YeeeeeeHAWWWWWW, mmmmmmhhhhmmmmm, I reckon…
The Austin Film Society (www.austinfilm.org) just announced that Billy Bob Thornton is going to be inducted into the Texas Film Hall of Fame at the 2009 TEXAS FILM HALL OF FAME AWARDS. Although he hails from Arkansas, it seems that his onscreen image, body of work and roots helped him to garner such a prestigious out of state honor and for that he will always now be an honorary Texan, at least in true cinema spirit.
The timing of this is perhaps good with Thornton’s upcoming re-teaming with Halle Berry in the Texan crime drama, Tulia, set for a late 2009 release. Irony here is the film is being shot in New Orleans to double as Tulia, Texas. He also will be seen in the recent Sundance film, The Informers, which had mostly bad reviews but with Bret Easton Ellis material and a great cast, certainly makes it a must see for me as at least a curiosity item. No clue if Kim Basinger and Mickey Rourke who also star in it share any screen time.
2009 TEXAS FILM HALL OF FAME AWARDS TO HONOR
BILLY BOB THORNTON,
ADDS QUAID, CARRADINE & CUSACK AS PRESENTERS,
THOMAS HADEN CHURCH TO EMCEE(Austin, TX) – The Austin Film Society (AFS) is pleased to announce that Billy Bob Thornton will be inducted into the Texas Film Hall of Fame as an honorary Texan at its ninth annual celebration on Thursday, March 12, 2009. Thornton is an accomplished actor, musician and writer. His credits include MONSTER’S BALL, ARMAGEDDON, THE ICE HARVEST, BAD SANTA and SLING BLADE, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and was nominated in the Best Actor for his performance as the mentally challenged Karl Childers.
While Thornton was born in Hot Springs, Arkansas, it is his quintessential Southern “bad boy” image that calls to mind Texas and his great contributions to Texas film that have earned him induction into the Texas Film Hall of Fame. He starred in FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS, filmed at Austin Studios, and THE ALAMO, filmed near Austin at Reimers Ranch, in which he played Davy Crockett, the famous frontiersman who became a hero of Texas after dying in that battle. Thornton has worked alongside Texas Film Hall of Fame inductees Bill Paxton in A SIMPLE PLAN and ONE FALSE MOVE; Richard Linklater in BAD NEWS BEARS; Robert Duvall in THE APOSTLE and A FAMILY THING; and Ethan Hawke in FLOUNDERING. Thornton’s Texas roots go back to his start as a musician in the early 1980s after performing at Houston’s Carti’s where ZZ Top manager Scott Weiss saw the band and urged them to form Tres Hombres, a ZZ Top tribute band named after the break-through album.
Thornton will be inducted by his co-star in THE ALAMO and Texas Film Hall of Fame inductee Dennis Quaid. A Houston native, Quaid has a long and illustrious list of film credits including THE ROOKIE, IN GOOD COMPANY, WYATT EARP, ANY GIVEN SUNDAY and the critically acclaimed FAR FROM HEAVEN, for which he won an Independent Spirit Award and New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor.
