The screening time for Cowboy Smoke has changed to 10pm. The screening will still take place on Wednesday July 30th, but the time has changed from 1pm to 10pm. I figured the later screenining would make it easier for people to attend.

Cowboy Smoke screening at Action on International Film Festival - July 30, 10pm at Laemmle Theater, One Colorado Blvd  Pasadena, CA.

I just received this email!

CONGRATULATIONS!   Your film, COWBOY SMOKE, has been accepted as an
Official Selection of the 2008 AOF International Film Festival.  We are delighted
to partner with you on showcasing your project and acknowledging your hard work and dedication. We have organized an incredible event featuring films and videos from around the world including Canada, Australia, England, Africa, Thailand, Germany, Sweden, Japan, China, Russia, Italy, Spain,  and of course, all over the U.S.

Your film will be playing at the beautiful Laemmle Theater, located at One
Colorado Blvd  Pasadena, CA  July 30, 2008 during the 1 pm Block.  (A Block is
a two to three hour window in which your project will be showcased with other
accepted films.)  

Your film has received award nominations and categories will be announced by or before July 7, 2008 on the AOF Website

Please read this letter completely as it will answer every possible and conceivable
question you might have about showcasing your work at the 2008 AOF Festival.
Please contact Alan Bailey with any further questions. 

PROMOTION
For promotional/distribution purposes, it is a good idea to make posters and
postcards/flyers containing your screening information. Remember this is a great
opportunity to expose your work. You may also run an ad in the beautiful AOF 2008
full color catalog and program for your film, actors or production.  Program rates
and contact information are located at the bottom of this letter.  You will also
find a list of newspapers and writers to submit your press releases to as well. 

It is important to not only get the word out about your film, but to also make sure
that people who can make decisions about the success of your film know that it is
playing locally.

Help us promote you.  With a huge budget and sponsorship package from Charter
Communications there is no way that people won’t know about the festival… but
will they know about your film?  We want to help you pack your theatre and show
your film to as many people as possible.  Use these press contacts, your personal
mailing lists, and contacts to make your showcase a success.

FILM SCREENINGS
Pasadena Screenings:  Laemmle’s One Colorado Theatre in Old Town Pasadena (42
Miller Alley Pasadena, CA). Laemmle Theaters is the premiere art house chain in Los
Angeles. A family owned business, Laemmle Theatres spans three generations dedicated to bringing quality foreign and independent films to the Los Angeles
community. Filmmakers are invited to speak about their films at their screenings.
We will also place your provided post card and promotional one sheets into our
special filmmaker gift bags and with our promotional volunteers.  

You may also send up to 3 full size posters as well, which will be placed at the
filmmakers check- in pavilion and at the theatre.  Please make sure that your
posters are mounted onto lightweight foam core or board.  You may pick up your
posters after the screening of your film.  
ACCOMMODATIONS
The Action on Film International Film Festival is pleased to announce that our host
hotel will be the beautiful and newly renovated Courtyard by Marriott hotel which is
located in Old Town Pasadena on the corner of Fair Oaks and Walnut, just two blocks
from the theatres.  To learn how to book your discounted room courtesy of the hotel
please visit:
http://cwp.marriott.com/laxot/actiononfilmfest/  Be sure to book your room early as
the discounts will only apply to reservations made by or before July 1, 2008.

FILMMAKER CHECK IN
There will be a filmmaker sign-in in the AOF hospitality room at the Courtyard by
Marriott hotel. Gift bags will also be available for all accepted filmmakers in the
hospitality suite.  The AOF Fest also wants to interview each one this year’s
filmmakers.  Please drop by our interview room located adjacent to our hospitality
suite in the Courtyard by Marriott hotel.

AWARD NOMINATIONS
All award nominations will be available by or before July 7, 2008.  Listings will
be e-mailed or available on the AOF Web site.

TICKETS
Advance ticket sales can be made by calling AOF directly at 626.355.6929 or you can
order them online at  www.aoffest.com/store/Tickets-c2.htm.  For a single program
pass, tickets are $8 in advance and $10 at the door. There are also many other
ticket packages available on our website.  Please encourage interested parties to
buy tickets in advance as this ensures more commitment to attending your screening. Please note, seating is very limited and even with free passes seating is done on a first come first serve basis.
 

