|
August 24, 2011
The poster for the French telefilm,
VALPARAISO, has been
released for the upcoming Festival de la Fiction TV next
month. The political thriller, shot in Luxembourg in
late 2010, is Jean-Christopher Delpias' first
feature-length film. Peter takes on the role of the
story's villain, Edward G. Drexler. Balthazar Paredes is
the director of an oil company and has a good (but
unobtrusive) relationship with his daughter Emma, who
represents the Greens in the European Union. Their
public and private worlds collide when a oil freighter
causes an ecological disaster on the French coast, and
Emma is responsible for investigating the incident.
Eventually Balthazar realizes that the chief executive
of Oil & Co has been involved in dumping nuclear wastes
at sea and decides to blow the whistle on these criminal
practices.
July 30, 2011
 On
August 6th, Peter will be supporting local theatre by
attending a special showing of "Peaches en Regalia",
sponsored by Wily West Productions. The 5 p.m. San
Francisco benefit will include a reception at the Nieto
Art Gallery next door to the theatre. Feast on hors
d'oeuvres and sip beverages of your choice while
socializing with Peter, the cast, crew, producer,
director and playwright! "Peaches en Regalia" is based
upon the widely produced, critically acclaimed one act
of the same name, which the San Diego Union praised as
"cleverly constructed, this hip little tale is great
fun!" Benefit tickets are priced $40-$100 and can be
purchased
at this link.
July 5, 2011
 Another
film has just been added to Peter's ever-growing list of
narrations. If you're into alternative medicine, you
might be interested in the Wayne Chesler's documentary "Cut
Poison Burn", which accuses the U.S. medical
establishment of suppressing access to certain cancer
therapies in favor of high-cost ones. The 92-minute film
focuses on Tucson family Jim and Donna Navarro and their
four-year-old son, who was diagnosed with brain cancer
in 1999. Rather than accepting conventional methods of
treating cancer, the family sought out Poland-born Dr.
Stanislaw Burzynski's treatment. Their own doctor,
however, soon filed charges against them with Child
Protecttive Services for abuse and neglect, citing legal
stipulations that alternative therapies, often deemed as
quackery, only be sought in tandem with or after
conventional ones. The film premiered last October at
the Mill Valley Film Festival and was screened last week
in NYC.
  The
Maya Indie Film Series (MIFS) will launch its
third annual seven-city tour in New York, Los Angeles
and Chicago on July 29, followed by San Antonio and San
Diego on August 5, Dallas on August 12, Miami beginning
September 9 and San Francisco on September 16. The
series, which runs for seven days in each market, will
bring seven critically acclaimed, Latino-themed films to
these top U.S. markets. Among the films to be screened
is DI DI HOLLYWOOD, which
Peter stars in with Elsa Pataky. Directed by Bigas
Lunas, the film was shot in Ciudad de la Luz studios in
Alicante, Spain, in the fall of 2009.
June 22, 2011
I
have just added two excellent Fora.tv links to videos
that feature Peter at book readings followed by a Q&A
session. Both were San Francisco events that took place
at the Booksmith and Book Passage in 2008. They're about
an hour each. Enjoy!
http://fora.tv/2009/08/20/Sleeping_Where_I_Fall_The_Chronicles_of_Peter_Coyote
http://fora.tv/2008/12/10/Peter_Coyote_Emmett_Grogan_and_the_Diggers
Tim
McLarty, founder of Ontrack Communications and
"branding" expert pays homage to Peter, who lends his
unmistakable pipes to the new
Apple iPad II new
"Now TV ad. He writes, "His voice is distinctive and
truly in a class of its' own when it comes to imaging a
brand. His conviction of tone comes naturally, having
been politically active for the democratic party as far
back as Adelaide Stevenson. Beginning in the early '80s,
Peter began doing voice-overs, which led to a very
successful side venture, now numbering over 120 films.
His mellow voice, often compared to Henry Fonda's, won
him an Emmy in 1992 for his narration of the 'The Meiji
Revolution' episode, part of the PBS American Experience
ten-part series called 'The Pacific Century.' He
continues to lend his rich voice to narrations for
commercials and documentaries and often donates his
voice to films that support issues close to his heart."
June 17, 2011
 This
month THE GUNDOWN will
be released on DVD and BluRay in Australia and on June
21 in Scandinavia where Scanbox Entertainment will
change the name to "True Gun". The film will also be
released in Germany, Brazil and the UK later this year.
"We're thrilled with the response this film has been
getting and are excited to see it coming out around the
world," commented Dustin Rikert, the film's director and
producer. "Our goal was always to make a gritty little
film that paid homage to the spaghetti westerns."
6/23 Update: Amazon.com has just announced a
pre-order of the US edition of this DVD coming out on
September 13th. You'll note that the cover format has
been changed from the original poster.
I
just came across some photos taken in early May.
SFJAZZ, one of the largest nonprofit presenters of
jazz and world music in the US, broke ground on May 6th
on its new center and hosted a gala event that evening
at San Francisco's legendary Bimbo's 365 Club. Comic
Dave Chappelle, vocalist Mary Stallings, the SFJAZZ
Collective, Latin jazz keyboardist Rebeca Mauleon and
the SFJAZZ High School All-Stars provided the
entertainment. Attending the party were stars from the
world of jazz, film literature and politics. The first
photo shows Peter with his wife Stefanie, the second
with Delroy Lindo, the third with Terrence Howard and
the fourth with Mayor Willie Brown, Alice Huffman and
Dan Daniels, Sr.
Peter's
next film project will be LOVE LETTERS IN THE SAND,
written by Barbara Grace English and directed by Douglas
Raine. The cast includes Cuba Gooding, Jr., Kristy
Swanson, Johnathon Schaech, Niki Saletta, Carlucci
Weyant, Peter Twink Capland, Amy Dadamo and Peter in the
role of Bennet Parker. Gooding will play Norman Baxter,
a homeless alcoholic who lived for thirty years in the
woods until he was court ordered to New Start
Rehabilitaion Center. Deanna Gray, played by Swanson,
develops a special bond with him and through great
adversity, arranges for him to stay in the church she
attends. Based on a true story, this movie offers hope
no matter how bad one's life is. Filming begins July 5th
in Georgia.
 This
Sunday filmmakers Paul Mariano and Kurt Norton will
present their film, "These Amazing Shadows" at
the Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael with a
special added guest appearance by Peter. The 88-minute
documentary tells the history and importance of the
National Film Registry, a roll call of American cinema
treasures that reflects the diversity of both film, and
the American experience itself. The film includes
on-camera testimony from several filmmakers including
Peter, Christopher Nolan, Rob Reiner, Debbie Reynolds,
Tim Roth, and many others. The screening will be
followed by a Q&A session with Peter participating along
with the filmmakers.
 On
June 20th, Peter, Geoff Hoyle and Margo Hall will head
the cast in a staged reading of Alice Childress'
landmark 1955 play, "Trouble in Mind" at the
Lorraine Hansberry Theatre in San Francisco. Childress
was the first African-American woman to have a play
produced professionally on Broadway, and "Trouble in
Mind" endures as an important exploration of midcentury
race relations, framed as a behind-the-scenes look at an
integrated theater company. This staged reading is part
of PROJECT1VOICE, a national grassroots movement
designed to cultivate artistic excellence, creativity,
and innovation among African-American theatre
organizations, along with preserving their legacies and
those of African-American playwrights.
 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.
|
