News

Peter Marquardt, who played the white-suited drug lord Moco in Robert Rodriguez's 1992 classic El Mariachi and its first sequel, has died, a funeral home in Austin confirmed Sunday. He was 50. Marquardt died July 19, a spokeswoman at the Cook-Walden/Forest Oaks Funeral Home and Memorial Park said. No cause of death was immediately available. In addition to showing up in flashback in Desperado (1995), the middle film in Rodriguez's stylishly violent "Mexico Trilogy," Marquardt appeared in the writer-director's 2003 film Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over (2003) and in the 2011 film The Shadow People.

read more...

Sundance Film Festival is one of the biggest highlights on the calendar for the year in film. Every year, festival-goers venture out to Park City, Utah, and enjoy some of the finest films coming out of the independent industry, from some of the best and most promising filmmakers.

Next month will be no different. We’ve already had a fantastic slew of films announced for the festival in the initial line-up, the Spotlight, Park City at Midnight, and New Frontier categories, and Premiers line-up.

And now the festival has announced a further four films that will be screening next month – Magic Magic, Muscle Shoals, Wrong Cops, and El Mariachi.

Sebastián Silva’s Magic Magic has long been one of my most anticipated films in production, and I am incredibly jealous of those who’ll get to see it first next month. Starring Michael Cera, Juno Temple, and Emily Browning in the leads,...

With Golden Globe nominations finally out, the Sundance Film Festival is revealing more of its 2013 slate, including four more features films announced Thursday: 1993 Robert Rodriguez favorite El Mariachi for the From the Collection screening, new music documentary Muscle Shoals, Michael Cera-starring Magic Magic in the Midnight movie section, and Los Angeles-based Wrong Cops as part of New Frontier designated films.

“With the addition of these four films, the 2013 Sundance Film Festival will present an even more well rounded program of independent films. Each adds to the festival in exciting, challenging and entertaining ways,” said the festival’s director John Cooper in a statement.

Not sure why these films weren’t part of the original announcements, but as originally predicted (here and here), 2013 Sundance Film Festival has added Quentin Dupieux’s wacko film project Wrong Cops to the New Frontier program and Sebastián Silva will be at Sundance with not one (Crystal Fairy), but two projects (Magic Magic gets added to the Park City at Midnight line-up) featuring Michael Cera. Robert Rodriguez will return with the credit card charged debut film that made a huge impact in his career and in the indie sphere (El Mariachi as ‘From the Collection’ Screening) and the year’s edition is certainly slanted on musical aspect in film as Greg ‘Freddy’ Camalier presents Muscle Shoals in the Documentary premieres section which is perhaps a cousin of the David Grohl film about famed music studios. Here are the last films to be added to a fest which we will...

Last week the Austin Film Society hosted a special screening of cult favorite El Mariachi as a benefit for the Texas Filmmakers' Production Fund (Tfpf), with special guests including a live performance by filmmaker Robert Rodriguez's band Chingon. Antoinette Alfonso Zel, CEO of Rodriguez's general entertainment cable channel El Rey Network -- seen above on the red carpet with Rodriguez -- was in attendance, as well as El Mariachi stars Carlos Gallardo (Desperado, Bandido) and Peter Marquardt.

The event took place the day after the 2012 Tfpf recipients were announced, with over $89,000 in cash grants bestowed to 16 projects from emerging Texas filmmakers. I spoke to Afs Executive Director Rebecca Campbell about the significance of the screening as a Tfpf fundraiser, and she stated: "Here we are giving out grants to help the next generation of emerging talented Texans, and maybe some of them will go on to have a successful...

 

                                      

                                      

                                      

                                      

Here's the full trailer for Conrad Faraj's directorial debut, The Shadow People releases in select theaters on May 13th, 2011. Head on over to The Shadow People Facebook page to see lots more stills and info!

The creepy film stars Joanne Wurm, Peter Marquardt, and Jim Strang.

Plot:

A teenage girl named Bethany Ryder becomes haunted by demonic visions and shadow-like beings during the night, after her wake from a 9-month coma. She soon finds out, through the means of a prophecy from the Book of Satan that she is carrying a baby to be condemned as the Antichrist. Bethany, along with the help of her friends, must find a way to prevent its birth, as well as the visions which soon become more real - in the form of Shadow People. From director Conrad Faraj, comes a story of light and darkness, and one girl's incredible story of salvation and damnation.

Here's the perfect way for you indie horror fans to kick off the week! We've nailed down the exclusive one-sheet, stills and full-length trailer debut for twenty-year-old filmmaker Conrad Faraj's feature film debut, The Shadow People.

The Shadow People was independently financed by Faraj and co-producer Meg Quisenberry. With a budget of just somewhere around $2,000, the film stars in her feature film debut Joanne Wurm and co-stars the great villain in Robert Rodriguez' El Mariachi, Peter Marquardt. Not too shabby!

The film will be premiering in select cities starting May 13th.

For more information visit The Shadow People Facebook fan page and Conrad Studios Online!

Enough talk! Dig on the goods after the break!

Synopsis

After waking from a 9-month coma, a teenage girl named Bethany Ryder becomes haunted by demonic visions and shadow-like beings during the night. She soon finds out, through the means of a prophecy from the Book of Satan,...

Do directors know when they’re creating the film that will propel them into the spotlight? Could Robert Rodriquez ever have imagined that his 85-minute film about a mariachi mistaken for a professional hitman and then forced to take on that mantle could have ever become the cult classic that it is? Sure, but considering the fickle tastes of the film-consuming community, it could just have easily faded into obscurity and never built up the momentum that would make Rodriguez one of the more popular voices in action filmmaking. Instead, El Mariachi spawned two sequels, Desperado and Once Upon a Time in Mexico, and now the film that started it all and its first sequel are finally available on Blu-ray in a double feature.

With a much grittier and simpler appearance than its higher-budgeted, studio sanctioned sequels, El Mariachi also tells a much more basic story. The otherwise unnamed man,...

Here at DC we're always on the lookout for something cool for you guys to be made aware of, and such is the case with twenty-year-old filmmaker Conrad Faraj's feature film The Shadow People.

The flick has been in production since October, 2009, and like many young directors, Faraj is wearing many hats. In this case he serves as writer, executive producer, and director. That's a lot of work, but for Conrad it's a labor of love.

"I just turned 20 years old and have been making films since 2003, and since then I have produced over 120 shorts, documentaries, and music videos," Faraj tells us. "The Shadow People is my first feature film. I have a loving passion with horror films, and I gained a lot of inspiration from the classic masterful works of the New Hollywood filmmakers like Roman Polanski, William Friedkin, Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick, and Steven Spielberg. The Shadow People...