Mike Lutz and Chad Mathews, both of Cowboy Smoke, will be featured extensively in FIGHT OR DIE, a new television show on the Discovery Channel this Thursday, June 26 at 10pm EDT/PDT (Check your local listings but I believe for those in Texas it will air at 9pm CST).  Mike’s wife Jill Lutz, who is also a very good friend of mine, produced the show. Based on the viewer response to this broadcast, Discovery will decide whether the show will become a weekly series!  You can watch a preview for the show at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2KPa8phRiI 

So please tune in (or TiVo it) and forward this email on to those you think might also be interested.  And if you like the show, email feedback
to: FEEDBACK@WHEELHOUSEENTERTAINMENT.COM 

FIGHT OR DIE
Discovery Channel (in HD)
Thursday, June 26 at 10pm ET/PT 
From Executive Producer Randall Wallace (BRAVEHEART, PEARL HARBOR, WE WERE SOLDIERS, THE MAN IN THE IRON MASK), comes FIGHT OR DIE, an exciting new epic documentary special that captures the personal experience of war in groundbreaking fashion by delving inside the psyche of the soldier under fire, allowing viewers to walk the Thin Red Line that separates sanity from madness and the living from the dead.  Harrowing personal accounts of battle are seamlessly blended with cinematic dramatizations, digitally remastered combat footage, and a bullet-ridden soundscape to present one of the most riveting, emotional, and realistic portrayals of war ever produced for television. “We all have the capacity for depths of courage, compassion and even cruelty that we can’t imagine when sitting in safety and comfort,” said Wallace.  “FIGHT OR DIE explores these extremes of human character made apparent in the cauldron of conflict.”The first episode tells the real-life story of a group of American soldiers whose lives were made famous in Wallace’s motion picture WE WERE SOLDIERS starring Mel Gibson.  On November 14, 1965 in the Ia Drang Valley of Vietnam, in a small clearing called Landing Zone X-Ray, 2,000 enemy soldiers surrounded 400 United States Army troopers. The ensuing battle was one of the most savage in U.S. history.  FIGHT OR DIE is a tribute to the nobility of those men under fire, their common acts of uncommon valor, and their loyalty to and love for one another.

This ran in last Friday’s Houston Chronicle. In order to view the article online you have to sign up for the Chronicle archives. To make it easier on everyone I figured I would just cut and paste the article below:

 With a Bum, “Cowboy Smoke” gets Cannes screening / Director Moore steers clear of fest

By RON DICKER
For The Chronicle

CANNES, FRANCE - The neo-Western “Cowboy Smoke” made it to the Cannes Film Festival, bringing with it the hopes of Victoria filmmaker Will Moore and a primarily Victoria and Houston cast that includes former Oilers coach Bum Phillips.

The movie already screened here for distributors and other industry pros, leaving it to be peddled by a sales agent Moore hired.

“I get stressed thinking about it,” Moore, 31, said. “There’s definitely some pressure as far as getting the film sold and getting it out there. I imagine it will always be until I’m at a point in my career where I have people coming to me and offering me projects.”

Cowboy Smoke focuses on a video-game cowboy who wrangles a heap of trouble when he tries to become a real one. He hooks up with cattle ranchers who are running an illegal-immigration ring. The film was shot mainly in Victoria and moved to Phillips’ home in Goliad for his part as a boss who interviews the hero for a job.

Estella Perez, a recent Houston transplant to Los Angeles, James Paul of Houston and Victoria native Matt Johnston, the former host of the Discovery Channel’s It Takes a Thief, also appear in the movie.

Films in the six-figure budget range such as Moore’s are often hawked in Cannes’ Marche du Film, a bazaar with hundreds of booths inside the festival palace. But Fred deWysocki III, Moore’s sales agent from Fantastic Films International, is marketing Cowboy Smoke alongside movies that cost as much as $20 million. “It’s better to be a small fish in a big pond than one of many fish in a smaller pond,” deWysocki said.

Potential buyers come mostly by appointment to Fantastic’s chic hotel suite on the Croisette, the main drag that fronts the Mediterranean. DeWysocki shows the trailer or full-length version to any interested parties.

DeWysocki revealed that Cowboy Smoke already had generated sales in foreign territories, though he would not give specifics. Westerns are one of the few genres that can sell across the globe without stars, he said, and some countries can relate to the immigration issue raised by Cowboy Smoke. Moore said the 2003 Victoria immigrant tragedy, in which 19 Mexicans suffocated in a truck after being smuggled across the border, served as an inspiration.

The movie’s other principals have their own personal stake in its success.

