The Inn and Spa at Loretto and Garcia Street Books in Sante Fe have just announced their "Meet their Author Series" for 2010. Sam will read, discuss and sign his short story collection, DAY OUT OF DAYS, on Thursday, September 23, from 5:00-6:30 pm. The event will be held at the Inn and Spa at Loretto. Reservations are not required but seating is limited, so it will be a first-come, first-serve basis. There will be no fee.

Here's another reminder that Sam will also be making an appearance in support of the local literary arts organization, SOMOS, on September 26 from 6 to 9 pm at the Taos Community Auditorium. Known as a frequent visitor to Taos, Sam will read from DAY OUT OF DAYS" and signed copies will be available for sale. SOMOS executive director Dori Vinella said, “Were thrilled that Sam thinks enough of SOMOS to participate in our fundraising event. SOMOS shares Sam’s love of Taos and the literary arts and we are proud to provide opportunities for aspiring local writers to learn from accomplished writers like Sam.”

Tickets to the “Evening with Sam Shepard” are $20 in advance or $30 at the door. They can be purchased at the Taos Center for the Arts, 133 Paseo del Pueblo Norte; FX-18 Gifts and Jewelry, 103 Bent St.; or the SOMOS office, 233 Paseo del Pueblo Sur. Proceeds from the fundraiser will benefit SOMOS’ Youth Mentorship Program, which provides opportunities for middle and high school students to develop the craft of writing in a non-institutional format, with the guidance of adult mentors.

There's something deeply satisfying about a film that gives you a credible plot, believable characters and just enough mysticism to make you lose yourself in the texture of the moment. Filmed almost 20 years ago on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, THUNDERHEART is loosely based on actual events in the 1970's, which concerned corruption and reform battling for supremacy within the Indian community, widespread neglect on the part of the Federal Government and the need for change. Sam and Val Kilmer take on the lead roles as FBI agents in a terrific cast that also includes Graham Greene and Fred Ward. If you call yourself a true Shepard movie fan, you should be able to name two other movies in which Sam co-starred with Val Kilmer. Here's a clip from the opening of the film from the TCM web site.

I'm amazed that it's taken me this long to realize that once upon a time Woody Allen cast Sam in a 1987 film called "September" with co-stars Mia Farrow, Dianne Wiest, Maureen O"Sullivan and Charles Durning. The idea of Mr. True West in a film by Mr. New York City is both intriguing and incongruous to say the least. The film was shot over ten weeks at the Kaufman Astoria Studios in Queens. However, the director essentially deleted the entire film! He then proceeded to shoot it a second time with replacements for O'Sullivan, Durning and Shepard. Whether the original film still exists in some warehouse today is not known, but I assume there are tons of Shepard fans out there who would love to view it. Here's the story behind this interesting scenario.

Allen claims that it's perfectly natural for him to "re-shoot tons of material" adding that he could have filmed "September" a third time. Originally, Christopher Walken was hired on for the role of Peter, an aspiring writer, but it soon became apparent that although the two had previously worked together in "Annie Hall", there was friction on the set. Allen later explained, "We couldn't get copacetic on what to do and decided that instead of his making concessions and my making concessions, we'd work on something else down the line." This is when our playwright was hired on. After photography was completed,  Allen decided he was unhappy with the script and needed to re-shoot. Ms. O'Sullivan was unavailable due to a case of pneumonia so she was replaced by Elaine Stritch. Due to a commitment to another project, Charles Durning left and was replaced by Jack Warden. Like Walken, Sam didn't always see eye to eye with Allen and was eager to move on to his next project in California. Another "Sam" came along as his replacement - Sam Waterston. This necessitated rewriting the character with Allen explaining, "Sam Shepard's quality is that of a kind of inarticulate, attractive loner from the plains, whereas Sam Waterston has a more Eastern, Boston quality."

While working with directors such as Woody Allen and Robert Altman might be an honor for some folks, apparently Sam had no illusions. In an Esquire magazine interview, he said, "They may be great filmmakers, but they have no respect for actors. Individually, each understands zip about acting. Allen knows even less than Altman, which is nothing." However, Sam must have at least befriended Allen because he eventually gave the director some rare Sidney Bechet recordings from his father's collection of vintage jazz.

Sam Shepard has won the 2010 Chicago Tribune Literary Prize for lifetime achievement! Tribune editor Gerould Kern said, "In selecting Shepard, we recognize his significant influence on American culture. He transcends boundaries of form, with his talent stretching from the stage to page." Tribune theater critic Chris Jones adds, "Sam Shepard is the premiere dramatist of rural America. His work chronicles wide-open spaces, domestic dysfunction and long, brooding silences on the prairie."

Reached at his Kentucky home, Sam said he was honored to receive the award from "such an old, established newspaper," especially given that his great grandfather, Samuel Shepard Rogers IV, was a Chicago Daily News editor. (The playwright was born Samuel Shepard Rogers VII.)

