Predictions 2010 Sundance Film Festival: Duplass Bros., Janez Burger, Kit Hui

If the Croisette belonged to Sony Pictures Classics and IFC Films, then Park City is where Searchlight, Focus, Apparition, Roadside, Samuel Goldwyn and Magnolia get to have a piece of the cake. If my predictions are half right, then this year’s Sundance will have a unusually high number of titles with A list talent for sale. The market trend right now is far from the heyday of all night negotiation days after a film’s premiere, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see some titles get picked up for some impressive numbers during and not after the fest.

Center of Attention (Untitled Duplass Brothers Project) – The headline would go something like this: When Mumblecore went Hollywood. Fox Searchlight might want to use the fest as a launching pad for the Duplass bros.’ first foray into the world of better “craft service” tables and bigger budgets. This is about the romance between a man (John C.Reilly) and woman (Marisa Tomei) that the woman’s son (Johan Hill) attempts to foil. If included, expect this to receive the royal treatment at the Eccles. Sundance Selection Forecast: 50% Chance. With no release date pegged, the studio will either select another title to launch instead, or they’ll insert it (and test it) like they did with 500 Days of Summer. Look for the Duplass’ other film The Do-Deca-Pentathlon as a possible replacement option. (ioncinema.com Preview/IMDB Link)

Circus Fantasticus – Part of a dozen finalists for the 2008 Sundance/NHK International Filmmakers Award, Slovenia filmmaker Janez Burger tells the post-war tale about a man starting over after the death of his wife. Stevo and his two children discover a new beginning when a circus arrives at their demolished home to stage a final performance. Sundance Selection Forecast: 80% Chance. Should receive World Dramatic Comp. slot and will definitely be a popular title among European fests. (IMDB Link)

The Extra Man – If American Splendor‘s Shari Springer Berman & Robert Pulcini return to the festival, it’ll be with a highly sought after title that features Katie Holmes, John C. Reilly, Paul Dano and Kevin Kline. Based on Jonathan Ames’ novel, Louis Ives (Dano) fancies himself a hero in an F. Scott Fitzgerald novel. He favors neckties, blue blazers, and sport coats. After an embarrassing incident involving a brassiere fetish, he loses his teaching job at a Princeton prep school and heads to New York to fulfill his dream of becoming a writer. In New York, he rents a room in the madly discombobulated apartment of Henry Harrison (Kline), a failed but brilliant playwright who dances alone to old Broadway records, sneaks into the opera, and performs, with great style, the duties of an “extra man” — an escort for the rich widows of the Upper East Side. Sundance Selection Forecast: 40% Chance. (ioncinema.com Preview/IMDB Link)

Fog – A Sundance and Cannes lab experienced Kit Hui has by the looks it (the trailer), a feature film debut worth checking out. The premise sees how “a person function without any memory, especially in a time when everyone operates under a certain social norm, when history and memory form our identity and guide us to behave in a particular fashion?” Sundance Selection Forecast: 50% Chance. I have a feeling she may be debuting the film at several big European fests including one of these: Berlin, Cannes or Venice.
(IMDB Link/Official Website)

Freakonomics – We’ve been waiting a while for this one. Five filmmakers all part of Sundance’s extended family (Heidi Ewing, Alex Gibney, Rachel Grady, Eugene Jarecki, Morgan Spurlock) picked some hot topics issues and some rather simple ones with some new spins. Sundance Selection Forecast: 80% Chance. The film is looking for distribution and needs a good U.S fest to make that a sale. (ioncinema.com Preview/IMDB Link)