Holy Cinema

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• MuseLed
• Mmmm mmmmm, that Cam Gigandet is FINE.

Variety is reporting that CBS has picked up the legal soap drama Reckless for its fall season. The pilot of the show was filmed in Charleston this spring.

Deadline describes the series as "a sultry legal show set in Charleston, South Carolina, where a gorgeous Yankee litigator and a Southern city attorney (Cam Gigandet, Anna Wood) struggle to hide their intense attraction while clashing over a police sex scandal." And yes, that's Gigandet from Twilight and Wood from Deception. You might also remember that Wood made an appearance on the 2012 Mad Men episode "Christmas Waltz" as the character Lakshmi Bennett. Director Catherine Hardwicke has a diverse resumé, from being director of the first Twilight installment to production designer on Vanilla Sky to director of Lords of Dogtown.

CBS Reckless Extras, a Facebook page that listed information about casting for the pilot, had this to say about the announcement:

Reckless has been picked up! Please stay tuned with info on when/where and if our office will be doing the background casting. We will keep you posted as soon as we hear anything. A BIG THANK YOU to all the background who helped with the pilot.

Meanwhile, the A.V. Club is already making predictions about the sultriness of the writing:

"Have you been debriefed?" Southern attorney Sugar LaBonIntercourse will ask Yankee attorney Turk Bagelsandcunnilingus. "Not yet... But maybe you should buy me dinner first," Turk will reply with a wink. "Because 'briefs' can also mean 'underwear,'" he'll add, as the sultry South Carolina sunlight gently penetrates the windows, and the windows can't deny that they like it. "Lordy, lordy," someone will say, at some point.

Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb, those wacky ladies of the TODAY show, are headed to Charleston this week. They'll be filming the fourth hour of the NBC show here in segments that are scheduled to air May 2 and 3. These local editions will feature special guests and Lowcountry recipes and will highlight locally made products. We don't have specifics, but when we interviewed Spoleto performers JohnnySwim last week, they confirmed that they'll be part of the show.

It's all happening at the College of Charleston's Cistern Yard on Thurs. May 2, and the public is invited to attend. Just go to the George Street entrance starting at 7 a.m. to get through security. Audience members must be inside by the start of the 8 a.m. taping, which will be aired on Friday. The live show will begin at 10 a.m. Prizes will go to audience members with the best sign.

According to the Charleston Area Convention & Visitors Bureau, the show is bringing along 50 members of NBC's production team and they'll be here throughout the week. A team of producers has already visited to scout venues, and TODAY correspondent Sara Haines recently visited to film segments for the shows.

If you want more info, call the CVB at (843) 853-8000.

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On Saturday, I headed to Physicians' Auditorium to see films by the S.C. Film Commission's Indie Grant winners. Of the several years that I've seen the Indie Grants films, this was the most all-around impressive showing (although to be fair, two of the films were shown in their unfinished forms at last year's festival).

The first, Pencil Point, was animation set to original music by the filmmaker, Ayala Asherov Kalus. The unique animation was bright and colorful, and made the film's two characters seem as if they were painted upon a canvas. After the screening Kalus told us that the animators had used sand in the process, which must have been what gave the visuals their texture.

Second up was the work-in-progress La Nanita, which told the story of an incarcerated woman who'd inadvertently killed her toddler son by locking him in her car while she worked. Although the film clearly needs some more work — the ending, for example, felt incomplete, and the characters need some more development — La Nanita was one of the standouts.

It told the horribly familiar story of child death by neglect from an angle that we don't see when these events are reported. In this case, the woman, presumably a single mom, was working her minimum wage job and came out to her car to bring her son lunch. When she found him, he was already dead. There were no drugs, no abusive boyfriend, no mental illness — just a woman who felt she had no other options. For this alone, filmmaker Deshantell Singleton deserves recognition.

The other three films screened were the ghost story Dig, by Mills Allison; the animated nightmare Supine: a Dream, by Lyon Hill, a part of which was shown last year; and the excellent We Can't Help You by Brad Land and Allan Scott Neale, which was also shown at last year's festival. We Can't Help You, a set piece about three young men caught up in a violent scheme, is even more outstanding now in its final form than it was last year. It's a study in restraint — the filmmakers took what was originally a 40-page script and whittled it down to only its most compelling, vital elements. Indeed, most of the short's theme and story is encapsulated by the chilling monologue, the rat story, that one of the characters tells at the end. Judging from this effort, I'd say Land and Neale are filmmakers to watch.

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The Charleston International Film Festival really hit its stride on Friday, with a big, chatty crowd filling up the Sottile before the 7 p.m. feature screening. I don't generally see that many features during festivals — as I mentioned in an earlier post, I'm a sucker for the shorts — but I'm really glad I caught this one.

The film, Commencement, is a small ensemble piece about three generations dealing with the fallout from the country's economic crisis, although it's much more artistic and subtle than that makes it sound. College valedictorian Christa returns home after graduation for a party her parents are throwing to celebrate.

Along the way, Christa meets a Hispanic gas station attendant who turns out to be an unlikely love interest, Christa's parents struggle to understand the reasons behind their recent separation, and Christa's grandmother and grandfather deny and embrace their mortality, respectively. Mostly, though, the film is about love — the unconditional, family kind that doesn't fade. Afterward, writer/director Steve Albrezzi (who teaches in the University of Southern California's film program) and a few members of the cast came to the stage to answer questions.

There was also an excellent short that preceded Commencement, called Smile. The Italian film focused on a mime and his son, and even though there's a small chance anyone reading this will see it — unless you make a habit of traveling to film festivals — I don't want to give away the twist that really makes the film. It was just too beautiful.