Judging by the flurry of high-profile buying activity this weekend at Sundance, it looks as if distributors think independent film may be somewhat profitable again. Let's hope that the theatrical releases of the latest batch of acquisitions don't prove them wrong. Here's a rundown of the next Sundance films headed to a theater near you, including Paul Rudd as a hippie, this year's seminal indie love-story, and the Antonio Banderas/Snoop Dog thrill ride you've been waiting for.
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The fun at the Levi's Dockers House on Main Street in Park City never stops. Just ask director and 2011 Sundance Film Festival juror Kimberly Peirce, who sat down with Movieline's own Elvis Mitchell to discuss what makes her temporary festival job so rewarding, and how she first arrived at Sundance back in 1997. Click ahead to watch the latest in our Sundance video interview series.
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Striding onto the stage before a sold-out crowd at the Eccles Theatre on Sunday night at the Sundance Film Festival, Kevin Smith channeled legendary hucksters like P.T. Barnum, William Castle and Samuel Z. Arkoff when his promised open-bidding for the distribution rights to his new horror film Red State turned into Smith's announcement that he would take the movie out himself under his new SModcast Pictures banner. (Not that you should be clamoring to see it, but one thing at a time.) Playing the hype game, which turned Sunday's screening into the must-see event of the festival thus far, was clearly intended to prove that he's learned a thing or two about putting butts in seats himself.
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Do tongue-twisting, pretentious-sounding, or generic movie titles turn you off of a film even before you see it? Precious, renamed from the unwieldy Push: Based on the Novel by Sapphire after its 2009 Sundance debut, we're looking at you. But every year yields a new batch of mildly nondescript-to-annoying-to-hard-to-remember film titles, and Sundance 2011 seems inundated with them, from movies from Win Win to Like Crazy to Martha Marcy May Marlene (which I dare you to remember correctly). And so, Movieline put it to our panel of critics and bloggers: Which of this year's Sundance movie titles would you rename if you could?
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Actor/writer/director and recent NYU film grad James Franco stopped by Movieline's Sundance HQ at the Levi's Dockers House in Park City for a lengthy chat with Elvis Mitchell on the smaller passion projects that drive his inner artiste, including an update on when his SNL documentary, Saturday Night, will finally hit theaters. Get your James Franco quick fix after the jump!
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The clueless will inherit the earth, apparently, or at least Park City, Utah, since holy innocents keep popping up in some of the hottest titles at this year's Sundance Film Festival:
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More guests! Movieline's Sundance interview series continues with J.K. Simmons and Lou Taylor Pucci, who trekked to Park City -- and then to the Levi's Dockers House on Main Street -- on behalf of their festival premiere The Music Never Stopped. Elvis Mitchell gets full details from the fellas after the jump.
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The sign-bearing loons at the Westboro Baptist Church have threatened to show up at Sundance to protest Kevin Smith's horror flick Red State -- and Smith, having survived similar picketing of Dogma, plans to bring a posse carrying amusing counter-protest placards -- but they won't be the only Bible-thumpers at Park City this year. Scary religious fundamentalists turn up in lots of this year's cinematic offerings.
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The opening weekend of the Sundance Film Festival might be winding down, but Movieline is just getting started with a full slate of video interviews from our digs at Levi's Dockers House on Main Street. Among the festival luminaries to pay a visit: Ed Helms stopped by to chat with Elvis Mitchell about his new film Cedar Rapids, high expectations and his first Sundance visit -- as a parking attendant.
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When the temperature in Park City drops into the single digits and you're not fortunate enough to be at one of dozens of Sundance premieres screening around town, sometimes you just have to accept the shelter of a festival swag suite. Sure, you'll miss some good films and stars, but where else will you see Lil Jon endorsing self-help literature? Let's survey the scene in pictures, shall we?
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Perhaps you're already sick of hearing about this year's Oscar race, but given that contenders like The Kids Are All Right, Animal Kingdom, and Winter's Bone all premiered at Sundance 2010, it's likely that some of the films unspooling in Park City this week will be earning nominations a year from now. And three days into the latest edition of the festival, we've found at least one to watch.
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When you've got press credentials at the Sundance Film Festival, your e-mail in-box overflows with press releases, party invites, notifications of red carpet appearances, and lots more grease for the hype machine. And just a few days in, a few notably awesome and awful publicity gimmicks have stood out:
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While Sundance 2011 barrels on with swag, chatter and sundry other thrilling Park City pastimes, sometimes you just need to see the festival for the truest sense of what's going on. Like Lil Jon playing ping-pong with Susan Sarandon, or James Franco blowing it out at his afterparty. To the slideshow!
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"Let's tear this place apart!" So instructed director Jason Eisener before Friday's midnight premiere of Hobo with a Shotgun, the unabashedly campy Canadian-American grindhouse flick about a homeless drifter who cleans up the streets of a depraved urban metropolis with only a pawn shop shotgun and plenty of gloriously insane death-dealing catchphrases in his arsenal. And while it may have disappointed Eisener and Co. that an actual riot didn't erupt before or after their film, they must have been pleased that Hobo played exactly right to just the genre-loving crowd it was made for.
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Here at Movieline HQ we like to keep our fingers on the pulse of the film world, so we'll be polling film critics and bloggers in Park City on a variety of topics throughout the week. Check in each day to hear what our panel of experts have to say about the hot films, deals, and stories coming out of Sundance '11... starting with Day 1's Big Question: Which three films do you refuse to leave Park City without having seen?
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