AUSTIN (KXAN) — Chris Pine, Eva Longoria, Elizabeth Olsen were just some of the stars we spotted on the red carpet for the first weekend of South by Southwest Film & TV Festival.
Day 1
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
The first film to premiere on opening night of the festival is Dungeons & Dragons. “A charming thief and a band of unlikely adventurers undertake an epic heist to retrieve a lost relic, but things go dangerously awry when they run afoul of the wrong people,” the film’s description reads. The film stars Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, Justice Smith, Daisy Head and Sophia Lillis.
Swarm
This new Amazon Prime Video series was created by Donald Glover and Houston’s own Janine Nabers. It actually takes place in Houston where a young Texas woman’s obsession with a pop star takes a dark turn. It stars Dominique Fishback, Chloe Bailey and Damson Idris.
Day 2
Love & Death
The new HBO Max series is a true-crime drama based on actual events that took place in Texas in the 1980s. It follows the murder of Betty Gore and her accused killer Candy Montgomery. The series was filmed in Central Texas. KXAN asked the star of the series, Elizabeth Olsen about the experience filming in the Austin area.
“We lived here for seven months, this was home. Zilker was my home…it’s nice returning,” said Olsen. “I’m really happy to be here and to return to the place where we shot this project and it feels really intentional.”
The cast includes Jesse Plemons, Lily Rabe, Patrick Fugit.
Flamin Hot
Do you like Flamin Hot Cheetos? But do you know how they became one of the most popular chips? Eva Longoria directed a film about the story of Richard Montañez. He started as a janitor at Frito Lay and was one day inspired to create the iconic chip.
“For me to debut my first feature film here at SXSW, in my home state and it to be about a hero from our community, the Mexican American community — it’s like a dream come true,” Longoria told KXAN.
See a list here of the celebrities expected to be in Austin for SXSW.
South by Southwest runs March 10-19.