2016 Sundance Film Festival Predictions: Ana Lily Amirpour’s The Bad Batch

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She became an instant rockstar when A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (a film that we’ll affectionally look back at in two decades from now and consider it a seminal rocket launch beginning) was unleashed on (mostly) unsuspecting Sundance audiences in 2014. The Iranian-American filmmaker received a lot of nurturing from industry folk for her sophomore project which was announced as the best piece of news to begin 2015. Backed by none other than Annapurna Pictures’ Megan Ellison and Vice’s Danny Gabai and Sina Sayyah, production on Ana Lily Amirpour‘s The Bad Batch began back in April with hellva cast in Jason Momoa, Jim Carrey, Keanu Reeves, Suki Waterhouse and Diego Luna joining the ranks. While the more buzz worthy setting of Sundance appears logical, this might be destined to play as a prestige competitive slot at more internationally market friendly fests such as Cannes and/or Venice.

Gist: This is a post-apocalyptic tale set in a Texas wasteland where a community of cannibals reside. The film is a love story about a cannibal named Miami Man (Momoa) and his food. Suki Waterhouse will play Arlen, Diego Luna will play Jimmy, Keanu Reeves will play The Dream and Jim Carrey will play The Hermit.

Production Co./Producers: Annapurna’s Megan Ellison (Joy), Vice’s Danny Gabai and Sina Sayyah (A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night).

Prediction: The 5 million dollar budgeted production could just about fit anywhere, but this is a high end sales item so we’re thinking the Premieres section.

U.S. Distributor: Rights Available. TBD (domestic). TBD (international)

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Eric Lavallée
Eric Lavalléehttps://www.ericlavallee.com
Eric Lavallée is the founder, CEO, editor-in-chief, film journalist, and critic at IONCINEMA.com, established in 2000. A regular at Sundance, Cannes, and Venice, Eric holds a BFA in film studies from the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema. In 2013, he served on the narrative competition jury 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 was a New Flesh Juror for Best First Feature at the Fantasia International Film Festival. His top films for 2023 include The Zone of Interest (Glazer), Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell (Pham Thien An), Totem (Lila Avilés), La Chimera (Alice Rohrwacher), All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt (Raven Jackson). He is a Golden Globes Voter.

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