A few more reviews, all seen at press screenings at the Yarrow Hotel, one of them being the most anticipated films of the fest which was picked up for distribution right after it premiered, another one that had some interest due to its star and has been almost universally loathed (this year's Hound Dog?), a couple British genre films, both much better than we expected, and a low budget indie from the Duplass Brothers that also wasn't bad.

It might not be too surprising that out of the eight primary award winners at the Sundance Film Festival, we've seen exactly ONE of them, which is about par for the course compared to last year. The one movie we saw was Jonathan Levine's The Wackness, which you've probably seen mentioned a number of times on this blog, and the buzz we were talking about in Park City translated into it winning the Audience Award in the Dramatic Feature, although the Jury gave their prize to Frozen River. (Both movies will be distributed by Sony Classics as mentioned below.) Our pal Devin at CHUD was raving about the documentary Man on Wire our last night in Park City and was stoked to see the film's subject in the bar at the Yarrow Hotel, and it won both the Jury and Audience Award for World Cinema Documentary Competition.

You can read the full list of winners in a press release from the Sundance Film Festival below.

Our good friend and fellow Craver Neil Miller of Film School Rejects has drawn our attention to this buzz piece on Indiewire about Sony Pictures Classics picking up the rights to three buzzworthy movies at this year's Sundance Film Festival.

The biggest deal in negotiations is for their purchase of Jonathan Levine's The Wackness of which you can read more about in our review and interviews with Ben Kingsley and Josh Peck. It's a fun movie and could find a big audience, though it's not the kind of movie Sony Classics usually releases, though it would be a huge turnaround for the company if they're able to learn something from the Fox Searchlight marketing model for Sundance movies like Napoleon Dynamite and Garden State, both bought for less than The Wackness probably cost Sony Classics. (The Hollywood Reporter confirms that the deal went through in the low seven figures, although I completely disagree with their statement about "marketing challenges" after hearing many people raving about the movie.)

According to Indie Wire, Sony Classics also grabbed the Duplas Brothers' Baghead, a very low budget and very funny mix of indie character drama and B-horror movie, that we caught on our last day at Park City and hope to review soon, and Courtney Hunt's Frozen River, one of the movies we completely missed, though that's become par for the course at Sundance.

At least it's nice to see some last-minute purchases after a relatively slow festival, which had a spurt of purchases earlier this week and then nothing. There's still a lot of movies that have real commercial potential that I'll talk about in my Sundance Wrap-Up early next week.

One of the most buzzed about movies at this year's Sundance Film Festival is Jonathan Levine's The Wackness, a coming of age story set in '90s New York City starring Josh Peck as Luke Shapiro, who spends the summer after high school selling pot and trying to get laid with the help of his client and shrink Dr. Jeffrey Squires, as played by Sir Ben Kingsley.

Josh Peck is one of those names and faces that looks familiar, possibly from his time on Nickelodeon, first as a regular on Amanda Bynes' "The Amanda Show" and then with his own show "Drake and Josh" (which is rumored to have its own movie very soon), but indie film fans should also remember Josh from his role in "Mean Creek" a few years back. There's little question that Peck has grown up and The Wackness will certainly get him a lot more attention, both from older girls and producers looking for the next hot thing.

ComingSoon.net had a chance to talk to Josh during the Sundance Film Festival, as well as sitting down with his co-star Ben Kingsley, an interview you can read here.

Master thespian Sir Ben Kingsley has played a lot of varied roles and ethnicities in the last few years and at this year's Sundance Film Festival, he appears in two independent films as two very different characters.

In Jonathan Levine's second movie The Wackness, he plays Dr. Jeffrey Squires, a new age psychiatrist who befriends his young patient (and pot dealer) Luke, played by Joshua Peck, and tries to help him do better with the ladies, only for Luke to hook up with the doctor's step-daughter Stephanie (Olivia Thirlby). In his other movie, Brad Anderson's Transsiberian, Kingsley plays a corrupt Russian police officer who plagues an American couple on a train speeding across Russia.

