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Update - 04/29/08:
  Today's
edition of Henderson, NC's
The Daily Dispatch
featured an article on Peter's latest project. He was in town
doing research at the H. Leslie Perry Memorial Library
for a nonfiction book that will include Susie Nelson, an
80-year-old resident. The African-American woman came to
Englewood in the spring of 1945 to help his family
full-time while his mother was ill and ended up helping
to raise Coyote for the next decade. He notes, "For all
practical purposes, she was my mother." Before coming to
the library, he spent several days interviewing Nelson,
who had this to say about "her second son" - "He is a
very gentle man and is very fair. I raised him that
way." Peter plans to write 12 chapters before
finishing the book within the next year. Three of the
titles will be - "If You Think There Is A War On Drugs,
You Don't Understand The Situation.", "If You Think We
Love Our Children As A Culture, You Don't Know The
Facts" or "If You Think Your Government Is There
To Serve You, You've Got It Wrong." His book is intended
to show "how things really work."
 I
haven't come across any official reviews of
THE LENA BAKER STORY,
which premiered at the Atlanta Film Festival
earlier this month, but in a recent edition of the National Ledger,
Peter spoke about his role.
In order to play the brutal, depraved employer, he
evidently had to demand carte blance with his protrayal.
He admitted, "It's scary to find those places. It scared all of us
and was scary to do. Before we went to work, I called
Tichina and the director and said: 'You know. I'm going
to be invoking stuff here from my unconscious, but I
don't know what's going to come up and out of my mouth.
Y'all have to give me a pass 'cause I can't do this guy
if I have to censor myself or worry that I'm going to be
hurting somebody's feelings...' At one point, we were
working, and I called Tichina 'a cockroach.' It was just
ugly, but it was right for the guy, and we both knew it.
But if she were to get offended and say, 'Well, that
wasn't on the page,' I'd have had to put a lid on my
imagination, and you don't want to do that." Peter
recalls: that things got even more intense during
shooting. "One night I had to kidnap Tichina. The whole
scene was extremely frightening and violent and
something came out of my mouth. … Two of the teamsters
that drive the trucks, just big old white boys from
south Georgia came up, and one of them stuck his hands
in front of my face, and they were trembling. He said:
'Man, I ain't never seen nothin' like that. Look at my
hands.' So you know when you get them like that, you
must be piped into something good." He adds of his
co-star: "Tichina is incredible. Wait till you see her
in this thing."
Blast
from the Past - Twenty five years ago
CROSS CREEK
made its screen debut and audiences were introduced to
hotelier Norton Baskin, who befriended author Marjorie
Kinnan Rawlings (played by Mary Steenburgen). I just
came across these two photos that were taken as
publicity shots of Peter in that role. The Washington
Post described him as "smooth as Southern Comfort
and just pouring on the charm." Yes, siree! If you
haven't seen it, be sure to rent it. It's a classic.
The Waldo West Producton,
ALL ROADS LEAD HOME, premiered
back in January at the Santa Barbara Int'l Film Festival
and this month it was screened at the Palm Beach Int'l
Film Festival. Present at the April 12th screening was
director Dennis Fallon and cast members Vivien Cardone
and Vanessa Branch. The film played to a packed house
followed by a Q & A session. In March it received Best
Feature Drama at the International Family Film Festival.
Look for an August 2008 DVD release.
Update - 04/06/08:
 The
Atlanta Film Festival (April 10–19, 2008) will open on
Thursday with the world premiere of
THE LENA BAKER STORY,
the debut film by producer, writer, and director Ralph
Wilcox, Besides Peter, the film's cast includes Tichinia
Arnold, Beverly Todd, and Michael Rooker. Shot in
Colquitt, Georgia at the Southwest Film Commission's
Jokara-Micheaux Film, Television, and Music Production
Studio, the film recounts the tragic true story of the
first and only woman sentenced to die in the electric
chair in the state of Georgia. Against her will, African
American housekeeper, Lena Baker (Arnold) engages in a
complicated and controversial affair with her employer,
Eliot Arthur (Coyote). Warned to stay away from the
abusive drunkard by both her mother (Todd) and the town
sheriff (Rooker), Baker gives into Arthur's advances in
a misguided attempt to protect her family. When she
finally has enough, Lena attempts to break away. Arthur
threatens her with a gun and a shocking confrontation
ensues leaving Baker facing a murder wrap in the Jim
Crow era south, at the mercy of a jury of twelve white
men. The cast and crew will be in attendance for a
post-screening Q&A followed by an opening night
celebration at the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center.
