After crafting half a dozen shorts and adding to her repertoire with recent social platform/television writing on horror series like “The Birch” followed by “The Girl in the Woods,” with her Sundance Screenwriters Lab invited screenplay Jane Casey Modderno appears to be making a 180-degree shift to the comedy space (she aptly notes that the two genres have more similarities than differences). It was fun to speak to the Los Angeles-based filmmaker during this particular Sundance edition which appeared to embrace a more diverse group of transgender-based storytelling, venturing into new genre territories with the likes of Will & Harper, Desire Lines and I Saw the TV Glow I was reminded how we are ripe for a take-over in all subgenres especially what might be a resort backdrop sun-splashed “thirsty rom-com.” Recipient of the Sundance Institute Comedy Fellowship, Here for the Weekend is poised to bring romantic learning curve disruptions to a small group of fashion heads and from what we gather in our convo with Jane Casey Modderno is that the characters on paper will come from an even more truthful space with a wink to the influential cinema of Federico Fellini. We discussed her background and her now working in comedy, her influences and where the narrative might take us.
Sundance project synopsis: A thirsty rom-com about Cherry, a transgender Palm Springs resort manager, and her seduction of a hot, flirtatious guest with the power to make her fashion world dreams come true. But as Cherry hustles for a ticket out, she threatens to destroy the wonderfully messy, uber-queer family she’s built at home.
Throughout this week, we’ll be featuring profiles of several fellows from the recent 2024 Sundance Screenwriters Labs, all of whom we had the pleasure of speaking with during the Sundance Film Festival. Some of these projects are slated to become future films and may even debut in Park City, while a smaller fraction might not find their way to the big screen. However, being part of this select group serves as a significant source of encouragement and progression within the film industry. What’s particularly inspiring is witnessing how each of these distinctive voices is crafting original works spanning various genres, often exploring themes of politics and social engagement through cinema.
Eric Lavallée is the founder, CEO, editor-in-chief, film journalist and critic at IONCINEMA.com (founded in 2000). Eric is a regular at Sundance, Cannes and TIFF. He has a BFA in Film Studies at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema. In 2013 he served as a Narrative Competition Jury Member at the SXSW Film Festival. He was an associate producer on Mark Jackson's This Teacher (2018 LA Film Festival, 2018 BFI London). In 2022 he served as a New Flesh Comp for Best First Feature at the 2022 Fantasia Intl. Film Festival. Current top films for 2022 include Tár (Todd Field), All That Breathes (Shaunak Sen), Aftersun (Charlotte Wells).