Sam's local connections run even deeper. "I was born in Fort Sheridan," he said. "My family started out as wheat farmers in McHenry (County) and later moved to Lombard, so I have a lot of family there."

Although he grew up in California and launched his writing career in New York's Greenwich Village, Chicago has played a significant role in his career. Steppenwolf's production of "True West," directed by Gary Sinise and starring Sinise and John Malkovich as tensely reunited brothers, hit Broadway in 1982 to become a critical and commercial smash. Sinise also directed Steppenwolf's revival of the broken-family drama "Buried Child," which played Broadway in 1996 and received five Tony nominations. Sam admits, "The Chicago production of 'Buried Child' was one of my all-time favorite productions of any play."

"When people define Chicago-style acting, they are often thinking (at least subliminally) of actors doing Shepard," Jones said. "Works like 'True West' are synonymous with the rise of Steppenwolf — and, indeed, the coming to glory of the Chicago actor."

Sam joins an illustrious group of Literary Prize winners that includes Arthur Miller, Tom Wolfe, August Wilson, Joyce Carol Oates, Margaret Atwood, E.L. Doctorow and David McCullough. The award will be presented November 13 at the Chicago Humanities Festival.

I came across an interview from Details magazine dated a couple years back.  Growing up in Duarte California, Sam was known as Steve Rogers, but when he came to NYC in 1963, he became Sam Shepard. In this particular interview, he's asked why he changed his name and responds - "If you remember, back in the old days there was a Steve Rogers who was Captain America - that was his alter ego, right? And I always thought, I don’t want to be carrying around the name of a cartoon hero. Actually, my legitimate name is Samuel Shepard Rogers, so I just shortened it to Sam Shepard and dropped the Rogers. I just kind of invented it."

Iranian-born director Mehdi Norowzian originally gained fame in the UK with his bold and dramatic commercials and even captured an Oscar nomination for his short film, "Killing Joe" in 2000. LEO (aka "Leopold Bloom") was his first and only feature-length film and for reasons unknown, it sat on the shelf for two years after failing to obtain a theatrical distributor. Finally in 2004 it was released on DVD in both the UK and US. The director certainly attracted a terrific cast. We start off with Joseph Fiennes who Sam describes as a wonderful actor whose work is enhanced by his openness. Joe's co-star is Oscar winner Elizabeth Shue ("Leaving Las Vegas") who gives an impressive performance. Playing the bible-loving owner of Vic's diner, Sam serves up his customers, believe it or not, Shepherd's pie! And who does he serve it to? A town bully called Horace played by a hell-bent Dennis Hopper (think Frank Booth!)

On location with Dennis and Medhi

A literary drama offering the parallel tales of two wounded souls, this tale of redemption and the struggle to find one's place in life finds an ex-convict's correspondence with a young boy offering hope for the future despite the fact that the boy has yet to find his own place in the world. Moving seamlessly between the two stories, the film gradually and inventively draws them together,with both main protagonists haunted by their pasts.

In an interview included on the DVD, Sam claims he has always wanted to work with Dennis Hopper but never had the chance. He does explain how the two met decades ago. Back in the sixties when Sam was playing with the Holy Modal Rounders, one of the band's tunes was used for "Easy Rider". I personally wasn't aware of this, so I was absolutely delighted to learn that the kooky song I remembered from the film - "If you want to be a bird" - was connected to Sam! They play it when Jack Nicholson dons his football helmet as he hops on the back of Peter Fonda's motorcyle and speeds down the highway.

Veteran stage and film actor James Gammon died on July 16th at his home near Los Angeles at the age of 70 following a battle with cancer of adrenal glands and the liver. The gravel-voiced actor made himself part of the American landscape, playing weathered cowboys, dysfunctional rednecks and alcoholic patriarchs in films, television and plays, including a succession of Shepard-penned roles. He appeared in "A Curse of the Starving Class", "A Lie of the Mind," "Simpatico," "The Late Henry Moss" and a 1996 Broadway production of "Buried Child," for which he received a Tony nomination. Somehow Sam's stories of desertion and disconnected family ties struck a chord with Gammon, who once said, "I'm just swept by him."

Sam first saw Gammon acting in his play “Curse of the Starving Class” in 1973 at the MET, a Los Angeles theater that Gammon was instrumental in forming and running. It was then that the two began a long friendship.

In a recent phone interview regarding Gammon's death, Sam said, “He was more than an actor. He was part of a whole world I was familiar with. He came from the same background as me. You’re probably aware of the notorious father figures in my plays, alcoholic Midwesterners who leave their families and get lost in the Southwestern desert. Jimmy had that familiarity about him with the way I grew up, the guys with the voice and the face and the whiskey. He definitely rang a bell with me. We did a lot of things together. We had a race horse together. He was very dedicated to his work and to his family.”

