Festival Predictions

2016 Sundance Film Festival Predictions: William H. Macy’s The Layover

Published on November 25, 2015

Best known for his stumbling car salesman and poor choice of a husband in the Coen Bros’s Fargo, in his almost four decade career William H. Macy has seen his share of Park City red carpet treatment, including his directorial debut in 2014. While Rudderless might have been true to the film’s title, the filmmaker got right back into the saddle this past May for his sophomore project. What is being referred to as an American road trip sex comedy, despite some noteworthy comedic folk within this set of players (Alexandra Daddario, Kate Upton, Matt Barr, Matt L. Jones, Rob Corddry, Kal Penn, Molly Shannon) this doesn’t feel as Sundance-y as his previous effort.

Gist: Written by David Hornsby and Lance Krall, when two best friends decide to take a tropical vacation to escape the stress of their lives, a hurricane warning sends their flight to St. Louis, and the two of them subsequently begin fighting for the same guy they met on the plane.

Production Co./Producers: Unified Pictures’ Keith Kjarval (Welcome to Me) and Bron Studios’ Aaron L. Gilbert (The Birth of a Nation). Executive producers: Jason Cloth (Special Correspondents), Adam F. Goldberg (Finders Keepers), Erika Hampson (Meadowland), Lance Krall, Ben Ruffman (Vincent-N-Roxxy), Alan M. Simpson (I Saw the Light).

Prediction: Slim chances for a Premieres category showing.

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

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Eric Lavallée

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).