March 5, 2011
On
March 21st Dominican University of California in San
Rafael is sponsoring a book event called "In
Conversation with Peter Coyote". Most of you know
actor Ted Danson as the affable bartender Sam
Malone on the television series "Cheers" but, like
Coyote, he's also interested in environmental activism.
He has written a book called "Oceana: Our Planet's
Endangered Oceans and What We Can Do to Save them". It's
the story of how Ted became involved in marine
conservation and how his dedication has deepened over
the years. He describes the biggest issues facing our
oceans - global overfishing, offshore drilling and ocean
acidification. Peter will host the evening at the
school's Angelico Concert Hall at 7 pm. The event is
free with preferred seating with advance book purchase
from Book Passage. Visit
www.bookpassage.com
for more information.
Peter's
newest film project, "THE STORY OF BONNIE AND CLYDE"
will begin shooting in late April in Missouri,
Louisianna, Mississippi and Alabama. Tonya S. Holly will
direct the film from her own script, which is a new
adaptation of the story of Bonnie Parker and Clyde
Barrow rather than a remake of the 1967 classic film
starring Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty. Holly began
working on the project after reading old newspaper
articles about the gangster pair in an abandoned house
on her family’s property. The film stars Hilary Duff as
Bonnie Parker, Kevin Zegers as Clyde Barrow, Michael
Madsen as Texas Ranger Frank Hamer, Taryn Manning as the
gold digger Mary O'Dare, Peter as Dallas Sheriff Smoot
Schmid, and Lee Majors as Texas Prison System Director
Lee Simmons. The shoot will last eight weeks with hopes
of a November release.
I
recently came across this old photograph that was taken
back in 1987 by Alex Waterhouse-Hayward. It was
evidently taken on a movie set, but I'm not sure which
one. Is it not a great picture!

This
spring Peter will take on an English-speaking role in a Spanish film
called XPERIENCE THE FEAR, a psychological horror
thriller. He will join the production for three weeks
beginning May 18th. Barcelona's Rodar y Rodar ("The
Orphange") is teaming with Sony to produce Spain's first
3D genre film. Rodar has tapped a first-time feature
director, 26-year-old Sergi Vinzcaino to helm the
project. Vinzcaino is a young and upcoming filmmaker
whose shorts have won at many festivals. He has great
flair and visual style and lives and breathes this
story. The producers, as well as Sony, have a great deal
of faith in him. The screenplay is by 25-year-old Daniel
Padro, son of Targarona and Joaquin Padro. The film's
cast come from some of Spain's hit TV series: Maxi
Iglesias, Nasser Saleh and Luis Fernandez. DDT will be
doing the special effects makeup - same people who won
an Oscar for "Pan's Labyrinth" and worked on "Terminator
3" and "Big Fish".
The film revolves around two sisters
who, with other students, visit an abandoned village to
investigate alleged paranormal phenomena. 'Xperience'
belongs to a growing breed of new Spanish productions
that build on young creative talent, broadcast network
co-financing, heavy marketing, local TV stars, and
Hollywood major distribution in Spain to aggressively
target Spain's 15-to-25-year-old crowd in and outside
Spain. Variety reports that Sony Pictures Releasing de
Espana will handle theatrical DVD and digital delivery
in Spain. Mexico's Quality Films has prebought all Latin
American rights. Prebuys from Spanish paybox Canal Plus
and Catalonia pubcast TV3 are under negotiation. (This
production has since been canceled)
January 12, 2011
 Written
and directed by Olallo Rubio,
THIS IS NOT A MOVIE,
now has an official web site where you can
view the trailer. Shot during the summer of 2008
in Mexico, the film's lead role goes to Edward Furlong
("American History X"). Besides Peter, the cast includes
Edi Gathegi and Julian Sedgwick. Guns N' Roses guitarist
Slash is credited with the original music score. The
film will open in select cinemas in Mexico on January
28th and will also be screened at the European Film
Market in Germany on February 15th. The synopsis reads:
"With the end of the world imminent, Pete Nelson
(Furlong) locks himself inside a Las Vegas hotel. There, he tries to
understand his confused reality influenced by film,TV,
pop culture, disinformation, drugs and propaganda. The
journey that follows is a surreal, psychedelic,
apocalyptic quest where nothing is what it seems."
Reminds me of Johnny Depp's tripping out in "Fear and
Loathing in Las Vegas".
Add
"biodynamic agriculture" to your list of must-know
terms. Ever the voice of environmentalists, Peter is the
narrator of "One Man, One Cow, One Planet",
directed by Canadian-born director Thomas Burstyn. The
56-minute documentary concerns the global agricultural
model that relies on chemicals and gene-altered seeds
and focuses on the work of New Zealand agronomist Peter
Proctor with rural farmers in India. Mr. Proctor is
working to educate Indian farmers on the benefits of
returning to traditional agricultural methods and save
them from the horrors of multi-national agri-chemical
companies. The film was screened at the Martha's
Vineyard Film Festival last Saturday.