ComingSoon.net had a chance to sit down with Sir Ben at the Sundance Film Festival--our fourth or fifth time talking to the venerable actor--and as always, he was an absolute joy to talk to as we discussed both movies with side trips into Shakespeare... and bongs.

(Also, check out our interview with Joshua Peck here.)

It was a packed house at the hip Egyptian Theatre on Main Street for the Sundance premiere of Michael Haneke's English language remake of his own 1977 movie Funny Games and there was a lot of buzz in the air as most people were expecting something completely sick and twisted. Those in the audience who hadn't seen the original movie probably didn't realize exactly HOW warped a mind was at work here with its plot of a home invasion by a pair of polite misanthropes who spend an evening humiliating and terrorizing a family of three. Unfortunately, Haneke couldn't be at the premiere since he was finishing up his next movie, and Naomi Watts had to leave due to the tragic death of her good friend, but the film's two home invaders, Michael Pitt and Brady Corbet were there along with a couple of producers to introduce the film.

Two very different comedies played at the Library Theatre over the last two days, both of them showcasing veteran comedy actors playing flamboyant over-the-top characters that played up to the receptive audience at the theatre where we caught the premiere of David Wain’s "The Ten" last year, and they at them up. While both John Malkovich and Steve Coogan have played odd characters in the past, these are clearly defining roles for the both of them, since they’re characters so original that one can’t help but love them. The other strange difference between the movie is that one of them is by a Hollywood director, shifting gears to more alternative comedy, while the other is by an indie director making far more accessible work due to the involvement of a big-time Hollywood producer.

Paramount Vantage has acquired worldwide distribution rights, excluding the United Kingdom, to Nanette Burstein’s documentary, American Teen. Nick Meyer, President of Paramount Vantage, announced today.

Andrew Herwitz, president of the The Film Sales Company, announced today that the company has acquired worldwide (less UK) sales and US distribution rights to the documentary Derek. Directed by famed artist and filmmaker Issac Julien (Looking for Langston, Young Soul Rebels), the film was written and is narrated by 2007 Academy Award Nominee Tilda Swinton. Funded by Film London, Channel 4, MoMA and the Sundance Documentary Fund, the film was produced by Eliza Mellor and Colin MacCabe and executive produced by Swinton and James Mackay.

Assassination of a High School President (Yari Film Group - August)
Directed by Brett Simon; Written by Timothy Calpin and Kevin Jakubowski
Starring Reece Thompson, Mischa Barton, Bruce Willis, Melonie Diaz, Josh Pais, Michael Rapaport

Anyone who thinks they've seen the death of the high school comedy because there's nowhere left to go with the overused genre might appreciate that Brett Simon's clever high school noir debut is more "Heathers" than John Hughes, as it takes a funnier and more biting look at high school than any we've seen in some time without ever going so far as to offend its subjects.

Focus Features has acquired worldwide rights to Andrew Fleming's comedy Hamlet 2, a world premiere at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Focus Features CEO James Schamus and president Andrew Karpen made the announcement today.

After five relatively quiet days of no non-doc purchases Variety's Anne Thompson reports that the first two dramatic features of the 2008 Sundance Film Festival have been picked up with Sundance power player Fox Searchlight shelling out $5 million for Clark Gregg's highly-anticipated adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk's novel Choke, starring Sam Rockwell and Anjelica Huston. (Hopefully, we'll be catching the press screening tonight.)

Fledgling distributor Overture Films (whose first theatrical release Mad Money opened this past weekend) paid $3.5 million for Mark (Arlington Road) Pellington's drama Henry Poole is Here starring Luke Wilson.

Stanley Tucci has become one of the most sought after and recognizable actors when it comes to both comedy and drama, although every few years, he puts back on his directors' hat, the last time being eight years ago with Joe Gould's Secret. His new movie Blind Date just had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, and like Steve Buscemi's Interview from Sundance '07, it's adapted from a Dutch film by the late Theo van Gogh.

