Movie Project 'Criminal Conversations' Gains Distributor

California-based movie distributor FilmWorks Entertainment, Inc., has delivered a letter of intent (LOI) to distribute the movie project Criminal Conversations, which will be directed by Stephen Jules Rubin. The screenwriter is Si Dunn.

Logline: A man meets up again with his ex-wife while his current spouse is dying and his ex-wife's current husband is suing her for divorce and trying to prove she is guilty of adultery.

The character-driven romantic dramedy is seeking additional funding and donations, and the movie is scheduled to be shot in Santa Fe, New Mexico, sometime this fall.

New versions of the movie's one-sheet and business plan are now available.

The one-sheet is available here: http://bit.ly/9JNu6N. A recent draft of the script can be read here: http://bit.ly/c4VEAX.

Some of the story behind the screenplay can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4sPZasOf1o.

Donations of any size can be made via PayPal to si@sagecreekproductions.com. Donors will receive on-screen thanks in the movie's ending credits. It is not necessary to have a PayPal account to donate.

For more information on this project and how to become involved in it, please contact:

Si Dunn
Sagecreek Productions, LLC
3800 N. Lamar Blvd., Ste. 730-131
Austin, TX 78756
sidunn@hotmail.com

IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1918688/

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Texas Movie Incentives: The 'Censorship' Controversy Continues

Texans and outsiders hoping to produce moving-image projects (movies, TV shows, documentaries or video games) with state assistance are beginning to wake up to the realities of a legislative restriction that some now decry as "censorship."

A statute signed into law with little fanfare in June, 2007, established the following conditions under which the state-funded Texas Film Commission is supposed to review applications for grants to assist moving-image productions:

"The office is not required to act on any grant application and may deny an application because of inappropriate content or content that portrays Texas or Texans in a negative fashion, as determined by the office, in a moving image project. In determining whether to act on or deny a grant application, the office shall consider general standards of decency and respect for the diverse beliefs and values of the citizens of Texas."

The part causing the most debate and heartburn at the moment involves the language where the Texas Film Commission "may deny an application because of inappropriate content or content that portrays Texas or Texans in a negative fashion, as determined by the office..."

Texas Film Commissioner Bob Hudgins recently denied a state grant to assist the production of a $30-million movie project called Waco, after some of the participants and observers of the 1993 Branch Davidian standoff that resulted in more than 80 deaths claimed its screenplay was "inaccurate" and portrayed some real-life characters in a negative light. Numerous Texas entertainment workers were hoping to get jobs on the Waco project. But one of the movie's producers has since stated that his company will "never ever" shoot a movie in Texas as a result of the ruling.

Some opponents of the Texas Film Commission ruling, including this writer, have voiced opinions that the Waco movie would be a work of fiction, no matter how truly "based on real events" it is, and the Texas Film Commissioner thus has been tasked by state legislators to censor fiction.

After all, some of the most successful and enduring movies about Texas, including Giant and The Last Picture Show, have not portrayed Texas and Texans in a positive fashion. Neither have movies such as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and TV shows such as Dallas. But Giant and Dallas have brought tons of tourism dollars to Texas and are still paying off decades later. And other movies and TV shows, including the definitely inaccurate Walker, Texas Ranger, also will pay tourism and "image" dividends to Texas for many years to come.

Texas may as well face the truth. The state's image has been less than angelic to the outside world since at least 1836, and there's just no way the Texas Legislature will ever be able to stuff that genie back into a Shiner beer bottle.

Here are links to some of the ongoing discussions voicing criticism or approval of the Texas Film Commission action:


The Austinist.com

The Austinist.com

The Austin American-Statesman

The Texas Legislature currently is bogged down in a pile of partisan political battles over voter ID cards and other issues, and its session will end soon. Thus, the "in a negative fashion" restriction may keep generating controversy--and negative light for Texas politicans' lack of enlightenment--and keep causing job losses for many months or years to come.

-- Si Dunn

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Have You Read a Book…This Year?

By Si Dunn

Be honest: Have you read a book…this century?

A new study from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) once again highlights a disturbing trend: Americans seem to be doing less reading than ever, and reading skills in most age groups continue to plunge.

Indeed, the new study, titled "To Read or Not to Read: A Question of National Consequence," echoes and amplifies the findings of an earlier NEA survey, “Reading at Risk.” According to CBS News, that 2004 survey “found an increasing number of adult Americans were not even reading one book a year.”

Think about it. In a nation in which we are free to read virtually any book ever printed, we now are choosing to read almost no books at all. We are letting vast quantities of knowledge, experience, imagination and entertainment go to waste while we stare slack-jawed at reruns of America’s Hottest Super Slobs on wall-sized TV screens or hang out online at social websites, exchanging “OMG! LOL! 2 HOT!” messages with digital strangers.

Okay, I’ll confess: Sometimes, I get paid to read. I earn part of my income by reviewing books for a major daily newspaper. And, I read books for research while writing articles, books and screenplays.

But, at the end of each day, when the computer, the TV, the cell phone and the radio are all powered off, and when I can at last enjoy some quiet time, I often grab a book.

To turn it on and boot it up, I simply have to open its front cover. After that, I can be transported to almost any time or any place in the imaginable universe, just by reading a few words. On paper. (Remember paper?)

Have you read a book this year? Have you read a book yet this century?

Would it really hurt you to read two books this next year and maybe help turn the disheartening trend line upward for a change?

You can start by turning off this blog. I won't mind. I'll be reading, too.

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