Can’t make it out to Park City, UT for the Sundance Film Festival this year? Let Sundance come to you. The Sundance Institute announced today 10 independent cities that will screen selections from the 2013 Sundance Film Festival this year with the filmmaker present. Ten filmmakers will travel to one of the following cities: Ann Arbor, MI; Boston, MA; Brooklyn, NY; Chicago, IL; Houston, TX; Los Angeles, CA; Nashville, TN; Orlando, FL; San Francisco, CA; and Tucson, AZ.
“Sundance Film Festival USA celebrates the theaters and audiences that are an integral part of supporting and encouraging the work of independent filmmakers,” said Sundance President and Founder Robert Redford. “By extending the Festival to these 10 cities, we will create a larger shared experience and dialogue around the issues of our time, as explored in these films.”
[Related: Sundance Film Festival Reveals 2013 U.S. & World Competition Slate]
Titles and locations follow with descriptions and information provided by Sundance Institute:
The East / U.S.A. (Director: Zal Batmanglij, Screenwriters: Zal Batmanglij, Brit Marling) — An operative for an elite private intelligence firm goes into deep cover to infiltrate a mysterious anarchist collective attacking major corporations. Bent on apprehending these fugitives, she finds her loyalty tested as her feelings grow for the group’s charismatic leader. Cast: Brit Marling, Alexander Skarsgård, Ellen Page, Toby Kebbell, Shiloh Fernandez, Patricia Clarkson. Ann Arbor, MI – The Michigan Theatre.
The Lifeguard / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Liz W. Garcia) — A former valedictorian quits her reporter job in New York and returns to the place she last felt happy: her childhood home in Connecticut. She gets work as a lifeguard and starts a dangerous relationship with a troubled teenager. Cast: Kristen Bell, Mamie Gummer, Martin Starr, Alex Shaffer,…
Full Story »One of the biggest days in the indie film calendar arrived Wednesday with the unveiling of the Sundance Film Festival’s U.S. Dramatic and Documentary Competition slate along with the premiere event’s World Cinema Dramatic and Documentary lineups and titles screening in the fest’s NEXT section. Hit the jump for the line-ups!
Sixteen titles each will compete in the U.S. Dramatic Competition and U.S. Documentary. The festival’s NEXT section which it styles as a “new wave” of filmmaking includes 10 titles.
In all, 113 features from 32 countries were selected for the 2013 Sundance, a number consistent with other years. The 11-day event will host 51 first-time filmmakers, with 27 titles in competition. Selections were then from 12,146 submissions (4,044 features and 8,102 shorts), 429 more than last year, according to Sundance. The festival will roll out its lineups in its Midnight, New Frontier, Premiere and Documentary Premieres and Short sections in the coming days.
“Every great film starts with an idea, and it is a testament to artists that they continually find new ideas, new stories, new points of view and new ways of sharing them, year after year,” said Sundance Institute founder Robert Redford in a statement. “We look forward to hearing from these artists not just through their words and images onscreen but also through the larger dialogue they create with audiences at our Festival and beyond.”
U.S. DRAMATIC COMPETITION
The world premieres of 16 American narrative feature films.
Afternoon Delight / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Jill Soloway) — In this sexy, dark comedy, a lost L.A. housewife puts her idyllic hipster life in jeopardy when she tries to rescue a stripper by taking her in as a live-in nanny. Cast: Kathryn Hahn, Juno Temple, Josh Radnor, Jane Lynch.
Ain’t Them Bodies…
Ridley Scott’s latest alien franchise could have looked more like a direct prequel to his last one, according to the original screenwriter for Prometheus Jon Spaihts. In a surprise-laden interview with Empire, Spaihts says he had written facehuggers and chestbursters into early versions of the storyline before Scott and script doctor Damon Lindelof decided to move in a more original direction.Spaihts explained that he originally envisioned facehuggers being used to implant the alien seed in both Holloway and Shaw. “David, as he began to get fascinated by the science of the Engineers, doesn’t deliberately contaminate Holloway with a drop of black liquid. Instead, Holloway hubristically removes his helmet in the chamber” — a version of which happens in the finished Prometheus — is knocked unconscious, facehugged and wakes up not knowing what had been done to him, and stumbles back into the ship,” Spaihts told Empire. Enter the chestburster. In what Spaihts described as a “messy” scene, Holloway returns to his cabin and is “embraced by Shaw, who is delighted to see him having feared that he had died, and the two of them make love,” he goes on to say. “And it’s while they’re making love that he bursts and dies.” Nice.
