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Update - 11/12/07:
  Peter is presently filming a fact-based indie feature
called "THE LENA BAKER STORY."
Tichina Arnold (Everyone Hates Chris) has the
title role playing the first woman in the state of
Georgia sent to the electric chair. Two years ago the
state pardoned Lena Baker, an
African-American maid who was executed on March 5th,
1945, for the fatal shooting of her 67-year-old white
boss, Ernest B. Knight (to be played by Peter). A mother
of three, Lena had become a virtual sex slave to Knight.
At her trial she claimed self-defense and the details of her pardon
suggest that she should have only, at worst, been
sentenced with manslaughter. Writer/director/producer
Ralph Wilcox refers to the film as a "cradle-to-grave
story that offers a real perspective on Lena as opposed
to just one incident. Race does play a part, but this
story is really about a woman torn between a rock and a
hard place." The $2.5 million feature film began
shooting in Georgia last month. Beverly Todd will play
Baker's mother while Michael Rooker will portray the
sheriff
who arrested her.
 Great
news for a short film narrated by Peter! The top 10
short films for sale on iTunes break down like this:
Seven are cartoons, including six from Pixar. Nine are
fictional. That leaves one live-action documentary - and
it's the #1 film. It's called THE TRIBE, and
after winning awards at several film festivals, it was
released on iTunes last month. Now, not even a month
later, it's the top-selling short film. Directed by
Tiffany Shlain, the documentary is a very entertaining
and thoughtful discussion of what it means to be Jewish
in the 21st century and how that relates to the history
of the Barbie doll. Barbie was invented (and Mattel was
co-founded) by a Jewish woman, Ruthie Handler. The film
ties it all together and asks some interesting questions
about how we humans break ourselves into "tribes," and
how those tribes interact with one another. The
following two photos show Peter at the film's world
premiere at the Herbst Theater in San Francisco on
December 3, 2005.
On
November 3rd Peter participated in a benefit concert,
Music for Mother Earth, at the historic Fillmore
Auditorium. The event brought together Native American
leaders and high-profile celebrities alike with the aim
to raise funds and awareness for the Longest Walk 2: a
walk across America for the environment taking place in
2008. The Longest Walk 2 is a 4,400 journey that will
commemorate the 30th anniversary of the original Longest
Walk which took place in 1978 and work to bring
attention to today's critical environmental issues. The
Longest Walk 2 will begin in San Francisco in February
2008 and end in Washington D.C. in July 2008.
 For
those of you who may have missed the Charlie Rose
interview with Peter back in 1999, the DVD of that show
is available at
Amazon.com. Here's the description for the July
19th show - Three days after the crash of John F.
Kennedy Jr.'s plane off the coast of Martha's Vineyard,
a conversation about his life and his family's legacy
with Jack Newfield, author of Robert Kennedy: A
Memoir, Richard Reeves, author of President
Kennedy: Profile of Power, and journalist Abigail
Pogrebin of Brill's Content. Later, an interview with
actor Peter Coyote. Coyote, a former member of The
Diggers theatre troupe, discusses his life in the 1960s
and his book Sleeping Where I Fall.
Update -
10/01/07:
Next
month Peter will be making a public appearance at the
Longest Walk 2 Benefit Concert - All Life is Sacred.
The concert will take place at the Filmore in San
Francisco on Saturday, November 3rd at 7 pm.
 The
complete first season of ABC's BROTHERS AND SISTERS
is now available on DVD. The series drama portrays a
contemporary American family, dysfunction being a major
character. However, no matter what their individual
problems are, the Walkers come together and find
strength as a family. The first season follows them
after the patriarch of the family dies. Along with news
of their father’s death, the five children discover some
well kept secrets. Peter appears as Nora's (played by
Sally Field) boyfriend, Mark August, in four of the
shows - "Grapes of Wrath", "Bad News", "Three Parties"
and "All in the "Family. The regular cast also includes
Calista Flockhart, Rachel Griffiths adnd Rob Lowe.
