blogs.sltrib.com - Sundance Film Festival Coverage from The Salt Lake Tribune

"Best of Fest" screenings announced

The Sundance Film Festival's annual thank you to the locals, the "Best of Fest" screenings, are set for tonight in Park City, Salt Lake City and the Sundance resort, and Tuesday in Ogden.

Free tickets were distributed the weekend before the festival, but there's still a chance to get in if you go through the wait-list process - show up 90 minutes before showtime and you could get a ticket, space permitting.

Here is the schedule of films:

Tonight, Eccles Center, Park City:
6 p.m. - "War/Dance," Documentary Directing Prize.
9 p.m. - "Sweet Mud," World Cinema Jury Prize, dramatic.

Tonight, Sundance Screening Room, Sundance resort:
6 p.m. - "Hear and Now," Audience Award Winner, documentary.
9 p.m. - "Grace Is Gone," Audience Award Winner, dramatic, and Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award winner.

Tonight, Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center, Salt Lake City:
6:30 p.m. - "In the Shadow of the Moon," World Cinema Audience Award, documentary.
9:30 p.m. - "Rocket Science," Dramatic Directing Prize.

Tuesday, Peery's Egyptian Theatre, Ogden:
6:30 p.m. - "Once," World Cinema Audience Award, dramatic.
9:30 p.m. - "The Legacy (L'Heritage)," World Cinema Special Jury Prize, dramatic.

And the winners are ...

The winners of the 2007 Sundance Film Festival have been announced. Here they are.

Also, read my analysis of the award winners here. And look for a fuller story of the awards ceremony on the Tribune's Sundance page.

As for me, I'm going to enjoy the party.

-- Sean P. Means

"Wardance" at Sundance

In a festival often noted for feel-bad stories, the true feel-good story of "WarDance" is a welcome relief.

The documentary, directed by the husband-and-wife team Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine, follows students at a displaced-persons' camp in northern Uganda as they prepare for a national music and dance festival. The movie profiles three students who have overcome horrendous events in a region where rebel forces frequently attack villages, kill parents and enslave children into their armies.

The movie lets the children tell these terrible stories, but it also shows them finding joy and redemption through their dance and music.

"WarDance" is the first production of Shine Global, a not-for-profit production company that aims to make documentaries illuminating the plight of children in peril. The company was founded by Albie Hecht, former head of the Nickelodeon cable channel.

Hecht is producer of "WarDance," and his wife Susan MacLaury Hecht is executive producer. Mrs. Hecht told an audience Friday night that Shine Global will use fund-raising to pay for making movies, but the proceeds of those movies will go to charities helping the children featured in the films.

Slamdance winners announced

Dylan Verrechia's "Tijuana Makes Me Happy," the story of a boy, a prostitute and a rooster, won the grand jury award for best narrative feature at the Slamdance Film Festival.

Winners in the alternative festival were announced Friday night. Here are the other winners:

Grand Jury Award for Best Documentary Feature: "Unsettled" by Adam Hootnick.
Grand Jury Award for Best Animated Short: "The Ballad of Mary Slade" by Robin Fuller.
Grand Jury Award for Best Documentary Short: "A Map with Gaps" by Alice Nelson.
Grand Jury Award for Best Experimental Short: "Avant Petalos Grillados" by Cesar Velasco Broca.
Grand Jury Award for Best Narrative Short: "The Cow Thief" by Charles Williams.
Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature:"Murder Party" by Jeremy Saulnier (who won Slamdance's top prize in 2004 for "Crabwalk")
Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature: "Red Without Blue" by Brooke Sebold, Benita Sills & Todd Sills.
Global Audience Award for Best Anarchy Film: "Commode Creations: The Artwork of Barney Smith" by Danny Bourque.
Spirit of Slamdance Award: "The Mallorys Go Black Market" by JoEllen Martinson and William Scott Rees.
Award for Best Feature Length Screenplay: "Drool" by Nancy Kissam.
Award for Best Short Screenplay: "4 Corners" by Ken Pisani.
Award for Best Teleplay: "Ghost Towns" by Marcus Clay Carmouche & Seamus Kevin Fahey.
Award for Best Horror Competition Screenplay: "Slaughter" by Bobby Darby & Nathan Brookes.
Creative Excellence Award for the Horror Screenplay Competition: "Blood-Sucking Leeches and Flesh-Eating Maggots" by Adam Balsam.
Kodak Vision Award for Best Cinematography: "Under the Sun," Nikolaus Summerer, director of photography.

The entrants in the Slamdancd Guerrilla Gamemaker Competition opted - "in a spirit of solidarity, and in recognition of the reduced list of finalists," according to a statement from Slamdance - not to compete. Several finalists dropped out of the competition in protest of Slamdance's decision to pull one finalist, a game based on the school shootings at Colorado's Columbine High School.

-- Sean P. Means

Even filmmakers can't resist Utah's slopes

The celebrities may disappear from Park City as soon as the swag lounges do, but the filmmakers are still in town -- and apparently planning to stick around for a bit. British director Daniel Gordon, whose documentary "Crossing the Line" was part of the World Documentary Competition at Sundance, was waiting for a festival shuttle on Friday afternoon and chatting it up with the folks in line. Wanting to take advantage of Utah's powder, he was asking about the best places for he and his mates to try out skiing and snowboarding. Best piece of advice he got? "Find yourself some good, waterproof pants," one helpful local said, "because you'll be on your butt all day."
-- Kim McDaniel

All Greek to me

Here's a question you won't usually hear at cocktail parties: "Did you ever know anyone who had a dark epiphany?"

