Thompson On Hollywood

Sundance Shorts Online

The Oscar-nominated Canadian short Madame Tutli-Putli and 42 other short films from the 2008 Sundance Film Festival are available for download on the iTunes Store, Netflix and Xbox 360. Check sundanceshorts for more info on how to see the shorts, which cost $1.99 on iTunes and Xbox and can be streamed for free on Netflix.

The Sundance Institute is trying to build audiences for shorts by partnering first with iTunes in 2007 and this year, Netflix and Xbox. Short films at Sundance have helped break out such directors as Jason Reitman, Todd Haynes, Spike Jonze, Paul Thomas Anderson, Trey Park and Matt Stone, Wes Anderson, David O. Russell, Tamara Jenkins, Nicole Holofcener and Alexander Payne.

Overture Acquires Sunshine Cleaning

Overture finally nabbed its second Sundance pic, Christine Jeff's Sunshine Cleaning, starring Amy Adams and Emily Blunt, a good month after the fest's conclusion. (The new distrib acquired Henry Poole is Here during the fest.) The plan is to release the relationship dramedy at year's end.

Sunshine Cleaning entered the fest as one of several highly anticipated movies with stars attached that were expected to make a big sale. It didn't happen, though, partly because the filmmakers behind the film, Big Beach, which had financed Little Miss Sunshine, were hoping to make back their $7-million investment in a quick sale. Other distribs were worried that Sunshine Cleaning was too similar to that film. (Both star Alan Arkin in a cranky grandfather role.) But Overture, which is beefing up its 2008 and 2009 release slates, was keen on the relationship pic, which should appeal to women, and may change the title.

I quite liked this film, which nabbed mixed fest reviews. Jeffs is a fine director who managed to tease both comedy and tragedy out of this story.

Here's EW's Q & A with Blunt, who is terrific in the film as Adam's sister and business partner.

Sundance Watch: Ballast Sells to IFC

Producer Mark Johnson's Ballast was one of the critical faves at Sundance and broke out Lance Hammer as a hot director. Here's Sharon Swart's story.

Sundance Watch: More Wraps

Here are some more Sundance wrap-ups:

Critic B. Ruby Rich in The Guardian.

John Clark on docs at Premiere.com.

Kim Voynar on Sundance women at the Alliance of Women Film Journalists.

Sundance Juror Tarantino vs. Video Paparazzi

Sundance juror Quentin Tarantino, looking a bit the worse for wear, was none too pleased when a paparazzi video camera started shooting him without asking. Tarantino got a bit rough with the guy, then realized the thing would inevitably wind up on YouTube. My sympathies are with Tarantino, who had probably been up late the night before, and was putting in a grueling schedule watching not only the competition films but other stuff he wanted to see, like George Romero's Diary of the Dead. And he was just getting his first sip of morning coffee.

On the other hand: Men!

[Hat tip:Hollywood Elsewhere]

Post-Sundance Indie-Glut Theory

Jonathan Dana, who has run indie companies (Atlantic Releasing and Triton) and produced movies as well as repping and selling and consulting, emailed me a smart theory about the surfeit of Sundance acquisition titles this year, many of which remain unsold at fest's end. Here it is:

The so-called "dumb-money" has started to hit the screens.

The indie market now is split into three basic sections. At the top are the studio specialty divisions and their functional equivalents. They have done pretty well for the most part, it turns out, driven in most cases by experienced hands, sophisticated in co-production, and with enough checks and balances to keep themselves on track, yet with enough independence to take some chances (with distribution assured) and deep enough pockets to shrug off the misses.

At the "bottom" are the "out-of-left-field" indies, always ready to surprise with new talent and enough passion to deliver 1000 newbies a year into the festival vortex. These are always longshots, and I think the batting average for these films has remained steady...occasionally one breaks through, like grass through concrete. No one expects more, and everyone relishes the surprise success of a "Once" or similar classic Sundance miracle. Kind of like the old days. And in the middle are the bigger indies made on spec, without distribution in advance.

There are several subcategories of these middle-ground pictures, and many are made by careful professionals looking to make their films with a minimum of interference and yet with a careful eye on the various sectors of the market that can lead to success, both critically and commercially. But into this arena has recently poured the oft-mentioned deluge of new money, generated from a variety of sources in amounts sufficient to slosh around loosely, connecting itself often to legitimately hungry agencies or producers, often well-meaning, but with a bias towards "getting the deal done" with fewer check and balances than the traditional route, and with standards different, perhaps lesser, than for the others playing in this pricier end of the pool.

