I’ve bugged the readers of the Best and Worst of WWE Raw column about this a couple of times now, but “Brandon’s dreams are coming true” is big enough news to share on the main page proper, so here we are. We’re making a movie.

When I say we, I mean me (I wrote the thing, and it is surprisingly low on wrestling jokes) and Lex Lybrand. Lex was nice enough to put in me in a variety of host and duck-related roles in his first film, Summer League, and now he’s taking my words about blood, guts, sexual dysfunction and rural Oklahoma and is turning it into something pretty, and pretty scary. It’s called Meet Me There. It is heavy.

The other thing worth noting here is the ridiculous cast of talented people who have thrown in on the project. As you probably gathered from the header image, we cast Dustin Runnels, aka WWE’s Goldust, in a choice supporting role. Jill Thompson, a woman who has done everything from draw Wonder Woman and Swamp Thing comics to designing gear for the best pro wrestler in the world, is not only doing the art for our poster, she’s appearing in a role. Our lead actress, Lisa Friedrich, teaches comedy at a theater in Houston and is that combination of talented and gorgeous you kinda have to see in motion. Austin’s Megan Simon (who is amazing) is recording creepy hymns, and we’ll have everything from site friends The Wonder Years and Cleveland-area band Nights on the soundtrack. Yes, I am absolutely the least talented person involved in this.

To help promote the thing (and our fundraiser, which raised a quarter of our goal in its first week) we put together a little video explaining the film and why we want to make it, and you can check that out after the jump. If you’ve read about this in the column, this is totally new, so be sure to click through.

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Anyway, if you’re one of the 700,000,000,000 who’ve descended upon my grand home town of Austin, Texas, for SXSW, I have two points of business for you:

1. Pick up your trash. I mean, seriously, Jesus, what were you, raised on a barn? We aren’t Philadelphia.

2. Any chance you’d like a pair of complimentary tickets to the world premiere of Summer League, the softball kickball film featuring With Leather editor-in-chief Brandon Stroud in not one, but TWO roles, just for being a With Leather reader?

Here’s your chance, friend. The film premieres on Monday, March 18, at the Alamo Drafthouse Slaughter Lane (5701 W. Slaughter Lane), red carpet and all, and the showing is completely sold out. However, I wear a duck mascot costume for a portion of the film and therefore have hella pull and can snag you a pair of tickets.

Here’s all you have to do … shoot the film’s director, Lex Lybrand, a message on Twitter. Tell him that you’re a fan of @WithLeather and you want to see his flick. There are only two tickets to be had, so he’ll do a random drawing based on whoever’s messaged him on … let’s say, Friday, and let you know if you’re the winner. Then boom, you’re at the red carpet premiere high-fiving a dude you know from a sports blog, watching a great little movie made by some passionate locals.

Oh, and if you haven’t seen me in my duck costume, hold on to your butts:

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Okay, that headline is technically a lie. The Oregon Duck — the best mascot in college sports, based solely on the fact that he parodied ‘Gangnam Style’ only days after it blew up, instead of waiting 6 months like everybody else — is aping the museum scene in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off to promote THE DUCK KNOWS ART?, an Oregon football art contest.

If you got to spend an afternoon in an art museum with ersatz Donald Duck, how would you spend it? If you answered “by watching him destroy art and almost make out with 2013′s equivalent to Mia Sara,” you’ll love this. Video is below.

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Back in September, we shared the first trailer from Brian Helgeland’s 42, the Jackie Robinson biopic that looks … well, pretty much like every other Hollywood biopic made in the last 10 years, but it looks good, especially if you give a shit about its content. Harrison Ford as Branch Rickey! Christopher Meloni from ‘Law & Order’ as Leo Durocher! Jackie Robinson with a low, grizzled voice, instead of sounding like every black comedian’s white guy voice like he did in real life!

Today, we get a second, extended trailer, and while it features a lot of the same footage as the first — the stuff set to Jay-Z’s ‘Brooklyn (We Go Hard)’ is essentially unchanged — it’s got a lot of new stuff, too, including ‘Firefly’ star Alan Tudyk as racist-ass Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Ben Chapman. Zoe would be so disappointed in you, assuming that 1940s baseball and 2500s soft sci-fi are the same.

Pretty excited to see this, I’ve gotta say. In a perfect world, this will remind Harrison Ford that he can act, and he’ll stop miring in Indiana Jones re-boot attempts and letting Calista Flockhart choose his projects.

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Have you ever wondered what Charles Barkley thinks about America’s Presidents? So far his opinions have been mostly about whether or not he’s a role model (he is not), how everyone who isn’t Charles Barkley plays basketball (turrible), Weight Watchers (it’s a scam) and the Five Buck Box (it rocks, it rocks). Also, hey, have you ever wanted to imagine Ernie Johnson as a slave-master? I know I have.

Please enjoy this soundbite from the Sprint Halftime Report, wherein Sir Charles ranks Abraham Lincoln over his previous favorite, Barack Obama, because Daniel Day-Lewis hasn’t played Obama in a movie. Yet.

“Abe Lincoln’s my new favorite president. Know why? If it wasn’t for him we would be calling Ernie, Boss.”

Part of me wishes Barkley had gone with a less talked-about President (suggestion: “James K. Polk’s my new favorite president. Know why? Because he was the Napoleon of the stump.”), but I understand his choice. Abe was an important guy. He also loved sports, which makes Barkley’s pick even better. Want to know how awesome Abraham Lincoln was at sports? Here’s an historical drawing of him chokeslamming a dude:

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This is relevant to my interests.

What’s the fastest (and slowest) famous movie/TV vehicle? We gathered 16 Star Cars at Barona Dragstrip in California to find out and burn rubber! Vehicles raced include KITT, the General Lee, Time Machine DeLorean, Transformers Bumblebee, Starksy’s Gran Torino, Herbie, the Bandit’s Trans Am, the Scooby Doo Mystery Machine, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Van, the Bluesmobile, Green Hornet’s Black Beauty, and a few surprises in our season one finale.

If you’re like me, you’re going to watch Star Cars race a bunch of TV and movie-accurate cars against each other and run fantasy match-ups in your head all day long. Who would win in a race, Grandpa Munster’s DRAG-U-LA or The Man from U.N.C.L.E. car? The Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club or Hank and Dean Venture on hover bikes? Brum, or Caillou in rollerskates?

For all the pop culture races that matter, the season finale of Star Cars is below.

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