That was what filmmaker Jessica Yu was asking of friends and acquaintances when seeking subjects for her documentary, "Protagonist."

The concept was to look at real lives through the dramatic narrative structure of Euripides. The four lives she chose belong to four men who were an L.A. bank robber, a German terrorist, an "ex-gay" evangelist and a martial-arts student. The stories are cross-cut with examples of Greek drama, illustrated by gracefully designed puppetry.

Yu said one of the four, former terrorist Hans-Joachim Klein, lives in exile in France and could not come to the United States. The other three were in Park City earlier this week, Yu said, "and they are thick as thieves. We should have tour jackets made."

-- Sean P. Means

2007 Sundance/NHK winners announced

    Four filmmakers from Europe, Latin America, the U.S. and Japan were named winners Friday of the 2007 Sundance/NHK International Filmmakers Awards.

    Winners get $10,000 and a guarantee from Japanese broadcaster NHK top purchase television broadcast rights to projects once they are completed. The award also provides fillmakers with help from the Sundance Institute staff, who will provide support and assistance on financing and distributing the films.

    The winning directors and their projects are:

    Lucia Cedron, Argentina - "Agnus Dei," The story of a young woman whose grandfather is kidnapped for ransom following Argentina's 2020 economic crisis. After learning of his role in the country's military dictatorship during the '70s, she "must then consider one of the paradoxes of Argentinean society: what can we forgive and how much can we forget?"

    Cedron grew up in France where she produced documentaries, but returned to Buenos Aires in 2002 where she made her first short film, "En Ausencia," winner of the Silver Bear in Berlin in 2003. "Agnus Dei" will be her first feature-length film.

    Dagur Kari, Iceland - "The Good Heart," which tells of Jaques, an ailing middle-aged bar owner, and Lucas, a young homeless man recovering from an attempted suicide, who become friends during a hospital stay. Their relationship is tested when a woman comes between them.

    Kari's feature debut film, "Noi Albinoi" was an international hit in 2003. His second feature, "Dark Horse" (2005), was chosen for "Un Certain Regard" at the Cannes Film Festival. He is also a musician: His Slowblow has released four albums and scored both of his feature films.

    Tomoko Kana, Japan - "Two By The River," about an elderly man who must make a difficult choice about his ailing wife.

    Kana's previous films include "Mardiyem" (2001), a documentary about Indonesian "comfort women," and "Nigai Namida No Daichi Kara (From The Land Of Bitter Tears) (2004), chronicling Chinese victims of discarded Japanese ordnance.

    Caran Hartsfield, U.S. - "Bury Me Standing," the story of how a random act of violence triggers change in a dysfunctional family.

    Hartsfield has made two short films, "Double-Handed" and "Kiss It Up To God." "Bury Me Standing" was developed at the Cannes Film Festival's Cinefondation Residency in Paris and workshopped at the Sundance Screenwriter's and Director's Labs, where it earned the IFP Gordon Parks Screenplay Award and The Media Arts Grant.



    The winners were selected from 12 finalists by members of an international jury that included: Guillermo Arriaga, Carlos Diegues, Toshio Endo, Bent Hamer, Yoshio Kakeo, Mitsuo Yanagimachi, Pawel Pawlikowski, Brad Silberling, and Rafael Yglesias.

No "Joshua 3 in 3-D?"

After Thursday's Racquet Club screening of "Joshua," a creepy thriller about a 9-year-old boy who begins terrorizing his parents after his little sister is born, someone asked director George Ratliff if he and co-writer David Gilbert are planning a sequel.
No, Ratliff said with a smile. He and Gilbert want to maintain creative control over their project's future.
"We were concerned that the film would get bought," he said, "and then 'Joshua Goes to Summer Camp' would come out next summer."

Who says Utahns have no sense of humor? Writer-director George Ratliff arrived late to Tuesday night's Salt Lake City screening of his thriller "Joshua" to find the Tower Theatre audience laughing like crazy.
"You would have thought it was a comedy. They had great energy," Ratliff said with a smile. "You know, that was my favorite of all the [six] screenings."
-- Brandon Griggs

No handicap

One of the most heartwarming moments at this year's Sundance Film Festival is the Q-and-A after every screening of Irene Taylor Brodsky's documentary "Hear and Now," when the filmmaker brings her parents down front with her.

Paul and Sally Taylor were deaf from birth, and when both were 65 they opted to have cochlear implants put into their heads so they could hear. Their daughter's movie details their lives as deaf people, their surgeries, and the struggles they faced hearing sounds for the first time in their lives.

The Taylors were wearing the outer equipment that makes their cochlear implants work at Thursday morning's screening, and Brodsky said they both wear them most of the time - though Dad wears his more than Mom wears hers. Paul Taylor said he will sometimes take his off when he's tired, "especially if there are babies in the house."

With or without the implant, Sally Taylor is enjoying Sundance. "Mom sees up to three movies a day," Brodsky said, "thanks to the international programming and the subtitles."

