The Austin, Texas Film Festival

I took the past weekend to immerse myself in my second career.

(Please forgive me for posting this picture. "Man in the Chair" was not at the Austin Film Festival. It's called "self promotion")

Along with my friends John Ware and Julie Fay, whom I worked with on "the Man in the Chair" I attended the Austin Film Festival. I will admit that I felt a bit like the low man on the totem pole; most of the people at the festival were screenwriters. I found myself apologizing for being just an actor.

There were very few actors at the conference, but there were some very successful screenwriters. Their names may not mean much, but you will know their work!

The Austin Film Fest is mainly a writer's gathering and we did get to rub elbows with some very successful writers.

Eric Roth

who wrote "Forrest Gump". Benjamin Button, and "The Horse Whisperer" was there to talk about his inspirations and writing style. Fascinating man and is very quick to point out that he has written his share of turkeys!

If you are a Tom Hanks fan, you will be glad to know that Roth says that Hanks is every bit as nice as he seems.

We also got to hear from:

Bruce Feirstein

who wrote "Golden Eye", "Tomorrow Never Dies', and "The World is Not Enough."

Michael Brandt

"Wanted", "2 Fast, 2 Furious" and "3:10 to Yuma"

Scott Z. Burns

"The Informant" and "Bourne Ultimatum"

Then, there is the fact that we were in Austin.

What can I tell you? Austin is Austin. Friendliest people on the face of the earth. If you make eye contact with a person from Austin, they are going to at least give you a "How's it going."

Then there is that whole "Keep Austin Weird" thing. I don't know that "weird" is really the word for Austin. "Unique" is much closer to the truth. Here are just a few random shots of downtown.

There were movies being shown at various locations for the entire festival. I only got to see one of them, but what a movie!

On Saturday night we stood in a line four blocks long to see "Silver Linings Playbook". Luckily, we were on the second block of the four block que. It was well worth the wait.

I won't spoil the movie for you. If you want to read the synopsis, here is a link to the IMDB page for the movie.You can also watch the trailer at IMDB.

All I will tell you is that a crowd of 1,000 people, all in the movie industry in one form another, were caught up in this film in the first minute and the ovation at the end was thunderous.

One of the stars of the movie, Julie Stiles was there seeing it for the first time and I really believe she was taken aback by the response.

The film is set for release on November 22nd. Go see it! It's the best movie I've seen in a very long time.