THE TWO BOBS Rolls, KICK THE CAN Holds and FRIDAY THE 13th slashes forward

Tim McCanlies , Austin area resident and director of two previous films from his own scripts (Dancer Texas Pop. 81 and Secondhand Lions) starts filming today on his latest project, THE TWO BOBS. BOBS stars Devin Ratray (Horizontal Bob) and Tyler Francavilla (Vertical Bob). Like his previous directorial outings, THE TWO BOBS is written by McCanlies.

This film, a raunchy comedy sendup of the video game industry, will be a significant departure from McCanlies’ previous films which were family friendly, character driven projects. THE TWO BOBS seems almost certain to garner an ‘R’ rating based on language alone and is a film McCanlies has described as being similar in tone to THE BIG LEBOWSKI.

Meanwhile, KICK THE CAN, which was scheduled to begin shooting today is currently on hold. The reasons for the schedule change are unknown to this writer as is the duration of the hold. Hopefully this project, which has a terrific script by Blake Dirickson and is to be directed by Sol Tryon, will get back on track shortly.

With THE TWO BOBS and the 113th version of FRIDAY THE 13th as well as KICK THE CAN all scheduled to start shooting on April 21st, maybe there was a lack of available crew or resources or ??????? for the Atlantic Pictures production. KICK THE CAN is a project I would hate to see derailed as it looks like a potential winner that reminded me, in tone, of LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE with a touch of JUNO thrown in for good measure. KICK THE CAN is based on a novel by Jim Lehrer.

As stated above, the latest FRIDAY THE 13TH is also scheduled to start on Monday, April 21st. Based on comments by casting folks at the recent THE ALLIANCE / Austin Actors meeting, this project isn’t doing much local casting….though auditions for some roles were taking place last week.