Update -
3/29/07:

Look for Peter's first guest
appearance on ABC's "Brothers and Sisters" at 10
pm (ET) Sunday night!
Update -
3/21/07:
 Here's
the latest on ALL ROADS LEAD HOME. According to
director Dennis Fallon's blog, the film had two test
screenings and the response was very positive. He says,
"You work so hard and give everything you have to make a
good product, so it is a good feeling when the audience
responds with enthusiasm." Last month the film was shown
to the studios and Fallon looks forward to a theatrical
release later this year though no specific information
was given as to the distributor or release date. The
story is about 12-year-old Belle (Vivien Cardone), who
loses her mother in an automobile accident. Her father
Cody (Jason London) struggles with the loss of his wife
and trying to raise a young girl who believes her father
is partly responsible for her mother's death. Hock,
(Peter Coyote) Belle's grandfather, has trouble
communicating with Belle since the accident because she
reminds him too much of his daughter. Her rebellious
behavior forces Cody to send Belle to her grandfather's
farm. It is Atticus the dog who will change Belle's life
and the life of those who love her. You can now
view the trailer. Many thanks to Steve Milton
for sharing this news with us!
On
March 10 the documentary, "How to Save the World",
had its North American Premiere in Toronto at the Torat
HaTeva: The Jewish Nature Centre of Canada. The film,
narrated by Peter and produced and directed by Tom and
Barbara Burstyn, features Peter Proctor of New Zealand,
the father of bio-dynamic agriculture. The documentary
highlights his journey throughout India helping farmers
revive their poisoned soil. Various activists,
politicians and farmers are interviewed about the deep
economic, social and environmental consequences in the
aftermath of the 'green revolution', which left hundreds
of thousands of farmers in debt, or drove them away from
their farms and into the overcrowded urban centres in
India. Set in the magnificence of rural India with
beautiful cinematography and music by Mercan Dede, the
film is stimulating, inspiring and educational.
Update -
2/23/07:
Look
for Coyote as a special guest star in several episodes
of ABC’s drama series, BROTHERS AND SISTERS. He
will play Mark August, a professor and potential
romantic interest to the very recently widowed Nora
Walker. He makes his debut in an upcoming episode
entitled “All in the Family.” New episodes will begin
airing on April 1. The cast includes Calista
Flockhart as Kitty, Rachel Griffiths as Sarah, Sally
Field as Nora Holden, Ron Rifkin as Saul Holden,
Patricia Wettig as Holly, Balthazar Getty as Thomas,
Dave Annable as Justin, Matthew Rhys as Kevin, John
Pyper-Ferguson as Joe and Sarah Jane Morris as Julia.
Update -
2/20/07:
The
documentary COMMUNE will be shown in San
Francisco at the Haight's Red Vic Movie House and in
Chicago at the Facets Cinemateque from February 23 to
March 1. Jonathan Berman's film chronicles the history
of the Black Bear Ranch commune, which was founded in
1968 and lasted long after most idealistic experiments
in communal living crashed and burned. Black Bear
occupies 80 acres of isolated wilderness in Siskiyou,
California. A small group of free-thinking malcontents
bought it for $22,000, which they raised by hitting up
actors and musicians - including Frank Zappa and James
Coburn - who they felt had enriched themselves by
exploiting counter-culture attitudes and styles and were
due to give something back. Berman interviews a colorful
cross section of Black Bear alumni and matches vintage
and newly shot footage of places, structures and people.
These ranchers were counterculture aristocracy and
Berman's portrait is necessarily idealized. The dozen
pages Coyote devotes to Black Bear in his multi-commune
memoir Sleeping Where I Fall
suggests something a bit wiggier. Acid, of course, was
crucial; sociologists came to observe the ranch and went
native, and as one founder fondly recalls, "We ate a lot
of placenta."
Update -
1/17/07:
 The
DVD for A LITTLE TRIP TO
HEAVEN will be released on March 13, 2007. You
can pre-order now at
Amazon.com. The film never enjoyed a wide release
but was screened at several prestigious film festivals,
including Sundance and the Toronto International Film
Festival. Filmed mainly in Iceland in 2005 by acclaimed
director, Baltasar Kormákur,
the film stars Forest Whitaker and Julia Stiles.
Returning the crime noir genre to a place of both
credibility and true danger, Kormákur finds as much
interest in the ambivalent moral winds of the story as
the mysterious events generating them. In this richly
photographed landscape of frigid loneliness and
desperation, the light and shadows of right and wrong
change as often as the seasons, familiar emotional
territory for the acclaimed director of "The Sea".