Sundance: Sony Pictures Classics Acquires The Wackness, Which Wins Drama Audience Award

Sony Pictures Classics closed a deal Saturday to buy North American rights to Jonathan Levine's The Wackness for less than $2 million. The coming-of-age story about a teenage drug dealer (Josh Peck) who sells dope to his shrink (Ben Kingsley) in exchange for psychological advice was in the Sundance dramatic competition. CAA sold the film, which as expected won the dramatic audience award at Sundance Saturday night. SPE has already acquired fest pics Frozen River and the Duplass brothers' Baghead. SPC won over the filmmakers and nabbed the pic for less than others, including Weinstein Co, Netflix and Samuel Goldwyn Co., had offered.

Some folks seem to have an issue with SPC distributing Wackness:
Film School Rejects
Slashfilm
First Showing

Todd McCarthy reports on the Sundance Awards. Here's the LAT's Ken Turan. Mike Jones lists the Winners on the jump:

Sundance Wrap: Todd McCarthy Sees Drugs

Variety's Todd McCarthy saw a lot of films at Sundance about people using drugs.

Sundance's Trouble the Water Reveals New Orleans Heroine

Ten days after Hurricane Katrina, documentary filmmakers Tia Lessin and Carl Deal were all set to shoot a film about National Guard troops being redeployed more than 7000 miles from Iraq to New Orleans to cope with the storm’s aftermath. Then the duo got shut down—thanks to their credits on Fahrenheit 9/11.

But thanks to years of training with Michael Moore, Lessin and Deal weren’t going to take no for an answer. “We didn’t set out to make any particular doc,” says Deal. “We wanted to find a different story of Katrina that wasn’t the one filtering through news media and newsrooms.”

They found a doozy. (UPDATE: Trouble the Water won the doc jury prize at Sundance.)

When the duo wandered across the street to a Red Cross shelter with their cameras to interview some of the refugees from the storm, Kimberly Rivers Roberts walked into the frame and told them that they really needed to see the video she had shot during Katrina. “Kimberly and Scott wanted to get the word out there, and didn’t know how to do it,” says Deal. “They were thinking bigger than local TV crews.”

Skeptical, Deal and Lessin checked out Roberts’ footage on the little Sony Hi-8 camcorder that she had bought on the street for $20 the week before the storm, planning to use it for birthday parties and reunions. Stuck in town as the storm approached, Roberts chronicled her Lower 9th Ward neighborhood in the hours before the hurricane hit. Other poor folks with no way to leave town were also left behind. The city of New Orleans had ordered an evacuation, but sent no buses to ferry the neediest residents out of the area.

Roberts stocked up on supplies, sold a bit of weed, and continued shooting and narrating throughout the ordeal of the storm: the rising floodwaters, the 12 neighbors who joined them in their attic crawlspace, and the daring rescue from a neighbor across the street, who used a punching bag as a flotation device to ferry people over to a bigger house with a second story, one by one. These people knew they were in danger of losing their lives.

Days after the storm was over and the flood had receded, the Scotts were feeding their neighbors from their dwindling stockpile and there was still no sign of rescue. So Kimberly and husband Scott commandeered a truck, piled their neighbors into it and drove out of town. They saved 25 people. As they were on their way out of New Orleans, the National Guard was coming in.

Sundance Watch: Video Interviews

One emerging trend at Sundance 2008 was the burgeoning number of media outlets supplying online video interviews from the fest, from EW and the LAT to UCLA and AMC. We did it too. Here's a sampling: AMC has Peter Guber and Peter Bart talking to Barry Levinson, director of What Just Happened, and UCLA interviews Sundance vets and Little Miss Sunshine producers Ron Yerxa and Albert Berger, executive producers of yet another $10-million sale, the backstage comedy Hamlet 2.

Sundance Watch: Sony Pictures Classics Acquires Baghead

Still in Park City, Winter Miller, Variety's new New York-based indie reporter, has broken the following Sundance news:

In a deal negotiated very early this morning, the film "Baghead," directed and produced by brothers Mark and Jay Duplass, sold North American rights for mid to high six figures to Sony Pictures Classics. The sales rep was Josh Braun of Submarine Entertainment. "Baghead" is a comedy about four actor-writers desperate to launch their careers who spend a weekend brainstorming a script, a process derailed by their mutual attraction--or lack thereof. The Duplass brothers' 2006 "The Puffy Chair" (Sundance 2005) was distribbed by Red Envelope Entertainment and Roadside Attractions.

