Yet another festival release for “A Prairie Home Companion”: The 2006 South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Conference & Festival in Austin, TX will open on March 10th with the North American premiere of Robert Altman’s “A Prairie Home Companion,” organizers announced Monday. The festival will conclude on March 18th. “Prairie” was acquired by Picturehouse back in October and is described as a fictionalized look at preparations for what could be the final episode of Garrison Keillor’s legendary radio program, exploring the fallout over a big corporation buying the theater home of the weekly radio show. According to Picturehouse, “As passions erupt, secrets emerge and a mysterious stranger lurks in the shadows, the vigilant stage manger must hold it all together since the ‘show must go on’.” Set for a June release, the film was written by Altman and Keillor. You can read the complete article here.

According to this source, scheduled for the upcoming festival are a special presentation of Garrison Keillor’s “A Prairie Home Companion” and a screening of the Robert Altman feature film based on Keillor’s radio program, as well as a performance of Jim Henson’s “Puppet Improv.” The festival is running from March 8-12, 2006 in Aspen, Colorado. More info can be found on their Official Website.

According to AP, “A Prairie Home Companion” will be released next summer by Picturehouse Films after being bought for North American distribution when it was screened for buyers in New York. Picturehouse president Bob Berney said the film was hilarious and said that he saw potential for wide commercial success. “I was blown away. It was through the roof,” he said in a telephone interview. The Altman film, based on Garrison Keillor’s long-running radio program, was shot in St. Paul with a cast including Meryl Streep, Lindsay Lohan, Tommy Lee Jones, Woody Harrelson, Lily Tomlin and Kevin Kline. The working title was “The Last Broadcast,” but Berney, aiming to capitalize on the name recognition of the 31-year-old radio program, recommended that the title revert to “A Prairie Home Companion.”

Meryl’s upcoming comedy “Prime” will be the opening film of the 2005 San Diego Film Festival on September 21, 2005 at 07.00 PM | Pacific Gaslamp 15 Theater. More information can be found on the festival’s official website.

Those who weren’t able to see “Theater of the New Ear” (yet), can listen to the show on SIRIUS Satellite Radio. There are several airdates, all listed on their Official Website, also with the offer of a free trial, which allows you to listen to the show.

Festival officials announced a partial list of this year’s lineup, headlined by three Hollywood features: the US premiere of “Prime”, starring Meryl Streep, “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang”, starring Robert Downey Jr. and “North Country”, featuring Charlize Theron and Frances McDormand. The festival will run Sept. 9-13, with screenings at Loews Theatres Boston Common. More information and screening dates at the Official Website.

Yet another movie rumor. According to Variety, Paramount Pictures has set “Nip/Tuck” creator and exec producer Ryan Murphy to write and direct an adaptation of John Jeter’s play Dirty Tricks, with Meryl Streep starring as Martha Mitchell, the whistle-blowing wife of Nixon chief of staff John Mitchell. Murphy, who will produce with Plan B’s Dede Gardner and Brad Pitt, has put together a strong cast with Annette Bening, Gwyneth Paltrow and Jill Clayburgh. Read the full article in the Forum or at Variety.com.

John A. Davis, writer and director on Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, will bring John Nickle’s kids’ book The Ant Bully to the big screen as a CG-animated film, it was announced today. The story is about a boy who floods an ant colony with his water gun, then is magically shrunk to insect size and sentenced to hard labor for his crime. Nicolas Cage, Julia Roberts, Meryl Streep, Paul Giamatti, Lily Tomlin, Cheri Oteri, Alan Cumming, Regina King, Ricardo Montalban, and Zach Tyler Eisen will lend their voices to the project. Warner Bros. will distribute with a planned release date of August 4, 2006. The film will also be distributed on IMAX screens..

Meryl will again participate in Charlie Kaufman’s “Theatre of the New Ear”, this time at UCLA Live’s Royce Hall, Sept. 14-16. Her original co-stars, Hope Davis and Peter Dinklage are also on board. You can visit UCLALive.org for more information. Full article can be read at Playbill Online.

It’s now confirmed that Meryl is shooting Robert Altman’s “A Prairie Home Companion”. Also on board is an all-star cast featuring Woody Harrelson, John C. Reilly, Lily Tomlin, Kevin Kline, Tommy Lee Jones, Virginia Madsen and Lindsay Lohan.