The proposed studios could bring 20 sound stages to the Austin area.
Rendering courtesy of Line 204 via KVUE
Austin has been growing in the past few years, and along with that growth comes the boom of the film industry. Two new film studio projects are hoping to break ground in Central Texas in the coming months.
204 Texas, described as a “revolutionary fusion of Hollywood’s innovation and Texas’s grandeur,'' is set to bring eight new studios on almost 600 acres on land in Bastrop.
KVUE caught up with Alton Butler, the founder of Line 204, a California-based production company, and the visionary for this massive project in Bastrop. He said in the group's economic impact study, they found this project would bring $1.3 billion in 10 years – but he thinks even that is an understatement.
“We’re talking about a $1.3 billion economic impact around this industry and around this community, so that’s a big thing,” Butler said.
Line 204 started almost 30 years ago when Alabama native Butler moved to Hollywood. He created a specialty film and event rental company that is now dipping its toes into the Texas film industry.
“We've got deals with trucking companies, décor, wardrobe. All these guys have already signed on to be a part of the project, so we're bringing in that self-sustained industry immediately,” Butler said.
Recently, the project has run into some hold-ups with the city, but Butler said with plans completely ready to go, construction could start in as early as two weeks.
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Read the full story and watch the video at KVUE.com.
Jaeden Martell, Rachel Zegler, and Julian Dennison in Y2K.
Movies that rely on nostalgia can be successful if they’re timed right. Generally, 25-30 years seems about the right amount of time to try to take advantage of people’s fond feelings for a certain era, which is why movies/TV shows about the ‘80s have been prevalent for much of the 21st century, and ‘90s-set films started to pop up in the last 10 years.
Y2K, a horror comedy that plays on the fears of technological mayhem many people thought would happen at the turn of the century, is right on the cusp of that rule, taking place nearly 25 years after its timeline. It centers on two teenage boys, Eli (Jaeden Martell) and Danny (Julian Dennison), who are opposite in demeanor but have an unshakeable bond. Eli likes a popular girl, Laura (Rachel Zegler), and Danny convinces him to crash a New Year’s Eve party where she’ll be.
As the clock strikes midnight and the year moves from 1999 to 2000, everything that uses an electrical current goes haywire, with many of them combining forces to attack the humans around them. Eli and Danny find themselves on the run with Laura, as well as two stoners, Ash (Lachlan Watson) and CJ (Daniel Zolghadri), with each of them trying to use their unique skillset to help defeat a growing robot army.
Directed by Kyle Mooney and written by Mooney and Evan Winter, the film lands some solid jokes about the era in its opening 20 minutes or so, whether it’s the extreme slowness of dial-up internet, the goofy user names from AOL Messenger, or the various high school cliques of the time. However, many of them seem to echo ones told in 1999’s American Pie, a weird kind of art-imitating-art moment instead of commenting on real life.
The jolt of the machines attacking partygoers seems to promise a fun-if-bloody romp, but Mooney and Winter don’t seem to know where to take the story. They establish the computer bona fides of Eli and Laura early on, but when it comes time for them to put their talents in action, it feels like two actors going through the motions instead of real people who know what they’re doing. Almost none of the characters are believable or entertaining, and the few that rise above are dispatched way too early.
And because the filmmakers don’t make you care about the main group, nothing they face is that interesting, either. The villainous robots are made up of a bunch of disparate parts, which would seem to offer the opportunity for funny sight gags. Mooney and his team fumble most of their chances, though, leaving that side of the story stuck in limbo where it’s not absurd enough to be hilarious or scary enough to really count as horror.
Martell, Dennison, and Zegler are each rising stars who have their individual charms, but only Dennison is able to make much of an impact. Zegler, who starred in West Side Story and will soon be Snow White, is especially misused. They try to shoehorn in a cameo by Limp Biskit lead singer Fred Durst, but his appearance makes little sense and adds almost nothing to the story.
Filmmakers who want to mine nostalgia, especially in a comedy, need to really commit to the bit instead of throwing in a few references and needle drops. Mooney, who’s making his directorial debut, demonstrates little feel for timing, and so most of the film is like a car spinning its wheels, going nowhere.