Tucci stars alongside Patricia Clarkson as a married couple whose marriage has fallen apart with the only way for them to reconnect and fix things is by setting up a series of fantasy blind dates where they meet as if for the first time and work out their problems. While it's clearly not the most accessible film in the world, being very dialogue-driven, it's a fascinating look at a troubled relationship trying to repair itself that sticks with you.

ComingSoon.net had a chance to sit down with Mr. Tucci during a crazy day of interviews down on Main Street in Park City.

Smart People (Miramax – April 11)
Directed by Noam Murro; Written by Mark Jude Poirier
Starring Dennis Quaid, Sarah Jessica Parker, Thomas Haden Church, Ellen Page, Ashton Holmes, David Denman, Camille Mana

Miramax probably knew that they had very little to lose by premiering commercial director Noam Murro's feature film debut "Smart People" at the Sundance Film Festival this year. After all, a star-studded indie drama like this one fits right in with Sundance, and a world premiere is sure to fill the Eccles Theatre. Sure enough, there wasn't an empty seat in the house as the stargazers were there with cameras ready to take pictures of the film's cast in attendance. Gauging by the audience reaction to the movie, this screening should help the company's spring release more than last year's Sundance premiere of "Eagle vs. Shark" did.

Got home late after a public screening at the Library of The Great Buck Howard, my favorite movie of the festival so far, and I'm quite exhausted, but I have a feeling that tomorrow will be the real test of endurance as I try to squeeze in between five or maybe even six movies. It'll start early with Craig Lucas' Birds of America starring Matthew Perry, followed quickly by my most anticipated movie of the festival Sunshine Cleaning starring Amy Adams and Emily Blunt, and right after that, I'll be seeing the revenge thriller Red starring Brian Cox. After a quick break to eat, I'll be heading back to the library for the world premiere of Hamlet II starring Steve Coogan, which entered the festival so late that it wasn't included in the program or guide. I was hoping to catch Rawson Marshall Thurber's adaptation of Michael Chabon's The Mysteries of PIttsburgh, but it might be cutting it too close, but either way, my day will end with the 9:30 screening of Downloading Nancy with Maria Bello, who I'll be talking to on Tuesday.

Although the Sundance Film Festival tends to get a bad rap for its gloomy and depressing dramatic fare, we spent most of Day 2 at the festival watching comedies of various degrees of humor from well-established directors like Barry Levinson and from talented newcomers like Jonathan Levine, while actor-writer-director Stanley Tucci follows his pal Steve Buscemi by remaking a movie by the late Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh.

Anne Thompson, Variety's queen of Sundance acquisition scoops, has reported about the first film sold at this year's festival as HBO Documentaries has picked up the American rights for Marina Zenovich's fascinating documentary Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, which looks at the 1977 case of Polanski having sex with a 13-year-old girl that ultimately sent him into exile in France. It's undetermined whether the movie might get a U.S. theatrical release--one day earlier, the Weinstein Company picked up the worldwide theatrical rights--but you can read Anne's full report here, and check back soon for our review of the movie.

I seem to have become turned around with what day it is, because some people consider the festival's Opening Night to be "Day 1" but me, I consider Opening Night to be Opening Night and the first day to be Friday the 18th. With that in mind, we're onto our third day at the festival with a lighter schedule that will hopefully allow us to get a bunch of reviews done and posted so you can see what's been good at the festival so far. This afternoon we'll be talking to Jonathan Levine and the cast of his New York retro-comedy The Wackness, and then later, we'll try to catch the Sundance premiere of Miramax's Smart People and we have a couple of choices later like Alex Gibney's Hunter S. Thompson doc Gonzo or one of two thrillers that are likely to be covered over on ShockTillYouDrop. We ended up missing Chris Waitt's autobiographical doc A Complete History of My Sexual Failures so that's also a possibility, as is the comedy The Great Buck Howard. So yeah, tonight is a mess with way too many choices, so we'll be playing it a bit more by ear than the last couple days. Either way, look for more reviews of what we've seen so far to be posted today.