You can read more of Sam's reflections on his friend's death in this LA Times article.

Footage from the filming of the Butch Cassidy western, BLACKTHORN, is now available at this youtube link. Interviews with director Mateo Gil and actor Eduardo Noriega are in Spanish but the video shows Sam in several scenes as well as Stephen Rea.

Detective fiction writer George Pelecanos has been trying to bring his third novel, SHOEDOG, to the screen and financing seems right around the corner. Directed by John McNaughton, the film's cast will include Sam alongside Wes Bentley, Kris Kristofferson, Heather Graham and P. Diddy. The book's synopsis reads:

Summit Entertainment has set a November 5th limited release date for FAIR GAME, starring Sean Penn, Naomi Watts and Sam in the role of Naomi's retired officer dad. The film, which revolves around the controversial outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame, will expand to additional theaters on the subsequent two weekends. Directed by Doug Liman, the film premiered to generally favorable reviews at the Cannes Film Festival in May.

Ap’art, an international contemporary art festival based in St Rémy de Provence, featured some of Jessica's photography last month. The festival took place in 30 venues with roughly 60 artists participating over a six-day period. Jessica's work included 28 black and white selections and were exhibited at the Hotel Les Ateliers de l'Image. Before becoming a film actress, she was an art student at the University of Minnesota where she took photography classes. In 2008, she published "50 Photographs".

"My photographs are always connected emotionally with what I see, a gesture, expression, light quality and desire that arises in me to capture the moment without any need of explanation apart from trying to archive the truth and the mystery of the moment."  ...Jessica Lange

Posing in front of her collection on July 9 at the Ateliers de l'Image.

The Spanish media has given us more info on BLACKTHORN as well as another photo, this time of the lone cowboy on horseback. In a recent interview with screenwriter, Miguel Barros stated that his story has nothing to do with the mythical "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid." The duo supposedly ended their days in Bolivia in November 1908 during a shootout with the Bolivian army. These two thieves serve as inspiration for Barros but he only took the Cassidy character and created a story in which the outlaw survives this assault. The script was written in two to three weeks in record time. The starting point is that Butch Cassidy is still alive under the name of James Blackthorn, and twenty years after his supposed death, he is dedicated to raising horses in a small village in Bolivia. Barros showed the script to Mateo Gil, who quickly fell for the project.

One of the things that Gil and Barros were clear on was that the lead actor had to be an American. The first name that came up was Nick Nolte's. Initial contact was good but due to problems with intermediaries, they offered the role to another mythical figure - Sam Shepard. When our playwright received the script, he was hooked. Barros admits it was an honor to have another writer like something you've written. Sam accepted all the conditions and within 15 days of his "yes", Gil was already with him in NY reviewing the script.

Both Gil and Barros made several trips to Bolivia to pick the locations and filming began in April and lasted nine weeks. Barros - "It was hard work for everyone because we were at an average altitude of 3,000 or 4,000 meters with the logical problems of altitude sickness and variable climatic conditions, from the tropical sun to freezing cold. But, at the same time, it was fun."

Barros speaks wonders of the cast and praises Sam. "It was great and wonderful. He's demanding, but he is not a prima donna. He's a warm person, generous and sympathetic." Details of the film are limited but Barros says, "I wanted to write a western and it is a simple story of characters. The protagonist recovers a spirit believed to be lost and wants to return to his home in Utah to die there and shares that road with a Spanish engineer."

Here's a trio from the 2007 Venice Film Festival, which screened "The Assassination of Jesse James...". I wish he'd take those darn sunglasses off!

Taos, New Mexico has long been a haven for the creative soul. Since the arrival of literary notables Willa Cather and D.H. Lawrence in the early twentieth century, literature has played a prominent role in the area’s rich cultural landscape. As the literary arts flourished, the need for formal community support became apparent, which ultimately led to the non-profit incorporation of SOMOS in 1983. Today, it has expanded into its present role as a respected resource center whose outreach extends to the greater community of Northern New Mexico – and beyond. Their live readings, workshops, conferences, and festivals are designed not only to showcase accomplished writers, but also to encourage creativity in novice writers from all walks of life. Sam will be participating in this year's fundraiser on Sunday, September 26th. It will be held at the Taos Center for the Arts.

I thought I'd share an excerpt today from "Costello", one of Sam's short stories in his latest book, DAY OUT OF DAYS. This observation is so Shepard, so autobiographical. The man is oh so timid in his interviews but you can touch his soul in his writing.

