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May 18, 2011
 Ken
Burns' "Prohibition", will be kicking off the PBS
fall season. The six-hour series will begin on October 2
with three two-hour segments running on consecutive
nights. Peter narrates the documentary about the early
20th century ban on liquor, with Wynton Marsalis
providing music and Tom Hanks, Jeremy Irons, Paul
Giamatti, Oliver Platt, John Lithgow, Samuel L. Jackson,
Patricia Clarkson, Adam Arkin, Sam Waterston and Josh
Lucas contributing voices. Set in the era of bathtub
gin, bootleggers and speakeasies, the series tells the
true story of the rise, rule and fall of the 18th
Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. It was called the
Noble Experiment, but it was in fact one of America’s
most notorious civic failures, an object lesson in the
challenge of legislating human behavior.
  From
1934 to 1963, Alcatraz Island, off the coast of the San
Francisco Bay, isolated some of the nation’s most
infamous inmates - from Al “Scarface” Capone to
“Birdman” Robert Stroud to George “Machine Gun” Kelly.
Last month the University of California Press published
a new book called "Hidden Alcatraz: The Fortress
Revealed", edited by photographer Steve Fritz and
Deborah Roundtree. More than thirty photographers gained
unprecedented access to the former prison to capture its
deteriorating beauty. The resulting pictures present
diverse visions of beauty in decay. They highlight the
eerie, almost supernatural mood of the former prison,
bringing texture to its historical artifacts and
architecture, and evoking the extreme isolation and
despair of inmates whose only remaining traces are
suggestions of blood spatters and scratches on the
walls. The foreward is written by Peter, who was present
during the 1971 occupation by members of the American
Indian Movement. You can listen to Peter as he recalls
his memories of "the Rock" in June 1971 at this
Vanity Fair link.
I
just came across these photos I had never seen before
from the NCIS episode "Silent Night" that aired on
December 16, 2008. Peter played a Vietnam vet named Ned
Quinn, who becomes a prime suspect. That's Mark Harmon
as the investigator.
I've
also posted an excellent
2008 interview that I somehow missed. Peter
explains his personal journey to Zen Buddhism. For
those pursuing more knowledge in this spiritual
endeavor, he recommends these four books: Zen Mind,
Beginner’s Mind & Not Always So by Shunryu
Suzuki Roshi, Taking the Path of Zen by Robert
Aitken, and The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching by
Thich Nhat Hanh.
April 20, 2011
 Camelot
Entertainment Group, Inc. announced today that ARC
Entertainment in partnership with XLrator Media has
acquired all domestic rights to the gun-slinging western
THE GUNDOWN, "The
legions of Western fans are hungry for well-made films
as the success of TRUE GRIT demonstrates. THE GUNDOWN
will be embraced by fans of the genre," commented
XLrator Media's Barry Gordon. ARC Entertainment will
release the film on VOD, DVD and digital platforms later
this year. The film will become available in
Scandinavian countries in Blu Ray and DVD on June 21st,
but has been renamed "True Gun". Sound familiar? Besides
Peter, the film stars Andrew W. Walker, Sheree J.Wilson,
and William Shockley.
This
short piece by Peter appeared in Sunday's edition of the
San Francisco Chronicle:
One of the most treasured books
that I own is Donald Allen's "The New American
Poetry, 1945-1960." It was a totem of great
importance and potency to my group of writer friends
in college, from 1960 to 1964. Through it we were
introduced to the works of Gary Snyder, Robert
Duncan, Lew Welch, Denise Levertov, Robert Creeley,
Michael McClure, Ed Dorn and others.
These poets represented and articulated a world and
way of living that seemed more vital and authentic,
more important and compelling than the one we were
being groomed for by our education, and we inhaled
them like Camel cigarettes and discussed and shared
them over coffee nightly.
The book was a portal into that world, and by good
fortune, within five years of my graduation, I had
met and become a student and later friends with
several of the authors. My copy is today dog-eared
and stained, but the poems within and the
consciousness they illuminate remain as fresh and
pure as the day I first cracked the covers, 51 years
ago, and just as important to me.
 If
you plan to visit the Grand Canyon, you'll now get the
chance to hear Peter's voice as he narrates an
interpretive/orientation film for tourists. The National
Park Service has announced it will begin showing the
film at the newly constructed theater located at the
Grand Canyon National Park’s Visitors Center at the
park’s South Rim beginning April 18th. The film, titled
“Grand Canyon: A Journey of Wonder,” takes
visitors on a virtual trip throughout the park,
introducing tourists to telling stories concerning
Native Americans’ connections to the canyon, the area’s
pioneer history, the Colorado River, the park’s geology
and much more. The film is produced and directed by
Joshua Colover of Aperture Films Limited of Newport
Beach, Calif., who began this process in the spring of
2008 with initial filming occurring in the spring of
2009. The film will be shown on the hour and half hour
during the hours the Grand Canyon Visitors’ Center is
open and will be distributed through the Grand Canyon
Association and available for purchase at sales outlets
throughout the park and online beginning in May.