-- Sean P. Means

Gimme a "J"

Bringing Nice Back: Park City High School's cheerleaders have a new cheer. The team was practicing Wednesday evening in the school's gym, adjacent to the Eccles Center's green room, when singer-actor Justin Timberlake walked by on his way to the Sundance premiere of his film, "Black Snake Moan." The girls burst into synchronized cheers of, "We love you, Justin!" Timberlake obliged by stopping, chatting with the cheerleaders and posing for photos. - Brandon Griggs

Bono undercover

Park City's Eccles Center had a surprise guest for Monday night's premiere of "Son of Rambow," a British film about a kid filmmaker inspired by the first "Rambo" movie: Rock star and world humanitarian Bono, who slipped in through a separate entrance shortly before the film started. The U2 singer showed up without an entourage and killed time before the film hanging out in a back hallway, helping Sundance volunteers work on a jigsaw puzzle. To avoid causing a stir he snuck into the theater after the movie started, then slipped out at the end before the lights came up. No wonder his presence in Park City went largely unnoticed by the media - until now, that is. - Brandon Griggs

Bringing Nice Back

Park City High School's cheerleaders have a new cheer. The team was practicing Wednesday evening in the school's gym, adjacent to the Eccles Center's green room, when singer-actor Justin Timberlake walked by on his way to the Sundance premiere of his film, "Black Snake Moan." The girls burst into synchronized cheers of, "We love you, Justin!"

Timberlake obliged by stopping, chatting with the cheerleaders and posing for photos.

-- Brandon Griggs

U2's Bono flies below the radar

Park City's Eccles Center had a surprise guest for Monday night's premiere of "Son of Rambow," a British film about a kid filmmaker inspired by the first "Rambo" movie: Rock star and world humanitarian Bono, who slipped in through a separate entrance shortly before the film started.

The U2 singer showed up without an entourage and killed time before the film hanging out in a back hallway, helping Sundance volunteers work on a jigsaw puzzle. To avoid causing a stir he snuck into the theater after the movie started, then slipped out at the end before the lights came up.

No wonder his presence in Park City went largely unnoticed by the media -- until now, that is.
-- Brandon Griggs

A Bigwig with Independent Spirit

John Cooper is an important person-the Sundance Film Festival Director of Programming to be exact. But that didn't stop him from cleaning off his passenger seat and offering this tardy reporter a ride to the Eccles Theatre after I missed my shuttle. - Jeremy Mathews

Advancing the Frontier

At a dinner Tuesday night honoring the festival's "New Frontier" artists, who combine film and installation art, programming director Geoffrey Gilmore praised colleague Shari Frilot, who curated the show, and the artists themselves. "This is one of the best things we've done in the 16 years I've been running this festival," Gilmore said. - Christy Karras

In All Modesty...

"I just turned the romantic comedy genre on its ass. So I hope you appreciate what I've done for you," said director Taika Waititi to kick off a screening of his film, "Eagle vs Shark," at the Holiday Village.

In the most entertaining Q&A of the festival, New Zealander Waititi had the audience laughing almost as much as they did during the film. So many of the characters' family members were dead, he said, because "it's a lot easier to cut characters out of your script." When asked if he was going to expand his Oscar-nominated short, "Two Cars, One Night" (2004) into a feature, he replied that he would release a version in slow motion.

Following a motif of the film, someone asked Waititi to identify his favorite animal. It's a combination of animals, he said, with a snake tail, the head of a badger, the body of a bird and skeleton wings. He calls it a "brancotch," but didn't respond when asked for a spelling. - Jeremy Mathews

Acting-to-Music, Music-to-Acting

Director Craig Brewer is nothing if not humble. At the premiere of his new film, "Black Snake Moan," he thanked the Sundance audience for enthusiastically receiving his first film, "Hustle and Flow," which won the audience award two years ago. "You changed my life," he said.

The Wednesday evening premiere at the Eccles Theatre is traditionally a star-filled bonanza, and the debut of "Black Snake Moan" was no different. Samuel L. Jackson, Christina Ricci, Justin Timberlake and producer John Singleton all came out for the event.

At the Q&A, Jackson said that while he had fun singing blues in the film, he doesn't plan on making a new career out of it. Then he added, "But I'll see you at the Grammys next year." - Jeremy Mathews

Heaven? It's football

Who needs to see a film, anyway, to experience the spirit of Sundance?

Gil Ruiz, a retired Park City resident who is part of the festival's security crew, discovered his dream job when assigned to work the door at the ESPN lounge during last Sunday's football game. It might have been cold outside, but that didn't seem to bother Ruiz.

"I'm watching football with real football players, and models are coming out to hug me. I think I had died and gone to heaven." - Ellen Fagg

Get it?

When audience members asked "Noise" director Matthew Saville about the symbolism of his film's ending, the Australian director easily confessed.

"To be honest with you, I was laying it on with a trowel," Saville said at a Q&A after the first screening of his psychological tale about a police constable who suffers from tinnitus, a ringing in the ears. "I mean, there's the white light above from a police helicopter, a choir singing Christmas carols, the horn of Gabriel from the car, and rebirth in the form of a baby crying."