I make no bones about my obsession with observation. I enjoy making notes. Jotting things down. I prefer not to be stared at when I’m furtively staring at others. There is a subtle art to the sneaking of glances. Timing is everything. To look as though all your attention is completely absorbed in the subject of your notebook when, in fact, you are lurking; waiting for the moment he picks up his coffee cup, takes a chomp out of the donut then unabashedly sucks the sticky sugar off his fingers while continuing to scan the Racing Form. These are the ripe spans of time where you seize the opportunity to look deeply into the essence of a man; see the source of his greed without his having the slightest clue. Still, you have to be constantly alert; wary of not getting caught by his quick glance. In the flash of an eye he might become aware that you are a witness and begin subtly altering his every manifestation; playing out the illusion that he is in total control of his character or worse – he might become hostile and paranoid. I’ve seen it happen. People hate to be seen. They hate the sensation of eyes on them; being looked at for what they are and not what they imagine themselves to be. Very few people can handle the blatant stare except children under five. This has been my experience anyway.

Here are the first photos of Sam starring in BLACKTHORN! The Butch Cassidy western was shot in Bolivia over nine weeks and wrapped production on June 5th in the town of Viacha. In an interview via phone this weekend, co-producer Paolo Agazzi told the Spanish media that the film is now in post-production, which will continue in Spain through early 2011. Agazzi believes the greatest challenge to filming was logistical because every scene was in a different location, some more complicated because of the altitude and cold. Many locations were remote from urban centers, and it often took a long time to arrive and return from them. Filming was also made more difficult due to transporting horses and a team of over 100 people. Being an action film, there were many stunts needed, which demanded two doubles each for Sam and co-star Eduardo Noriega. One of the stuntmen for Sam was identified as Argentine rider Hugo Antonio Dietz.

El Pais, Spain's most popular newspaper, described Sam - "His life has cultivated a magnetism and a special mystery. A chiseled face... A love for writing old stories about dilapidated motels in the American Midwest and characters at the brink of moral and physical collapse... A continuous display of talent as a writer of plays, stories, screenplays, and as a film actor and director."

Director Mateo Gil says working with Sam was pretty easy.  "Shepard read the script and quickly accepted the proposal... Every day he studied the dialogue and suggested changes to make it more alive. I appreciated it. You never see the actor, just the character." Gil says he has stripped the myth of the shy Shepard and warns audiences not to expect the silent cowboy. This time around you'll find Sam very talkative, dining in the company of others while telling stories. He referred to working with Sam and co-star Stephen Rea "as an honor because they are both larger than life on many levels."

An international conference at the University of California, Berkeley, was the setting for a screening last month of INHALE (note the new poster). The subject of the conference was on combating illegal trafficking in human organs and tissues. A second film, "H.O.T. - Human Organs Trafficking", a 2009 documentary was also shown. Todd Brown of Twitchfilm.net had the chance to view a promo reel of the film and this was his take - "Dermot Mulroney is essentially being asked to carry this film - he features in every shot of the promo - and he looks to be a stellar fit as the sort of weathered anti-hero Kormakur prefers, playing a DA forced to travel to Mexico to procure an illegal organ transplant to save the life of his young daughter. One of the things I love best about Kormakur is how his films interact with their environments and it was fascinating to see how the shift from Iceland to a desert environment has forced him to change his preferred palette while still retaining his signature shooting style. This one hasn't sold in North America yet but it could very well end up being something of a solid little sleeper hit for fans of intelligent, morally complex thrillers." In a May 11th Spanish interview, director Baltasar Kormákur indicated that the film will premiere in the U.S. and other countries in the autumn. Be sure to click on the film link above for more publicity stills.

No word yet on when the pilot for the EPIX new TV series, TOUGH TRADE, will be aired but I did come across some production photos taken last winter at the Thistletop Inn in Goodlettsville, Tennessee. The inn, constructed by master builder and preservationist Braxton Dixon, was chosen as the set location because of its unique architecture. The contemporary one-hour drama tells the story of three generations of a Nashville music dynasty whose penchant for drink, debauchery and divorce has left it on the verge of bankruptcy. Sam plays the family patriarch, Linwood Tucker.

We all know how music has played a major role in Sam's life, and it looks as though the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Walker Shepard will be 23 years old in a few days and presently plays with the band, The Dust Busters, who have been featured on the Down Home Radio Show. Both Walker and his dad also appear together on banjo on Patti Smith's album, "Twelve". Click here for a video of the band playing in Washington Square Park in 2009. Though Sam recently referred to his son as "very, very shy", Walker's social anxiety obviously doesn't prevent him from stepping in front of an audience!

As part of the Brooklyn Academy of Music's "Eat, Drink and be Literary" program, BAM Cafe invites contemporary authors for intimate evenings of readings, discussion as well as dinner and wine. Sam was scheduled to be their guest last night. However, due to "unforeseen circumstances", the event was cancelled and every effort is being made to reschedule it this month. According to the BAM web site, a new date will be announced shortly. For further information, you can cell BAM Ticket Services at 718-636-4100.

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