North Texas movie news and notes: Fistful of development dollars edition

Local filmmakers are out there soliciting your financial support for their projects. Here's how you can help.

Wow. Technicolor me thrilled!

Oak Cliff's Texas Theatre is showing a crisp 35mm print of Sergio Leone's seminal Spaghetti Western, A Fistful of Dollars, tonight at 9 p.m. — and then repeating the experience on Saturday (at 5 p.m.) and Sunday (at 4 p.m.).

See why Kurosawa's people sued Leone for intellectual theft of plot elements and scenes from his samurai film Yojimbo (1961). More importantly, see Clint Eastwood in the role that defined his onscreen persona and won him international fame.

From the gaping maw of Loyd Cryer, impresario of Texas Frightmare Weekend, comes news of the big 2012 show.

First-announced guests of the state's coolest horror convention include "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, Keith David, Michael Biehn, Jennifer Blanc Biehn, and Danielle Harris. The Biehns (you'll excuse the expression) will be on hand for a special Frightmare screening of their new gorefest feature, Jacob.

Ticket sales and hotel reservations are now open for Frightmare, which is set for May 4-6 of next year. Click here for details.

Promo reel for Maya Indie Film Series

MayaEntertainment on YouTube

"The best in Latino-themed cinema" is how its promoters describe the Maya Indie Film Series, which runs September 16-22 at the Studio Movie Grill in Dallas. The lineup of films includes:

All She Can (dir. Amy Wendel)
Forged (dir. William Wedig)
Blue Eyes (dir. José Joffily)
Where the Road Meets the Sun (dir. Mun Chee Yong)
Without Men (dir. Gabriela Tagliavini)
Didi Hollywood (dir. Bigas Luna)

All She Can, filmed in south and central Texas, features local actors Julio Cedillo and Leticia Magana in supporting roles.

Information is here, though as of this posting no schedule was available for the Dallas shows.

Two Texas filmmakers — Drew Waters and Bill Sebastian — are currently raising funds to finance their movie projects.

For actor and well-known handsome guy Waters (Friday Night Lights, Breaking Bad), Nouvelle Vie will be his first directorial effort. It's a story about "a man and woman who meet at a young age and ... grow together as soul mates until death knocks at their door." Local actress Candice Irion is also connected to the project.

Nouvelle Vie is collecting money through this Kickstarter page.

Meanwhile, Bill Sebastian — with whom I spoke when his film Midlothia made the cut at AFI DALLAS a few years back — has optioned rights to a movie called QWERTY, about an unlikely love story between two misfits, and the role that the National Scrabble® Championship plays in their romance.

The QWERTY IndieGoGo page is here.

I interviewed Debi Lang earlier this year, just before she took off for Nepal to film the activities of an aid group called Hearts In The Himalayas. She's back down at lower atmospheric levels now, and her organization — Caring for the World Films — is accepting submissions from non-profit organizations interested in having their good works documented by professional filmmakers.

Debi tells me that, thus far, not a single North Texas NPO has made an application for the 2012-2013 season. The deadline is next Tuesday (September 6), so any organization out there with an interest should contact Debi without further delay.

And finally, our wacky pals at the Movie Parody Network have posted the first two episodes of their latest twisted opus, Laura What's Her Name. All it seems to be missing is that haunting David Raksin score. (That, and any hint of seriousness...)

Funny, funny stuff.