 Back
in March of this year, Peter was a guest of Black
Mesa Trust director Vernon Masayesva and his wife Becky
at Bean Dance in the Hopi village of Hotevilla. Peter is
no stranger to
the Hopi mesas. He explains, "Thirty-five years ago, as
a confused young man and leader of a commune in
California, I wound up on Hopi visiting David Monongye,
who was then in his 90s. There were no white people in
Hotevilla then. I stayed there a couple of months and he
taught me some Hopi prophesies, showed me some of the
abandoned villages, and allowed me to observe the Hopi
way of life. I stayed with David and his wife, and I saw
the way people came in and out of their house and
discussed things. I was hugely impressed. That visit
became the moral compass of my life and I've done what I
could to be of use to the Hopi people since then,
including being involved in the effort to save the
N-aquifer." Peter and some friends have been coming to
Bean Dance for several years, but this year was
unique.."Twenty years ago, I saw a textile
at an Indian show and I knew it shouldn't be there, so I
bought it. I wrapped it and stored it in cedar. Last
year at Bean Dance, I met Robert Breunig, director of
the Museum of Northern Arizona, and I finally met Vernon
face to face. I told them about the textile and sent it
to the museum for storage. It would have been used this
year at Bean Dance, but it takes three weeks to purify
it, and Jerry Honawa was too busy with his other
responsibilities to do it for this year." Peter is very
clear about what the return of the textile means to him.
"In giving it back to the Hopi. I am giving a gift
to David Monongye in thanks for what he gave to me." The
textile, a wearing robe (tuuhi'i), was given into
the care of Jerry Honawa. Masayesva said that it was a
generous and very significant gift to the Hopi
people. Black Mesa Trust is a grassroots organization
founded in 2000 to preserve the N-aquifer on Black Mesa
for future generations of Hopi and Navajo people and to
affirm the ancient knowledge that "water is life."
Update -
9/20/07:
 Peter
is presently filming in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in a
new road comedy called FIVE DOLLARS A DAY. The
project dates back to 2003 when Nick Cassavetes had
signed on to direct, but a year later was replaced by
John Curran. Three years later Nigel Cole (Calendar
Girls) is sitting in the director's chair with
Christopher Walken and Allesandro Nivola as its lead
stars. The screenplay is written by Neal and Tippi
Dobrofsky with Carol Baum, Jane Goldenring and Kia Jam
producing. Film production began on September 10th with
Capital Films greenlighting the project in conjunction
with ThinkFilm Studios. According to Variety, the
film is set up as a road movie "that pits a con artist
against his more conservative son." Walken plays Nat, a
grifter father who prides himself on living like a king
on five dollars a day. He enlists the companionship of
his son Flynn for a cross-country odyssey that proves to
be quite humorous and poignant. Along the way Nat plans
a sting on his old partner, Bert Kruger (Coyote), a
wealthy guy who stole Nat's wife many years ago. Sharon
Stone also stars as Nat's old girlfriend Dolores. Peter,
who's having a great time on location, says the film is
"hysterically funny and very surprising".
Update -
9/05/07:
As
previously reported, Peter has recently directed his
first film, a 20-minute short called RACE,
written and produced by Hira Ambrosino. After the
editing has been completed, the film will hopefully
travel the film festival circuit perhaps providing a
chance for Peter to realize his dream of directing a
feature-length film in the future. Here's a photo of our
new director watching an intense take.
It's
not too late to still catch RESURRECTING THE CHAMP
at your local theatre. Very often actors dislike
having to play old on screen, but Peter says he was
thrilled to get the chance to step into the shoes of an
old boxing manager. He admitted, "I'm too old to get the
girl anymore, but I'm not really old enough to play that
guy (Ike Epstein), but Rod [Lurie] let me do it." It
also proved to be a very nostalgic experience for the
actor, whose father used to be involved in boxing. "My
dad was a boxer, so I grew up around these colorful old
men, who were tough as nails. Floyd Patterson's manager
even spoke at my dad's funeral." Though Peter didn't
follow in his father's footsteps, it certainly made his
respect the profession. "It's a fantastic test of
character. You can only imagine what it feels like to
take one of those punches from those men who can punch
hard enough to kill a cow."
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