Interview:
Ty Roberts,
writer/director,
"The Iron Orchard"
![]() Directed by the Austin-based Ty Roberts, the period drama The Iron Orchard stars Prison Break’s Lane Garrison as a poor oilfield worker out to make his own fortune during the final days of the Texas oil boom of the late 1930s and early 1940s. The Iron Orchard chronicles wildcatter Jim McNeely’s (Garrison) rise and fall as he searches West Texas’s rugged terrain for black gold. Partially filmed in Austin, The Iron Orchard costars Ali Cobrin as McNeely’s first wife Lee, Hassie Harrison as McNeely’s old flame Mazie, and Austin Nichols as McNeely’s loyal associate Dent Paxton. The Iron Orchard is adapted from the 1966 novel that Edmund Pendleton Van Zandt Jr.—the cousin of Townes Van Zandt—based on his experiences in and observations of the oil industry and published under the pen name Tom Pendleton. Van Zandt Jr.’s son Ned Van Zandt even has a role in The Iron Orchard. The Iron Orchard will screen 4 p.m. Oct. 27 at the Galaxy Highland 8 and 7:15 p.m. Oct. 30 at the State Theatre during the Austin Film Festival. The Iron Orchard marks the Midland-born Ty Roberts’s first directorial effort since 2001’s Four Aims and Flyin' Shoes; he is currently working on his next film, This Side of the Dirt, a family drama that is based on a play by Austinite vodka maker Tito Beveridge. Aired: Oct. 18, 2018 Web sites: http://theironorchardfilm.com https://www.facebook.com/theironorchardfilm/http://www.austinfilmfestival.com/ |
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