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Update - 10/18/05:
 Last
week Touchstone Television announced that
Steven Bochco, of "NYPD Blue" and "Hill Street
Blues" fame, would take over production of COMMANDER IN CHIEF
from its creator, Rod Lurie, who will remain as executive producer of
the ABC series. You’ll begin to see the hand of Bochco when the seventh
episode airs a few weeks from now. Journalist Catherine Seipp of National Review believes the vice-presidential nominee, General
Warren Keaton, is imagined as an idealized John Kerry. She writes,
"Played by Peter Coyote, this fictional war hero oozes so much loamy
integrity, you could fertilize the entire Rose Garden with it." Reports
indicate that the series has registered strongly with both critics and
viewers. The premier drew 16 million people, while the second episode
was watched by close to 17 million. Peter has so far had guest
appearances in the second and third episodes. He will not appear in
tomorrow's night episode, "First Dance". Here are some photos from the
second episode.
Lewis & Clark College and Oregon Public Broadcasting are releasing a
13-part radio series on the Lewis and Clark Expedition called "Unfinished
Journey: The Lewis and Clark Expedition." This series, hosted by
Peter, commemorates the 200th anniversary of the Lewis and Clark
expedition and urges listeners to explore the profound impact the
expedition had on American history - and most interestingly, how it
greatly affects our lives even today. The program will also feature the
College's humanities scholar in residence, Clay Jenkinson, in addition
to several Lewis & Clark College faculty. Funded by the National
Endowment for the Humanities, and distributed by Public Radio
International, the series is available to public stations across the
country, with radio stations in Oregon, Illinois, Oklahoma, New Mexico
and Ohio already committed to broadcast the programs. Episode and series
information is available online at
Opb.org.
 If
you may have seen the documentary, "The Sixties: The Years That Shaped a
Generation" on your local PBS station recently. Written and directed by David Davis and Stephen Talbot, this
two-hour film covers both the women’s liberation and
larger civil rights movements, the rise of
youth counterculture, and the turmoil surrounding the American
involvement in Vietnam. It features revealing
interviews with Peter Coyote, Norman Mailer,
Walter Cronkite, and key American political figures such as Rev.
Jesse Jackson, Henry Kissinger, Robert S. McNamara, Edwin Meese,
Bobby Seale, Pat Buchanan, and Daniel Ellsberg. And the decade comes to life
once again with a musical soundtrack featuring favorites from the 60s,
including the music of Arlo Guthrie, Bob Dylan, Crosby, Stills and Nash,
Elvis Costello, Jefferson Airplane, Jimi Hendrix, the Beatles, the
Chambers Brothers, the Doors and the Rolling Stones. From the NY Daily
News, "Peter Coyote and Todd Gitlin are well-chosen contributors. So is
Walter Cronkite, the former CBS anchor." Narrated by Paul Herlinger. You
can purchase this DVD or video at the
PBS shop.
Update - 10/10/05:
 Today
is Peter's 63rd birthday. Happy Birthday, dear friend. May you enjoy
this day and be blessed with many more!
Next Sunday night, October 15, the Sci-fi Channel will feature the
premiere of two RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD films - Necropolis and
Rave to the Grave, which both star Coyote as the disgruntled
mad scientist Charles Garrison. Click on the image below for more
details.
More
movie stills have been added to the DEEPWATER film page thanks to Coyote.
Did all
Coyote fans tune in tonight to see his first appearance on COMMANDER
IN CHIEF as the vice presidential nominee, General Warren Fitzgerald
Keaton? He was awesome!
Update - 10/4/05:
Coyote
is presently working on a new narration for a film called "The Tribe:
Barbie's 5000 Year History. It's the unorthodox, unauthorized
history of the Barbie doll! Here's the synopsis:
What can the most successful doll on the planet tell us about what it
means to be Jewish? The Tribe
uses the pop culture icon, the Barbie doll, to unravel a 5000 year history
of the Jewish people struggling with its identity. The electric
20-minute film threads together archival images, animation, Barbie
dioramas, and slam poetry, sending viewers on an visual rollercoaster
ride that mixes humor, history, irony and cultural context. Linking the
past to the present, The Tribe speaks to young American Jews
disconnected from traditional Jewish establishments, and conveys a new
sense of understanding and pride in the richness and complexity of the
Jewish people and its multiple identities. There comes a time when every
new generation must struggle with some very old questions: who am I,
where do I come from, and where am I going? The Tribe triggers this
discussion.
Update: 9/25/05:
  ABC's
COMMANDER IN CHIEF will premiere this Tuesday evening at 9/8c.
It's a series that has a cast that resembles the lineup of a major
motion picture and apparently has a big-screen marketing budget to
match. Promo for the program actually began last July. The major roles
are played by big name stars including Oscar winner Geena Davis, whose
character is the vice president (an Independent, not a Republican) and
who, after the Republican president has a stroke, becomes the first
female president of the United States. Donald Sutherland plays a
conservative speaker of the House. Natasha Henstridge, best known for
her movie roles in "Species" and "The Whole Nine Yards," plays an
assistant to Sutherland's character. And Peter will have a recurring
role as the vice presidential nominee, General Warren Keaton. He will
make his debut appearance in the second episode on October 5th. Here are
more publicity photos (the first one shows Peter with CEO Lance Miccio
of Happy Trailers HD):
To promote the new series, VP Events Inc. was hired by ABC to produce an
Inaugural Ball for the Premiere Screening, which was held on September
21 at the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel. Here are some photos from that
evening:
If
you thought you heard Peter's voiceover on ABC's DESTINATION LOST
last Wednesday, you were correct! One hour before the second season of
the ABC hit series premiered, a recap of the key events from last season
were narrated by Peter.
