The Official Peter Coyote Web Site

Coymoon Creations

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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