Follow this link to watch the trailer.
Last
month Peter attended the International Film Festival of
Las Palmas, which was held February 29th thru March 8th.
Besides serving on the festival's jury, he also
presented the film, RESURRECTING THE CHAMP.
There are a couple of interviews given to the
Spanish press that you can
read here, and
below are a few photos from the festival.
Next
month Peter will lend his rich voice to narrating the
Greensboro Symphony Orchestra's premiere of a
composition based on "The Gift of the Magi,"
written by
Greensboro, NC native O. Henry. " The short story,
published in the New York Sunday World newspaper on Dec.
10, 1905, is about a young couple short on money but
desperate to buy each other Christmas gifts.Della
secretly cuts and sells her beautiful hair to buy Jim a
platinum chain for his prized pocket watch, only to
discover that Jim has sold it - to buy jeweled combs for
her hair. Orchestra conductor Dmitry Sitkovetsky thought
it would make perfect sense to honor O'Henry for the
city's 2008 bicentennial celebration so the orchestra
commissioned composer Jakov Jakoulov to write a work
based on the Christmas classic. Then he called on his
longtime friend for his help. Peter responded with,
"Dmitry is one of my old, closest friends. I would read
the Yellow Pages for him. The opportunity to spend a
week with him at the cost of a little performing with a
symphony orchestra (how grand is that?) seemed
like too good a deal to pass up." The performances will
be held on May 1 at 7:30 pm and on May 3 at 8 pm. For
more information,
visit this link. Peter will also host an
introduction and post-screening discussion of his 1992
film, BITTER MOON, at Greenboro's Weatherspoon
Art Museum on April 30 at 7:00 pm.
 On
March 26th nearly 40 theaters across the country aired a
national simulcast of "Everything You Always Wanted
to Know About Separation of Church and State... But Were
Afraid to Ask." Tthe event was emceed by Peter with
guests that included The Bacon Brothers (featuring actor
Kevin Bacon and his brother Michael), actors Jack
Klugman, Michael J. Fox, Dan Lauria and Catherine Dent,
singer/songwriter Catie Curtis, comedian Marc Maron and
satirist Roy Zimmerman. The high-definition program was
hosted by First Freedom First, a joint project of
Americans United for Separation of Church and State and
The Interfaith Alliance Foundation.
 In
a recent edition of Palm Springs Life, writer/director
Charles Evered was interviewd about his latest film,
ADOPT A SAILOR. When asked
to describe his latest work, he responded, "'Adopt a
Sailor' is just what it is. It's an art film, really -
about three people who have dinner in a New York
apartment over one evening. That's it, that's the movie.
It's what they all go through during this evening that
hopefully makes it meaningful. It's not 'Transformers'
or 'Lawrence of Arabia'. We're just trying to tell the
story of these three people, and hopefully, on some
level, other people will find their own lives and
experiences reflected in it." When questioned about his
cast, he had some very flattering words for Peter. "When
you have people like Bebe Neuwirth and Peter Coyote, who
have won Tonys and Emmys and worked with directors like
Polanski, Weir, Spielberg, etc. - what are you going to
tell them? So I just had little private discussions with
them. Peter and Bebe are brilliant in this movie. People
will see both of them in an entirely new light. They
think they know Bebe as that character in 'Cheers'?
Well, that character disappears in this film, because
Bebe shows a level of vulnerability on screen in 'Adopt
a Sailor' that she's never shown before. And Peter is
the same way - he's not just a handsome stud in this
film, with this great raspy voice. He's edgy,
hilariously funny and warm, all at the same time. The
strength of 'Adopt a Sailor' are the performances, I can
tell that already - and I'm proud of that. And as for
Ethan, he's just a revelation, he really is. He has
natural film acting skill. Maybe it is hereditary, who
knows?"