Upcoming on NPR's All Things Considered this afternoon, Kim Masters' interview with SPC's Tom Bernard on what's wrong with Sundance. And here's a story about SPC recruiting a college class to scout movies for them at Sundance. UPDATE: Here's Manohla Dargis's upbeat NYT Sundance wrap; she raves about Sugar, Ballast and Momma's Man.

Sundance Watch: Fest Deals on Hold

Tatiana Siegel reports on all the Sundance deals that aren't happening.

And here's my weekly column on same.

[Photo of Sundance Fest director Geoff Gilmore from NYT]

Sundance Watch: Trouble the Water Q & A

Sundance Faves

I confess to being fond of The Bagger (who has returned to his native habitat) because he writes so beautifully. It's ok if he doesn't accurately nail the Sundance sales zeitgeist. Leave that to the trades. Observing things so well is just fine.

UPDATE: Also doing a terrific job of covering Sundance are Andrew O'Hehir of Salon, Cinematical's Kim Voynar, Spout, GreenCine, the NY Post's Lou Lumenick, The Oregonian's Shawn Levy, EW, the LAT, Filmmaker, and Premiere's Glenn Kenny.

Over the past week at Sundance I neither got enough sleep nor saw nearly enough movies, as I kept track of the fitful rounds of fest buys and denials of buys--believe me, it takes just as much time. And I'm jealous that The Bagger got to see Patti Smith. (I'll have to hang on to my youthful memories of CBGB.) And I left before a dinner for the Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young doc. Wonder who will show?

I too am back home, utterly fried, arms aching from ergonomically-incorrect computer-shackled overuse, but feeling grateful that I am not ill, like the hacking coughers on my late-night Southwest flight, as well as Sundance bloggers Jeff Wells and Mike Jones.

Of the dozen films I did see, here are the top five:

1. Trouble the Water-doc
2. Sunshine Cleaning-feature dramedy
3. Young@Heart-doc (at LAFF)
4. Gonzo: the Life and Times of Hunter S. Thompson-doc
5. U2 3D- music doc

Enjoyable, but not great:
6. In Bruges-feature comedy
7. What Just Happened? -feature comedy
8. Savage Grace (Cannes)- feature drama
9. The Guitar (a guilty pleasure)-feature drama
10. CSNY Deja Vu -music doc

Not my cup of tea:
11. The Great Buck Howard-feature comedy
12. Nerakhoon-doc
13. The Wackness - feature dramedy
14. Smart People - feature dramedy

Ones I wish I'd seen that had great fest buzz: The Polanski doc; big buy Hamlet 2, which looked like fun; Ballast, a breakthrough for director Lance Hammer; the German-language The Wave; Sugar, Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden’s portrait of a Dominican baseball player; Birds of America, which one buyer compared to Junebug; the prison thriller The Escapist; Daniel Barnz's drama Phoebe in Wonderland; the Russian-language Mermaid; the erotic Spanish-language art film Mancora; the psychological thriller The Broken; the Iraq home-front drama American Son; the experimental Spanish-language sci-fi flick Sleep Dealer; the digital domestic drama Frozen River (which Sony Pictures Classics acquired Wednesday); and the docs Anvil and Stranded.

Next stop tomorrow: Santa Barbara, where I will report on my annual screenwriters' panel Saturday. Diablo Cody is expected.

Sundance Watch: Sony Pictures Classics Acquires Frozen River

Having not acquired American Teen, Sony Pictures Classics swiftly picked up another fest fave rave, the tiny emotion-packed Frozen River, which some compare to the work of the Dardennes brothers.

Sundance Watch: American Teen Goes To Paramount Vantage

Finally, the long-in-the-works American Teen deal went down late Tuesday night, marking the fourth movie to sell in two days. Paramount Vantage acquired all world rights (excluding the U.K.) for $2.5 $1 million to Nanette Burstein's Indiana high school cinema verite doc. After the A & E Indie Films documentary screened Friday night, Fox Searchlight made a bid which later expired; Sony Pictures Classics also pursued but pulled out Tuesday afternoon, leaving the pic to Vantage, which is promising a significant P & A commitment. Sellers were Cinetic and CAA. Here's the American Teen website.

