At least one Sundance party will have good wine: "Bottle Shock"

The 2008 Sundance Film Festival announced its lineup this week and included is a movie that could be the next "Sideways."

"Bottle Shock" is the story of the early days of California winemaking, culminating with the "Judgement of Paris" wine tasting in which we kicked Francophile hiney.

Alan Rickman stars as wine merchant Steven Spurrier and Bill Pullman as Chateau Montelena winemaker Jim Barrett (who commissioned the film with his brother Bo), with Danny DeVito as Grgich Hills founder Mike Grgich.

(For the record, that's Grgich on the left and DeVito on the right.)

Anyway, it's directed by Randall Miller, whose credits include "Marilyn Hotchkiss Ballroom Dancing & Charm School," and he wrote it with the son and daughter of Sherwood Schwartz, the man who gave the world "The Brady Bunch" and "Gilligan's Island." If that's not a vote of confidence, I don't know what is.

Of note: Spurrier's not happy. He had intended to make his own film, "Judgement of Paris," about the historic event (with a script by Robert Mark Kamen, of Kamen Estate Wines) and has accused the "Bottle Shock" producers of defamation and threatened to sue. According to Decanter.com, where Spurrier is a contributing editor, he was:

"outraged that he is being portrayed as 'an impossibly effete snob'. Having read the script he finds the portrayal of his character 'deeply insulting,' he said.

Liz Fowler of Clear Pictures Entertainment, the producers of the "Judgement of Paris," said the rival film 'is a gross misrepresentation of both himself and the historical accuracy of the event now known as the Judgement of Paris.'

Spurrier said, 'There is hardly a word that is true in the script and many, many pure inventions as far as I am concerned.'

Fowler told decanter.com, 'There are episodes that are completely fictional. Steven Spurrier is portrayed as masterminding the event but there was none of that involved. They fully expected the French to win.' "

Comments

[Big Bomb]

Beating the French was right up there when the Jamaicans’ won gold in bobsleed. And John Candy, the actor, was their coach.