- Ellen Fagg

Wardrobe on a shoestring

One way to shoot an exquisitely detailed indie film on a budget of less than $2 million is to hire an actor the same size as the director - and with a similar fashion sensibility - in order to save money on wardrobe costs. Of course it helps if the actor and director are "sisters in cinema."

That budget secret comes from Gina Kim, who wrote and directed "Never Forever," a visual poem starring Vera Farmiga as a wife who secretly seeks a sperm donor in an effort to save her marriage to a successful Korean-American lawyer. Some of the character's puffy-sleeved, vintage-styled, ethereal dresses seen in the film belong to the director.

In interviews, Kim referred to the actor as her "muse," and the pair laughed when they compared the matching short black velvet jackets they each brought to a press interview. - Ellen Fagg

Sushi sleepover

If the sushi bar at Main Street's Kampai restaurant feels as intimate as a family kitchen during the busy Sundance crunch, there's a good reason. Ryan Bernier says the chefs work shoulder-to-shoulder during the restaurant's long days, then sleep overnight in an informal office-turned-frat-room style dormitory upstairs.

"We're like a family," says Bernier, who commutes to Park City during the off-Sundance season from Holladay. "The sushi world's really connected."

Connected enough that San Francisco's Anand Angalig, a former Kampai employee, returned to Utah "just to see old friends" and crank out a lot of fresh sushi rolls during the festival. - Ellen Fagg

Revisiting Nanking

Ted Leonsis was told a movie about the rape of Nanking -- when Japanese forces invaded the then-capital of China in 1937, killing hundreds of thousands and raping an estimated 20,000 women -- would be "too hard to see theatrically."

Leonsis, the owner of the NBA's Washington Wizards and the NHL's Washington Capitals, decided to make a movie about it anyway. He’s the producer of "Nanking," one of the strongest documentaries at Sundance this year.

Directors Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman mix survivors' interviews, archival footage and readings of letters and memoirs by such actors as Mariel Hemingway, Woody Harrelson, John Getz and Jurgen Prochnow. The movie chronicles not only the atrocities committed by Japanese troops, but the work of Westernes (mostly U.S. missionaries and Nazi businessmen) who saved some 250,000 refugees.

Leonsis said at a Q-and-A Wednesday he was struck at the enormity of the Nanking atrocities during a Wizards game. He looked at the crowd at the Verizon Center and said to his wife, "This is how many people were raped in one month."

Leonsis isn’t the first NBA owner to go into movies. Utah Jazz owner Larry H. Miller owns the Megaplex Theatres and bankrolled the three "Work and the Glory" movies, and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has gone big into movies -- as owner of Magnolia Pictures, the 2929 Entertainment production company, and a stake in the Landmark Theatres chain.

Swagifesto

Jeremy Walker, head of Jeremy Walker + Associates publicity firm, this year issued a "Swagifesto" asking his clients not to give in to the lure of corporate gifts. In the open letter, he writes about clients and staff missing appointments because they were too busy out gathering freebies.

"At the risk of sounding shrill, those and other incidents over the years have led us to determine that swag is not only a pain in the ass; it is, like cocaine, evil," he wrote. "We’ve watched swag, like cocaine, turn nice, smart, humble, creative people into monsters. Like cocaine, swag produces a giddy high of self-importance and supreme confidence. As with cocaine, once tasted, the consumer of swag instantly wants more. When people see other people doing swag, they want to do it, too. And, like cocaine, once it's out in the open, swag permeates the culture, and it's all anyone can talk about."

Over the phone, Walker told The Tribune that preparing his clients for the onslaught of swag offers is part of his job; it's like preparing them for photo shoots and interviews. Most, he says, have been very receptive. One of them is former U.S. Congressman Dick Gephardt, who was in Park City to support the movie "For the Bible Tells Me So."

"Everyone had the information they needed to decline swag on his behalf," Walker said.

Here's a link to the Swagifesto.

One Obscene Face

According to members of the Eccles Theatre staff, some folks from the Utah Attorney General's office attended today's screening of "Hounddog," starring Dakota Fanning. People have apparently phoned in complaints that the film, which includes a rape scene, is child pornography. I doubt any of the complainers have seen it. For those
interested in facts rather than sensationalized outrage, the brief rape scene includes shots of Fanning's face and hand.
-- Jeremy Mathews

Swag contest documentary

Independent film director Poull Brien wrapped up filming his "Sundance Celebrity Swag Hunt" documentary in which C-list celebrities Gary Coleman and Dustin Diamond competed to see who got the best free stuff. By Wednesday, Brien estimated Diamond had $70,000 worth, while Coleman had just $40,000.

Diamond was more cutthroat in his swag hunt than Coleman, who favored a laid-back, casual approach, Brien said.
Though Brien set up a "charity drop" in case the competitors wanted to donate their stuff, neither did, though Diamond said he was considering giving some of his away.
Brien knew in advance about IRS reporting requirements: "They both have to take care of the taxes. That was in their contract," he said. "It could even be more than the budget of the film itself, if you added it all up."
He says he was surprised by how much loot celebrities can get during Sundance, especially since they're the last people who actually need it. "I think it would be really funny if the IRS set up its own gifting suite on Main Street next year," he said. - Christy Karras

See no swag

When sltrib.com staffers caught up with Matthew Lillard in the Gibson Guitar Lounge on Park City's Main Street Wednesday, they asked him whether he had been collecting any swag at Sundance.

