Two Sundances ago Brit Marling mesmerized as the leader of a cult being infiltrated by two would-be documentarians in Zal Batmanglij's Sound Of My Voice; this year she returns to Park City as the infiltrator, playing a corporate operative who goes undercover within a volatile anti-capitalist eco-anarchist group in Batmanglij's sophomore feature, The East. Hit the jump for a peek at the tense first trailer and let Ellen Page's steely-pixie voice put you on edge.
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Also in Friday afternoon's round-up of news briefs, newcomers Hotel Transylvania and Looper are tracking strong in the weekend box office. And two new titles are heading to theaters.
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Richard Gere gets the golden line in this trailer for Sundance 2012's drama-thriller Arbitrage, the feature directorial debut from Nicholas Jarecki (The Outsider). "World events all revolve around five things, M-O-N-E-Y," he says, perhaps taking a cue from Wall Street's own philosophy courtesy of Gordon Gekko (though he preferred the more direct g-r-e-e-d).
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It’s hard to say whether Sound of My Voice is a wholly bogus and pretentious indie enterprise or a weirdly compelling bit of low-budget storytelling. Probably it’s a little of both – this is the kind of picture that may often make you snort audibly, even as you’re wondering how the heck it’s going to resolve itself. And ultimately, even if the payoff isn’t quite what it should be, the picture leaves a faint chill in its wake. You probably won’t feel totally shafted for sticking with it – maybe just a little punk’d.
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Sundance '11 darling Brit Marling is now a year and change removed from the stunning festival debut that made her one to watch thanks to two films she co-wrote, produced, and starred in: The moody sci-fi drama Another Earth, released last summer, and the mesmerizing Sound of My Voice. The latter film finally hits theaters this week, giving audiences a chance to see a different side of Marling: Earthy, enigmatic, dangerously charismatic, and -- as the leader of a cult amassing members in a basement in the Valley -- possibly from the future.
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Screening the first 12 minutes of Sound of My Voice and a dynamic new trailer, Fox Searchlight opened WonderCon 2012 with everything they've got -- footage, star/co-writer Brit Marling and director Zal Batmanglij, that viral secret handshake, and an in-character appearance by the film's cult members Klaus and Mel, who addressed the Anaheim Convention Center crowd with a pitch to join them on a spiritual journey. Their invitation: Join them at Booth #348 today, where they'll be happy to meet you, discuss their beloved leader from the year 2054, and "answer any questions and help you with your future."
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Festival darling Brit Marling burst onto the scene last summer with the sci-fi indie Another Earth (and will be seen in the upcoming fiscal thriller Arbitrage opposite Richard Gere and Susan Sarandon), but her turn as a mysterious cult leader in this April's Sound of My Voice is the more impressive introduction to the charismatic up and comer. Hit the jump to watch the first 10 minutes of Sound of My Voice, courtesy of Fox Searchlight, and see for yourself.
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Park City was eerily peaceful early this morning with nobody around and last night’s dusting of snow on the ground. Soon enough – by this afternoon, or this evening, or certainly tonight – that will all change as filmmakers, press and industry folks roll in and the dreaded promoters (“leveragers,” Sundance founder Robert Redford called them in his inaugural address today) pimp out this snowy mountain town like a toddler in a tiara. Appropriately, Redford pointed to the current hardships for filmmakers, and the world at large. “Times are hard and grim,” he acknowledged, later offering optimism. “Independent film is healthy. That doesn’t mean it’s easy.”
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Earlier this year, Verge designee and writer-producer-actor Brit Marling took the festival circuit by storm with not one, but two knock-out indie films which she starred in and co-wrote: the philosophical sci-fi pic Another Earth, directed by Mike Cahill, and the cult drama Sound of My Voice, directed by Zal Batmanglij. This summer, Fox Searchlight will release the first of the Brit Marling two-fer, Another Earth, starring Marling as a young woman haunted by a chance tragedy in her past who finds hope of a sort when a duplicate Earth appears in the sky. Finally, the world will see what all the fuss was about.
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It's Brit Marling Day at Movieline! Since you'll be seeing a lot more of her in the near future, take a gander at the new trailer for Another Earth, the first of two Marling-starring Sundance flicks coming to theaters courtesy of Fox Searchlight. Alternate planets, tragedy, romance, and Marling's captivating screen presence -- it's all here. As a bonus, it's also got Ethan from Lost! Bet this ends better.
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Three months after its Sundance debut, Zal Batmanglij's stunning drama Sound of My Voice has landed a distribution deal with Fox Searchlight. The studio previously nabbed rights to Sundance '11 pick-ups The Art of Getting By (AKA Homework), Martha Marcy May Marlene, and Another Earth -- the second of two sci-fi-tinged Sundance entries co-written and starring phenom Brit Marling. Read Movieline's Verge interview with the multi-talented Marling and get ready to want to follow her anywhere. [Deadline]
Brit Marling studied economics at Georgetown and might have been an environmental activist or banker in another life if she hadn't answered the siren call of Los Angeles and moved west to risk it all as an actor. And what a payoff: having co-written, produced, and starred in two critically acclaimed films at Sundance (the sci-fi romance Another Earth and the wonderfully hard-to-define cult drama Sound of My Voice), Marling's smack dab in the middle of her well-deserved breakout moment. Movieline caught up with Marling at SXSW to discuss borderline illegal guerrilla filmmaking tricks, taking professional risks, and avoiding the "morally-corrupt swamp" that is Hollywood.
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SXSW is a fest that caters to alterna-sensibilities, so it's no surprise genre fare has done well thus far. Insidious scored high marks with the horror crowd, but The Kill List notched all-out raves from even mainstream press -- though the Conan O'Brien documentary Conan O'Brien Can't Stop contains enough rage and demon-exorcising to give both a run for their money. Meanwhile, Bellflower -- a Sundance entry in the Emerging Visions sidebar -- screens on Monday night, as does the Dance Dance Revolution thriller The FP. Yes, you read that right: a gang warfare film about Dance Dance Revolution. Don't you wish you were in Austin?
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