Transsiberian
Directed by Brad Anderson; Written by Brad Anderson and Will Conroy
Starring Woody Harrelson, Emily Mortimer, Kate Mara, Eduardo Noriega, Ben Kingsley, Thomas Kretchsmann

Only a few months after Wes Anderson released "The Darjeeling Limited", his indie namesake Brad Anderson has also used a train for the setting of his latest venture, a crime-thriller inspired by Anderson's own trip to Eastern Asia. While Anderson is best known for his psychological horror film "Session 9" and the even odder mind-f*ck thriller "The Machinist," his new movie is somewhat of a departure in that it's more of a real world crime-thriller that's far more accessible and mainstream film than some of his past work, and it's a movie that can probably be enjoyed more by a mass audience due to its visceral use of fear while traveling.

In the middle of a long day of screenings, having just seen the documentary Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired (Really good...review coming soon) and gearing up for Stanley Tucci's Blind Date and then Jonathan Levine's The Wackness, which I've heard from one trusted source is also great! Already starting to fall behind on posting reviews but hope to have some up today, including one of Brad Anderson's crime-thriller Transsiberian, which I was last night at its Eccles premiere. (Long and short of it, Emily Mortimer is great, but the premise is somewhat obvious with excessive twists.)

After that, I went down to Main Street for an exclusive screening of the rock doc Counting in Fives about the British punk/noise band The Horrors, which was struck by a power outtage that hit all of Main Street, creating all sorts of chaos. (I noticed that yesterday, the first day of the festival, was more chaotic than normal with shuttle buses malfunctioning and getting lost. (No kidding, I actually was on a shuttle that took a wrong turn and couldn't figure out how to get back on its proper route.) Traffic yesterday was also particularly nasty, really screwing up a lot of people's plans. Hopefully, the kinks will be worked out and things will get easier, especially since my schedule is getting much busier in the next few days.

As far as later today, I'm hoping to get to the premiere of Barry Levinson's What Just Happened? also at the Eccles this evening, which should be similarly mobbed, and hopefully I'll have some time to write reviews in between. (I'm also interviewing Tucci and his co-star Patricia Clarkson for their movie in between everything else, which means at least one trip down to Main Street.)

Maybe today was considered Day 1, but not really because there was only one movie playing, but tomorrow the festival begins in earnest, and frankly, it's going to be fairly light. I'm going to see this Spanish documentary called Stranded in the morning about a plane crash where people survived by eating those who died--most airlines don't serve food anymore anyway--and then much later in the day, I have a ticket for the premiere of Brad (Session 9) Anderson's new thriller Transsiberian about an encounter on a train. (I would have loved to check out Sean Ellis' The Broken but I could only get one public ticket and that one was sold out.) After that, I plan to head down to Main Street to see a new documentary about the British rock group The Horrors and apparently, there's a party afterwards, so that's my day. Like I said, fairly light compared to Day 1 last year where I had six movies ranging from 9 AM until a midnight screening. I'm sure I'll have a few four or five movie days to come, not to mention interviews, which start Saturday, so we'll see how I hold up on the posting this year. Please feel free to let me know if there's anything in particular you're interested in hearing about.

In Bruges (Focus – Feb. 8)
Written and directed by Martin McDonagh
Starring Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Ralph Fiennes, Clémence Poésy, Elizabeth Berrington, Jordan Prentice, Eric Godon

Focus Features decided to do something different with their first movie of 2008, holding it until the opening night of the Sundance Film Festival before screening it for critics—ANY critics. Now usually, that would be a warning sign that a movie isn't very good and they're worried about word getting out, but in fact, it was a strategy, and a very clever one to make sure everyone saw it in the best possible environment, and you really couldn't do any better than Opening Night at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival before all the critics are tired and burt-out. While we didn't catch one of the film's two world premieres at the Eccles, it allowed us our first of many screenings for the festival at the Yarrow Hotel, reminding us why it's such a great place to see a movie for the first time.