Lillard looked straight into a camera and said, "I have no swag. Next question." Asked if he planned on reporting swag on his taxes, he replied, "I don't know."

Lillard then walked down a hallway, stopped to pick up a Plantronics headset and stuffed it into the large black duffel bag carried by his assistant.

When he saw reporters again, he shook a finger at them and said, "You didn't see this."

-- Manny Mellor

Celebrity sightings galore at the Gibson Guitar Lounge

Though swag stops on the lower end of Main Street were closed and packed up Wednesday, the defacto shopping center on the second level of the Gibson Guitar Lounge further up the street was hopping with famous faces by afternoon.

As musicians jammed downstairs, a host of film stars and athletes came through for hats, watches, headphones, Bluetooth headsets and other items just outside the temporary Entertainment Tonight studio.

Samuel L. Jackson stopped by before his premiere of "Black Snake Moan"; Oscar winner Cuba Gooding, Jr. came by (on his way to Harry O's for the premiere of his movie "What Love Is") with fellow actor Matthew Lillard; Olympian Carl Lewis picked up a watch from Oceanic, then lingered at a few other tables; and Jena Malone tried on a sampling of fedoras.

-- Kim McDaniel

Is "Hounddog" a dog?

Some critics think so, and are saying that's why the movie hasn't sold.

Here's what Variety critic Todd McCarthy said about the film, which before it's premiere stirred up controversy because of a rape scene involving child star Dakota Fanning: ''Hounddog is an indigestible gumbo of Southern Gothic ingredients seasoned with snake oil, biblical hash, and thoroughly unpalatable spice. Aside from Fanning and the controversy, the film has nothing going for it commercially.''

You know you're not getting enough sleep...

...when you start seeing things like this at Sundance.

(Actually, ol' Pac-Man was outside the Holiday Village Cinemas on Tuesday night, before the screening of the video-game documentary "Chasing Ghosts.")

-- Sean P. Means

The Prophet Bus

Circling Park City for the last several days has been a converted red school bus bearing signs reading, "The Prophet Bus." The bus carries nine young Christian musicians on a road trip from Houston, Tex., to pass out Bibles and share their love of Jesus through music. According to their blog (www.prophetbus.com), however, the Prophet Bus crew had a rough introduction to Sundance. First, the cold Park City temperatures made it hard for them to get out of bed (they sleep on the bus). Then, their first impromptu sidewalk performance Monday was aborted because they didn't have a permit. But the bus was still in Park City on Tuesday, cruising up and down Main Street to spread the good word.
-- Brandon Griggs

Los Angeles Laker Rick Fox spotted at Sundance

Historically, Sundance has not been a big draw for sports figures. But on Tuesday afternoon, there was former Los Angeles Lakers star Rick Fox posing for snapshots with fans outside the Filmmakers Lounge on Main Street. A budding actor and former husband of actress Vanessa Williams, Fox was asked if he was at Sundance with a movie.
"Not yet," he said with a smile. "I'm just here for the experience. For fun."
-- Brandon Griggs

Evan Rachel Wood looking smart

Spotted striding up Main Street Tuesday afternoon: actress Evan Rachel Wood ("Thirteen," "The Upside of Anger"), unrecognized and unmolested. Smartly dressed in a designer overcoat, knee-high leather boots and a black beret, Wood looked more ready for a stroll down Fifth Avenue than a slog through a ski town. The teen actress, accompanied by a female friend, disappared into a private event at the Zona Rosa restaurant.
-- Brandon Griggs

And yet more deals

The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that these Sundance movies have been picked up:

"Dedication," an offbeat love story starring Billy Crudup and Mandy Moore, was bought for $4 million by the Weinstein Company, with foreign rights going to First Look International.
"Son of Rambow," a British coming-of-age story about friends inspired to make home movies based on Sylvester Stallone movies, was bought for $7 million by Paramount Vantage.
"How She Move," an urban drama in the world of step-dancing, went for $3 million-to-$4 million, also to Paramount Vantage.
The horror thriller "The Signal" went for under $2 million to Magnolia Pictures.
And "La Misma Luna (The Same Moon)," a cross-border drama with Golden Globe winner America Ferrara in a supporting role, was sold for between $5 million and $6 million in a joint deal with Fox Searchlight and the Weinstein Company

-- Sean P. Means

More Sundance sales

There's been a buying binge at Sundance the last couple days. More films that sold, as reported by Daily Variety:

"Clubland," a love story out of Australia, went to Warner Independent Pictures for $4 million.

"Waitress," written and directed by the late Adrienne Shelley, who was murdered last year, was purchased by Fox Searchlight for a reported $5 million.

And "Joshua," a thriller starring Vera Farmiga, was also bought by Fox Searchlight, for $4 million. - Anne Wilson

How to make a kid cry

Sundance drama "Grace is Gone" hangs on the climactic moment when its main character (John Cusack) must tell his two daughters that their mom has been killed in Iraq. To prepare his young actresses for the key scene, writer-director James Strouse told them to think about how much they'd miss their own mothers.

"It worked beautifully. They both started bawling on the first take," he said. "Unfortunately, the camera wasn't in the right place."
After a few other muffed takes, one of the child actresses could no longer summon the required tears. So Strouse took her aside and showed her footage he'd shot earlier of Cusack's character alone, sobbing on a bed.