Filmmaker Carolyn Scott has crafted her first film, narrated by Peter,
in the ambitious Quest to Save Turtle Island documentary series, which
protrays the lives of sixteen extraordinary women activists from around
the world who work to find solutions for the global ecological crisis.
TEXAS GOLD, which premieres at the Palm Springs International
Film Festival of Shorts this week, tells the story of
Diane Wilson, a fourth generation fisherwoman and mother of five. Back
in 1989 she began
her fight with the giants of the petro-chemical industry when
she discovered that her small Texas county has been named the most toxic
place in America. Witness to the mass death of dolphins along the Gulf
Coast and the slow death of her once thriving fishing community, Diane
boldy took action. Part eco-detective, part muck-raking humorist, this
"unreasonable woman" recounts the hunger strikes and civil disobedience
that have made her Public Enemy No. 1 to the powerful and lawless
industries that routinely spill millions of pounds of toxins into our
air, soil and water.
The “Texas Gold” idea originated when Scott was filming a segment on Diane Wilson
and came up with a three-minute, parody commercial for “Texas Gold” bottled water, “the
last water you’ll ever drink”. Coyote, known for championing eco-causes,
lent his voice for narration of the commercial, which resulted in his
narration of this documentary. The film will also be screened next month
at the Bioneers Moving Image Film Festival and the Hot Springs Film
Festival.
Canada's
Moviesonline spoke with Aimee Lynn Chadwick about filming the fourth and
fifth sequels of Return of the Living Dead in
Romania last year. When questioned about working with Coyote, she said,
"Peter was a great guy. On our down moments on set he would talk to us,
give us advice, etc. Just a super down-to-earth TALENTED guy. I felt
honored to be able to get work with him."
Update: 9/8/05:
In the last
update, I mentioned that WRITTEN IN BLOOD was being shown on
cable as well as being released on DVD. Since then I was able to find
the following photos from the film:
A
LITTLE TRIP TO HEAVEN will have its premiere at the Toronto
International Film Festival on Monday, September 12th. Helmed by
Icelandic director, Baltasar Kormákur (The Sea), the film stars
Forest Whitaker, Julia Stiles, Jeremy Renner and Peter.
Set in the early '80s, the
film follows insurance investigator Holt (Whitaker) as he travels to
Hastings, a dreary, dying town in northern Minnesota. He’s there to
confirm the death of notorious scam artist, allegedly
killed in a car crash en route to visit his sister Isold (Stiles).
Despite the local cops’ conviction that the corpse is definitely Kelvin,
Holt isn’t so sure. For one thing, the body’s been burned to a crisp,
making identification impossible. Then there’s the odd behaviour of
skittish Isold and her sleazy husband Fred (Renner).
Coyote plays Frank, Holt's partner in a sleazy insurance company that
practices various deceptions to bilk their clients out of their rightful
money. Frank has the walk and talk of a silver-tongued car salesman. The
$12 million production will be released in Europe by A-Film (Benelux),
Sandrew Metronome (Scandinavia) and Monopole Pathé (Switzerland). There
is no information on a US release at this time.
The
SF Chronicle published an article on 8/31/05 with the headliner -
"What's inside some noted Californians". Here are some excerpts:
They don't work at dangerous jobs
or live near toxic- waste dumps. Yet the study showed that their
bodies contain low levels of industrial chemicals, some known to
harm the health of humans or laboratory animals.
Actor Peter Coyote has high levels of mercury, he thinks from eating
fresh fish in his quest for a healthy diet. He describes himself as
"a guy who has eaten organic food for 30 years, drunk bottled water
and lived in West Marin with the cleanest air on the coast.''
Coyote, Jones, Lee, the Rev. Stephen Privett, president of the
University of San Francisco, and seven other prominent Californians
had their hair, blood and urine tested two months ago for dozens of
substances, including mercury, DDT, PBDE flame retardants and the
chemicals in hard plastic bottles, Gore-Tex and Teflon.
Coyote, 62 -- the narrator in "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the
Room,'' the researcher of extraterrestrials in "E.T.,'' and the
German spy in "Bon Voyage'' -- said he was outraged at the results.
His mercury level was almost four times as high as the other study
participants.
"Just consider what it means that American mothers can't make tuna
fish sandwiches for our kids any more,'' Coyote said. "Who gave
anybody the right to poison the commons?''
Coyote blames industry for lobbying Congress to exempt from testing
thousands of chemicals that are commonly used in products and
supports the "precautionary principle'' followed by some European
countries under which a manufacturer must first prove that a
chemical is safe before it may be sold.
Eleven people cooperated in the study, coordinated by the Bolinas
health research nonprofit, Commonweal, as a way to gain support for
SB600, the Healthy Californians Biomonitoring Program, coming before
the full Assembly as early as this week; it already has passed the
Senate.
If passed, California would be the first state to establish a
statewide confidential, voluntary program designed to test
contaminants in people's bodies.
San Francisco physician Dr. Jane Hightower, a mercury expert, said
if she were Coyote's doctor, she would "want him to eat no fish or
absolutely the lowest of mercury fish'' and take mercury-free
PCB-free fish oil supplements.
His level is now 8.8 micrograms per gram in hair and should be less
than 1.0 micrograms per gram, she said.
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