Movie Cricket

On Wednesday afternoon, the world will learn what movies made into the 64 competition slots for the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. (The non-competitive titles will be announced Thursday afternoon.)

But, thanks to Mark Olsen's fascinating article in Sunday's Los Angeles Times, we know of at least one movie that won't be premiering in Park City this January.

"The Lie" is the directorial debut of Joshua Leonard, the actor who hit the Sundance scene in "The Blair Witch Project" in 1999 and returned to Sundance in '09 in the funny "Humpday."

It's a drama, starring Leonard and Jess Weixler (who starred in the Sundance titles as "Teeth" and "Peter and Vandy") as a young couple struggling with their relationship after he tells a lie to get out of work — a lie that has shattering repercussions.

The script is what's called "structured improvisation" — meaning that the story is plotted out, but the dialogue for the individual scenes is made up on the spot.

"It's not so much 'Let's just shoot and see what we get' but 'We have this scene here, and this needs to happen,' " Weixler told Olsen. "It's really broken down, so when we go in we are covering like a real movie."

It sounds like a perfect movie for Sundance. There's only one problem — it's not done yet.

Leonard & Co. are looking at a spring festival — South by Southwest, Tribeca, or even Cannes — to debut "The Lie."

(Photo: James Grayford/Los Angeles Times)