Richard Linklater is has been busy for the past few months with the beginning of filming for his next film: Me and Orson Welles. The movie will star Clare Danes, Zac Efron, and Ben Chapman. Most recent filming was done at Crystal Palace Park.

Me and Orson Welles is a romantic comedy set in the 1930’s. Efron plays a teenager cast in a production of Julius Caesar being put on by the Mercury Theatre under the direction of a young Orson Welles. Me and Orson Welles should be in movie theaters during the first half of 2009.

Premiere Magazine has a terrific interview with Richard Linklater as part of the pre-promo tour for Fast Food Nation, which hits theaters in November.

One interesting factoid from this short piece is that Linklater’s most financially successful film thus far was School of Rock, a film that was not Linklater-esque. It seems that he was pegged to direct that movie following the critical (but not financial) success of two previous films: Waking Life and Tape. Both films are popular among Linklater fans, but rather unknown to the general public.

It’ll be interesting to see what Linklater did with Fast Food Nation. It’s a fictional movie based on a non-fiction book. The Linklater we’re used to will definitely start by emersing us in a fast food joint. That’s already been done this year, in Clerks II, which was directed by Kevin Smith, who credits Linklater’s style as one of his main inspirations. Will Linklater be able to out-Linklater Mr. Smith? We’ll have to wait and see.

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I felt this site was needed, because Richard Linklater seems to get so little recognition for the films he has made. Dazed and Confused gets dismissed as just another “drug comedy.” Slacker lacks anything that could be considered a plot. Before Sunrise and Before Sunset are just cheesy love stories with too much dialogue. A Scanner Darkly is just another Keanu Reeves action film. Waking Life can only be enjoyed by philosophy majors.

Ok, as a Linklater fan, I’ve heard it all. A large portion of the general movie-going audience just doesn’t “get” Linklater. Of course Slacker didn’t have a main plot, that was kind of the point. Note the name of the film. It was a commentary on the public sentiment at the time, and it was a groundbreaking movie that opened the door for the independent film movement of the 90’s.

Dazed and Confused will forever be plagued by its title. Anyone who writes this movie off as just another stoner flick wasn’t paying attention. This movie is nothing like the Cheech & Chong films that were popular in the previous decades. If it could be compared to any movie, that movie would be American Graffiti, considered by many critics to be a timeless classic. Both movies are aimless, and they like it that way.

I’ll get into some other Linklater films in the coming weeks, including more information about his upcoming Fast Food Nation (yes, it’s based on the non-fiction bestseller that didn’t even try to include a plot). I’ll also be posting some video clips from comparable films and trailers for every Linklater film to date.