Festival Predictions

2018 Sundance Film Festival Predictions: Drake Doremus’ Zoe

Published on November 17, 2017

We’ve now arrived to our 75 prediction destination with this final item. A Sundance personality who over time, has developed his own cult following in large part due to the exposure received in Park City. Directing his eighth feature film in just a little over a decade, Drake Doremus has had the good fortune of presenting four different relationship highs and blues/lows volumes at the fest commencing with 2010’s Douchebag, followed by 2011’s Like Crazy, 2013’s Breathe In (review), and proving that when you want something bad enough you can deliver the goods in breakneck speed in 2017’s Newness (review). Could Zoe be number five? Shot in Montreal this past May, Ewan McGregor and Léa Seydoux toplined, with Christina Aguilera, Theo James, Rashida Jones, Matthew Gray Gubler and Miranda Otto landing supporting player roles. While no information was divulged on the budget size for this rom sci-fi (which sounds like a nerdy cautionary tale for the tinder age a la I Origins), we’re fairly certain that if Doremus has had time to insert any sci-fi special effects, it could land an acquisitions friendly slot.

Gist: Written by Rich Greenberg, this follows two colleagues (McGregor and Seydoux) at a revolutionary research lab who design technology to improve and perfect romantic relationships. As their work progresses, their discoveries become more profound than they could ever have imagined.

Production Co./Producers: Scott Free’s Kevin Walsh (Thoroughbreds), Michael A. Pruss (Equals), Doremus and Robert George.

Prediction: Premieres section at Sundance or a showing at a major international film festival such as Venice or TIFF.

U.S. Distributor: Rights Available. UTA (domestic). IM

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).