Owen Wilson, Immaculately Permed, Channels Vermont PBS Host Bob Ross in Comedy “Paint” – Specialty Preview

Owen Wilson is back, with brushes, as the longtime host of a popular but waning PBS educational art show in Burlington, Vermont. To paint at IFC Films opens Friday on more than 800 screens.

Always ripe for parody, public television is a world Wilson knows. His father, Robert Wilson, helped found and run the Dallas PBS station KERA. (He also introduced Monty Python’s Flying Circus to public television.)

To paint Director Brit McAdams tells Deadline that his own after-school TV ritual, General Hospitaloften switched to PBS host Bob Ross’ The joy of painting. Ross is a loose inspiration for Wilson’s character, Carl Nargle, at least in terms of looks, with permed waves, denim-on-denim clothes and soft colors, wowing McAdams and a worldwide fan base.

“I would say, ‘Who is this man?’ And then he would paint something brown that would turn into a branch, and then a tree, and then a forest and a landscape. And you would go from a noisy world to a quiet, intimate place,” Helmer said

However, Carl’s personal story is his own. It was created separately from McAdams’ fascination with celebrities—some of whom he met while working at VHI “back when it was still a music network,” whose likable public figures belied their actual behavior.

Ross’s show ran from 1983 to 1994. He died of cancer the following year. A 2021 Netflix doc, Bob Ross: Happy Accidents, Betrayal and Greeddescribes the rise of the artist and the struggle for his business empire.

McAdams wrote the screenplay in 2010. It quickly funded The Black List, the buzzy annual compendium of Hollywood’s most popular unproduced screenplays, and “then it took a decade to fall apart,” he said. When it resurfaced, Ross made a minor comeback with hipsters in everything from TikTok to Halloween costumes. “Bob Ross was not part of the zeitgeist when I wrote it. I would say to people, ‘Remember when there was a guy named Bob Ross? It’s a bit like him.’ And they would say, ‘Oh, yes. I find?'”

Also with Michaela Watkins, Ciara Renée, Stephen Root, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Lucy Freyer, Lusia Strus and Michael Pemberton. Appointment overview here.

Other notable openings, and there are a handful of them this week: Neon presents Thriller How do you blow up a pipeline?, Daniel Goldhaber’s premiere TIFF drama about ecoterrorism, on 12 screens. Based on the controversial non-fiction book/manifesto by Andreas Malm How to Blow Up a Pipeline: Learn to Fight in a Burning World, sparking a public debate about environmental activism. It follows a group of young activists from very different backgrounds on a daring mission of sabotage. The film was written by Goldhaber, Ariela Barer (who stars and is also a producer), and Jordan Sjol.

Also with Kristine Froseth and Forrest Goodluck (both executive producers), Lukas Gage, Sasha Lane, Jayme Lawson, Marcus Scribner and Jake Weary. This is the debut of emerging cinematographer Tehillah de Castro.

The filmmakers researched and wrote the script within six months of reading the book, packaged it, cast it and financed it in a few more. They worked with experts and engineers to build and then blow up the pipeline in the film. Neon acquired the film in a competitive situation after its world premiere as part of the Platform 2022 TIFF category. See deadline check.

Oscilloscope Laboratories opens Saim Sadiq’s joy land, winner of the Un Certain Regard Grand Jury Prize in Cannes, Best International Film at the Independent Spirit Awards and Pakistan’s Oscar Shortlist for International Film. This weekend in New York at the Film Forum, April 21st at LA’s landmark Nuart, and across the country the following week.

Kind-hearted and shy Haider (Ali Junejo), who lives with his wife Mumtaz (Rasti Farooq) and his extended family in Lahore, Pakistan, gets a job in a Bollywood-style burlesque after a long period of unemployment. He tells his family he is a theater manager but is actually a backup dancer, an unusual position that takes him out of his shell and upsets the traditional dynamics of his household. Appointment overview here.

A24 opens the latest news from Kelly Reichardt to show yourself in NYC (Angelika and Lincoln Square) and LA (The Grove and Century City) and will expand nationwide in the coming weeks. Premiere in Cannes. The comedy drama follows Michelle Williams as a sculptor as she prepares to open a new show and balance her creative life with the daily dramas of family and friends, including her father, a potter; mother who runs the office where she works; and her brother, a conspiracy theorist. Appointment overview here.