Other films to sell Monday and Tuesday include Hamlet 2 (Focus Features), Choke (Searchlight) and Henry Poole is Here (Overture). Here's our deal-round-up.

Sundance Watch: American Teen Still Up for Grabs

Sony Pictures Classics has bought is closing in on a withdrew from negotiations Tuesday for the controversial Indiana high school cinema verite doc American Teen, as Fox Searchlight did two nights ago. Paramount Vantage may wind up with in the running for the pic. Deal is was expected to close today. CAA and Cinetic are selling.

[with reporting from Sharon Swart]

Sundance Watch: Hamlet 2 Sells to Focus for $10 Million

Sundance's Buyer's Block has broken, as Focus Features has confirmed the acquisition the wee hours Tuesday morning of all world rights to the Steve Coogan comedy Hamlet 2 for $10 million after an intense bidding war. Among the companies vying for the rights were Summit Entertainment, Weinstein Co., Lionsgate, and Warner Independent.

Hamlet 2, a late edition to the Sundance lineup, premiered to raucous laughter at the Library Monday at 5:30 PM. The filmmakers and Coogan repaired to a party at Jean Louis off Main Street, while the buyers converged on the CAA condo, where the agency closed the deal around 3 AM. $10 million is a high figure for Sundance; other sales at that level include Spitfire Grill and Little Miss Sunshine.

Coogan stars as a high school drama teacher who writes a sequel to the Shakespeare tragedy in order to save his drama department. The film also stars Catherine Keener, Amy Poehler and David Arquette.

It was a good day for Focus: they not only nabbed the hottest title at Sundance but scored seven Oscar noms for Atonement, including best picture.

Sundance Watch: Henry Poole and Choke Sell

Tuesday morning marked a break in the purchasing logjam with two significant feature buys. Fox Searchlight has acquired world rights, less several international territories, to Choke, adapted from the novel by Chuck Palahniuk (Fight Club). Deal is valued at $5 million. Sam Rockwell and Anjelica Huston star in the pic, which was directed by Clark Gregg.

Overture Films also purchased U.S. rights for about $3.5 million on Henry Poole is Here, a drama directed by Mark Pellington and starring Luke Wilson and Radha Mitchell.

Also expected to sell is Hamlet 2 after an all-night bidding war at the CAA condo.

[with reporting from Sharon Swart and Tatiana Siegel]

Sundance Watch: Hamlet 2 May Break Logjam

Sundance buyers have had a case of serious buyer's block. But Monday night the logjam broke as buyers lined up outside the CAA condo to make bids on the comedy Hamlet 2, starring Steve Coogan as a high school drama professor. Coogan partied at Jean Louis late into the evening as the Cinetic and William Morris parties rocked on. Few distribs were present. They were out negotiating or seeing more movies. Everyone crossed their fingers, including John Sloss, that the selling drought would soon be over. Sunshine Cleaning, The Wackness and American Teen are expected to sell Tuesday. Also screening Monday evening was creepy psychological thriller The Escapist which one WMA partygoer said would keep him from sleeping that night.

Sundance Watch: Day Five

It's a little early to be calling this year's fest a dud just because Geoff Gilmore programmed a bunch of films that aren't selling the first weekend. The NYT is measuring the fest's success on the basis of its acquisitions numbers. By that measure, last year's fest was a huge success. And there were many great films at Sundance 2007. But the big sale titles --aside from Waitress--went on to do no business, or haven't opened yet.

Remember, Once was a critical hit at Sundance that didn't sell until afterwards. And it was not considered a hot title by anyone. Fox Searchlight took on that movie as a labor of love, which is what releasing these indie pics requires: backbreaking labor and investment over a long time with no guarantee of boxoffice results. So all these buyers are looking for love. And some may not have found it yet.

I wonder if Gilmore wouldn't be better off pulling back a tad from the business side of the fest---he gets a kick out of finding homes for his babies--and sticking to programming the best films he can find. He says he does both. My sense from talking to buyers is that they simply decided to take back control, to return the power to their purse strings and the ability to just say no and walk away from overpaying. Here's my wrap-up of the fest's first weekend.

The festival operates on several levels: pics looking for distribs and pics looking for a media launch for their release that will play well at the Eccles Theatre. Of the press launches, Focus Features' fest opener In Bruges, starring Colin Farrell, went over well on opening night; while Smart People, starring Dennis Quaid, Sarah Jessica Parker, Thomas Haden Church and Ellen Page, which Groundswell's Michael London sold at the Salt Lake City airport last year to Miramax as a pre-buy, and New Line Cinema's Be Kind Rewind, directed by Michel Gondry and starring Jack Black as an inventive video clerk, received mixed response from fest crowds and critics.

