Post by -|E|- on Sept 3, 2005 10:01:19 GMT -5
Hello, all you Shield Rappers! ;D Walton Goggins and his partners, Ray McKinnon and Lisa Blount, have been busy with their production company, Ginny Mule Pictures. Their 2002 effort, "The Accountant," won them an Oscar for Best Live Action Short Film, and their film "Chrystal" was a 2004 Sundance Film Festival Feature. Click here for a really great article on "Chrystal" and "The Accountant" from firstlookmedia.com. You can purchase "The Accountant" from Ginny Mule Pictures here.
Ginny Mule's latest project is the film, "Randy and the Mob." Slated for release in 2006, the movie will star Goggins, Blount, and McKinnon.
Director, writer and actor Ray McKinnon, left, and actor/producer Walton Goggins film a scene of their movie 'Randy and the Mob.'
--Article--
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Oscar winner tries comedy steeped in South
By PHIL KLOER
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 09/01/05
Ray McKinnon keeps his Oscar statue stashed away, someplace private. He doesn't want it on display. "It's too shiny," he semi-explains with a chuckle, and he's probably being more metaphorical than literal, although with McKinnon, sometimes it's hard to be sure just where that line is. "You're going along," he continues, "sort of living your own life as Ray McKinnon and you look up and see this Oscar — who does that belong to?"
It belongs to the Adel, Ga., native and former Atlantan, a writer-director-actor who is not yet a household name but may well be sometime soon. He won the 2002 Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film for "The Accountant," a 38-minute-long, deeply disturbing, brutally hilarious meditation on the disappearance of the old, true South, and the extreme lengths two brothers will go to to save the family farm. It's a movie Flannery O'Connor would have screened for her friends on a hot summer night on the side of a barn.
Now McKinnon is making "Randy and the Mob," an independent, low-budget comedy that's billed as a little bit "King of the Hill" and a little bit "Sopranos," about a classic good ol' boy in suburban Atlanta who gets in hock to the Mafia. Pretty soon he's dealing with mob enforcer Tino Armani, self-described "odd man for the odd job," as well as his clinically depressed wife Charlotte, a baton-twirling teacher who's just come down with the career-killer of carpal tunnel syndrome, and his identical twin brother Cecil, who's "gay as a 1940s musical."
"This is a miracle, to make this movie," McKinnon said on the Douglasville set recently. "I don't want to say there was synchronicity, 'cause then I sound like a guy who says 'synchronicity.' But there was a convergence of forces that came together."
Mainly there was noted record mogul Phil Walden, together with some other money men who raised the $2 million budget for "Randy and the Mob" — that isn't much for a movie budget, but it is a lot when you're starting at zero. Along the way, McKinnon also talked Burt Reynolds into taking a small part; he and his colleagues grew up watching and appreciating Reynolds' home-grown "Smokey and the Bandit" oeuvre.
This synchronicity of things Southern has brought McKinnon to a gas station parking lot alongside of Bankhead Highway in Douglasville, a heavily travelled two-lane road where the trucks rumble by constantly, lacing the humid air with diesel fumes, and the glamour of show business is more mirage than reality.
"We're just hoping there's as much talent involved as ego," he joked of the production, which has also dropped in on a landfill in Decatur, a cabin outside Covington and a private home near Spaghetti Junction. That should be the motto of many a movie set, but "Randy and the Mob" probably gets the talent-to-ego ratio more right side up than is normal.
Although McKinnon plays both straight Randy and gay Cecil ("this will be it for that," he says of playing twins, of any orientation), and is the writer and director of credit, the movie is much more of a friends-and-family collaboration, a production of Ginny Mule Pictures. That's the company McKinnon co-founded with his wife Lisa Blount (a Golden Globe nominee as Debra Winger's best bud in "An Officer and a Gentleman") and their friend Walt Goggins, a Douglasville native who's acted in dozens of things but is best known right now as Detective Shane Vendrell in the FX cop drama "The Shield."[/color]
Goggins got the name Ginny Mule from a Gillian Welch song — "Annabelle," about sharecroppers farming with a female "ginny mule." It also feels very Southern and rootsy, like the team's movies, and signifies working on a shoestring, which they do.
"We thought it had a nice ring to it, the work ethic. That's us, man," said Goggins. He plays the unlikely mobster Armani in "Randy," and Blount plays Randy's wife Charlotte. More important, both are producers, as they were on "The Accountant" and Ginny Mule's other movie, "Chrystal," a dark tale of rural ugliness and redemption released in the spring that never found much of an audience.
