Arkansas Traveler

New guest appearance: The Glades

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The Glades, A&E,tv showTV news.

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,Winter's Bone,Debra GranikGarret 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.

Arkansas Traveler – new article & more pics from the trailer shoot

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KansasCity.com has a nice, long article about Arkansas Traveler here and they also posted a bunch of pictures from the trailer shoot.

A native of North Carolina and long a Civil War buff, Bridgers almost a decade ago began writing a screenplay about a fictional Confederate officer named Waylon McClawhorn, who in the last days of the conflict escapes a Union POW camp in Illinois and makes his way down the Mississippi and back to his home in Arkansas.

Along the way, Waylon encounters bad men of various stripes — whom he ruthlessly and efficiently eliminates — and reluctantly picks up fellow travelers such as the abused Myrtle (Bettis). Sometimes, Waylon gets advice from a shadowy figure named John Bass (Bridgers wrote that role for himself).

“Waylon’s got the Civil War version of post-traumatic stress syndrome,” the bearded, boyish-looking Bridgers said. “He hallucinates this specter that tells him what to do. Basically, John Bass is Waylon’s subconscious.

“In the end, it’s all about Waylon’s redemption, about how he rejoins the living.” (…)

“Sean gave me his script when we were both on ‘Deadwood,’” Dillahunt recalled. “I was really surprised. Good writing is hard to come by. It’s a sign of how much people like this script that they’ll work free to make it happen.”

Dillahunt said he jumped at the chance to play Waylon McClawhorn, if only in the trailer.

“I wish I had a high enough profile that just by my getting involved something like this could get made,” he said. “It’s important to me that it gets made. Doesn’t even matter if I’m in the finished film.” [KansasCity.com]

For more pics, go to Wide Awake Films’ Facebook page.

Update: New production of Side Man in L.A. next week

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Playbill reports that Garret has joined a new L.A. Theatre Works production of Side Man, a play he did in Chicago back in 1999. The production will run from May 12 to 16 and be recorded for the LATW radio series “The Play’s the Thing.” If you’re in L.A. next week, you can get the tickets here.

Golden Globe Award-winning actress Christine Lahti and Garret Dillahunt will join Tony Award-winning actor Frank Wood in the L.A. Theatre Works presentation of Side Man.

Lahti will step into the role of Terry (originated by Edie Falco), and Dillahunt will replace Broadway Side Man cast member Scott Wolf as Clifford. (…)

Stephen Sachs will direct the LATW run that is scheduled to play May 12-16 as part of “The Play’s the Thing” series at the Skirball Cultural Center.

LATW describes the play as “a rich and moving tribute to a lost era of jazz and big bands, a time before the birth of rock ‘n’ roll when jazz musicians were legends.” [Playbill]

In other news, Wide Awake Films posted a few pics from the Arkansas Traveler trailer shoot on their Facebook page and Nikki Finke’s site says that Keep Hope Alive is among the frontrunners for the 2010/11 season.

New film in development: Arkansas Traveler (and other updates)

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Garret Dillahunt,Arkansas TravelerThe news I mentioned yesterday:

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.”

Garret Dillahunt,Sean Bridgers,Arkansas Traveler“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:

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