Screen Rant » sundance

HBO Turning Sundance Documentary ‘Knuckle’ Into TV Series

Sandy Schaefer — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 16:19:10 +0000

Knuckle, a (literally) hard-hitting documentary about feuding Irish clans that premiered last week at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, is being turned into (presumably) another gritty TV series over at HBO, with assistance from the producers behind the cable channel’s Eastbound & Down.

Those currently attached to the project include the likes of Kenny Powers himself (actor Danny McBride) and director David Gordon Green – a pair whose previous collaborations also include the stoner action-comedy Pineapple Express and the upcoming Medieval stoner action-comedy, Your Highness.

Deadline says that the likes of Gerard Butler, Robert Downey Jr., and Vin Diesel were also vying to secure remake rights to Knuckle, a film shot primarily on low-grade stock by Irish filmmaker Ian Palmer over the course of twelve years. The project focuses on a feud between ...

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‘The Troll Hunter’ Trailer & Images Feature Trolls and Hunters

Paul Young — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 17:38:13 +0000

Ever since the first images and teaser clips for the Norwegian-made Trolljegeren or The Troll Hunter made their way onto the Internet last year, buzz surrounding the faux documentary has been building steadily.

André Øvredal is making a huge splash everywhere his film is shown and that trend is most likely to continue when The Troll Hunter shows to audiences at the Sundance Film Festival later this month.

The Troll Hunter was written and directed by Øvredal and stars Otto Jesperen as the trolljegeren, Hans Morten Hansen, Tomas Alf Larsen, Johanna Mørck and Robert Stoltenberg.

You can watch the official trailer for The Troll Hunter below and it touts some impressive visual effects for a small budget independent film.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4PGFODxiJc

The film doesn’t seem to lack in ...

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Hobo with a Shotgun Images are Violent and Strange

Paul Young — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 15:20:41 +0000

Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez are enjoying some unexpected success from their disappointing 2007 attempt to bring back Grindhouse-style double features.

Even though Planet Terror and Death Proof didn’t garner the box office success some people thought they deserved, several of the faux trailers they commissioned to accompany those films are being made into full-length feature films – Machete, Hobo with a Shotgun and Thanksgiving.

Machete (by Robert Rodriguez) chopped its way into theaters this past summer; Thanksgiving (Eli Roth’s horror film) is in the planning stages; and Jason Eisener’s dark comedy/action/vigilante film Hobo with a Shotgun will be in theaters later this year. Hobo with a Shotgun will have its world premier at the midnight opening of the Sundance Film Festival this month, and they’ve released several production stills in advance.

You ...

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Creepy Teaser Trailer for Kevin Smith’s ‘Red State’

Ross Miller — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 21:34:46 +0000

Kevin Smith has spent almost his entire career making movies on his own terms, featuring humor that he finds funny, and often featuring the same characters and actors popping up time and time again (not least of which are his signature creations, Jay and Silent Bob).

While Smith’s next film, Red State, may have still been made on his own terms, it sees him out of his comfort zone and working in the land of horror for the first time.

There’s been a lot of talk around the web about Red State, but today we get our first official teaser trailer for the movie – courtesy of Smith’s own Smodcast.com – to give us a taste of what Smith’s first foray into horror will be like. I have to say, the teaser does a lot ...

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‘Cedar Rapids’ Trailer Features R-Rated Office Antics

Sandy Schaefer — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 17:11:52 +0000

When not engaging in drunken acts of debauchery in the Hangover movies, Ed Helms mostly spends his days playing the A cappella-singing, socially awkward Andy Bernard on The Office. Now he’s headlining a pic titled Cedar Rapids that looks to mesh the comedic styles of Helms’ previous onscreen ventures.

The newly released Cedar Rapids trailer finds Helms joining forces with John C. Reilly, Anne Heche, and Isiah Whitlock Jr. as they engage in shenanigans that include drunken swim parties, rock climbing, prostitutes – all at an Iowan insurance convention.

Helms stars in Cedar Rapids as Tim Lippe, a tight-laced insurance agent who combs his hair straight and has never dared to venture outside his small hometown before. Sent by his company to a convention in the titular city, Tim inadvertently hooks up with the party-happy Dean ...

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Towelhead Review

Vic Holtreman — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 16:00:37 +0000

Short version: Towelhead manages to balance humor and drama in this cautionary tale of a 13 year old girl’s burgeoning sexuality.

Like many films shown at Sundance this year, Towelhead combined different styles (humor and drama), but does it more successfully than most. It’s the story of a thirteen year old girl who is half Lebanese / half WASP whose physical development is quite ahead of her age. Towelhead (aka Nothing is Private) was written, directed and produced by Alan Ball, the same fellow who wrote the screenplay for the similarly themed American Beauty a few years ago.

Expectedly, due to the content of this film, it has only been picked up for limited distribution at theaters but it’s definitely worth seeing if you can handle the subject matter.

Summer Bishil (who was 19 ...