The pics that were supposed to generate the biggest sales will probably sell eventually, but not at their hoped-for numbers. Two bigger-scale studio/indie hybrids from Hollywood players were intended to be commercially viable, with stars, but somehow didn't seem hip enough for the room: Playtone's Great Buck Howard, which couldn't find a studio home and came to Sundance in a last-ditch search for a distributor, and Art Linson and Barry Levinson's $20-million What Just Happened, which 2929 Entertainment funded, hoping to find a buyer. There is a possibility that both will go home empty-handed.

On a smaller scale, Magnolia's getting good response on both the sci-fi spanish-language thriller Timecrimes (which has already been acquired by UA for a remake) and Alex Gibney's Hunter Thompson doc Gonzo.

The titles picking up heat, just in terms of good-word-of-mouth--which has nothing to do with their commerciality--are The Wave, Mermaids, Ballast, Stranded, Trouble the Water, and Phoebe in Wonderland, among others. Expected to sell imminently are the doc American Teen, The Wackness, and Sunshine Cleaning.

Sundance Watch: Trouble the Water Star Debuts Movie, Then Has Baby

Trouble the Water star Kim Roberts made it to Park City, Utah to attend the launch of Tia Lessin and Carl Deal's doc, which features her extraordinary homevideo account of surviving Hurricane Katrina in the 9th Ward of New Orleans. She and her husband Scott helped to save some 25 people when they realized that no one was going to help them. After the film played to rousing emotional response Sunday morning at Park City's Library Center, during the Q & A the nine-months pregnant Roberts told the crowd, "I was determined to get here even if I had a baby in Utah." At 12:47 AM, the film's co-producer T. Woody Richman got the call to ferry Roberts and husband Scott down the mountain to a Salt Lake City hospital. Roberts gave birth on Monday, January 21, at 6:14 AM. The parents named their healthy 7 pound 1 ounce baby girl Skyy Kaylen Rivers Roberts.

"I drew upon my upbringing in New England to navigate the snowy streets," said Richman, who was at the wheel. Kim, Scott, Scott's sister Dede (a nurse) and cousin Bobby Coleman rode in the car, with Richman making great time (about a half hour). "We arrived just in time," Richman said. Filmmakers Lessin and Deal followed in the car behind. "I guess Skyy wanted to be born in Utah as part of the whole Sundance thing. And on Martin Luther King Day too," Richman said.

[with reporting by Tatiana Siegel]

Sundance Watch: U23D

Yet another hot doc screened at Park City's Eccles Theatre Saturday night: U23D (here's the trailer). Bono and U2, Robert Redford and Al Gore (revisiting the scene of his first Inconvenient Truth triumph) were there. Why Al Gore? "He's with his friend Bono," said one of the National Geographic contingent.

The fans were rocking the house to U2 concerts in Mexico, Argentina, Brazil and Australia, seamlessly woven together by long-time U2 graphics artist turned rookie director Catherine Owens and director Mark Pellington. Owens spent two years editing the film in 2D before "knitting" together the 3ality 3D. "Thank you Bono for saying yes," said Owens. After Bono and U2 took the stage, Bono said, "There's a lot of love and Irish whiskey in the house. If this festival were in Dublin it would be called Raindance." After the screening, which inspired moviegoers to applaud as if they were in the live venue and wave their cellphones in the air, the gang trooped back on stage for a Q & A.

When one audience member asked Bono if he'd follow this movie up with something narrative like Yellow Submarine, Bono said, "You're telling me that Yellow Submarine has a deep narrative? You know how to hurt a fellow's feelings. Underneath this movie there is a narrative operating; it starts with social action and moves through ideas that have fired up our engines over the years--non-violence, human rights--it's hardly a flippant thing to do, under the circumstances, in this country."

Sundance Watch: Polanski Doc Goes to HBO Docs

Sheila Nevins' HBO documentary unit has acquired all U.S. rights including theatrical and video to Marina Zenovich's Polanski: Wanted and Desired, the hot buzz title of the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. Magnolia Films was also chasing the pic. It is revealing that the movie may not get a theatrical release in the current harsh market climate for docs. The sale closed Saturday night. Picturehouse, which is partially owned by HBO, would be happy to do the theatrical honors, but Nevins is not known for embracing theatrical. Submarine and Cinetic repped the title in the sale.