The Sundance Film Festival starts in earnest tonight with the world premiere of Martin McDonagh's In Bruges, but ComingSoon.net had a chance to catch a few early screenings of a diverse batch of movies that range from documentary, period drama and strange foreign thrillers, two of them written by the same screenwriter. It's a mixed bag for sure, but a good cross-section of what to expect from this year's festival.

Although we skipped out on this year's Sundance Opening Day press conference, a press release was quickly released with quotes from Sundance found Robert Redford, the festival's director Geoffrey Gilmore and Martin McDonagh, who directed the festival's Opening Night film, In Bruges, which we'll have a review of later tonight. (We'll also have an our own exclusive interview with McDonagh shortly.)

This will be ComingSoon.net's second year covering the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, and we expect to see just as many if not more movies than last year now that we know the lay of the land. As most people in the movie biz already know, Sundance is very much a market festival, the first chance every year for studios to look at independently-produced movies to buy for their line-up, and this year, that's very important because the writers strike has kept studios from buying scripts for the past three months, while scripts in development are languishing without writers to work on them. Because of this, available movies that play at the festival this year will probably be a lot more expensive, which is daunting when you think about the box office potential of the movies that play at Sundance. (You can read more about this in our Sundance 2007 Scorecard)

Below are some of the movies that may be of interest and will more than likely be written about in some way or form over the next eight days. (You can also check out some thoughts on the genre movies that will be covered by Ryan Rotten over on his site ShockTillYouDrop.com.)

A big deal is made every year about the Sundance Film Festival and while those who've never been might not understand why it's so important, actually being at the festival and feeling the buzz in the air certainly creates an environment where filmmaking is allowed to thrive. Having attended last year, we certainly can see why Sundance is considered one of the three main film festivals every year, and being the first of the year, it's the first chance for moviegoers, studio buyers, critics and film writers to see the mostly independent movies that will be making waves over the course of the year. This year the festival is especially important because the ongoing writers strike has made it hard for the bigger studios to get productions going on some of their movies, and they'll be looking at this year's festival offerings as potentially cheap purchases that might make them some money over the course of the year.

But how much money could these movies possibly make? If you look at our coverage from last year, you'll see news of some of the purchases made by indie distributors like Weinstein Company and the studio subsidiaries like Fox Searchlight and Paramount Vantage. Many of these movies haven't even been released yet, but others have been released to very little fanfare. You might be surprised to learn that only ONE movie has made more than $10 million after playing at the Sundance Film Festival last year, and this includes movies that premiered there already having distribution.

Maybe that's why Anne Thompson has written a "Buyer Beware" article about this year's festival that you can read on her blog. Last year, Anne was still at the Hollywood Reporter and she broke a lot of the stories about studio purchases, so it'll be interesting to see if this year's festival turns into a feeding frenzy with studios overpaying just to have movies to release later in the year, or if a lot of good movies leave the festival without distribution because studios are worried about not making their money back by picking up films with indie sensibilities.

The 2008 Sundance Film Festival today announced its full line-up of films in competition at the festival, which runs from January 17 - January 27, 2008 in Park City, Salt Lake City, Sundance and Ogden, Utah. 121 feature-length films were selected from the 3,624 submissions, with roughly 55% of those coming from the United States. Some of the highlights including new documentaries about Patti Smith, Roman Polanski and Dr. Hunter S. Thompson (the latter by Alex Gibney, who directed "Enron: The Smartest Men in the Room"). Some of the dramatic features of interest include "Sugar", a new movie from the "Half Nelson" directing duo of Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, Clark Gregg's adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk's "Choke" starring Sam Rockwell, Rawson Marshall Thurber's adaptation of Michael Chabon's "The Mysteries of Pittsburgh" and many films from first-time filmmakers, including a number with big stars like Amy Adams, Maria Bello, Ben Kingsley, Sienna Miller and others, all of whom should be up in Park City for the festival.

