Syfy has released the promotional pics from Garret’s episode of Alphas.

There are a couple more on the Alphas page. The episode airs on Monday, August 29.

Amigo finally opens in a limited release in the U.S. tomorrow. You can find the list of theatres here. The film will also be shown at the Albuquerque Film Festival tonight.

There are a couple of great interviews with John Sayles at NY Mag and Twitch Film. A couple of snippets:

Where did you base your characters on?
Chris (Cooper)’s character was based on someone very specific named ‘Hell Roaring Jake Smith’ who was famous for telling his subordinates, “I want you to make this place howling wilderness. The more you kill and burn, the more you will please me. And I want you to kill every one out of ten Filipinos who are capable of carrying arms,” which meant anybody older than 10. So yes, we had some hard-ass characters like the Colonel who had bullet in his hip from the Civil War who were useful in that kind of military operation. The Mayor is based on hundreds of other mayors that I read about, who got killed by one side or the other. Garret Dillahunt’s character (Lt. Compton) is very much based on the soldiers’ letters to home, who might have liked the army life but had very mixed feelings about their mission. Garret asked me about the character. He asked if he could play a character who likes being in charge but doesn’t really know where to lead them. …
How is Amigo being distributed?
The supportive mid-90s to early 2000 independent film environment doesn’t exist anymore. Even the movies with big names don’t get distributed and go directly to video. They don’t want to take the gamble with dramas. It’s either comedies or comic book superhero movies. The 30 plus weeks in the theater days are over. It’s all about opening weekend where they recoup the money and the 2-3 weeks run at best. For smaller movies, studios can’t take their chances. Even if they do put up the money to make it, they ask you to spend your money for the promotion and distribution. So I’m going back to what I did with couple of my first films. I made 12 prints of the film (10 on film and 2 digital) and hit 12 mainstream theaters throughout the country where there are large Filipino-American population. If it does well, then we will make more prints and art house theaters distribution will follow.

Last, IGN has the DVD details for Raising Hope. Here is the list of bonus features:

– Exclusive featurettes
– Deleted and extended scenes
– Gag reel
– Commentaries
– Unaired pilot never shown on television

The DVD is out on September 20. You can pre-order it on Amazon.com.

The film will be screened at the Seattle festival in about ten days and then at the Edinburgh International Film Festival on June 16 and 18. If you’re in the area, you can get tickets at Edfilmfest.org.uk.

Elsewhere, there are behind-the-scenes photos from the Raising Hope season finale on the show’s Facebook page and a bunch of pics from the upfronts on FB and Livejournal.

And Fox has posted some season highlights on YouTube:

No word on the Blu-ray yet, but you can sign up to be notified when it becomes available here.

The region 2 DVD has been available on Amazon.co.uk for at least a week now. The release date for the UK is September 5. You can pre-order the show below:

And finally some new clips. Episode 18, “Cheaters,” airs tonight at 9.

Still no word on theatrical release for the U.S. and the rest of the world, so if you’re impatient and live in region 1 or have a region-free/NTSC-friendly DVD player (or can play unfriendly DVDs on your VLC media player), you can pre-order the film on Amazon.ca.

Extras will include a commentary with Director Debra Granik and Cinematographer Michael McDonough, featurettes (“The Making of Winter’s Bone”, “Hillbilly Up: Defining the Contemporary Hillbilly”), Scouting the Ozarks: Resident Experts – visual scouting notes, and an Angel Band music video performed by Marideth Sisco.

You can pre-order the film on Amazon.

And here is the DVD/Blu-ray artwork:

Here are a couple of pics from the episode (click to enlarge):

“Hard Time” airs next Thursday (Aug. 12) at 9 on USA.

Also, since I won’t be around to post updates for a couple of weeks, don’t forget that Burning Bright is out on DVD on August 17. You can get it on Amazon:

Garret will appear in an episode of The Glades one of these weeks (not sure which one yet, so stay tuned) as Eddie Strickland, a suspect in one of their cases. The show airs Sundays at 10/9c on A&E.

And his next appearance on Burn Notice is in episode 4×10, “Hard Time,” which will air on August 12 at the earliest (if there aren’t any breaks in the schedule).

Will post definite dates for both shows when I have them.

Fox released the fall schedule last week and Raising Hope will premiere on September 21, with Sue Sylvester & the Glee kids as the lead-in.

Tuesday, Sept. 21
8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT GLEE (Season Premiere)
9:00-9:30 PM ET/PT RAISING HOPE (Series Premiere)
9:30-10:00 PM ET/PT RUNNING WILDE (Series Premiere)

And a few other updates, since I’ve been AWOL for the better part of the month:

Burning Bright will be released on DVD in region 2 on September 6. Before that, it will be shown at the 2010 FrightFest in London in August. In region 1, the film will be out on August 17.

Pretty Bird was released last month. I’d embed a clip, but the last WordPress upgrade ate my video plugin, so let’s do this the pedestrian way – to see the clip, right click here and save.

And a couple of articles I don’t think I’ve linked yet.

