colors and stretch the image to make it 3 dimensional. You can read more about the process here, but essentially, warm colors shoot out at you and cooler colors fall back into the background. If you have 3D Chromadepth glasses with you right now, feel free to put them on and take a gander. If not, feel free to stop in at the Mondo shop anytime and ask to use ours.

Not only did Jon destroy the poster, he did an ENTIRELY DIFFERENT image for the shirt.

So there you have it. This is just a taste of what you can expect from Fantastic Fest this year. We will no doubt have more announcements and surprises for you soon, so stay tuned. The Fantastic Fest poster and shirt will be on sale at Mondo soon!

-Justin

P.S. If you can’t wait to get your hands on the Fantastic Fest shirt from Jon Vermilyea, you can order a DEADLY SPAWN shirt right now! The last run sold out quick so we brought it back in two new colorways…black and slime!

Anyone attending Fantastic Fest from out of town who doesn’t have friends or family in Austin now has a place to stay: The Radisson Hotel & Suites at Austin-Town Lake. A special deal for Fantastic Fest attendees is now in effect through September 15 which gets you rooms for $135 a night from September 24 to October 1, a discount of over $40 a night! In addition to being a damn nice hotel, the Radisson is located right in the heart of downtown Austin, with easy shuttle access to Fantastic Fest’s Alamo South Lamar location and just walking distance from the famed Congress Bridge Bats. It also sits right on the beautiful Town Lake, which allows for great walks and is ideal for jogging. With all the food and drink you’ll be partaking in at Fantastic Fest, jogging might be a good idea.

In order to obtain this special discount, you can either call the Radisson’s national reservations center at 800-333-3333, or go to the Radisson Downtown website and enter ALAMO into the promotional code box on the right side of the screen. Click “search” and the group rate will appear. If you experience any problems, please call the Radisson reservations line and let them know this is for Fantastic Fest 2009. Please note that these rates are only available until September 15, 2009, and any reservations made after that date must pay the full rate price.

It’s also worth noting that the Radisson will also be hosting many of our special guests this year, so you never know who you’re going to bump into in the elevator or get trashed at the hotel bar with at 2am. Anyone who has attended Fantastic Fest in years past can tell you these are some of the most magical moments of the entire festival, so take advantage of these great rates to stay in a top class hotel and enjoy the greatest film festival known to man!

Our old friend and former Variety columnist Mike Jones was the programming director for the American Pavilion at Cannes this year. Each day of the festival featured interviews, panels, conversations and parties all programmed by Mike. Since I’ve been pals with Eli Roth since 2002, he asked if I could conduct an interview with him for the series.

Eli engaged the standing-room audience with stories of his first trip to Cannes seeking funding for Cabin Fever, the now famous 2002 bidding war at the Toronto Film Festival, and his early days as a student filmmaker. As the room was filled largely with young, up-and-coming filmmakers, much of the discussion focused on what folks looking to break into the industry need to be doing.

Despite the lack of air-conditioning (there was an electrician’s strike in France that day), Eli stayed for nearly an hour in the heat after the interview to shake hands, answer more questions and take business cards.

Check out Mike Jone’s full recap of the interview here.

This summer, Alamo Drafthouse and Fantastic Fest will be teaming up with me (Simon Rumley, director of the Fantastic Fest 2006 best picture The Living and The Dead) to shoot my new revenge feature. The movie is called Red, White and Blue and will shoot on location in and around Austin.

Being an indie production however, we need a little bit of help from you, our loyal friends!

EXTRAS
Whether it’ll be sitting in a bed in hospital or eating a burger at a diner or browsing a toyshop, we’ll need some of you guys to flesh out the background.

Most scenes will take no more than an hour to shoot so if you have a spare hour (or more) this is for you!

LOCATIONS
This is an ambitious movie with a ton of locations. We’ll be using ‘real’ locations where we come in and shoot with little or no production design to change the look and feel of the locations.

The crew will be relatively small with about 12 people and next to no lights. The amount of actors will vary on the scenes but will range from between 2-6. Most locations will be required for roughly a day’s filming, some during the day and some during the night.

They are as follows:

1) Franki’s – Franki is a lead character and is in a band. His house should be small/medium sized with two floors. Nothing too fancy. Probably 2-3 days filming here.

2) Carl/Alvin’s – Also lead characters and in the same band as Franki. Need a garage to rehearse in and also, preferably on two floors. Nothing too fancy either.

3) Ellie’s – Franki’s mum’s house. Can be on one or two floors. Lived in by a woman in her 50/early 60s. Moderately well off/comfortable.

4) Ed’s – Slightly older contemporary of Franki/Alvin’s etc. Lives with his girlfriend and young daughter. Has back yard and two floors.

5) Dano – Small appartment/ground floor house, lives by himself. NB – this is required for a sex scene!

6) Barman – Barman from a hotel’s bedroom. Also required for a sex scene!

7) Lil Allan’s mum’s house – single mum’s house ideally with young boy’s room and back yard.

Sarah’s house – single woman in her 20’s house, ground floor only.

9) Erica’s parents’s house – only need to see a run-down/basic living room from the outside.

SO WHAT’S IN IT FOR YOU GUYS!?

Apart from being an integral part of a new feature film, you’ll get onscreen credits and be kept abreast of all the developments/premieres/parties etc. More than that, however, you’ll have the chance of becoming one of the movie’s producers!

Every single person who provides a location or is an extra in at least two different scenes will be automatically entered into a raffle which will take place on the last day of filming. The lucky winner will be then given an onscreen credit as Associate Producer to impress their mums/dads/boyfriends/girlfriends etc for ever and ever.

If you wanna help produce a movie by providing a location, send an email to:
rwblocations@gmail.com

If you wanna help produce a movie by being an extra, send an email to:
rwbextras@gmail.com

Thanks everyone and I look forward to hearing from you soon!

Simon Rumley
director: Red White and Blue, The Living and the Dead

According to an article at Inside Film, Media 8 Entertainment has acquired worldwide rights to The Horseman, which had its North American debut at SXSW presents Fantastic Fest. Media 8 will be taking the film to Cannes market this month for buyer’s screenings. Congratulations to Steve and his crew!