Good Afternoon, Sundance: Lights, Crowds, Action
As the Sundance Film Festival kicked off on Thursday, fest founder Robert Redford gave his annual state-of-Sundance press conference – “and as usual,” says Gregory Ellwood, “it was a mostly dry affair.” Redford’s spiciest quote came in response to a question about whether he had plans to retire from the festival or the Sundance Institute: “No, I have not thought about retiring,” he said. “I am gonna die, but I haven’t thought about retiring.” Cheap Jordans Festival programming chief John Cooper, meanwhile, predicted a big, crowded festival, and a revival of what he calls the “riff raff” of celebrity gifting suites and nightclubs. (Hitfix) The independent film market is reviving and buyers are more enthusiastic about this year’s Sundance, reports Brooks Barnes – who then cautions that we won’t be seeing anything like the glory days when “Little Miss Sunshine” sold for $10.5 million and the flop “Hamlet 2” for $10 million. “This essentially means that dals with get done but that prices will be confined to the mid-seven figures or less,” he says, with movies that once would have fetched “$1.5 million in minimum guarantees … now looking at about $250,000.” Among his list of likely deals in the making: “My Idiot Brother” with Paul Rudd, “The Details” with Tobey Maguire, Laura Linney and Ray Liotta and “Margin Call” with Kevin Spacey (above) and Demi Moore. In other words: this may be the indie showcase, but buyers still want movie stars. (The New York Times) Breaking: So far, Coach Bags the fest’s hot ticket has been to the press & industry screening of “Margin Call,” which took place on Friday morning. Even before the screening was supposed to start, Twitter was deluged with notes that the line was enormous and the screening “hijacked by buyers, publicists and sales agents,” with more than 150 turned away. But hey, Harvey Weinstein got that last seat. (Twitter) Want to change your image? Sundance can help. That’s what John Horn and Chris Lee say as they follow the cases of actors Patrick Dempsey and Pierce Brosnan, director Lee Tamahori and actors-turned-directors Vera Farmiga and Michael Rapaport, all of whom are using this year’s festival to showcase different sides of themselves. “I knew I couldn’t play the romantic comedy card again,” says McDreamy. (The Envelope) John Horn also says that the fest kicked off in a fitting manner on Thursday night with “The Guard,” a black comedy starring Brendan Gleeson as a crooked Irish cop and Don Cheadle as an FBI agent who comes to Gleeson’s town in search of drug traffickers. After a screening that attracted “representatives of every distributor of specialized film,” plus Disney chief Rich Ross, Horn predicts a sale shortly. (Awards Tracker) Kim Voynar’s Sundance preview lists nine movies she really wants to see,longchamp outlet including the global YouTube compilation “Life in a Day,” the Liberian-set documentary “The Redemption of General Butt Naked,” Kevin Smith’s “Red State” and “Man on Wire” director James Marsh’s “Project Nim,” a documentary about a chimpanzee who was taught sign language.