Coymoon Creations

WINTER 2004/2005 NEWSLETTER

Update - 2/26/05:

Peter will have a guest appearance on next week's NBC's "Law and Order: Trial by Jury." It will be aired on Friday evening, March 4. Peter will play Mike LaSalle in "41 Shots", the last taped episode with Jerry Orbach, who passed away in December.

Update - 2/23/05:

The Big Sky Documentary Festival, which ran February 17-23 in Montana, featured two films narrated by Peter. "The Green Bus vs. The White House", which had its world premiere yesterday, is about the Minnesota Senate race in 2002 - Incumbent Democrat Paul Wellstone versus the White House handpicked candidate, Norm Coleman. Wellstone, who voted against the Iraq war, is killed in a plane crash. After a period of mourning capped by a controversial Memorial Service, the Democrats put erstwhile Vice President Walter Mondale on the ticket and George Bush makes his fourth visit for Coleman. Minnesota struggles with grief and absentee ballot battles to prove it is not another Florida. For more information on this 76-minute film, visit hanleyproductions.com. Also shown was "Oil on Ice", which premiered at the Telluride Mountain Film Festival last May. This film explores the controversy surrounding proposed oil drilling in the Artic National Wildlife Refuge. 

Still no premiere date for Fox's "The Inside" though it's reported it will air on Fridays at 8 pm. Clips shown to critics make this look darker and more mature than anything Fox has on the air right now.

Update - 1/27/05:

Here are some pics from the Fox Networks 2005 Television Critics Winter Press Tour at the Hilton Universal Hotel in Universal City and the cast from "The Inside" at the Fox TV "White Hot Winter" party in Los Angeles. Both events took place on January 17th.

Update - 01/23/05:

"Commune", a provocative new feature film about a radical experiment in living, will made its world premiere this weekend at the 2005 Slamdance Film Festival. The latest work by acclaimed documentarian Jonathan Berman, the 78-minute documentary features Coyote, herbalist Michael Tierra and painter Elsa Marley. During the radical fervor of the early 1970s, utopian communities dotted the American landscape. They aimed to reshape the world with free love and common property, and they excited the controversy and fear amongst local residents across the country. Though the idea of communes is now often relegated to a "naive" past, Berman discovers a successful and lasting, if controversial, legacy at the influencial Black Bear Ranch in Siskiyou County, California. With archival footage from the early days, and the present-day views of Black Bear members and their offspring, Commune is a revealing look at how our most basic choices about family, work, and the nature of our relationships send powerful and lasting shock waves through the fabric of society.  Peter comments, "We thought the old idea of theater as a one-way experience as cowardly – we were looking to be engaged in a new and constant dialogue with other people so that roles of living and theater could be very fluid." For more information on this film, visit fivepointsmedia.com.

"New Buffalo: Journals from a Taos Commune" by Arthur Kopecky was published last year with this forward by Coyote - "New Buffalo was one of the most successful of the collective farms that dotted the country in the 1960s and 1970s. Arthur Kopecky's journals take us back to that era as he and his comrades wend their way to the area near Taos, New Mexico, where they encounter magic, wisdom, a mix of people, the Peyote Church, planting, and hard winters. The journals trace the groups evolution to adulthood as the party mood of the early 1970s gives way to the concerns of maintaining a growing farm. By 1975, several hundred people had called New Buffalo home and the business turned away from their counterculture goats, focusing, instead, on dairy cows. New Buffalo was emblematic of any number of communes where people came together by happenstance and grew a life together. The struggle and costs, the hard work, the endless labor and attention required to be self-sufficient; the learning of new skills, social and physical, that made every day an adventure are all here. . . . Remember or learn what it felt like to be young, optimistic, empowered and dedicated to making a better life. You will be amazed to see what persistent, dedicated, selfless, hard work can accomplish."

There's another book that's been added to "Coyote in Print" that was published back in November 2001. Peter joined writers Bob Fitch, Robert Hsiang, Leon Litwack and Clayborne Carson on "The Whole World's Watching: Peace and Social Justice Movements of the 1960's and 1970's"  This collection of photographs and short essays relates many episodes of the protest movement that bear witness to the protests and the upheavals that began in the socially engaged and politically volatile San Francisco Bay Area.

Update - 01/20/05:

Coyote's voice goes international! The documentary, "Kursk: A Submarine in Troubled Waters", narrated by Coyote, proved to be a huge success after its premiere on French television on January 6, 2005. Produced by Les Films Grain de Sable and directed by Jean-Michel Carré, the film presents an alternative account of the Kursk tragedy while attempting to unveil a curtain of secrecy. London-based distributor MercuryMedia has acquired UK, Asia, Middle East and Australian footage and distribution rights to the French documentary. Tim Sparke, director of MercuryMedia says, "This is an exceptionally important film, which rewrites the official version of a tragedy and underlines the lengths governments will go to in achieving their global aims.”

From the Toronto Star (1/19/050):

"Though something short of demonic, the new show, The Inside, is a very dark series spin on Silence of the Lambs, with Peter Coyote doing Scott Glenn's taciturn FBI guy and newcomer Rachel Nichols (Sex and the City) as a Jodie Foster-esque rookie profiler with an even scarier secret past. Firefly's Adam Baldwin rounds out the team."

