Do not stare directly into the eye of the Fantastic Fest 2009 poster, or it will eat your soul... if you're lucky

Credit: Fantastic Fest

Why Fantastic Fest?

After all, this isn't one of the "big" festivals that the press typically covers.  That circuit goes Sundance, SXSW, Cannes, Venice, Toronto, Berlin, Telluride, and then repeats.  That's where all the deals are made.  That's where you'll see the endless red carpets.

Me?  I've always been drawn to Fantasia in Montreal, or Sittges, or, yes, Fantastic Fest in Austin.  To me, the chance to spend ten days awash in the best genre material from around the world right now sounds like pure heaven, and I can't wait to get on the plane in about three hours.

Of course, Austin helps.  For a fat man like me, Austin is pretty much Heaven.  Picture a place where they make the greatest BBQ in the world, lots of it, and they show all the weird obscure movies you most want to see.  That's Austin.  That's Fantastic Fest.

And that's where I'll be starting today and running through October 1st.  After that, I'm on a flight and then out of the country for four days on a top-secret-where-the-hell-am-I-going set visit, and then I'll be back to my regular schedule as soon as possible after October 8th.

[more after the jump]

There are still some big events coming this year, like AFI Fest here in LA, which just announced that "The Fantastic Mr. Fox" will be their opening night gala, and of course I'm hoping Harry invites me to Butt-Numb-A-Thon in December.  But I'll be home for a while and back to the regular work of Motion/Captured, including the Motion/Captured Must-See series, Film Nerd 2.0, the Morning Read, and more.  I've got something special and fun planned for October to celebrate Halloween, something I try to do every year no matter where I'm writing, and I hope you dig that.

But for the next couple of weeks, buckle up.  I've got a ton of stuff to cover, and I am hoping to bring you coverage of titles like "Gentlemen Broncos," "The Vampire's Assistant," "[REC] 2," "Paranormal Activity," "Solomon Kane," "District 13: Ultimatum," "House Of The Devil," "Stingray Sam," another "Avatar" presentation with Jon Landau, and much, much more.

Please check in here at Motion/Captured, and trust that the rest of the awesome folks here at HitFix will be bringing you all the other news going on in the world of entertainment while I'm neck deep in the festival.  I'll have a guest reviewer working with me at the fest, and I'll introduce you to him in the next couple of days.

For now, I'm off to pack and get ready.  Random House just sent me "The Lost Symbol," so I guess I know what I'm doing on the plane.

Be well.  I'm gonna go eat my own body weight in dead cow.

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