So "Randy" is the third movie in a row from Ginny Mule to be steeped in the South like sun tea on a porch. The point of view is loving, but it's a tough love.
"This movie's looking more at the middle class Southern family than the first two, and all the things that make us kind of singular," said Goggins, who'd pulled up a director's chair on the edge of the pavement, overlooking a field of overgrown weeds. "The way we talk about our grandmothers, the way we talk about our mothers, the way some people have multiple businesses cause that's what you have to do to survive in today's economy.
"I think we all want to tell stories that go beyond just the South, but it is what we know," Goggins continued. "I'm from here. My mother lives three miles from here. The person I played in 'Chrystal' — Larry — I know that guy."
Goggins remembers his roots, and the roots remember Goggins. Around lunchtime, the Douglasville paparazzi showed up across the street from the gas station at the Exxon Food Mart, three women clutching cameras and hollering Goggins' name. "I want to say when the movie comes out, 'Hey, I was watching them make that!' " said Donna Muse, a Douglasville Realtor. They whooped at Goggins a little more, trying to lure him into picture range, until the entire film crew started shushing them for making so much noise they were interfering with the filming.
McKinnon leaned back in his director's chair, pretty relaxed for a guy spending $2 million of other people's money, breathing diesel fumes on a tight schedule. He's due to finish shooting "Randy and the Mob" on Saturday, then edit it in eight weeks, then sell it to a distributor. Only then will he know when next year it will be released.
"To get any movie made, at any kind of level," he said softly, "is some kind of a miracle."
The above article and pictures can be found at The Atlanta-Journal Constitution.
-----------------------------------------------
From the Ginny Mule Pictures website:
Walton Goggins - Producer
Born in Alabama and raised in Georgia, Walton headed for Hollywood at eighteen. In the past decade, he as appeared in numerous films including Robert Duvall’s “The Apostle” and Jackie Chan’s “Shanghai Noon”. Upcoming films include “Daddy and Them,” “Squelch,” “Letters from a Wayward Son,” and “House of a Thousand Corpses.” A long time friend of Mr. McKinnon’s, Walton signed on with “The Accountant” as an actor. It soon became evident that Walton’s talent touched all aspects of film production. In fact, he became so indispensable to Ray and Lisa that they invited him to join the Ginny Mule team. (That’s how sneaky he is.) The one fact Walton would rather be kept secret: He and Ray played fellow crack dealers on an “In The Heat Of The Night” episode.
That's all for now!
E
Ginny Mule's latest project is the film, "Randy and the Mob." Slated for release in 2006, the movie will star Goggins, Blount, and McKinnon.
Director, writer and actor Ray McKinnon, left, and actor/producer Walton Goggins film a scene of their movie 'Randy and the Mob.'
--Article--
-----------------------------------------------
Oscar winner tries comedy steeped in South
By PHIL KLOER
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 09/01/05
Ray McKinnon keeps his Oscar statue stashed away, someplace private. He doesn't want it on display. "It's too shiny," he semi-explains with a chuckle, and he's probably being more metaphorical than literal, although with McKinnon, sometimes it's hard to be sure just where that line is. "You're going along," he continues, "sort of living your own life as Ray McKinnon and you look up and see this Oscar — who does that belong to?"
It belongs to the Adel, Ga., native and former Atlantan, a writer-director-actor who is not yet a household name but may well be sometime soon. He won the 2002 Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film for "The Accountant," a 38-minute-long, deeply disturbing, brutally hilarious meditation on the disappearance of the old, true South, and the extreme lengths two brothers will go to to save the family farm. It's a movie Flannery O'Connor would have screened for her friends on a hot summer night on the side of a barn.
Now McKinnon is making "Randy and the Mob," an independent, low-budget comedy that's billed as a little bit "King of the Hill" and a little bit "Sopranos," about a classic good ol' boy in suburban Atlanta who gets in hock to the Mafia. Pretty soon he's dealing with mob enforcer Tino Armani, self-described "odd man for the odd job," as well as his clinically depressed wife Charlotte, a baton-twirling teacher who's just come down with the career-killer of carpal tunnel syndrome, and his identical twin brother Cecil, who's "gay as a 1940s musical."
"This is a miracle, to make this movie," McKinnon said on the Douglasville set recently. "I don't want to say there was synchronicity, 'cause then I sound like a guy who says 'synchronicity.' But there was a convergence of forces that came together."