"I said, 'This is what you dad was feeling the whole time, and this is what he was shielding you from."

Mission accomplished: The tears returned on the next take.

- Brandon Griggs

Show, don't tell

After Tuesday's screening of "Grace is Gone," in which he plays a father who must tell his daughters that their mom has been killed in Iraq, John Cusack was asked how much he related personally to the film's subtle anti-war message.
"There's some helplessness you feel about the events surrounding the war," he said. You feel like you're being lied to and events are being spun. And there's not a lot you can do. But if we can't stop this thing. . .at least we can try to explore what the human costs of the war are."
Perhaps mindful that his own well-known anti-Bush views could hurt the film's attempts at evenhandedness, or its box-office showing in red-state America, Cusack then cut himself short.
"The best thing I can do for this film is shut up, because I have very strong beliefs."
- Brandon Griggs

Sam's Bad Day?

Here's the photo that actor Sam Rockwell doesn't want you to see. Or at least, the photo with the actor making a goofy expression that the star of "Snow Angels" ripped out of the hands of professional autograph seekers Sunday morning and threw away in a street trash can.

-- Ellen Fagg

Notes from "Hounddog"

"Hounddog" includes several scenes that have snakes slithering over Dakota Fanning. During the Q and A, someone asked Fanning how she dealt with them. "That was one of the toughest parts of the film," Fanning said. "Some of those twitches and fidgets were real."

While the Elvis song the movie's title refers to is spelled with two words, director Deborah Kampmeier said he always envisioned the title of her film as one word. Besides, she said wryly after the Monday screening, "I also thought it was my own title and I wouldn't have to pay rights for it. Wrong!"

Robin Wright Penn, one of the producers and stars of the movie, said she didn't understand negative reaction to the film's content. "It's about survival," she said. "Why does the voice get shut down when it's about such a beautiful thing? Survival is a beautiful thing."

Dennis Hopper was among audience members at the screening.

-- Christy Karras

Sundance at the Oscars

None of the films playing at this year's Sundance Film Festival scored any Oscar nominations (as happened two years ago, when several shorts scored nods while they were here).

Several films from Sundance '06 did get nominated, most notably last year's hit "Little Miss Sunshine," which got a Best Picture and adapted-screenplay honors and nods for supporting players Abigail Breslin and Alan Arkin.

Other Sundance '06 films that got Oscar nominations:

"Half Nelson" - Best Actor, Ryan Gosling.
"An Inconvenient Truth" - Best Documentary Feature, Best Original Song (Melissa Etheridge's "I Want to Wake Up").
"Iraq in Fragments" - Best Documentary Feature.
"The Illusionist" - Best Cinematography, Dick Pope.

-- Sean P. Means

And They're Really Good at Math Too

Sandy Nakamura is a very funny actress.

You may have seen her in CBS' comedy "Help Me Help You" or recognized her in a few episodes of "Curb Your Enthusiasm."

This year, she's in the Slamdance film "American Zombie," which premiered this week in Park City.

On Monday afternoon, she was on a panel discussion about the future of Asian American filmmaking, and she was on a bit of a rant about Hollywood and stereotypes and how she has to sometimes audition for male roles so casting directors can see past the fact she's Asian.

Today, studios still tend to cast Asians for the overachiever or hyper-intelligent character.

"And why did they give us SmartWater?" she said sarcastically about the bottles of Glaeau's branded SmartWater provided for the panelists. "What does that mean?"

-- Vince Horiuchi

Small nation

The UK Film Council hosted a "champagne tea" Monday afternoon in a Park City tent to honor the 19 British and Irish filmmakers who have features and shorts at Sundance. The sound system spun a steady mix of Oasis and the Beatles while partygoers nibbled on smoked salmon and chocolate-covered strawberries.
"Congratulations to you all," Claire Chapman, director of the UK Film Council's Los Angeles office, told the gathering. "For a small nation, we truly have a massive amount of talent."
Small nation? You'd think she represents the film industry of Paraguay.
-- Brandon Griggs

Don't you know

Attending Monday's UK Film Council's "champagne tea" was Frank Joklik, former president of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee. Turns out Joklik is Utah's British Honorary Consul, which means. . .well, we're not exactly sure. When asked if he'd seen any Sundance movies on his visit to Park City, he replied, "Not yet." His female companion looked a little miffed when a reporter asked him what he was doing at the party, though.
"He's Mister Salt Lake," she said. "Don't you know that?"
-- Brandon Griggs

Maltin picks favorite

"Entertainment Tonight" film critic Leonard Maltin, strolling through Sundance headquarters Monday evening, didn't hesitate when asked his favorite film of the festival so far: "Starting Out in the Evening," a drama starring Frank Langella and Lili Taylor. Maltin called the movie "nuanced" and "beautifully shot."
-- Brandon Griggs

Watch For That Ice!

In the last two days, there have been three deadly or near deadly accidents on Interstate 80 between Salt Lake City and Park City, including one Monday afternoon that clogged traffic for hours.

That incident involved a semi that lost control in the westbound traffic. Cars were backed up on the three-lane highway for about six miles, and it took people in the thick of it two hours to get back to Salt Lake City.