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Hounddog Review

Vic Holtreman — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 15:38:47 +0000

Short version: Were it not for the Dakota Fanning rape scene controversy, no one would be talking about this boring film.

So you’ve heard all the talk, accusations and screaming about the film Hounddog (or as many spelling-impaired people are writing it: Houndog) screening at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival starring Dakota Fanning but haven’t seen the film. The big question on people’s mind is “Just how outrageous or explicit was that rape scene?”

So you can gauge my answer, keep in mind that although this is a movie & TV website, for the most part I’ve come at stories from the point of view of a parent when it’s appropriate. I do not want every movie release to be Rated G, but on the other hand it ...

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Review: Be Kind Rewind

Vic Holtreman — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 13:54:35 +0000

By Vic Holtreman

Short version: Jack Black is awesome in this movie that starts out hysterically funny but veers off into sentimentality.

Two things could have made Be Kind Rewind better:

1. If it actually had been made on a shoestring budget by a couple of buddies.

2. If it had stuck with the premise of being a comedy all the way through to the end.

Aside from those points, it was still a great film.

Jack Black stars as Jerry, a uneducated slacker with big dreams who lives in a trailer. He’s pals with Mike (played by Mos Def), a low-key guy without any big aspirations who works at one of the last few VHS video rental stores left in New Jersey.

Jerry gets electrocuted while trying to sabotage a power plant, the side effect of which is that he is ...

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Review: The Signal

Vic Holtreman — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 02:50:06 +0000

By Vic Holtreman

Short version: Funny, scary, gory and unpredictable, this is sure to become a cult classic with a strong following.

The Signal was one of my favorite films from those I had the opportunity to watch and review at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. As a longtime horror movie fan (much more of older stuff than what’s come out recently), it was great on many levels and fortunately you’ll be getting the opportunity to see it soon as it was picked up for theatrical distribution.

There was a short film before the main feature called Little Farm which was shot in only 48 hours. Given that constraint it wasn’t bad, except for the fact the two of the three main characters gave pretty close to the worst performances I’ve ever seen on screen. Aside from that, although it was ...

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Heath Ledger Death News Sweeps Through Sundance

Vic Holtreman — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 04:45:19 +0000

Today was only the second day I made it up to Park City for Sundance and I had planned on doing a summary post of the day. Without a doubt the biggest news of the day was learning that Heath Ledger was dead.

That news utterly and completely swept the news of the Oscar nominees away. Everywhere I turned people were talking about Heath’s death – most in shock and talking about what a tragedy it was. Some of the more pragmatic ones wondering how this would affect the release and marketing strategy for The Dark Knight, Heath’s final completed film in which he has been getting rave reviews over his scenes as the Joker.

I’m not going to lie and say I was some huge fan of Ledger. I didn’t dislike the guy – ...

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Review: Downloading Nancy

Vic Holtreman — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 19:22:21 +0000

By Vic Holtreman

Short version: A bleak and starkly shot film that left me feeling like I needed a shower after watching it.

Downloading Nancy premiered here at Sundance 2008 and is the story of Nancy (played by Maria Bello), a severely emotionally damaged woman married to and emotionally cold man (Rufus Sewell as Albert) who turns to the internet for companionship.

The film opens with Nancy discussing her thoughts on what happens after you die with another woman. At this point it sounds like she is optimistic about the afterlife while her friend is very negative and keeps bringing up counterpoints to make it sound like she could be somehow trapped in some way after death. As it turns out, the friend turns out to be a therapist who is trying to convince Nancy that death is not an escape or freedom.

Her husband Albert is a ...

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First Day At Sundance 2008

Vic Holtreman — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 23:41:31 +0000

I drove up to Park City yesterday and ran into a few movie blogger friends of mine: Alex from FirstShowing.net, Peter from /Film and Neil from Film School Rejects (yes, that’s really the name of his site).

I hung out with them while they got settled in at their condo, then we went out for a bite to eat where I dropped $24 on a cheeseburger and a Guiness. Yeesh! After that we attended the premiere of In Bruges, which I’ve reviewed. It’s a hard movie to describe, so if you’re interested just read the review. I don’t think it’s going to do very well at the box office but that’s not because it’s necessarily a bad movie… it’s just kind of odd.

After that we headed to the party for ...

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Review: In Bruges

Vic Holtreman — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 02:26:28 +0000

By Vic Holtreman

Short version: While the individual parts of the movie satisfy, In Bruges doesn’t really come together as a whole.

Back in November I posted the trailer to In Bruges and commented that it looked like a movie that would not be a hit with mainstream audiences but those that like indie movies would probably love it. Well I just watched it and I’m more certain than ever that my first reaction will turn out to be accurate.

Right from the opening frame of the movie it seems that the director is intent on keeping the audience off-balance. The camera pans across various landmarks and streets in the beautiful town of Bruges, Belgium with music that sounds like it comes from some French romance movie. But as this is happening, we get quick cuts to the two main characters, Ray ...