Here's
a photo of Peter with his LOLA (Law & Order: Los
Angeles) crew - Seth Relin, Alfred Molina and Terrence
Howard. The NBC series premiered on September 29th with
Peter in the recurring role of District Attorney Jerry
Hardin. Molina and Howard play his two assistant
DA's.

January 1, 2011
Filming
wrapped last month for the French telefilm,
VALPARAISO, in which Peter plays the head of a
company that is accused of oil pollution. That, in turn,
causes the death of a young woman. The political
thriller will be aired as an Arte TV film in France.
Here are some scenes from the film:
A
documentary called "Reclaiming
their Voice: The Native American Vote in New Mexico
and beyond" by award-winning
filmmaker Dorothy Fadiman has been added to Peter's
ever-growing list of narrations. The 42-minute film
follows Native Americans in New Mexico taking a
stand against injustice in the political process.
Personal stories demonstrate how minority
communities are using their voting rights
as
they participate more fully in elections. These
stories capture a microcosm of growing awareness and
activism which is taking root across the United
States. In addition to documenting the Native
American suffrage movement historically, the film
follows a groundbreaking project led by the Laguna,
NM Native community. Their efforts lead to
significant positive changes in New Mexico state
election law. This story serves as a model for how
other minority populations throughout the U.S. can
work together to make sure they can cast their votes
and that their votes will be counted.
Based
on true events, THE LENA
BAKER STORY recounts one African-American womans
struggle to rise above the challenges of her life, to
face the choices she makes, and to ultimately triumph
over her impossible circumstances. Filmed in Georgia
during the fall of 2007, this biopic, starring Tichina
Arnold, will be released on DVD on January 4th. Lena
Baker was the first woman to be sent to the electric
chair in Georgia for the murder of her employer, who
forced her into sexual slavery. Sixty years after her
death, Baker was pardoned posthumously by the state
Board of Pardons and Paroles. Peter takes on the role of
Ernest B. Knight, her cruel employer. The $2.5 million
feature film was written for the screen and directed by
Ralph Wilcox. It premiered at the 2008 Atlanta Film
Festival.
December 14, 2010
Many
of you know that Nepal is close to Peter's heart so
it comes as no surprise that he would be chosen to
narrate "The People's Nepal". The 77-minute
documentary, produced and directed by James Ellison
Wills, focuses on the stories of the struggles of
the Nepalese people, leading up to, during and after
the 19 days of civil protest in April 2006 that
forced King Gyandera to relinquish power and
ultimately establish Nepal as a republic. Ten
interviews are interwoven with, never-before-seen
historical images, plus riveting footage of
confrontations between the citizens and the police
during this tumultuous time. The film provides a
cultural and political overview of Nepal, and takes
a look at the major changes the people of Nepal have
faced in the past several years, from the massacre
of the royal family to the struggle for democracy.
December 1, 2010
Peter
is presently in Luxembourg doing a 90-minute French
telefilm for Arte TV called VAPARAISO. Production
began on November 16th and will continue through
December 13th. Directed by Jean-Christophe Delpias, the
political thriller also stars Jean-Francois Stevenin,
Helena Noguerra and Thierry Godard. With the backdrop of
the European Parliament and big business, the drama will
follow the investigation of an officer of an oil company
on the death of his ecologist daughter. She is found
dead after the formation of an oil spill on the French
coast caused by the sinking of an oil tanker. Peter
plays the owner of the company and when it's discovered
that he has been dumping Uranium and filthy oil into the
ocean, revenge will be sought.
While
browsing the Internet, I came across an insightful essay
by Peter called "Why I Read". It was recently featured
on the Green Apple Books web site but it was actually
written in April 2006.
I read because I prefer being the
casting director for my own imagination and
expanding my circle of friends to include Odysseus,
Anna Karenina, Julian Sorel, Richard III, The
Snopses, and old ambidextrous Portnoy. There is no
coffee shop or lecture hall in the world that can
offer the breadth and depth of humanity I get from
spending several hours with a good book.
In non-fiction, reading is the
perfect antidote to sound-bytes, spin, leaden-headed
reporters and talk-radio, which usually sounds like
an ad for anger-management classes. Print can be
highlighted, reviewed, clipped, scanned and
pondered. It is, in effect, in-depth conversation
with great and informed minds or wits that make what
passes for comedy on TV seems like a runny ichor (a
word you won't hear on TV).
Surrounding yourself with the
concentrated work of men and women who have had the
guts and temerity to wrestle with a subject for the
length of time required to write a book is a
corrective to shallow thought, leaping to
conclusions, and running blindly through cross-fires
of argument armed only with a pundit’s opinion
masquerading as fact. Reading is the deliberate
slowing down of the acquisition of knowledge and
sensation, based on the time-tested truism that good
ideas, like good whiskeys, need to mellow and
accrete complexity and flavor over time. Finally, I
love the company of books. They rest on my shelves
like old companions who are ever ready to summon up
shared memories and re-engage and review humanity's
finest moments from earlier times. ...Peter
Coyote
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