Short Cuts

Secondhand Hellboys Dept.: "The movie is ready and done and they are apparently very happy with it," says Montgolfier Heavy Industries' Paul Alvarado-Dykstra. The movie in question is Tim McCanlies' Secondhand Lions, and "they" refers to New Line Cinema, who have moved up the Austin-lensed film's scheduled Sept. 26 opening to the weekend of Sept. 19 in a show of confidence. That puts McCanlies' coming-of-age fantasy against Woody Allen's latest and the vampire epic Underworld, among other openings, but Alvarado-Dykstra says that New Line is "anxious to get the film out into the world." The finished prints have just been struck, and an Austin premiere has been slated for Sunday, Sept. 14, at the Paramount Theatre, with stars Robert Duvall and Haley Joel Osment slated to attend. There are also plans for the premiere's Q&A session -- which will be moderated by Texas Monthly Editor Evan Smith -- to be taped for a future episode of PBS's interview series Texas Monthly Talks. Alvarado-Dykstra also notes that the film's Web site -- www.secondhandlions.com -- has been revamped in anticipation of the pending release. In other Texas film-related news, Guillermo Del Toro has wrapped production on his eagerly awaited adaptation of Mike Mignola's Hellboy comic. That film has been raising Cain on the streets of Prague for the past couple of months and is scheduled for an April 2, 2004, release. Scuttlebutt on Harry Knowles' Ain't It Cool News Web site has been positively ecstatic in discussing Del Toro's film, which features former Beast Ron Perlman in the titular role of the li'l demon raised by Nazis but loyal to the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense. Check out www.sonypictures.com/movies/hellboy/index.html for more info... Happy 48th birthday to Alamo star Billy Bob Thornton, who, as far we know, is still in town and still not finishing his toro at Kenichi. Geez, man, gimme a doggie bag next time.