It
was originally thought that ALL ROADS LEAD HOME (AKA
SHADOWS OF ATTICUS) might make the Sundance roster,
but the film is still in post-production. Director
Dennis Fallon has been regularly posting at his Waldo
West web site and on January 13th he posted the
following: "Have received hundreds of emails on the
status of the film, so I was able to take a moment and
update everyone. As of yesterday, January 12th, we did a
Dolby mix at The Dub Stage in LA with Marti and Jim from
Dolby laboratories, who were truly professional and a
joy to work with. In addition, everything sounded great.
It was a lot of fun to finally see the film on the big
screen with all of the elements and Korey's beautiful
score. The sound and film have not been together other
than basic elements so we haven't been able to see them
on the big screen with sound and music. Even though we
had all the pieces, they weren't married together to
give us the full effect of the movie. Also, this week we
color timed the film with Bob Fredrickson at FotoKem
labs, and believe we will have a proof print with the
Dolby 5.1 and sound on Wednesday of next week. This
means we should have an answer print within the next 2
weeks. So far the response has been positive on the
film. I will let everyone know as soon as we have a
release date." Actor Peter Boyle, who died last month,
is among the cast (see above photo).
Two
Coyote films will premiere at the Sundance Film Festival
this week - the documentary "Strange Culture" (as
reported in the 12/20/06 update) and the feature boxing
drama RESURRECTING THE CHAMP starring Samuel L.
Jackson and Josh Hartnett. Peter plays a fight manager
named Epstein. Alan Alda, David Paymer, Teri Hatcher and
Rachel Nichols also co-star. Director Rod Lurie proves
that he is an intricate storyteller discovering in the
material a range of complex emotions and poignancy.
Bolstered by subtle performances from Hartnett and
Jackson, the film asks what it means to be a man, not a
champ. It grapples with relationships between fathers
and sons and taps into a core component of masculine
self-deception--an urge to misrepresent. Hamstrung by
his own sense of failure, Erik tries so hard to appear
special in his son's eyes that he lies about being
friends with star athletes. But in befriending the
champ, who has his own burdens, Erik takes steps to come
to terms with his family, the ghost of his father, and
his own capacity for forgiveness. In a recent interview,
Lurie said, "I hope that by the end of the film, the
audience will feel the same triumph that they did at the
end of movies like 'Rocky'or
'The Rookie.'"
Peter's
latest project, OUTSIDE THE BOX, will premiere on
Link TV this month. A daring new television show, it
promises a refreshingly unconventional approach to the
investigation and analysis of America's most critical
issues. It takes viewers outside the familiar parameters
and conventions, and away from the usual pundits and
editorial framework of mainstream television news, as it
explores a range of topics close to the American
heartbeat - the death penalty, the environment,
intelligence gathering and, for its first two programs,
energy. Entitled "Beyond Big Oil", this program explores
the political, economic, health and environmental
implications of living in an oil-centric society, while
also examining the viability of alternative technologies
such as bio-diesel and vegetable oil. It presents CEOs
of oil companies, being questioned by democratic and
republican senators, and tackles head-on, in a candid,
humorous tone, what a growing number of scientists and
politicians consider to be the single-most important
issue of our time. The program will also offer viewers a
ride-along conversation with singer and songwriter
Willie Nelson, founder of a new bio-diesel fuel company,
on his eco-friendly concert tour bus, to learn first
hand about the potential of bio-diesel, both for the
struggling American farmer and for our gas-guzzling
society. Upcoming airtimes are Saturday, Jan 27 at 1:30
pm, Sunday, Jan 28 at 7:00 pm, and Monday, Jan 29 at
1:00 am. The photos below include the production team at
work - Peter, Co-Producer Toni Whiteman, Oil Policy
Expert Antonia Juhasz, Journalist David Michaelis and
Producer/Director Stephen Olsson.
A
new documentary narrated by Peter Coyote will be
shown at The Venice Beach Free World Film Festival held
January 30-31.
Called "The Jukebox: From Edison to iPod", the one-hour
feature is directed by Venice filmmaker Lance Miccio
with Matt Turner's linear history of the jukebox.
Here
are some recent photos of Peter with his wife
Stefanie, as well as with George & Denise Bradley.

Update -
12/20/06:
"Strange
Culture", a documentary feature film written,
directed and edited by Lynn Hershman Leeson, has been
added to the Sundance Film Festival roster.
Cinematographer Hiro Narita, shot the 85-minute film
almost entirely at the San Francisco Art Institute with
Peter, Josh Kornbluth, Tilda Swinton and Thomas Jay
Ryan. It will screen next month in the festival's
Frontier section. It is based on the experiences of
artist and college professor Steve Kurtz. After Kurtz
awoke one morning to find that his wife of 27 years had tragically died of
cardiac arrest in her sleep, a surreal sequence of
events ensued. The medics became suspicious of his art
supplies and notified the FBI. Kurtz was charged as a
suspected bioterrorist. Nearly three years later the
charges have not been dropped. He faces up to 20 years
in prison. His trial will begin in January around the
time of the festival.
|