The complete press release from the festival including the complete list of movies in competition follows the jump.

Sony Pictures Classics announced today that they have acquired the US rights to Interview, based on the late director, Theo Van Gogh's (four-time Dutch Academy Award winner) film of the same name. Steve Buscemi (Reservoir Dogs, Fargo and "The Sopranos") returns to the director helm after the award nominated success of Trees Lounge (1996), Animal Factory (2000), and the 2005 Sundance Grand Jury Prize nominee Lonesome Jim. Buscemi, who also wrote the screenplay for Interview stars opposite Sienna Miller (Alfie, Casanova and Factory Girl) in this passionate drama about two polar opposite characters and their unforeseen encounter.

A press release was sent out by Fox Searchlight on Friday that they had acquired the North American distribution rights to John Carney's Irish musical Once, starring musical collaborators Glen Hansard of The Frames and Marteka Irgolva from Czechoslovakia. The film has been the talk of the Sundance Film Festival, having won the Audience Award in the World Dramatic competition.

ComingSoon.net conducted interviews with director John Carney and singer/lead actor Glen Hansard at the Sundance Film Festival, which can be read here. The full press release can be read by clicking on the link below.

The Sundance Film Festival announced the winners of their 2007 Jury and Audience prizes at the Closing Awards Ceremony in Park City, Utah.

The Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic, considered the top prize of the festival, went to Christopher Zalla's Padre Nuestro, while the Grand Jury Prize: Documentary went to Jason Kohn's Manda Bala (Send a Bullet). In the World Cinema categories, Jury Prizes went to Enemies of Happiness for documentary and Sweet Mud for dramatic.

The Audience Awards in the four categories went to:

Dramatic: James C. Strouse's Grace is Gone (previously reported as having won the Jury Prize and the first festival sale to The Weinstein Company)

Documentary: Irene Taylor Brodsky's Hear and Now

World Cinema Dramatic: John Carney's Once (I called this winner shortly after seeing the movie!)

World Cinema Documentary: David Sington's In the Shadow of the Moon (Picked up for released by THINKFIlm a few days ago)

Directing Awards went to Sean and Andrea Nix Fine for War/Dance (doc) and Jeffrey Blitz for Rocket Science (dramatic), while Cinematography Awards went to Manda Bala (doc) and Joshua (dramatic), and the documentary Nanking received an award for Editing.

You can download a PDF listing all of the winners including the Special Jury Prizes by clicking here.

The Sundance Film Festival still has a few more days before it winds down, but I'm already back home in New York City, having seen a lot of great films, a number of good films and thankfully, only a couple really awful films. This being my first year at the festival, I have no idea how it compares to previous ones, but if this is the worst that the festival has to offer (as some of my grumpier colleagues seem to think), I'd love to be there during a good year, because it was everything I expected and more.

While I didn't get to see everything I wanted to see and missed a few of the movies that were making the news after being bought, I saw enough decent movies to come up with a list of my favorites, many of which have already been discussed on the Blog but deserve one more mention:

Now that I'm safely back in my New York apartment, which is a bit more cramped than my spacious Park City hotel room, it's time to reflect on my first visit to the Sundance Film Festival. This post isn't so much about the movies, which I hope have been well-covered in the rest of the blog, but about my own personal experiences and memories of my first time there.

The Hollywood Reporter has the scoop that Mike Cahill's dark comedy King of California has been picked up by First Look Pictures for just under $3 million after its screening at the Sundance Film Festival. The movie stars Michael Douglas as a man released from a mental institution who starts planning crazy schemes with his teen daughter, played by Evan Rachel Wood.

The packed Sundance press and industry screening of Waitress wasn't too surprising considering the amount of attention the film has gotten due to the tragic murder of writer-director-actress Adrienne Shelly last November and the quick pick-up by Fox Searchlight over the weekend.

One probably can spend a lot of time dwelling on Shelly's murder when writing about her swan song or one can look past the negative and appreciate the fact that at least Shelly was able to complete her third and final film and that she'll achieve more fame and success post-morten by departing on a high point, which Waitress most certainly is.

