The thing that won’t be advertised on the Austin Film Festival website is how much you have to gear up for the entire event if you plan to make it out alive. For some, it will be a fun trip to one or two movies; for others it will be a constant flow of panels, films and late night parties that make it tough to finish writing assignments at home.
Today I went to panels on television show runners and writing biopics, but the real news is the Writing for R Rated Comedies panel that I had a front row seat for. The panel featured Michael Ian Black, Michael Showalter, David Wain – all from Stella fame – Steve Faber, Bob Fisher – who co-wrote Wedding Crashers – and Jake Kasdan whose film The TV Set was playing at the festival.
It was a strong panel, although not greatly informative since most of the panelists kept breaking into one-liners and riffs. On the plus side, I got to speak with Michael Ian Black for half an hour afterwards about his work in television, movies and print – specifically his recent work for Cracked Magazine and past McSweeney’s successes.
Even more good news to get excited about: The TBA movie for the last night of the festival has been announced as Nightmare Detective. As a huge fan of Japanese cinema, it’s exciting to see such a cool film being played in America before its remade into a watered down version.
Nightmare Detective is written and directed by Shinya Tsukamoto who most will remember as Jijii in the critically acclaimed Ichi the Killer and who directed the Tetsuo movies.
“But where are the reviews?” you ask. Well I’m glad I made it seem like you did. Because they are on their way…