2019 Sundance Film Festival Predictions: #29. Christoph Waltz – Georgetown

Surprisingly not unspooling at TIFF last September at the same time as the Green Book brouhaha, actor Christoph Waltz completed shooting on his directorial debut in September of 2017 in Toronto. Perhaps Georgetown stands a better chance with a Park City Eccles screening. Recruiting himself and Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool actresses Vanessa Redgrave and Annette Bening for the top three spots, this true story piece of Americana that is Linklater’s Bernie in get rich quick scheme pedigree was a NYTimes article Franklin Foer called The Worst Marriage in Georgetown.

Gist: Inspired by true events, and written by David Auburn, this unfolds in the world of political intrigue and gossip dominating the social scene in Washington, few couples stood out quite like German nationals Elsa Breht (Redgrave) and her husband Ulrich Mott (Waltz). At their shabby townhouse in the fashionable suburb of Georgetown, guests found themselves in lively conversation with former world leaders and Supreme Court judges. The more titillating conversations would focus on the hosts themselves – what was an 80-year-old woman with a rolodex of influential friends doing married to a man of dubious background nearly three decades her junior? For Elsa’s Federal judge daughter Amanda (Annette Bening), it was incomprehensible.

Production Co./Producers: RatPac Entertainment’s Brett Ratner (The Revenant) with David Gerson (True Crimes) and John Cheng. Metalwork Pictures’ Andrew Levitas (The White Crow), Romulus Entertainment‘s Brad Feinstein (American Woman).

Prediction: Premieres section.

U.S. Distributor: Rights Available. ICM (domestic). Cornerstone (international).