Weinstein Co. purchased international rights shortly after the film made its world premiere Friday night.

Sundance Watch: What Just Happened

With What Just Happened, producer-screenwriter Art Linson and director Barry Levinson, with considerable help from Robert DeNiro, have crafted a delightfully amusing backstage Hollywood comedy. Think an update of The Player, maybe, or an episode of Entourage (complete with Cannes finale) on steroids. To Barry Levinson, the small ($30-20 million) budget required him to shoot "quickly and efficiently," as he said at the world premiere Saturday at the Eccles.

All the buyers were there, again, as seller John Sloss of Cinetic Media worried that the movie, despite all best efforts, had been over-hyped. Linson wanted the indie to go to Sundance to prove that it could play for audiences who weren't Hollywood insiders. Well, I laughed my head off--most of the guffaws in the room came from industry types. DeNiro gives his best performance in years and every moment rings painfully true, from the palatial homes of ex-wives that dwarf his own, to his battles with a bearded actor (played by Bruce Willis) based on Alec Baldwin of The Edge. Catherine Keener plays the steely-eyed studio head who recuts a crazed director's movie. This story is partly based on David Fincher's Fight Club, as chronicled in Linson's book.

It was weird to see this right after The Great Buck Howard, a Playtone production developed by Tom Hanks' son Colin and featuring a cameo by his Dad. Hanks did some funny stand-up before the movie which unintentionally topped the movie to follow. John Malkovich is terrific as a has-been mentalist. Young Hanks is a bit quiet and flat on-screen, as Emily Blunt (in her second Sundance film, she's also in Sunshine Cleaning) tries hard to keep things moving. But Malkovich carries the day in this odd, old-fashioned little fable that doesn't really go anywhere.

Both of these movies feel like tentative low-budget efforts on the part of folks who are accustomed to a much bigger playpen. They are turning to the indies and Sundance to give them a chance to escape from that studio prison. But they don't escape enough. Levinson's film is far superior, and feeds off heart-felt personal experience. After the screening, buyers filed out into the night. Some will call Sloss and line up outside his Deer Valley condo. Others will take a pass.

The expected buying frenzy has been muted as buyers seem more cautious this year. Unless it's all about to explode.

Sundance Video: Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Martin McDonagh

Here's the first of many Sundance video-interviews we're putting up during the fest, with the In Bruges gang:

Sundance Watch: Day Three; Weinstein Nabs Polanski International

The Weinstein Co. snapped up international rights to the documentary Polanski: Wanted and Desired, which played like gangbusters yesterday. Marina Zenovich examines what really happened back in 1977 when Polanski was convicted of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor. Weinstein Co. paid six figures. Submarine and Cinetic are repping the pic. Domestic rights are still in play. SPC iswas in the hunt, but dropped out when the acquisition got too pricey. Several cos are still chasing the pic, but the price is climbing and folks don't want to overpay.

UPDATE: The TWC team, Zenovich and the sellers were in a car finishing their negotiations as the screening was going on; they signed the deal right before it ended, as Zenovich rushed back in to do her Q & A.

Sundance Watch: Day Two

The screenings started today.

Several films are already in play, including Marina Zenovich's Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, while interest is somewhat muted in actor-turned-director Marianna Palka's small relationship comedy Good Dick, starring Josh Ritter, son of John, and Robert Redford sprig Amy Redford's The Guitar, which I quite enjoyed, starring Saffron Burrows as a woman who is diagnosed with terminal throat cancer, loses her job and her boyfriend all on the same day. She completely abandons her life. (I don't like the title.) "It's Into the Wild for girls," quipped one critic who did not like it at all. Redford, who is a veteran actress, was given Amos Poe's script, which is based on a true story, but decided she wanted to direct rather than star. After she finished filming in NY, where she is based, she did a cameo in Christine Jeff's Sunshine Cleaning.

Jeffs is the hot director at this fest after the packed screening Friday night. Every distrib was there in full force: Harvey Weinstein and Miramax's Daniel Battsek (they talked before the screening) and Lionsgate's Tom Ortenberg and Warner Independent and Paramount Vantage and Picturehouse and Roadside Attractions and Samuel Goldwyn and Magnolia and Overture and Fox Searchlight and Sony Pictures Classics. This is the movie that will have folks lining up outside the Cinetic Deer Valley condo. It'll go to one of the studio subsids, but probably not for huge dollars.