Earlier Monday, another accident occured involving a Sundance participant who died in the crash.

Sunday, there was an accident on that interstate in the late afternoon that killed a 3-year-old. That also stopped traffic for some two to three hours.

Sundance Film Festival attendees are taking that interstate everyday to get to Park City, but it seems few are taking the care driving through what the Utah Highway Patrol has called one of the deadliest highways in the state.

Remember, ice is bad. Black ice on Interstate 80 in Parley's Canyon is particularly bad. People think it isn't there because the roads are clear. But since the canyon road is usually covered in mountain shadows, the ice doesn't melt on the road like it does in the valley.

Let's keep this a safe and enjoyable film festival.

-- Vince Horiuchi

Location! Location! Location!

The Sundance premiere, "Dark Matter," about a Chinese student who comes to America and makes the transition with the help of a university patron (Meryl Streep), was mostly shot in Utah, especially around Salt Lake City and Utah County. The movie premieres Tuesday.

Why shoot a film about a Chinese student in the Beehive state?

It wasn't because of our majestic mountains or arid landscapes. It's because producers liked the look of Utah Valley State College in Orem, according to the film's producer, Janet Yang.

That's another example of Utah getting a filmmaking gig, not because of our glorious backdrops, but because of our apparent architectural wonders (which we're, uh, well known for).

The Disney Channel hit "High School Musical" was shot in Salt Lake City in large part because filmmakers liked the look of East High School's cafeteria.

Makes you wonder if Steven Spielberg is scouting out the LDS Church Office Building for his next movie. (OK, maybe not)

-- Vince Horiuchi

Someone Cash This Man's Check, Pleeeaaassseee!

What's a reality television star doing at a film festival?

Yul Kwan, the latest winner of "Survivor" who reaped a million dollars while outlasting and outplaying the others in Cook Islands this last season, was at Sundance to participate on a panel discussion about Asian American filmmakers.

But the most important thing he relayed is how hard it is to deposit a $1 million dollar check these days.

Kwan, 31, a former attorney in San Mateo, Calif., said he was given a million-dollar check for his winnings (defeating the notion that these big reality show winners get their winnings in yearly installments) and had a heck of a time trying to deposit it in the last week of December. He wanted to deposit it then so he could pay his taxes for this year and deduct any charitable contributions he made with the money.

Only there wasn't a bank that could clear the check in time.

"So I'm walking around with this $1 million check, scared to walk around with it, thinking I'm going to lose it," said Kwan, who pockets about $550,000 after Uncle Sam's take. "And I'm running from bank to bank."

Oh how we all wished we had that problem.

-- Vince Horiuchi

They each had a note

Lili Taylor was the only star of "Starting Out in the Evening" who showed up for Sunday evening's premiere at the Racquet Club Theatre, but the others each had a good excuse.

Star Frank Langella just started a production of "Frost/Nixon" on London's West End, said director Andrew Wagner, "and since his name is above the title in lights, the producers weren't willing to let him escape to America."

Adrian Lester ("Primary Colors") lost his passport two hours before his London flight was supposed to leave.

And Lauren Ambrose (from "Six Feet Under") had the best excuse: She gave birth to her first child Friday.

-- Sean P. Means

So much for MPAA transparency

The head of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), Dan Glickman, and ratings-board chairwoman Joan Graves were in Park City on Monday to talk with indie filmmakers and distributors about changes to the MPAA's ratings process.

The new rules - which expand the appeals board, allow filmmakers to cite precedent when making their appeals, and giving out the demographic information of raters - are aimed at giving more transparency to the art of rating movies.

But transparency only goes so far. A Monday session with the press was for print and radio journalists only - no TV cameras, which elicited an exasperated "You're kidding me" from KSL's John Hollenhorst when he found out.

-- Sean P. Means

Local Boy Hits the Big Apple

A Tribune staffer's work snuck its way into Andrew Wagner's Dramatic Competition film "Starting Out in the Evening." In a scene set in a book store early in the film, the bright red cover of Tribune Cartoonist Pat Bagley's Clueless George Goes to War stands out in the background. - Jeremy Mathews

More Sundance deals

Daily Variety reported Monday that ThinkFilm purchased rights to "In the Shadow of the Moon," a documentary history of the Apollo space program, for a sum between $1-$2 million. And Sony Pictures Classics has reportedly bought the documentary
"My Kid Could Paint That," about controversial child artist Marla Olmstead.
Variety is also reporting that Fox Searchlight confirmed Friday it purchased the thriller "Joshua," starring Sam Rockwell, for summer release. - Anne Wilson

Stumping for Utah

Sundance is known as a schmoozefest, and few people were working it harder Monday than Aaron Syrett, director of the Utah Film Commission. Syrett and the UFC hosted a lunch for filmmakers and folks from more than a dozen other film commissions around the country, at which he chatted up Utah's scenery and financial incentives to anyone who would listen.

"I printed 1,000 [business cards] and almost half of them are gone," he said. Some Sundance filmmakers have expressed interest in shooting their next movies in Utah, but "there've been no promises yet," Syrett said.
--Brandon Griggs

Christmas in January

Spotted strolling up Main Street about noon Monday: Actor, director and sometimes Utahn Crispin Glover, trailed by a cameraman and an assistant. Sharply dressed in a velvet sportcoat and tie, Glover chatted on a cellphone while wheeling a suitcase behind him. When a fan asked him for an autograph, Glover politely brushed him off, saying, "I'm late for something. Sorry."

