Rick Charnoski and Coan “Buddy” Nichols’ newest film is titled Deathbowl to Downtown, and it’s on tour right now. Tomorrow night (October 1st) for example, it’s being shown in Portland at Cinema 21. As we mentioned before, a certain skate blog may (or may not, I ‘haven’t seen it yet) show in the credits. I’d still go watch it even if that weren’t the case. I love their films, and so do you. What time? I don’t know, it’s not listed. As soon as I find out, I’ll post it. - Thanks BK.

Cinema 21 Theater - 616 NW 21st Ave - Portland, OR 97209

Plan B Bar - 1305 SE 8th Ave - Portland, OR 97214

Bart Simpson, naked on a skateboard. It’s a Simpsons Movie promotional tie in with 7-11. In case you aren’t aware, Bart rides a skateboard while naked in the film. It’s a plastic relief with a magnet that attaches to a special Slurpee straw. Certainly less expensive than this bit of movie memorabilia. Close up after the jump. The shirt is just something random from a hipster boutique.

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There’s a new animated Batman movie being released on DVD to coincide with the hype of the live action feature with skateboarding actor Heath Ledger. Batman: Gotham Night has an opening sequence chock full of skateboarding. There was a pre-release rip on the web, but surprise, surprise, it’s been removed. Speaking of copyright infringement, remember the short lived Batman skateboard from Vision? The image above is from the Warner Video where they only show a second or two. If you really want to, you can see it after the jump. - Thanks to Joesf Heffner for the tip

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Dropping In: The True Story of Don Wimmer. It’s about time. I’m so sick of all the lies and hype… Errr.. Wha? There’s a movie about a guy who ditched his career as a CPA to try and become a pro skater at age 42. No, it’s not Grover, but it does sound like an elaborate setup for a joke. Don is Concrete Wave’s 2008 “Speedboarder of the Year,” so I’m guessing he’s either good at downhill (er.. speedboarding) or is a fan favorite. You can watch the dmovie for free this weekend, after which you’ll have to pay for the DVD or wait till it hits Fuel TV or something. More info at Dropping In, or watch it here after the jump.

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Coan Nichols and Rick Charnoski’s newest film Deathbowl to Downtown is a documentary on the history of skateboarding in the sprawling giant New York City. They are celebrating a screening of it with a photography (and art) show titled The Moving Image - A Photographic History of Skateboarding in New York at the Etnies Show Room (29 Greene St., NYC). The opening reception is invite only, but there is a public viewing on May 10th and 11th from 12-6pm and 12-5pm respectively. I don’t know if this means the film is has been released or not, but it must be getting close. If you’ve never seen their work, the word documentary doesn’t do them justice. May I suggest starting with Fruit of the Vine and then moving on to Northwest? It ought to be obvious to anyone that New York City has a rich history of skateboarding to draw from, so the NCP films treatment is essentially a guaranteed winner. And who knows, if you look real close in the credits you might see a certain web site mentioned. I contributed some commercials from the SnA archives that they had intended to use in painting the big picture. Of course it took me forever and a day to actually get it to them, and I haven’t seen the film so they might not have used anything. Regardless, head on over to the film’s official site for more photos, a trailer and some more clips. My favorite one features Steve Quentin.

Paranoid Park opens in Portland tonight. Gus Van Sant will introduce Friday’s 7PM show at Cinema 21. Gabe Nevins, who plays the lead part, will be hanging out for Q&A after the Saturday 7PM show. If you don’t get in to see the show, you can always watch the GVK of the casting session down at Burnside. (I don’t care what Grover says, I liked Elephant.) Oddly enough, the film is also showing on pay-per-view on the DirecTV in Portland and other markets as well.

Burnside Paranoid Park
Directed by Gus Van Sant
Showing: One Week: March 21 - 27
Showtimes: Nightly 7:00, 8:55/late Fri-Sat 10:30 plus Sat-Sun (1:00), 3:00, 5:00

If I had a nickel for every time I saw a kid skating in the rain with an umbrella… I heard that Gus’ production was going to/did donate money to Burnside. Can anyone confirm this?

- Thanks to Page for the tip.

The Arizona Daily Star has an article and short interview with the two principals of the Underskatement film festival, which is at Volume 4, and damn it, we promoted this and I didn’t even go see it. I wish I’d read the interview first, but it was published after the Portland showing. I guess I would have had to travel forward in time to read it so I could have known I would have liked to see it. If I’m time traveling I guess I could just go back in time and watch it. What’s the point? Oh yeah, if the publicity shot from the paper on the left looks familiar, it might be because you heard about a Beaverton man involved in an assault there.

There’s a new trailer for Gus Van Sant’s Paranoid Park movie. Lots of skateboarding and local Portland shots. Not a bad trailer actually, kind of makes me want to see the movie, no matter what Grover says. I think his badmouthing of Elephant was the reason we were “out of the loop” when the movie was in production. I actually got a call for assistance from Van Sant’s assistant, who it turns out was related to a friend of the family. We talked and everything seemed fine until… nothing. I was puzzled until I realized Grover made fun of Elephant in a GVK that was current at the time. Who knows, they probably just didn’t need anything. - Thanks to G N for the tip.

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Warren Ray is 42 year old musician and songwriter who decided to give up smoking after his father was diagnosed with lung cancer. Instead of the patch, he decided to try to replace his addiction to cigarettes by rekindling his addiction to skateboarding, which he gave up in his 20’s due to poor health, and a general lameness. A friend of his made a short film about it which has it’s moments, but needs help in the audio mixing department. It’s in a few indy film festivals. Another episode of Old guys who started skating again, but with a twist. And hey, it completes the hat trick of Skate or Die posts. Check it out.

[Source: The Courier Journal - Louisville KY]

There’s a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it appearance of Burnside in the trailer for an upcoming movie called Untraceable. It happens slightly over half way through the trailer, and looks like a short spot for cell phone service. The movie looks like it is supposed to take place in Portland, so the shot a bunch of location shots, including Burnside. Hey does Gus Van Sant know this is going on? When is Paranoid Park coming out over here anyway? It’s just like Ash said when she contributed this bit of news, “Why not put Burnside in a movie??? Haha, PDX is blown out!” Portland is hot for murders on the big screen right now. So will Untraceable be unwatchable? The last one they did here (The Hunter) with Benicio Del Toro and Tommy Lee Jones was a major dud, but the local weeklies sure loved to talk up the Benicio sightings. Diane Lane wasn’t as interesting apparently, or maybe they shot all her outdoor stuff in Vancouver BC.

So who was there when they filmed this, and did Burnside get it’s customary appearance fee in the form of a donation made for park maintenance?