Amy Adams and Emily Blunt are two unhappy sisters in Albuquerque who become crime-scene clean-up artists. Alan Arkin is the Dad. There's a strong family relationship drama, comedy, and Jeffs is a terrific directorial stylist. The movie is well-acted and gorgeous. It's the best thing I've seen so far. Big Beach, the company that backed Little Miss Sunshine, funded the Sunshine Cleaning, which was produced by Glenn Willamson. He met Marc Turtletaub when he was at Focus Features and they were still developing LMS.

Jonathan Levine's The Wackness played pretty well this afternoon at the Racquet Club, with laughs throughout. The black comedy about a lonely post-high-school grad drug dealer (slimmed down Nickelodeon vet Josh Peck), his drug-addled shrink (Kingsley) and the shrink's step-daughter (Juno's Olivia Thirlby) is up for grabs, and should sell. But it's not a critics' picture. It runs the risk of being a tweener--a fest crowd pleaser that turns out to be hard to market. Think Garden State but not nearly as good.

Mary Kate Olsen turned up at the Racquet Club Q & A Friday afternoon for The Wackness, in which she makes out with Ben Kingsley in a phone booth. "I was a little nervous," she admitted, "but he was so sweet and kind and made me feel comfortable so it was fun. He pulled off the hairpiece he was wearing."

At least Olsen is legitimately making the rounds at Sundance with a movie. Not so Paris Hilton, who is jetting in for the Regent Entertainment party at the Bon Appetit Supper Club at The River Horse Cafe Sunday. Sundance sponsor Regent and Merrill Lynch backed The Hottie and the Nottie, which features Hilton's first theatrical starring role, which is definitely not playing here, nor would it ever be--although the director Tom Putnam had a short at Sundance 2005. (The trailer on the internet is disgusting. I won't even post it.) According to Purple Pictures producer Hadeel Reda, they gave Hilton executive producer credit: "She's coming to Sundance to pay tribute to Regent. She's savvy when it comes to promoting herself. This is a great opportunity for her and her brand to embrace how people see her." Even the Queer Lounge is promoting Hilton's attendance at their annual Sunday Queer Brunch.

When I was picking up my press badge at the Marriott, Jason Reitman, who is on the shorts jury and loves looking at shorts, raved about the film Timecrimes, which is in Midnight Madness, saying he had always liked writer-director Nacho Vigalondo's shorts. Magnolia bought the film out of a sci-fi fest. Here's news that UA has bought the remake rights for Steve Zaillian to write.

I ran into Quentin Tarantino after The Wackness, which is the first film he saw on his jury rounds. He's not able to talk about the jury films, but he's going to other things like George Romero's Diary of the Dead. Yet another hand-held movie! And there's one at Slamdance, Fix, which looks promising. Anyway, Tarantino said he loves being on juries so much that after Cannes he went home and screened fifteen movies he's never seen before and made notes on them. He's happy as a clam.

Sundance Watch: Day One

Here's last night's report on the In Bruges opening; the movie is funny (a bit like Sexy Beast), with great performances from Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell, who was also hilarious at the after-party at The Lift, trying not to being friendly to The Wackness star Mary Kate Olsen. (It turns out they're old pals.)More later.

Sundance Watch: Celebrity Round-Up

Many of us press folks are getting inundated with this kind of email:

Subject: REMINDER - Outfest Queer Brunch, Sunday January 20 Hi all, Just reminding you about the 12th annual Outfest Queer Brunch this Sunday in Sundance at 11am [location] presented by here! Networks. Attending the brunch will be a wide range of stars attending Sundance, including Paris Hilton, Sharon Stone, Winona Ryder, Quentin Tarantino, Kirsten Dunst, Sean (P. Diddy) Combs, Dennis Quaid, Ginnifer Goodwin, Ellen Page, Hugh Dancy, Wes Bentley, Nick Cannon, and many others.

One colleague forwarded this one with the comment: "this is simply impossible, unthinkable, a kind of celebrity version of thermonuclear warfare...."

