{"id":258796,"date":"2026-04-21T02:08:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T02:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/258796\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T02:08:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T02:08:09","slug":"billy-bob-thornton-mark-cuban-in-deep-ellum-documentary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/258796\/","title":{"rendered":"Billy Bob Thornton, Mark Cuban in Deep Ellum documentary"},"content":{"rendered":"

These days, Deep\u00a0Ellum<\/a> is a neon-lit playground of sleek storefronts and $10 cocktails, but it was bleak in 1984, when long-haired wanderer Russell Hobbs started Theatre Gallery, a provocative mix of art and music that became the first embers of a roaring scene. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t want to do the shiny clothes, the shiny car, the shiny building,\u201d says Hobbs in Round Pegs Square Holes, a documentary making its world premiere at the Dallas International Film Festival<\/a> this Friday at Texas Theatre. What emerged from his outsider impulse, as Hobbs joined forced with savvy booker Jeff Liles and more clubs followed, was a vibrant counterculture of punkers and rockers and oddballs in a burned-out warehouse district that was once the stomping grounds of street musicians like Blind Lemon Jefferson<\/a>. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Hobbs directed and produced Round Pegs Square Holes, along with Michael Dunaway, but this is less vanity project than love letter to a lost era. Scenesters of yore will enjoy time-traveling to the early days of Tripping Daisy, Funland, Edie Brickell & New Bohemians<\/a>, Sara Hickman, the Old 97\u2019s<\/a>, the Toadies and other locals who managed to gain national followings. (Several are interviewed.) Gen X nostalgists can revel in pre-fame Red Hot Chili Peppers and Nirvana tearing it up onstage or the time REM\u2019s Michael Stipe crashed a Theatre Gallery show. (That\u2019s a good story: Stipe winds up on a rooftop naked, if legend is to be believed.) \u00a0<\/p>\n

The documentary is narrated by Jim Heath, a former soundman for Theatre Gallery better known as Rev. Horton Heat<\/a>. If that name doesn\u2019t ring a bell, Billy Bob Thornton<\/a> is here to explain what a mind-blowing musician Heath is. Mark Cuban shows up to talk about his early experiments in entrepreneurship by renting a former Chuck\u00a0E. Cheese storage facility on Elm Street to throw epic parties<\/a>. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe weren\u2019t inspired by anything,\u201d he says. \u201cWe just wanted to try to meet girls and make some money.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n

But others were inspired: to make a mark, to belong, to seek out a dark underbelly in a shiny metropolis. The affordable underground haven for misfits didn\u2019t last, of course, but at least the documentary lets us go back and visit. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dallas International Film Festival runs April 23-30. Round Pegs Square Holes screens at Texas Theatre on Friday, April 24, at 5:45 p.m. For more info, see diffdallas.org<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"These days, Deep\u00a0Ellum is a neon-lit playground of sleek storefronts and $10 cocktails, but it was bleak in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":258797,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,104,103,93542,90395,87998,95591,89019,88905,88950],"class_list":["post-258796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-tp-performing-arts","tag-tp-billy-bob-thornton","tag-tp-dallas","tag-tp-deep-ellum","tag-tp-high-profile","tag-tp-mark-cuban","tag-tp-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=258796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258796\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/258797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}