2021 Sundance Film Festival Predictions: Todd Haynes’ The Velvet Underground

Todd Haynes needs no introduction but one day we’ll be looking back on his filmography and could create an annotated sub-category of the 60’s/70’s playlist of his middle childhood and adolescence. So after dramatic items such as Dark Waters (read Nicolas Bell’s review), he’ll often go back to the fountain of musician portraits. So after a Bowie glam rock inspired non bio-pic, and variations on Dylan, the filmmaker tackles The Velvet Underground in the docu form. Apple TV+ landed the rights late this year and so the eventual release depends not on the excellent relationship Haynes has with Sundance, but how Apple want to introduce this to the world. From the trade news: Haynes’ film aims to prove how the group became a cultural touchstone representing a range of contradictions: timely yet timeless; literary yet realistic; rooted in high art and street culture. The film will feature a trove of never-before-seen performances, studio recordings, Warhol movies…

Gist: This tackles the hugely influential 1960s avant-garde group, at one time managed by Andy Warhol and considered the “house band” of his iconic workspace The Factory.

Production Co./Producers: David Blackman, Christopher Clements, Julie Goldman, Todd Haynes, Carolyn Hepburn, Christine Vachon.

Prediction: DOCUMENTARY PREMIERES

U.S. Distributor: Apple TV+.