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Sundance 2008 Movie Buzz

Vic Holtreman — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 16:28:30 +0000

The 2008 Sundance Film Festival begins this week and I’ll be doing my best to cover it with my time-limited schedule. I thought I’d start coverage with a report on the movies that seem to be the ones getting the biggest pre-opening buzz.

These are some of the movies that are getting the most attention and are most likely to to be talked about quite a bit in the next couple of weeks on movie sites:

Sleep Dealer
This is one of the few sci-fi films showing this year. It is set in a near future in which there is an underground class of “node workers” who plug their nervous systems into a global computer network that commodifies memory. A private company has hijacked control of a local water supply and ...

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2008 Sundance Film Festival Lineup

Vic Holtreman — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 01:11:45 +0000

Here’s the lineup of movies to be shown at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. It includes both documentaries and dramas both domestic and international.

I’ll be taking a look at the offerings in a future post to see what stands out or might be interesting and worthwhile since there are 121 movies listed here.

DRAMATIC COMPETITION

AMERICAN SON (Director: Neil Abramson; Screenwriter: Eric Schmid) — Before being deployed
for active duty, a young Marine takes a four-day Thanksgiving leave to return home to Bakersfield,
California. There he meets a young woman, tries to connect with old friends, and confronts his
volatile home life. Cast: Nick Cannon, Melonie Diaz, Matt O’Leary, Jay Hernandez, Tom Sizemore,
Chi McBride. World Premiere

ANYWHERE, U.S.A. (Director: Anthony (Chusy) Haney-Jardine; Screenwriters: Anthony (Chusy)
Haney-Jardine, Jennifer Macdonald) — Told in three segments ranging from satirical to tragic, the
film is a wildly original look at ...

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In Bruges: Awful Title, Funny Trailer

Vic Holtreman — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 17:16:14 +0000

This past weekend I saw the trailer for In Bruges with No Country for Old Men. It looked very funny and I suppose you’d have to categorize it under Quirky Black Comedy. The film will open the Sundance Film Festival a little over a month from now, so I found it odd to see a trailer for it at a movie theater. Generally trailers are only shown for movies that are “coming soon to a theater near you” but after some checking I see that this has already been picked up by Focus Features for at least a limited release in February ’08.

I don’t think this will be a big hit with mainstream audiences, but it looks like one of those little indie flicks that might end up being considered an undiscovered gem.

The movie is about hit men ...

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Sundance 2007 Wrap-Up

Vic Holtreman — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 06:17:43 +0000

It’s officially over.

This was my first year attending the Sundance Film Festival, and it won’t be my last.

Sundance was a pretty cool experience… there’s nothing quite like being a movie lover and spending time in a town full of other fans of film. One of the best things about attending screenings at the Festival is the fact that everyone who is in the audience is there to see the movie. Through eight different films I didn’t hear a single cell phone ring, did not see a single child under the age of 10 watching a film with adult content and did not have to listen to anyone’s conversation during a showing even ONCE.

Man, that was AWESOME. If I could get the same experience at my local multiplex ...

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Review: My Kid Could Paint That

Vic Holtreman — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 16:18:31 +0000

By Vic Holtreman

Short version: A fascinating look at the world of modern art (seriously!) and the questions of whether a four year old’s paintings can compete and whether those paintings were genuine.

My Kid Could Paint That was the last film I saw at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, and is a fascinating look at the story of four year old Marla Olmstead, who a couple of years ago took the art world by storm by rocketing from lower middle class obscurity to international fame through the sale of her paintings. This documentary by director Amir Bar-Lev is extremely well done and is about as close to neutral as I think one could get.

At the time of the documentary was shot, the Olmsteads had sold more than $300,000 worth of Marla’s paintings. Those in the art ...

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Review: Weapons

Vic Holtreman — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 12:35:52 +0000

By Vic Holtreman

Short version: An interesting idea poorly executed.

(Image from Cinempire.com)

In order to make it to the showing of Weapons at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival I had to leave the post-movie Q&A for Black Snake Moan early. The only reason I’m not totally annoyed with myself for doing that is that the short film preceding the main feature, A Nick in Time by Be’ Garrett was outstanding.

When I read the description for director/screenwriter Adam Bhala Lough’s Weapons, I had a feeling it might not be up my alley but I figured I’d give it a shot anyway. In the end I should have passed on it, and many people I spoke to after the showing had the same, if not stronger opinions to the negative as ...

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Review: Black Snake Moan

Vic Holtreman — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 12:41:39 +0000

By Vic Holtreman

Short version: Funny, gripping, violent, and erotic, this movie from the creator of “Hustle and Flow” stands out from the crowd big time.

Up until now I haven’t seen director Craig Brewer’s hit movie Hustle & Flow, but I’m going to make it a point to see it now. If it has any of the power and style of Black Snake Moan, I’m in for a treat.

Black Snake Moan was a hot ticket at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, and little did I know that I was attending the premiere of the film at that particular showing. It was through sheer luck that I got in, trading my ticket for the very wierd horror-comedy Teeth for the opportunity to see this film. That was a good call.
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