The second year of AFI Dallas was a big hit with locals, with ticket sales way over expectations. Big kudos have to go to fest director Michael Caine* and his stellar team for working out the kinks from last year's fest and making everything flow smoothly this year, while programming a huge lineup for Dallas cinephiles. Here are some of the pics; a rundown of this year's fest highlights is after the jump:

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I rarely participate in roundtables, but I was glad I did the roundtable at AFI Dallas for Battle in Seattle, the fest's Closing Night film, because Michelle Rodriguez, there in town to promote Battle, got in a few words on Avatar while she was there. I don't know about you, but I'm more excited about Avatar than I have been about any sci-fi film since I don't know when.

I attended the roundtable with Mark Bell from Film Threat and Reelzchannel.com's Heather Huntington. Our time was very compressed -- we had about 15 minutes with Rodriguez and director Stuart Townsend, and they'd already given the "last question" call, but the three of us had talked briefly beforehand about what we wanted to ask, and all of us were hoping to hear something about Avatar while we were there.

Huntington managed to sneak the question in (the trick to that is, avoid eye contact with the PR person at all costs, pretend you didn't hear them, and get your question in ... if the talent is into answering the question, they're not going to tell THAT person to stop talking, right?) Rodriguez was enthusiastic and talked quite a bit about the film, and I typed as fast as I could to keep up with her.

Before I even start, I just want to say that at no point am I going to take any cheap shots at Michelle Rodriguez about her driving habits -- and believe me, it isn't easy. Instead, lets just focus on what she does best, playing bad a** chicks. Coming Soon.net reports (via Rodriguez's web site) that she will be returning for the latest installment of The Fast and The Furious franchise.

For those of you out there who don't know your cheesy car flicks, Rodriguez starred in the first film back in 2001as Letty, the girlfriend to street racer Vin Diesel. Like most of the original cast, she was nowhere to be seen in the later sequels. But this time around, it looks like director Justin Lin is going back to the beginning and reuniting Diesel, Paul Walker, and Rodriguez.

The story will focus on Brian (Walker) and Dominic (Diesel) teaming up to stop a drug kingpin known as Braga. So where do the cars come in, you might ask? I mean, this is a Fast and Furious movie after all. Well, our two heroes vie for a spot on the criminal's team, in a snazzy Nissan, with a plan to catch the man red-handed. (Just a couple of weeks ago, we got our first look at Diesel and Walker on set.) Rodriguez is also still doing some post-production work on James Cameron's Avatar, so I would guess that it won't take long to wrap up her part as Letty before she heads back to finish up the sci-fi blockbuster. The Fast and the Furious 4 is scheduled for release summer, 2009.

I've never seen Lost, or Girlfight, or any of the low-budget horror films Michelle Rodriguez has done, so I have no opinion whatsoever of her acting abilities, but I remember thinking that she must be worth a look if James Cameron thinks she is. The King of the World recently cast Rodriguez in a major role in his upcoming film, Avatar. She was to play ex-Marine pilot Trudy Chacon, but now she may have screwed that up big time. According to TMZ, Rodriguez has just been hit with a full six-month jail sentence for violating probation on a number of driving-related crimes, including hit and run. Apparently, she tried to fool them into thinking she was doing community service when she really wasn't, which pissed off the court. She is now required to begin her sentence by late December, which may or may not screw up her role in Avatar. Cameron is known to have already filmed much of the live-action, and is filming more in New Zealand this month -- can he (and does he want to) work around her schedule? What about re-shoots, pick-ups, etc?

In other Avatar news, a story over at a New Zealand news site recently quoted digital effects guru Joe Letteri as saying that hundreds of contractors are being corralled to help out with the massive special-effects workload the film is generating. I'm becoming more and more convinced that this is going to be something really special when it hits theaters and if I were Cameron, I think I would try something new with the marketing on this one -- don't have any. No trailers, no images, no nothing. Just make us wait until May 22, 2009 to see anything. Wouldn't that be fun?

There's this station here in New York that airs Wonder Years episodes back-to-back late at night. (And I just got a few smiles from the folks who've discovered this gem tucked somewhere between channels 30 and 40.) Anyway, I had totally forgotten that Giovanni Ribisi played one of Kevin's friends during those later seasons. It was Ribisi, that dude Chuck who blinked a lot (whatever happened to him?), Paul and Kevin. Am I taking you back? I've always been a fan of Ribisi's work, and kind of like the fact that he's never really blown up to big-time Hollywood movie star. He's either the bigger guy in a smaller film (Boiler Room), or the smaller guy in a bigger film (Saving Private Ryan). Sure, he always sounds like he's five minutes away from a sinus attack, but I've loved him in so many films that his constant sniffling and blood-shot eyes draw me in even closer.

Why the love-fest for Ribisi? Well, according to The Hollywood Reporter, my man just landed a heckuva role in James Cameron's highly-anticipated -- film-that-will-change-the-world-as-we-know-it -- Avatar. He'll be playing a character named Selfridge "in the Fox film about a band of humans pitted against a distant planet's indigenous inhabitants." Ribisi joins a cast that already includes Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana (Avatar and Star Trek XI? When did this girl become so hot?), Sigourney Weaver and Michelle Rodriguez. Apart from the human actors, Avatar will also feature six computer-generated actors known as "synthesipians." And in the case of a Hollywood strike, I imagine those "synthespians" will take over for awhile -- ya know, kind of like replacement baseball players. Avatar hits theaters on May 22, 2009.