posted 05-04-2011 03:07 PM                

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When Austin filmmaker Richard Linklater released Slacker in July of 1991, he helped usher in the independent film movement that would dominate much of the mid-’90s and still resonates today. With Slacker’s 20th anniversary fast approaching, the Austin Film Society and The Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas have decided to commemorate that seminal film by commissioning 23 Austin filmmakers to help direct a remake. Awesome! Can this start a trend?

Per the Austin Film Society press release:

Each scene will be recreated, using the original dialogue and locations (whenever possible), and individual scenes will then be compiled to create the remake, presenting the city’s changing face while showcasing some of its most exciting talent. Donations of $50 or higher to SLACKER 2011 will receive a ticket to the World Premiere on August 31st with the remake filmmakers and Richard Linklater in attendance for Q&A. More details on the event will be released when finalized.

Following in the footsteps of that crazypants Footloose remake, this is the second collaborative remake effort to make waves here in 2011 (albeit one done under totally different circumstances). If only more remakes were filmed in this way! Wouldn’t it be cool to see what a group of filmmakers could do with any number of planned Hollywood remakes — especially if major filmmakers were involved in the process? (The only recognizable name on Slacker duty is director Jay Duplass.) Picture an omnibus like the Woody Allen-Martin Scorsese-Francis Ford Coppola-directed New York Stories, but with the goal of recreating one single narrative. That kind of directorial mind-meld has to be better than just a straight update of To Catch a Thief, right? Can’t Steven Soderbergh get on this before he retires? He’s always thinking of creative ways to make movies. Just sayin’.

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