Examiner talked to Garret about Winter’s Bone the other week.

Josh Youngerman: Thanks so much for speaking with us at examiner.com. You play Sherrif Baskin in Winter’s Bone. What attracted you to the part and how did you get involved?

Garret Dillahunt: I love doing films based on books that I’ve read or authors that I really love. I had actually had Daniel Woodrell’s book in my little Kindle before the movie came out; it’s just my kind of thing. I had read the book before the movie came out. I am a big Cormac McCarthy fan obviously, and Ron Hansen, I thought I’d make that movie [The Assassination of Jesse James]. I thought I’d discovered that book. So it was right in keeping with that whole philosophy. I think I was doing [Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles] at the time and I didn’t have a lot of time. They called me about Sherriff Baskin and I was a little ambivalent about it because I wanted to play Teardrop but than I heard that John Hawkes was doing it and I wanted to work with him again. It was a good book, a good script, I wanted to work with John, and it fit into my schedule. Keep reading

And NWA Online had a report last month from the Little Rock Film Festival, where they screened the trailer for Arkansas Traveler. Snippet:

The script is what led Dillahunt and Bettis to work for free to make the teaser; Dillahunt says his only regret is that he’s not a big enough star to guarantee that the movie would be made.

“I would be very happy to play Wayland,” Dillahunt says, “but I don’t have to play Wayland. I could take another part, or it could work out that I might not be able to be in it at all.”

Similarly, while Bridgers plays Bones in the teaser footage, he says he might not appear in the finished film. He means to once again co-direct along with Hemschoot.

“What’s important is that the film gets made,” Dillahunt says.

And made the right way. Wide Awake producers Shane Seley and Ed Leydecker say no one involved in the film wants to take the idea to a Hollywood studio because of the inevitable compromises that would entail. The plan is to shoot the film as a guerrilla production, using a lot of authentic locations and employing serious Civil War reenactors as extras, in part, Seley says, because they can supply their own costumes and equipment.

And the footage shown at the LRFF looks great; shot on a lightweight Viper Filmstream ultra-high-def digital camera that allows shooting in low light situations (eliminating the need for expensive Hollywood-style lighting), it has a rich, detailed but somehow still antique feel.

From the DVD cover (pic right, click to enlarge), it looks like they’re definitely sticking with the title too.

From Bloody Disgusting:

Super exciting news as Lionsgate Home Entertainment has finally announced the long-delayed Burning Bright (review) for DVD and digital download release on August 17th. From one of the producers of cult-favorite thriller Hard Candy, Lionsgate delivers the intense DVD and digital download debut of Burning Bright.

A roaring and engaging ride, the film stars Briana Evigan (Mother’s Day, Sorority Row) and Garret Dillahunt (The Last House on the Left). A thriller not for the faint at heart, the Burning Bright DVD also includes two behind-the-scenes featurettes.

The list of special features:

SPECIAL FEATURES

• Director’s Commentary
• Deleted and Extended Scenes
• The Making of The Road
• Theatrical Trailer #1
• Theatrical Trailer #2

You can get the film from Amazon.

Garret has a new film in development called Arkansas Traveler. It’s a western written by Deadwood’s Sean Bridgers, still in the development stage, with Bridgers and Angela Bettis also attached to star. (Go here for the synopsis.)

Last week, they filmed an extended trailer for the film. Blue Springs Journal was there and wrote a really good article about it.

“…Understanding that period and understanding it on a level that other people don’t – that rubs off on the actors and the performance,” Bridgers said.

Bridgers, an actor by trade, is familiar with period pieces. He played Johnny in HBO’s frontier series, “Deadwood,” as did the star of “Arkansas Traveler,” Garret Dillahunt, who played Francis Wolcott. Dillahunt also played Ed Miller in “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.”

“When I’ve been around and heard the actors talk about being around a historical setting, it really makes their jobs easier to transport into that era,” Bears said.

The cast and crew of “Arkansas Traveler” tread carefully around one of the log buildings as the inescapable mud from the rain the day before makes for sloppy, unsure footing. Wide Awake Films and the co-directors production company, Travelin’ Productions hope the “teaser” they filmed here in Missouri last month will translate into a feature-length Hollywood film. — Blue Springs Journal

And in other news:

• Pretty Bird will finally be released on DVD (!) on June 29. You can preorder it on Amazon.
• Winter’s Bone will be screened at several film festivals – Dallas (April 8 – 18), Kansas City (April 14 – 18), Boston (April 21 – 28),  San Francisco (April 22 – May 6) – before it is released in June. For additional screenings, interviews and Q&As with Debra Granik and the cast, visit this page on Facebook.
• Finally, a Terminator update. Last week, Thomas Dekker told io9 that a DVD movie still might happen. The fans over at SaveTheSCC.com are plotting their next big move (Comic Con) and continuing the weekly campaigns, so visit them when you get a chance.

Page updates: Burn Notice (screencaps), Gary Unmarried (screencaps), Baryo (pics), Arkansas Traveler (page & synopsis)