Top 100 Most Anticipated Films of 2011: Elgin James’ Littlebirds

#67. Little Birds

Director/Writer: Elgin James
Producers: Hunting Lane Films’ Jamie Patricof, Alan and Gabe Polsky
Distributor: Rights Available.

The Gist: This tells the story of LILY and her best friend ALISON (Juno Temple and Jay Panabaker), two 15 year-old girls living near the shores of California’s Salton Sea, a heavily polluted lake in the middle of the desert. What was once an oasis for the wealthy and famous has become a near ghost town with trailer parks, abandoned hotels, and beaches full of dead fish and dying birds.….(more)

Cast: Juno Temple, Kay Panabaker, Leslie Mann, Kate Bosworth, Kyle Gallner, Chris Coy

List Worthy Reasons…: Featuring the skill-set of pair of folks named in our American New Wave 25 in Elgin James and Cinematographer Reed Morano (Frozen River), I’ve been looking forward to the pic since we first heard of it being workshopped in the Sundance labs. Expanding from his short, James taps into some autobiographical elements and formulates it from a female perspective. The potential for raw perfs from the ensemble cast appears feasiable and I’m expecting Juno Temple to deliver a more complex character than the more recent road-trip small town deserter found in Dirty Girl. The festival is calling it a brutally honest and beautifully rendered, and a stunning portrait of innocence lost – this might be the fest’s break-out debut.

Release Date/Status?: Sundance U.S Dramatic Competition slot, followed by pick-up, followed by release most likely before year’s end.