Paper Hearts, An Education, Spread and Brooklyn’s Finest among THR’s Sundance Speculation

Call it reverse psychology or just smart business practices, but after last year’s examples of big, un-bought films grabbing the headlines, and then fizzling out in full view of journos and buyers alike with no way to get rid of the negative stench in the air, it appears that the new trend is to go into Sundance with no buzz at all. THR reports that sellers might come into the festival and keep the expectations low. Here are some titles that we might see….

An Education
Written by Nick Hornby and helmed by Lone Scherfig, this is an adapted the screenplay from a memoir by Lynn Barber. The story of a 17-year-old girl living in the quiet London suburbs. As the swinging ’60s culture emerges, her world turns upside down after she meets a 35-year-old sportscar-driving Brit (Sarsgaard). He courts her with chic dinners, clubs and foreign trips, charming her father (Molina) but putting her future at Oxford University in jeopardy.

Brooklyn’s Finest 
Written by Michael Martin and directed by Antoine Fuqua, this is Crash meets Training Day – a dramatic ensemble with three intertwining story lines involving Brooklyn cops.

The Greatest
Shana Feste’s directorial debut centers on a young girl (Cary Mulligan) who throws a family into chaos as they try to get over the loss of their teenage son, Bennett. Pierce Brosnan and Susan Sarandon play the grieving parents.

I Love You Phillip Morris
Writers Glenn Ficarra and John Requa’s directorial debut is originally based on a book by Houston Chronicle crime reporter Steve McVicker, the fact-based film casts Jim Carrey as Steven Russell, a married father whose exploits landed him in the Texas criminal justice system. Carrey will play a conman whose love for a cellmate leads him to make several prison escapes. He fell madly in love with his cellmate, who eventually was set free, which led Russell to escape from Texas prisons four times, once by using a green pen and bucket of water to change his prison outfit into what appeared to be surgical scrubs, another time by faking his death from AIDS and signing his own death certificate. Morris eventually got out, but Russell’s escapades got him a 144-year sentence.

Reporter
Nicholas Kristof turns he caemra on himself for a documentary film about the many areas of the globe he has visited to become a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist.

Paper Hearts
Nicholas Jasenovec’s debut feature real-life couple Michael Cera and Charlyne Yi in what is described as a part-documentary, part-scripted comedy about their real-life relationship.

Spread
In a different genre direction for the filmmaker, David MacKenzie directs from a script by Jason Dean Hall. This chronicles the adventures of a serial womanizer (Ashton Kutcher); Anne Heche will play a thwarted lover.

The Youngest Candidate
This documentary film sees director/producer R.J. Cutler‘s look at power-player Anna Wintour.