The Ninth Annual Texas Film Hall of Fame induction ceremony, held last night on the site of the old Austin airport, was quite the damp, frigid shindig -- part all-star love-in, part call to arms. Amidst the inducting -- and feted this year were the likes of Powers Booth (SMU's own), Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke, J.R. Ewing hisself and Arkansan Billy Bob Thornton ("My family comes from Richardson, Garland and Greenville") -- there was also the demand that Texas legislators fund a bill that would allow the state to offer at least $100 million in incentives to filmmakers currently shooting in New Mexico and Louisiana. Insisted last night's emcee, Thomas Haden Church, he's got three Texas-set projects lined up -- and all of them are shooting elsewhere, including in Melbourne, Australia, and Canada. "There are thousands of people here and in Dallas and Houston and throughout the state in need of work," Church said. "Let's make tonight count."
Thomas Haden Church Fun Fact o' the Day: Till recently, he had a house in Greenway Parks.
Church told the well-heeled audience, which included the likes of Kinky Friedman and Beastie Boy Adam Yauch, that New Mexico's bringing in $400 million in movie business -- "a shitload of money by anybody's measure." To which Larry Hagman offered, later, "As my mother said, if you spread the bullshiut around, it all comes back," as he too demanded the state up the measly $22 million set aside for production companies and studios considering shooting in Texas.
But enough about business. At some point today, we'll have video of Luke Wilson accepting the Hall of Fame award for Rushmore -- a film in which he appears for all of, what, two minutes? Till then, after the jump is some video I shot of Church's introduction of the night's inductees -- including Wilson, roasted till medium-well by the night's host. The picture's of low quality, the woman next to me thought the whole thing high-larious, but the comedy is top-notch. Close your eyes and pretend it's radio.
Boothe was born on a farm in Snyder, the seat of Scurry County in west Texas, the son of Emily Kathryn (n�Reeves) and Merrill Vestal Boothe.[1] Boothe is the father of actress Parisse Boothe. He resides in Los Angeles, where he raises racing quarter horses. Boothe is the cousin of Stephen Morgan and Kristin Morgan. He attended Texas State University (then Southwest Texas State College) in San Marcos as an undergraduate, where he joined Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity and received his Master of Fine Arts from Southern Methodist University in Dallas in 1972.
From Wikipedia
How is Powers Booth SMU's own, did he talk there once? Powers Booth went to SWT today Texas State Univ.
Re: Billy Bob Thornton and his Dallas roots
I had the pleasure of meeting BBT a few years back at the premiere of David Lynch's film "Lost Highway" at Mann's Chinese Theatre in LA. We got to talking about Dallas, and informed me that he lost his virginity to a hooker on Cedar Springs during the 60's.
Lifetime Achievement Award!
@defeat plaza:
I just invoked a Jihad on you for that comment!
Random thought: Rushmore might be the most overrated film ever made. It totally sucked. I've laughed harder at infomercials.
@Jean Valjean:
Well, there is a "land full of sand" west of downtown Dallas. There's a fancy bridge being built across it and the mayor wants to put a toll road down the middle of it.
Yeah and on the X-Files movie there were mountains in the background of "North Texas".
@cp: You mean, like the mountains that always show in the background when the cheerleader is "home" in "Odessa" in the TV series Heroes?
Or the X-files movie that showed the world that just about 20 miles west of downtown Dallas was a land full of sand and kids who spoke like they had a pencil up their nose.
There are few things in life that irritate me more than watching a movie that's supposed to be based in Texas, where I'm going, "Where are those mountains? We don't have trees like that in Texas. Is that an ocean? A blue ocean?"
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