The
Coyote-narrated film "Alaska Far Away" screened
at the Wisconsin Film Festival on Saturday and in a
recent interview with filmmakers Joan Juster and Paul
Hill, they commented on how Peter came to narrate their
documentary.
Juster: The short answer: we
sent him an email, and he said yes. The slightly
longer answer is that we wanted an experienced
narrator whose voice was rough around the edges,
someone who sounded like he understood farmers and
hard times. And we thought Peter would like the New
Deal politics of the film. We were right on both
counts, and he was wonderful for the film.
Hill: And working with him was a producer's
dream. We were able to record him in less than two
hours. We could say to him, "that was great, but it
needs to be 1.5 seconds shorter" and he would do it
again and it would be perfect. I'd heartily
recommend him to any documentarian.
Update - 02/29/08:
 Shorts International has been distributing short films
via the
iTunes store for over a year and a half,
bringing audiences regular releases throughout the year.
Each release focuses on the best short film offerings
within a particular category or genre: from seasonal
themes to special exclusive releases such as the Oscar
short films and the annual AFI short film release. They
have just released another 14 AFI films for purchase and
download, one of which is Peter's
APPARENT HORIZON.
For only $1.99, it's a bargain! Director Thymaya Payne
was honored to be asked to complete an AFI Thesis film,
which was awarded the Fotokem thesis grant and premiered
at the AFI Festival in 2006. Starring Peter, Myra
Balugay and Matthew Carey, the 22-minute film tells the
story of a Thai mail-order bride, who moves to the US
with her new husband in search of the American dream.
However, she soon discovers that the world she hoped for
is actually an emotional prison. When the director was asked how he came to cast Peter
in his film, he responded, "When I was writing the
script, I was in a Pedro Almodóvar phase. I was watching
all of his films over and over again during a brutal
Berlin January. One of my favorite Almadóvar films,
KIKA, stars Peter Coyote as this insane American
serial killer. He is so vulnerably evil. I loved it. I
cut out a picture of him and put it on my wall. He was
Joseph. So when it came time to cast, I wrote him a
letter. He said yes, came down and taught us all what
filmmaking is about. He is honestly one of the coolest
guys I have ever met."
Tichina
Arnold, who filmed "THE LENA
BAKER STORY" with Peter last fall, recently
reported that the saga of the first African American
woman to be executed in Georgia is now looking for
distributors. She says, "People come away from seeing it
in tears. It's a great thing for the filmmaker, Ralph
Wilcox, a great project. I really want people to come
around and see it and be changed." Peter plays her
employer Ernest Knight, a part Tichina says that "a lot
of actors were wary of playing. He did an amazing job.
We worked very well together."
 Last
year Peter joined forces with Viggo Mortensen and Sheryl
Crow in hosting a poignant documentary called "Saving
the American Wild Horse". Directed by James
Kleinart, the film examines the politics behind the
Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) controversial policies
regarding wild horses on public lands and questions the
fate of America’s Wild Horses and Burros, whose very
existence is in jeopardy. Through interviews with
scientific experts, ranchers, historians, wild horse
owners, animal rights activists, environmentalists and
others, the filmmaker examines the origins and effects
of the recent "Burns Bill" which gutted the Wild Free
Roaming Horse and Burro Act of 1971 and cleared the way
for the slaughter and removal of a vast majority of the
wild horse herds. The 26-minute documentary was
screenedon Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. back in
September.
 A
Coyote-narrated documentary called "Alaska Far Away"
has been making the film festival circuit. Narrated by
Peter, the film was recently named Best Documentary at
the Muskegon Film Festival and will be screened at the
Fargo Film Festival on March 6th and at the Wisconsin
Film Festival the following month. In the midst of the
despair of the Great Depression, the U.S. government
gave 200 struggling midwestern farm families an
extraordinary opportunity: a chance to start over in
far-away Alaska. This documentary tells the story of
this bold government experiment, and the families who
found themselves thrust into the national spotlight
along the way.
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