Festival Predictions

2021 Sundance Film Festival Predictions: Vaughn Stein’s Every Breath You Take

Published on November 17, 2020

Meant to be a Christine Jeffs (Sunshine Cleaning) project that saw helmer Vaughn Stein take on the reigns early on, this acquisitions friendly item dates back to 2012 when Rob Reiner was attached and Harrison Ford and Zac Efron looking to star. Fast-forward to 2019 and Casey Affleck, Michelle Monaghan, Sam Claflin and Veronica Ferres joined the project that began lensing in October in Vancouver. Written by David Murray, Every Breath You Take becomes Stein’s sophomore feature after debuting Margot Robbie thriller Terminal in 2018.

Gist: Affleck plays a psychiatrist whose career is thrown into jeopardy when a patient takes her own life. When he invites the patient’s surviving brother, played by Claflin, into his home to meet his wife (Monaghan) and daughter, his family life is suddenly torn apart.

Production Co./Producers: Southpaw Entertainment’s Richard B. Lewis, Veronica Ferres and Frank Buchs

Prediction: PREMIERES

U.S. Distributor: Rights Available.

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).