Spaihts says that his idea was originally to have Shaw impregnated by a facehugger, courtesy of David. In what sounds like an extremely creepy sequence, he says an early script called for David to tie up Shaw and deliberately expose her to the spidery egg sack. “He caresses an egg open and out comes a facehugger,” Spaihts explains, but since David doesn’t smell like a living being, ”he can handle the the thing like a kitten.” And he does. “He toys with her for a bit and then lets it…
Full Story »Screenwriter Scott Stabile has read the pans and box office bomb reports and anti-Oogieloves screeds, and yet! He’s got nothing but (Oogie)love for even his harshest critics: “As all of us adults know, we live in a tense and troubled world. Young kids will be exposed to plenty of real-life scares and violence on TV, in video games, on the computer and in daily life. Why do we have to expose preschoolers to anything but innocence and love in a 90-minute movie? Why isn’t it enough to show a gentle world where people are kind and help one another, in hopes that young kids mimic those sentiments over fighting and jealousy and revenge?” [Scott Stabile via Oogieloves on Facebook]
Born to Die singer Lana Del Rey didn’t exactly conquer the music world with her polarizing entree into showbiz (her SNL appearance will go down as one of the stiffest performances in the history of television), so maybe channeling all that smoky ’60s-tinged mannequin angst into another medium is the ticket: “When I was starting, I had a vision of being a writer for film and that’s what I am doing now,” Del Rey (real name: Lizzy Grant) told Vogue Australia. “I’m so happy… Hopefully I will branch into film work and stay there. That will be my happy place.” [Vogue AU via NME, Screen Junkies]
Screenwriter David H. Steinberg’s credits include two American Pie sequels, National Lampoon’s Barely Legal, the 2002 Devon Sawa vehicle Slackers, and, yes, Puss in Boots… which makes him an expert on adapting for the screen, of course! “…Ultimately I was underwhelmed. The movie simply failed to capture the emotion of the book… (No one in the movie ever looks hungry!)” [Yahoo]
SXSW routinely boasts the most varied and neverending film line-up of the year, and the just-announced 2012 behemoth of a roster is no exception. So let’s make it a wee bit easier to take in, shall we? After the jump find the buzzworthiest titles among the 100+ features and documentaries debuting this March in Austin, from major upcoming studio peeks (21 Jump Street) to docs (a new Jessica Yu!) and much smaller (but potentially completely awesome) fare.
21 Jump Street
Last year’s big mainstream discovery at SXSW was Bridesmaids; this year it’s Sony taking the gamble with a headlining sneak peek at their cop reboot, which stars Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum as undercover officers.
The Cabin in the Woods
The Joss Whedon-produced, Drew Goddard-directed horror pic has been delayed for so long, and yet earned such praise out of Butt-Numb-A-Thon. The biggest curiosity of the fest, perhaps, if only to finally learn what the deal is with this thing.
The Hunter
Willem Dafoe as a mercenary + Julia Leigh novel + brooding character pic + strong reviews out of Toronto = a must see.
frankie go boom
Jordan Roberts’ entry, which stars Charlie Hunnam, Chris O’Dowd, Lizzy Caplan, Ron Perlman, and Chris Noth, had me at its synopsis: “a flick by bruce about his little brother frank who’s a crybaby fuck who shouldn’t do lame-ass embarrassing shit if he dozn’t want people 2 see it.”
Small Apartments
The latest from Jonas Akerlund — music video veteran, director of Spun, and the dude who made that Lady Gaga/Beyonce “Telephone” opus — gets its world premiere at SXSW.
Sun Don’t Shine
Indie darling Amy Seimetz makes her feature directorial debut in this tale of a Florida couple on the road doing “very…
Though Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows doesn’t come out until December, the third installment of the flashy Arthur Conan Doyle series already has a screenwriter: Iron Man 3 scribe Drew Pearce. Pearce also wrote a bit on Pacific Rim, Guillermo del Toro’s alien invasion movie that he’ll start shooting soon in Toronto. I suppose this means we won’t be returning to the simpler Basil Rathbone world of ol’ Sherl any time soon. I want quaintness! [Deadline]
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Because Hollywood never met a property it didn’t want to resuscitate, Sony has commissioned Source Code screenwriter Ben Ripley to pen its remake of Flatliners. The Joel Schumacher-directed 1990 film starred Julia Roberts (and her awesome hair), Kevin Bacon, Kiefer Sutherland and Billy Baldwin as medical students toying with near-death experiences to increasingly dangerous outcomes. Sorta like movie executives continuing to mine former VHS faves for redux treatment! [Deadline]
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That awesome Bring It On musical about to hit Los Angeles for a preview run? It might not happen — at least if the film’s original screenwriter Jessica Bendinger has any say. Bendinger, through the Writers Guild of America, has filed a claim that states Bring It On: The Musical production company Beacon Communications Corp. is exploiting Bendinger’s rights without her consent. Said the screenwriter, who has been left out in the cold like a Clover from the home video Bring It On sequels as well: “Imitation is not the sincerest form of flattery. Compensation is.” Beacon’s counsel says the claim is without merit. [THR/Hollywood, Esq.]
