2019 Sundance Film Festival Predictions: #23. Wash Westmoreland – The Earthquake Bird

Working once again with what might be a strong female protagonist and adapted source material, Wash Westmoreland boarded The Earthquake Bird in August of 2016 and production took place in Tokyo in May of 2018 with an international cast. Quickly snapped up by the Netflix folks, Westmoreland who teams up with Oldboy cinematographer Chung Chung-hoon for a first time, has been to Sundance before with last year’s Colette (review) and 2006’s Quinceañera – which was a major career boost when it took home both the Audience Award and Grand Jury Prize prizes.

Gist: Based on Susanna Jones’ novel, set in Tokyo, this revolves around a young female expat (Riley Keough) who is suspected of murder when her friend (Alicia Vikander) goes missing in the wake of a tumultuous love triangle with Teiji (Kobayashi), a handsome and mysterious local photographer.

Production Co./Producers: Twenty First City’s Georgina Pope, Scott Free’s Ridley Scott, Michael Pruss and Kevin Walsh, with Ann Ruark.

Prediction: Netflix could repeat how Colette was showcased at the fest — in the Premieres section or they could wait until TIFF for a fall season showing and where Still Alice premiered.

U.S. Distributor: Netflix