Eric Lavallée

I'm really late on this one - but it's worth the mention and showcasing all the same. The first batch of stills for Sean Durkin's Martha Marcy May Marlene were released not much time after the film was named among Sundance's U.S Dramatic Competition. Below we see the film's lead in Elizabeth Olsen, and supporting actors John Hawkes and Sarah Paulson. The film is not necessarily an expansion of Durkin's impressive short film Mary Last Seen, but it borrows from the same ideas and apart from setting, we'll soon see if both films share other common traits such as the characters and film's tone.

Magnet Releasing have made the first true pre-Sundance Film Festival pick-up grabbing the rights to Jason Eisener's directorial debut film which already looks to be one of the highlights in the Park City at Midnight section. Hobo With A Shotgun receives a Midnight section of Sundance on January 21 and will surely be found at SXSW before a theatrical release.

Dominic Murphy, the uber-talented filmmaker who blasted onto the scene with the Sundance/Berlin debut feature film White Lightnin', a pic I'm sure a very small percentage of our readers have seen, will next direct another relationship-themed film in Cassandra at the Wedding.

As Rodrigo Garcia is currently readying himself for the Albert Nobbs shoot, Fox Searchlight is readying the Mother & Child director to perhaps next work from a Jose Rivera-penned adaptation of an Oscar-nominated Short Subject documentary La Corona. Julie Lynn, who's been producing alongside Garcia since Nine Lives, will produce.

Next week is when hopeful screenwriters who've had one of their scripts circulate the respective production houses are hoping that their screenplay gets a couple of extra bites. Now in it's sixth year, it'll also be a time when curious onlookers such as film executives, development people, agents and hardcore cinephiles take a gather at a list that emphasizes quality and original writing. blcklst.com has been all spruced up for the occasion --- so you should definitely check back there to see what 2010 will reveal -- and if you're like us and like to revisit Best of Lists of the previous years. Last year over 300 executives contributed their opinion to make up a Black List that had a Muppet Movie (not the Jason Segel project) in the number one spot and The Social Network at number 2.