 In
January, THIS IS NOT A MOVIE
premiered in Mexico; however, there has been no news as
to other openings. I did come across some interesting
remarks made by screenwriter and director Ollalo Rubio
at a press conference. He explained that this film was
one of his most cherished projects and acknowledged that
he feels very honored to have performances by Edward
Furlong and Peter Coyote, and the participation of
guitarist Slash, who composed about 36 pieces for the
mood of the film. On casting Peter, the director
explained how Peter is "characterized by political
activism as part of The Diggers, is also a Buddhist
priest and is very involved with the study of the mental
nature of man, and finally, is a San Francisco icon , so
he seemed ideal to appear in the film."
April 12, 2011
Iowa City novelist, Larry Baker, enlisted the help of
Peter when he needed a narrator for his documentary, "A
Good Man: A Story of a Story". Originally, Larry
Baker said the film was intended to be about his book
tour, but it grew to be something much bigger. The film
is about the process of writing fiction. It is based on
his latest book, "A Good Man," published in 2009 about
fictional character Harry Ducharme, a radio host at the
end of his career. In other words, the film is a
nonfiction work about a fiction work. It's interesting
that Baker's face is never shown in the film. He
responds, "I'm not selling me, I'm selling creativity."
You can view the 8-minute opening chapter
at this link.
You
may have noticed that Apple's latest iPad commercial
features Peter's voice intoning, "Technology alone is
not enough. Faster, thinner, lighter - those are all
good things. But when technology gets out of the way,
everything becomes more delightful, even magical."
 Peter
tells me that filming has wrapped for HEMINGWAY &
GELLHORN and that he loved working with the film's
cast, which included Clive Owen, Nicole Kidman, Lars
Ulrich and David Strathairn. Peter has the role of
editor Maxwell Perkins. Here's an on-location photo
taken in San Francisco of Clive and Nicole on March
27th. The couple certainly look the part with Clive
wearing Ernest Hemingway's signature beret and round
metal framed glasses and Nicole sporting tousled hair
and wide-legged trousers. The film tells the story of
the writer and his second of four wives.Their tumultuous
relationship and five-year marriage began when they met
at a local Key West bar in 1936. They married in 1940
after romancing in Europe while Hemingway wrote his
famous novel "For Whom The Bell Tolls" for which she was
the inspiration.
March 23, 2011
"I'm
still Sam Malone, I'm still the least-qualified person
to be doing this, but here I am," said the former star
of "Cheers" during his visit to Dominican University on
Monday night. Danson sat down with Coyote for a friendly
conversation about Danson's environmental project:
Oceana. Coyote directed pointed questions at his friend
and Danson rambled his way through the evening with
personal stories and images of the dangers facing the
oceans.
The crowd, which filled the auditorium for the lecture,
was packed with Danson's fans although few knew of his
work as an activist. While Coyote has become a major
celebrity in the arena of conservation, Danson is a
relative and unexpected newcomer. Several fans asked the
celebrity duo to sign copies of Danson's new book
"Oceana: Our endangered oceans and what we can do to
save them," which was on sale through Book Passage as
part of the lecture.
The
folks from artidocs.com were also present at Monday
night's book event and during the Q&A session with the
audience, they presented their upcoming project - a
documentary about underwater sculpturor, Jason deCaires
Taylor. Apparently Coyote offered to narrate it on the
spot and his generosity was much appreciated by the
filmmakers.
March 11, 2011
 Peter
has been cast in the HBO Films production HEMINGWAY &
GELLHORN, starring Clive Owen and Nicole Kidman in
the title roles. Directed by Philip Kaufman from a
script by Jerry Stahl along with Barbara Turner, the
film recounts the tumultuous romance and subsequent
marriage of literary master Ernest Hemingway and
up-and-coming war correspondent Martha Gellhorn,
following them through the Spanish Civil War and beyond.
As she grew in reputation and stature, Gellhorn stood
toe-to-toe with Hemingway, putting his famous bravado
and iconic style to the test. The cast also includes
David Strathairn as John Dos Passos, Parker Posey as
Hemingway's fourth wife, Mary, Lars Ulrich of Metallica
as documentary-maker Joris Ivens, Peter as editor
Maxwell Perkins, Diane Baker as Gellhorn's mother, and
Tony Shalhoub as a Communist Party functionary and
journalist. Filming in and around San Francisco has
begun with locations representing Key West, Spain,
China, Cuba and New York. The film is scheduled to debut
on HBO in 2012.
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