D'Souza

​So there's Tony D'Souza hanging out at Hartford Coffee Company in Tower Grove South one day this past December, when his phone rings. And it's Hunting Lane Films, the production company that optioned the film rights for his third novel, Mule, which came out in September.

"I hadn't heard from them in a while," D'Souza recalls. "And they're like, 'Uh, we've got something to tell you.'"

Hunting Lane is a small production company that specializes in indie films; its greatest service to the moviegoers and Internet meme-makers of the world thus far is helping to launch and perpetuate the career of Ryan Gosling in Half Nelson and Blue Valentine. When D'Souza sold the rights to Mule, the tale of a young couple that tries to weather the recession by embracing a career in drug-trafficking, he expected, based on the company's reputation and the modest sum it paid him, that the result would be a flick with a budget too small to get a star like Gosling. On the bright side, they might be willing to settle for an unknown screenwriter like, say, Tony D'Souza.

The news Hunting Lane had that day in December did concern the progress of Mule the film. But it wasn't quite what D'Souza had expected.

"They said, 'Todd Phillips at Warner Brothers wants to make the movie.'"

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Phillip Andrew Morton grew up in Spanish Lake, studied film at Webster University and then headed to Hollywood, where he's produced videos for comic Katt Williams and edited trailers for movies like "Ocean's 13." But now, the 32-year-old is putting the finishing touches on a documentary about his hometown and its steep decline.
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Paula Rhodes is home.

​St. Louis native Paula Rhodes is home to showcase her first lead in a feature film, Shuffle, playing Sunday at the St. Louis International Film Festival. 

Last night shortly after her arrival to St. Louis (and after she ran into in Jay Duplass, writer and director of Baghead and Cyrus, at Lambert Airport), Daily RFT was able to catch up with Rhodes on her new film, what it's like being back home and, of course, where she went to high school.

Daily RFT: So you were born in Montana. What's your St. Louis connection?

Rhodes: I grew up mostly in St. Louis. Since second grade, I've been Missouri-tastic through high school [Hazelwood Central] to Mizzou.

Oh, you went to Mizzou? 

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Kurt Kuenne, Paula Rhodes, Shuffle, St. Louis International Film Festival

You mean this isn't every girl's dream?

​OMG, did you hear The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 1 is out today and that Edward and Bella totally have the most romantic wedding ever and then they, like, totally do it and break the headboard and then Bella gets knocked up with a vampire baby? OMG! OMG! OMG!!!

Fortunately, it appears, at least according to the findings of a group of Mizzou researchers, that young Twilight fans are able to separate their girlish fantasies of falling madly in love with a wealthy, handsome 100-year-old vampire and then marrying him straight out of high school and having his vampire babies from their own real-life ambitions of going to college and having careers and not having to wait to get married before they have sex. Yes, young female readers are that intelligent!

Now can we get back to parsing the movie's fucked-up gender politics? Thanks.

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Scarface: Back on the silver-screen for a day.

​Are you a big fan of the movie Scarface? Then you'll want to say hello to this, my friend.

On August 31 the classic gangster movie starring Al Pacino lands in select theaters across the nation for one night only. The event corresponds with the digitally-enhanced Blu-Ray version of the 1983 film scheduled for release next month.

The three theaters in St. Louis participating in the event are AMC Chesterfield 14, Regal St. Louis Mills 18 and the Great Escape O'Fallon 14. Ticket details are here. More >>

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St. Louis Brick: No laughing matter, see?

​After nearly two years of work, Bill Streeter is finally concluding his documentary on St. Louis architecture, Brick By Chance and Fortune. And before its release, the the film is getting a lot more coverage than anticipated.

The national website BoingBoing mentioned the film twice this month, and Laughing Squid has also given it a nod. But perhaps the biggest notoriety thus far has come from Comedy Central's Tosh.O, which lampooned a trailer for the film on his website yesterday.

The site notes that Streeter "scored all the big interviews," including "some dorky guy from your high school social studies class" (presumably St. Louis preservationist Michael Allen) and "a black guy who knows a liiiiittle too much about brick stealing" (presumably Alderman Sam Moore).

Streeter tells Daily RFT that he thought Tosh.O's review of the trailer was hilarious. "Frankly, I didn't think this film would have legs outside St. Louis," says Streeter. "So, I'm glad to see that people elsewhere are taking an interest."
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Despite appearances, it's not a horror movie.

​Warning to anyone who has a small child or has to spend a lot of time in the presence of a small child: Zhu Zhu pets, the scourge of a couple of Christmases past, are back!

Well, they were never actually gone -- except for the 2009 holiday season when they were impossible to find on the shelves of any retail establishment -- but in November, our hamster friends Pipsqueak, NumNums, Mr. Squiggles and Chunk will star in their very own 3-D feature film, Quest for Zhu. It will be followed next year by a sequel, Power of Zhu. (What is "zhu" exactly? Is it like the Force, only for animatronic hamsters?)

Both films will be straight to DVD, which is a mixed blessing: On one hand, you don't have to pay $40 just to take your kid to the movies. On the other hand, you may be doomed to watch them an infinite number of times.

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​Vincent Price's 100th birthday has come and gone, as has the film fest component of Vincentennial (though the exhibits at the Sheldon Galleries and Star Clipper will be up through the summer), but we would be remiss if we didn't pass on this one last tribute to Price.

It's by New York artist Zach Bellissimo, who blogs at Snaggle-Tooth Salad. Bellissimo sketched 100 of Price's greatest film and TV roles on sticky notes, starting from his first movie, Service DeLuxe in 1937, and continuing up through his last, Edward Scissorhands in 1993, the year he died.

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The Vincentennial display at the Sheldon Galleries is so small -- a mere 750 square feet -- that there wasn't room to display even a fair sample of all the artifacts the Vincent Price collectors have assembled. Rick Squires has posted photos of many of his treasures online at the Vincent Price Exhibit.

After being interviewed for this week's feature story "Back From the Undead," collector Robert Taylor sent along photos of Price-iana that didn't make it into the exhibit:

courtesy of Robert Taylor

An Australian trumpet, the world's largest gastropod and the largest seashell in Price's collection, beside Taylor's cat Sally.

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​If you've read this week's feature story "Back From the Undead" about Vincentennial, the 100th birthday celebration for Vincent Price, the biggest movie star ever to come out of St. Louis (and why, pray tell, wouldn't you?), you're undoubtedly eager to participate in the festivities. RFT calendar editor Paul Friswold and his crack team of writers have created a complete day-by-day rundown of all the events. Just think! you can see a Vincent Price movie (or two) every day for the next week!

And some of them promise to be very, very special.

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