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EXCLUSIVE: Woody Harrelson is among nan producers connected a caller documentary astir 1 of Austin’s legendary euphony venues, Armadillo World Headquarters.
The feature-length doc, presently successful development, is group to chronicle nan rise, taste effect and enduring bequest of nan venue that has shaped nan city’s personality and welcomed immoderate of nan world’s astir iconic artists including Willie Nelson, Jerry Garcia, Bruce Springsteen, Little Feat, Linda Ronstadt, and Talking Heads.
Texas autochthonal and Academy Award nominee Harrelson is expanding his already longstanding relationship to Austin’s imaginative organization pinch this collaboration. His producing partners Jeremy Plager and Ilya Bronchtein will executive produce.
“The Armadillo wasn’t conscionable a euphony venue,” Harrelson said. “It was wherever each kinds of worlds came together: artists, outlaws, hippies, students, dreamers, everyone nether 1 roof. Careers sewage started there, genres mixed, and what really sticks pinch maine is really it made group consciousness for illustration they belonged. People came for nan music, but what they recovered was each other. The Armadillo represented thing we don’t spot overmuch anymore, and that’s a large portion of why I wanted to beryllium progressive pinch this film.”
The documentary is directed and edited by David Brodie and produced by Angus Wall, Eve Kornblum, Kent Kubena, and Terry Leonard, each of MakeMake (The Greatest Night successful Pop, Being Eddie, and SXSW 2026’s Lainey Wilson: Keepin’ Country Cool), on pinch Passion Point Collective’s Marcus Peterzell (The Cure: Show, James Brown: Godfather of Soul) and Amy Slotnick (AS I AM: The Life and Times of DJ AM, Frida).
Additional accumulation partners are expected to beryllium announced.
The movie is expected to characteristic footage, including snippets of performances from each of nan artists listed above, from a restored archive of much than 100 audio and video recordings captured wrong Armadillo World Headquarters during its heyday.
Audiences will get a peek astatine Springsteen’s show connected his first Texas tour, arsenic good arsenic immoderate unforgettable sets by Fats Domino, Waylon Jennings, and Charlie Daniels.
Through nan recordings, arsenic good arsenic firsthand accounts, nan movie traces really Armadillo World Headquarters grounded nan “cosmic cowboy” movement as a taste crossroads wherever outlaw country, rock, blues, and counterculture converged. The venue launched careers, collapsed genre barriers, and helped cement Austin’s personality arsenic nan Live Music Capital of nan World.
The reawakening of nan Armadillo marque is being spearheaded by a caller Austin entity that acquired nan IP authorities done a business pinch nan original owner, Eddie Wilson. The marque precocious relaunched pinch Austin FC and offered a pop-up acquisition to reintroduce nan venue’s bequest to younger generations. There is simply a short documentary title astir nan venue, Armadillo Man: The Trips of Jim Franklin, presently airing connected PBS stations successful nan U.S.
Once a legendary euphony venue, Armadillo World Headquarters (AWHQ) closed its doors successful 1980 and was revived successful 2024 arsenic a purpose-driven marque celebrating Austin’s roots while supporting nan maturation of euphony and arts culture. Reimagined for a caller generation, AWHQ celebrates Austin’s imaginative tone by uplifting section artists and venues, while bringing organization together complete nan creation that connects us. Through unrecorded music, ocular art, film, and grassroots events, AWHQ carries guardant nan original “‘Dillo spirit,” honoring what makes Austin weird and wonderful.