“I’m invested in the movie in terms of the work,” said Paul, 31, a CPA who has juggled acting (he did a Roadrunner commercial), entrepreneurship (a production company and a chemical sales firm) and a job at Your Health Lab, a walk-in blood-testing firm.

Perez, who is on the TV series Prison Break, welcomed the additional platform of Cannes. “I’m constantly thinking about what could happen,” she said.

Johnston, who now lives in Austin, called the festival exposure validating. He said it was important for him to be seen in a variety of roles “to stay active in the business.”

For the auteur behind it all, however, Cannes represented a high-water mark in a fledgling career. Moore’s first film was the $20,000 cattle-ranching drama Wesley Cash (2004). He also has written a script called The Bail Bondsman that is waiting to be produced.

Moore’s interest in filmmaking took hold after he tried to play football at the University of Texas. Listed on the roster for the 1995 and 1996 seasons, Moore gave up when Coach Mack Brown told him and the other walk-ons that they would never play.

Moore began to work for his father, costume supervisor Stanley Moore, on the set of more of his movies, including The Faculty and We Were Soldiers. He was hooked.

He says he spent his entire savings on Wesley Cash, so he and producer Fagan Patterson of Victoria rustled up some investors for Cowboy Smoke. Traveling to Cannes was not in the budget. Just a few weeks before the festival, he decided to stay home, and the cast followed suit. Many expressed regret, even if some were aware that actors and filmmakers in movies that screen out of the various competitions do not wear tuxedos and gowns and walk up the red carpet. Besides, deWysocki assured Moore that his absence would not affect sales.

The married Moore, who is tending to his day job as a software salesman in Austin, said he would go inner-tubing if the anxiety of waiting for deWysocki’s sales reports became overwhelming.

“I would love to be there,” Moore said, “but the way I see it, there will be other opportunities.”

Still, the writer-director acknowledged, there is only one Cannes. Said Moore. “One of my main goals was to get a screening at Cannes. It’s huge.

Cowboy Smoke is mentioned in the Austin Chronicle this week. Joe O’Connell was reporting on the Austin film scene and was nice enough to include the Smoke in his update. 

In addition to this, I was recently interviewed by Ron Dicker for the Houston Chronicle. I am hoping to see this article pop up in the entertainment section of the Chronicle before the end of the month.

Regarding the Cowboy Smoke DVD. To prevent piracy, no copies can be sent
out prior to the release. Once the film has been picked up by a distributor a release date will be set.

Ever since the day I posted we’d entered into a partnership with them, Fantastic Films has been receiving emails and calls from people requesting a Cowboy Smoke DVD. Unfortunately this is not their job. Fantastic Films’ job is to sell the film, not distribute DVDs. I like the enthusiasim and understand that everyone would like a chance to view the film and I appreciate your continued patience. We are almost there.

For over 30 years the Biannual Old Pecan Street Festival has provided Central Texas residents a family friendly venue to collect arts and crafts from local and national artists and artisans, experience live music and take part of a long standing Austin tradition. The Old Pecan Street Festival not only supports local artists and vendors but gives back to many of Austin’s most beloved charities as well as preserving Old Pecan Street (6th Street).

The Cowboy Smoke trailer will be featured in a reel of short films and other trailers by filmmakers and film organizations from Austin and San Antonio at the new Alamo Drafthouse downtown on Saturday May 3rd. The Cowboy Smoke trailer is part of the Film Austin reel which starts at 2:55pm. Stop by to check out the Austin Film reel if you are down at the festival!

Check out the new poster that Fantastic Films had made… they took what Chris had done and expanded on it. I think it looks great!

Cowboy Smoke will have it’s first buyers screening at the Marche De Cannes on May 15th at 8:30pm at PALAIS E (wherever that is). Fantastic Films had to pull a few strings to make this happen as screenings were suppossed to be scheduled three weeks ago.

If you happen to be in the French Rivera next month make sure to add the Cowboy Smoke screening to your travel plans.

I am excited to announce that we have entered into a partnership with LA-Based international sales agency Fantastic Films International, LLC to act as sales agent for Cowboy Smoke. Fantastic Films attends all of the major film markets and this coming May they will be attending the Cannes Market where Cowboy Smoke is planned to screen for buyers for the first time.  I am happy to finally be at this point, once I have delivered all of the materials the movie is essentially out of my hands. I have confidence in the owner of Fantastic Films, Roxanne Barbat and her partner Fred deWysocki, and am ready to relax and possibly start working on another project.