"'Fox was looking for a procedural,' Tim Minnear explains. 'They had the star, Rachel, who they all loved, and they were sort of (going) with a 21 Jump Street kind of show. And I wasn't really interested in doing 21 Jump Street. So I suggested something a little darker, something more in keeping with the kinds of things I'm more known for doing. In terms of what we're doing, it is not dissimilar, actually. These are heightened situations, people who are fighting very stressful, really epic battles for each other's soul, and to bring justice ...'"

And elsewhere, Tim Minnear comments - "We're really excited about Peter Coyote. He's absolutely the perfect person to play Web." And I love the fan response ▪ "Oh cool, he's the Homeland Security chief in The 4400. I like him. He has presence..." ▪ "Peter Coyote's one of those 'Hey, it's that guy!' guys. And he looks great in a suit." ▪ "Wow! I absolutely love Peter Coyote. Have for years. I'll watch stuff I know isn't all that great - just because he's in it." ▪ "KEYS was my most favorite part of E.T." ▪ "Peter Coyote rocks..." For an exclusive December report from the set of "The Inside", visit . Timminear.net.

Update - 01/17/05:

The following was released by Fox on the upcoming 13-episode series "The Inside" starring Coyote as Supervisory Special Agent Virgil "Web" Webster:

Update - 01/15/05:

The recently published book, "Sean Penn: His Life and Times" by Richard. T. Kelly is composed almost entirely of edited interviews with friends, family and colleagues. Here's an excerpt from Coyote in relationship to Penn's political activism: "What a spectacular display of hypocritical horseshit. We have a mass media that is dedicated to every aspect of actors' lives. We have entire magazines dedicated to where celebrities shop... everything about celebrities fascinates us except their political opinions... because the political opinion of a celebrity can be a detriment to merchandising".

Update - 01/12/05:

A documentary narrated by Peter will be featured at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival this month. Magnolia Pictures will present "Enron, The Smartest Guys in the Room", which bills itself as the inside story of the Enron business scandal. Directed by Alex Gibney, the 110-minute documentary draws upon the reporting of Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind, who co-wrote the book of the same name. Corporate audio and videotapes are included showing how Enron traders affected the national economy. The film will have a general release later this year. It's interesting to note that Gibney also wrote and directed "The Pacific Century", the 1992 PBS ten-hour documentary series, which won Coyote an Emmy for the narration of the episode, "The Meiji Revolution."

Update - 12/29/04:

In the past month there have been several changes made in Peter's television work for 2005. First off, he will not be in the second installment of "The 4400" series, but will still appear in one episode of  NBC's "Trial by Jury" which will premiere in midseason. The big news is that he has been signed on to play an FBI boss for the new 13-episode Fox series called "The Inside" [which may soon change its name, possibly to "Southland"]. The series has been going through a makeover following the September departure of creators Todd and Glenn Kessler. Tim Minear was hired to write a new pilot script which dramatizes the FBI's Violent Crimes Unit. Filming began December 9th on what used to be the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" sets. The series will premiere in March on Fox.

Here are more production photos from Deepwater. Visit the film's official's web site for the trailer and much more info. Still awaiting a release date.

Peter has narrated another film called "Spirit Riders". This 90-minute feature documentary describes the birth of an Native American peace movement begun in 1990 by the Lakota Nation and its growth over the subsequent years. It explores how the roots of the World Peace movement lie in the suffering and recovery of the Lakota. Through horseback rides and ceremonies, Lakota people have found ways to let go of the grief and despair which persisted for over a hundred years following the 1890 massacre at Wounded Knee. For more information, visit spiritridersmovie.com.

Update - 12/04/04:

Steve Suissa, director of Le Grand Role, will arrive in Hong Kong next week when his film is screened at the 27th French Cinepanorama. He says that the strength of the film's story lies in its universal themes. Quoting The Standard (HK) - "Suissa speaks highly of American character actor Peter Coyote, who is cast as a film director. 'Professionally, it's one of the best encounters I've ever had. This man is a big actor, sincere, fair, enthusiastic and generous. He brings all of these things to the film.'" The film was nominated for the 2004 Grand Prix Prize at the Paris Film Festival in March.

Update - 12/02/04:

From the Miami Beach Post - "Le Grand Role" review
"Director Steve Suissa (Taking Wings, another Jewish backstage tale) succeeds at the tricky balancing act of mixing comedy and pathos. Despite the transgressions of their subterfuge, these are people worth making an emotional investment in and we readily do."

"Stephane Freiss is a likeable Maurice, even as it is clear that he would be a terrible choice to play Shylock. Berenice Bejo is touching as Perla, who grows paler but remains beautiful, in the typical movie shorthand for ravaging disease. But it is Peter Coyote, who seems to be having more success overseas than in Hollywood, who steals the picture as the eccentric, but caring, filmmaker."

"Le Grand Role has been seeking an American distributor for over a year, a difficult goal in the shrinking climate for foreign language films. Yet it is a very audience-friendly movie, a worthy kick-off to the Jewish festival."

Here is a listing of the film's future screenings:

Palm Beach, FL…Palm Beach Jewish Film Festival…December 2-12, 2004
Washington, DC…Washington DC Jewish Film Festival…December 2-12, 2004
Minneapolis, MN…Oak Street Cinema…December 10-16, 2004
Denver, CO…Denver Jewish Film Festival…February 10-17, 2005
San Diego, CA…San Diego Jewish Film Festival…February 12-13, 2005
Portland, Maine…Maine Jewish Film Festival…March 13, 2005