Mainly there was noted record mogul Phil Walden, together with some other money men who raised the $2 million budget for "Randy and the Mob" — that isn't much for a movie budget, but it is a lot when you're starting at zero. Along the way, McKinnon also talked Burt Reynolds into taking a small part; he and his colleagues grew up watching and appreciating Reynolds' home-grown "Smokey and the Bandit" oeuvre.
This synchronicity of things Southern has brought McKinnon to a gas station parking lot alongside of Bankhead Highway in Douglasville, a heavily travelled two-lane road where the trucks rumble by constantly, lacing the humid air with diesel fumes, and the glamour of show business is more mirage than reality.
"We're just hoping there's as much talent involved as ego," he joked of the production, which has also dropped in on a landfill in Decatur, a cabin outside Covington and a private home near Spaghetti Junction. That should be the motto of many a movie set, but "Randy and the Mob" probably gets the talent-to-ego ratio more right side up than is normal.
Although McKinnon plays both straight Randy and gay Cecil ("this will be it for that," he says of playing twins, of any orientation), and is the writer and director of credit, the movie is much more of a friends-and-family collaboration, a production of Ginny Mule Pictures. That's the company McKinnon co-founded with his wife Lisa Blount (a Golden Globe nominee as Debra Winger's best bud in "An Officer and a Gentleman") and their friend Walt Goggins, a Douglasville native who's acted in dozens of things but is best known right now as Detective Shane Vendrell in the FX cop drama "The Shield."[/color]
Goggins got the name Ginny Mule from a Gillian Welch song — "Annabelle," about sharecroppers farming with a female "ginny mule." It also feels very Southern and rootsy, like the team's movies, and signifies working on a shoestring, which they do.
"We thought it had a nice ring to it, the work ethic. That's us, man," said Goggins. He plays the unlikely mobster Armani in "Randy," and Blount plays Randy's wife Charlotte. More important, both are producers, as they were on "The Accountant" and Ginny Mule's other movie, "Chrystal," a dark tale of rural ugliness and redemption released in the spring that never found much of an audience.
So "Randy" is the third movie in a row from Ginny Mule to be steeped in the South like sun tea on a porch. The point of view is loving, but it's a tough love.
"This movie's looking more at the middle class Southern family than the first two, and all the things that make us kind of singular," said Goggins, who'd pulled up a director's chair on the edge of the pavement, overlooking a field of overgrown weeds. "The way we talk about our grandmothers, the way we talk about our mothers, the way some people have multiple businesses cause that's what you have to do to survive in today's economy.
"I think we all want to tell stories that go beyond just the South, but it is what we know," Goggins continued. "I'm from here. My mother lives three miles from here. The person I played in 'Chrystal' — Larry — I know that guy."
Goggins remembers his roots, and the roots remember Goggins. Around lunchtime, the Douglasville paparazzi showed up across the street from the gas station at the Exxon Food Mart, three women clutching cameras and hollering Goggins' name. "I want to say when the movie comes out, 'Hey, I was watching them make that!' " said Donna Muse, a Douglasville Realtor. They whooped at Goggins a little more, trying to lure him into picture range, until the entire film crew started shushing them for making so much noise they were interfering with the filming.
McKinnon leaned back in his director's chair, pretty relaxed for a guy spending $2 million of other people's money, breathing diesel fumes on a tight schedule. He's due to finish shooting "Randy and the Mob" on Saturday, then edit it in eight weeks, then sell it to a distributor. Only then will he know when next year it will be released.
"To get any movie made, at any kind of level," he said softly, "is some kind of a miracle."
The above article and pictures can be found at The Atlanta-Journal Constitution.
-----------------------------------------------
From the Ginny Mule Pictures website:
Walton Goggins - Producer
Born in Alabama and raised in Georgia, Walton headed for Hollywood at eighteen. In the past decade, he as appeared in numerous films including Robert Duvall’s “The Apostle” and Jackie Chan’s “Shanghai Noon”. Upcoming films include “Daddy and Them,” “Squelch,” “Letters from a Wayward Son,” and “House of a Thousand Corpses.” A long time friend of Mr. McKinnon’s, Walton signed on with “The Accountant” as an actor. It soon became evident that Walton’s talent touched all aspects of film production. In fact, he became so indispensable to Ray and Lisa that they invited him to join the Ginny Mule team. (That’s how sneaky he is.) The one fact Walton would rather be kept secret: He and Ray played fellow crack dealers on an “In The Heat Of The Night” episode.
That's all for now!
E