Sundance Watch: Heading to Park City

I'm hitting Park City tomorrow, leaving at the crack of dawn to head for the cold. I'll be covering the opening night movie, In Bruges. I've spoken to a number of folks in advance of the fest: we're all fastening our seatbelts for a rocky ride. The conditions are ripe. Too many buyers, a strike, too many movies like What Just Happened (pictured) for sale. I find myself hoping they're all not commercial, so I can actually see some of them. If the deals are flying fast, I'll be holed up in the condo tapping out stories. Check here and at Variety.com's Fest Central for the latest breaking news and video interviews of filmmakers and casts, which we'll be posting as soon as we get them edited. Here's the January 17 exhaustive Sundance issue (including ten Directors to Watch), so if you really want the inside skinny, that's where you'll find it.

Here's the LAT's Ken Turan. USA Today has a nice Sundance package.

Sundance Previews

The WSJ says this year's Park City fest will be more of same.

My pre-Sundance column, plus Mike Jones checks out three from last year.

[Photo of Sundance opener In Bruges; Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell]

Sundance Book Promos

Sundance 08 is packed with authors and tie-in books, all looking for a launch pad.

Sundance: Ten Directors to Watch

One of the highlights of Sundance is always Variety's Ten Directors to Watch party, scheduled this year for January 21. It's always a hot-ticket magnet for everyone who makes the schlep to Park City. The Variety feature will run January 17.

The ten directors this year:

Ben Affleck Gone Baby Gone (Oscar contender)
Daniel Barnz Phoebe in Wonderland (for sale at fest)
Tony Gilroy Michael Clayton (Oscar contender)
Seth Gordon King of Kong (Picturehouse), Four Christmases (now shooting for New Line)
Nadine Labaki Caramel (Lebanese foreign Oscar submission)
Anna Melikyan Mermaid (Russian fantasy coming-of-ager in world dramatic competition, her second film)
Cristian Mungiu 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days (Romania Oscar submission)
Jose Padilha Tropa de Elite (Brazilian feature)
Johan Renck Downloading Nancy (for sale at fest)
Alex Rivera Sleep Dealer (for sale at fest)

HBO and Picturehouse Split in Works

When Picturehouse was launched at Cannes 2005, HBO topper Chris Albrecht and HBO Films prexy Colin Callendar joined New Line co-chairman Michael Lynne to make the announcement that they were partnering on specialty label Picturehouse, to be headed by Bob Berney. At Cannes this year, it was clear that Callendar, at least, had already cooled on the enterprise.

Now it looks like HBO Films is no longer interested in being in the theatrical releasing business. That's because it doesn't really make financial sense to take on the risk of financing P & A and distribution on movies in the current risky boxoffice climate. And with Albrecht gone, Picturehouse lost its key HBO supporter.

Lynne and Berney understand the vagaries of film distribution. Callendar and HBO Films do not--but then, they don't have to. After Rocket Science, which played well at Sundance last year, proved yet another b.o. failure, HBO was ready to get out.

But HBO is letting Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck's follow-up to Half-Nelson, Sugar, go to Sundance--where it will only get a theatrical release if some outside distributor is willing to pay as much as it cost to make. Again, this is not a question of how well Picturehouse would release the movie, but the financing structure--and the issue of how nasty theatrical indie releasing really is these days.

Here's Variety's story.

Sundance Watch: Juries Include Tarantino and Other Fest Alums

Quentin Tarantino is among the many Sundance alums announced for the 2008 juries.

Alternative Documentary Awards

Monday, Thom Powers, documentary programmer at the Toronto International Film Festival, and filmmaker/blogger A.J. Schnack announced the launch of a new award for nonfiction filmmaking. The ceremony will be held in March at the IFC Center in New York. Nominees in eight categories will be announced in Park City on January 20.

IndieWIRE has the first report of the shortlist of 15 films. Here's the story of why Powers and Schnack were compelled to do this. Here's the initial IndiePix website.

Sundance Channel Festival Widget

The Sundance Channel is providing a Festival Update widget:

Trailer Watch: In Bruges

In Bruges (it's in Belgium, and rhymes with rouge) is the opening night film for Sundance, which opens January 17. (Focus Features will open the movie February 8.)

Playwright-turned-writer-director Martin McDonagh, who won an Oscar for his short Six-Shooter, has fashioned a fish-out-of-water comedy that plops two London hit men, Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson, into the medieval Flemish city Bruges to hang low for for a few weeks at the behest of their boss, Ralph Fiennes. As they wait to hear from him, they engage in weird encounters with locals and tourists. When the call does finally come, extricating themselves from Bruges proves more difficult than they expected.

Here's the trailer:

This looks like one of those films that could go either way--really funny or not funny at all.