2015 Sundance Film Festival Predictions: Ryan Gosling’s Lost River

Ryan Gosling moved into the director’s chair in 2013. Though it was cheered at its reception, Lost River (formerly titled “How to Catch a Monster”) it was jeered by a good majority critics after its premiere screening in the Un Certain Regard section at that Cannes Film Festival this past May. Since then, not a word. Not a sound. No North American premiere, just a release date planned for next February in France. If Warner Bros. still had an indie label, the distinctly art-house film wouldn’t be shrouded in release date mystery. My thinking is: the studio simply don’t know what to do with it. In comes Sundance. A second home to the actor for two segments in his career: the formative years (The United States of Leland, The Believer, The Slaughter Rule) and the break out years (Half Nelson and Blue Valentine). Could Sundance programmers reel in this distinctive, hemorrhaging Detroit and piece of Americana. Christina Hendricks, Iain De Caestecker, Matt Smith, Saoirse Ronan, Eva Mendes, Ben Mendelsohn and Rob Zabrecky star in what might could be a tweaked future director’s cut.

Gist: A single mother (Christina Hendricks) is swept into a dark underworld, while her teenage son discovers a road that leads him to a secret underwater town.

Production Co./Producers: Ryan Gosling, David Lancaster Productions’ David Lancaster (Nightcrawler), Bold Films’ Michel Litvak (Drive), Marc Platt (Song One).

Prediction: One of the eight titles in the Spotlight section.

U.S. Distributor: Warner Bros.

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