The story centers around three waitresses who work at a smalltown Southern pie shop, in particular Jenna (Keri Russell), who has just learned she's pregnant from her abusive husband Earl (Jeremy Sisto) and that she's carrying baby of a man she doesn't love anymore. But before you take your violin out of its case, this is actually a comedy.

Three quirky new movies playing at this year's Sundance Film Festival have little in common, except that they're all very original, very different, and each of them is looking for distribution despite being hard to categorize or draw comparisons to other movies.

In that sense, The Ten may be the easiest of the trio to sell, being a straight comedy from David Wain and Ken Marino of "The State" and Wet Hot American Summer fame, while The Nines and Slipstream are two highly ambitious experimental films, the first from screenwriter John August and the second from actor Anthony Hopkins.

John August Interview

On December 8, 1980, Mark David Chapman shot John Lennon dead outside the Dakota Hotel. Not much is known about Lennon's assailant, but Chapter 27, a new movie by Jarrett Schaefer starring Jaret Leto as Chapman, tries its best to get into the killer's head. A big deal had been made about the amount of weight the normally rail-thin Leto put-on to play the part, following in the method acting footsteps of De Niro's Jake LaMotta in Raging Bull, but little else is known about the film, which is why many journalists and critics jumped on the early screening tonight at the Holiday Village. (The movie premieres at the festival on Thursday night at the Eccles.)

There was a full to capacity crowd at the Yarrow for the first press screening of Deborah Kempmeir's Hounddog or as it's affectionately become nicknamed, "The Dakota Fanning Rape Movie." It's been one of the most talked about movies playing at the festival since it was announced that it would be in competition, and as expected, there was a lot of morbid curiosity after right wing conservatives slammed the film as being child endangerment. In this coming-of-age tale, Fanning plays a young Southern girl from a broken family named Lewellen, who's obsessed with Elvis Presley. As much controversy that has surrounded the movie because of the much-hyped rape scene, that's not even remotely the worst offense of this tedious and overrated film.

Garth Jennings and Nick Goldsmith are better known as British production duo Hammer and Tongs, who have created some of the country's most inventive and innovative music videos. A few years back, they took on Douglas Adams' The Hitchhicker's Guide to the Galaxy, but for their second feature film, Son of Rambow, they take on a smaller story about two young school chums from different backgrounds, and in a mere 94 minutes, it has become my favorite movie of this year's Sundance Film Festival.

The Hollywood Reporter has announced the aquisition of even more movies at the Sundance Film Festival, including actor Justin Theroux's debut feature, Dedication, which went to The Weinstein Company in conjunction with First Look International for $4 million. (TWC will handle the domestic release.

Paramount Vantage has scooped up two movies themselves, making the biggest buy of the festival by paying $7 million for Garth Jennings' rites-of-passage comedy Son of Rambow (review coming soon!) and Ian Iqbal Rashid's Canadian drama How She Move, set in the world of a step-dancing competition. The latter was picked up for $3 to 4 million.

It has been announced that Fortissimo Films has bought the international rights to Nanking, Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman's documentary about the Japanese invasion of the Chinese capitol of Nanking at the start of WWII, which was in the documentary competition at the Sundance Film Festival.

(Full press release at the link.)

No one will be too surprised to see a film or two starring Steven Buscemi at the Sundance Film Festival, since he's been a mainstay in indie films that have played at the fest, including a few that he directed. What's odd about this year's Buscemi offerings, Delirious and Interview, is that they have many things in common, particularly the insightful way they look at the pretensions of the entertainment business. Delirious is the first film in five years from Tom DiCillo, reuniting the director with Buscemi after working together on his early films like Living in Oblivion and Box of Moonlight. Interview is Buscemi's fourth feature film as a director, a remake of the late Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh's film of the same name.

I know that I've been a bit remiss in updating readers as planned with what's to come, but when you get home at 3 in the morning after seeing betwe