What he was late for, as it turns out, was Premiere magazine's swag lounge, where he browsed table after table of designer handbags, jewelry, soy candles and hand-crotcheted boots. Glover accepted free item after item, which his assistant stuffed into a large bag. Within minutes, he had more stuff than he could carry.

No wonder the title of his new Sundance movie is "It Is Fine. Everything Is Fine."
-- Brandon Griggs

Sundance deals

The "Grace is Gone" rumor, reported here yesterday, wasn't a rumor. According to Daily Variety, the Weinstein Brothers bought rights to the Iraq war movie for $4 million, the first feature film buy at Sundance this year. The film stars John Cusack as a father struggling with how to tell his children their soldier-mother was killed in the war.
The brothers also purchased rights to "Teeth," about a teen with "vagina dentata," in partnership with Lionsgate. Terms of that deal are still being negotiated. - Anne Wilson

Start the revolution!

At a Script Magazine reception, the magazine gave the "Chicago 10" writer/director/etc. Brett Morgen its first annual award for best Sundance screenwriting. During his acceptance speech, he talked about screening the movie in Salt Lake and being surprised to get a long standing ovation from what he thought would be a more conservative audience. He said people "ages 17 to 70" came up to him after that screening and told him it goaded them toward becoming activists against the Iraq War. That impressed Morgn, who said he wrote this film about Vietnam-era protesters to try to get people campaigning against the currenet war. As he left the stage, he yelled at the cheering crowd, "Let's go out there and get it started right here and right now!" - Christy Karras

Sienna, Sienna, Sienna

Sienna Miller's name was on a lot of lips Sunday at Sundance, as she was shuttled through interviews at the "Hollywood Life" magazine house, and through a photo shoot by Getty Images portrait photographer Mark Mainz, to promote "Interview," her film with Steve Buscemi. Just the mention of her name was enough to inspire a gathering scrum of paparazzi and autograph-arazzi, as well as civilians, while the actor's personal driver waited outside an idling white Volkswagon, double-parked in the middle of Main Street. Minutes later, however, actor Parker Posey, she of the dark hair, dark eyes and fabulously mused eyeliner, moseyed past the Getty photo gallery and down the sidewalk to be interviewed about her films, "Broken English" and "Fay Grim." Apparently, her disguise of a sensible-looking lavender knee-length parka worked, as nobody seemed to recognize the indie film darling. - Ellen Fagg

Trendy Teri

Actor Teri Hatcher isn't desperate when it comes to swag - or, obviously, jokes about being desperate about anything beyond her role on Sunday night's "Desperate Housewives." On Sunday at Main Street's Gifts and Guitars lounge, between celebrity interviews and portrait sessions, Hatcher snagged three trendy Goorin Brothers hats, including one in beige leather styled like a smaller, softer pith helmet. "Everybody in Hollywood loves these hats, particularly young, hot Hollywood," said the lounge's event planner Kathy Carpenter. - Ellen Fagg

Memories

Ask a Sundance volunteer about celebrities, and they'll officially avoid answering the question. Press a little, however, and one Park City local will come up with her favorite VIP moment: Selling a ticket to Rory Kennedy's documentary "Ghosts of Abu Ghraib" to Ethel Kennedy.
- Ellen Fagg

Almost famous

He might not be a celebrity - yet - but people in a lengthy coffee line Sunday morning at Albertsons recognized Paul Taylor, the 60-something deaf man who is the focus (with wife, Sally) of the poignant "Hear and Now." Filmgoers who had attended the premiere screenings of the documentary on Saturday greeted Taylor, who had dashed out, dressed in red plaid flannel pjs, to buy newspapers and doughnuts for his family, including filmmaker daughter Irene Taylor Brodsky.

Confirmed guests for the Salt Lake showing of "Hear and Now" on Monday (9:45 p.m. at the Broadway Centre Cinemas V) include Boudicca and Joanna Joseph, two of the wives of the late polygamist Alex Joseph. The filmmaker worked on a multi-part documentary about the family, which aired in 1998.
- Ellen Fagg

Tricking for Tom

Jen Moore, of South Weber, scored a new Blackberry PDA/phone from Tom Arnold, who was taping Sundance reports Sunday afternoon for "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno." Moore and a friend had to hit the pavement and show off their pushup prowess to win the swag, but Moore, a civilian Department of Defense employee at Hill Air Force base, said doing "50 or so pushups" was
no big deal. After all, she had to do a lot more than that back when she was on active duty in the Air Force.

Another "Tonight Show" prize winner was Martha Noyes, formerly of Boston, now "a gainfully unemployed" trailing wife newly transplanted to Cottonwood Heights. Noyes willingly was taped walking like a duck to win rubber duck boots. She claimed she wasn't embarrassed at all about the stunt; "I'm one-quarter bohemian," she said. Arnold's Sundance reports are scheduled to air Wednesday.

- Ellen Fagg

Heard on the street

Word on Main Street is that Weinstein Brothers have purchased distribution rights for "Grace is Gone," a quiet, poignant film starring John Cusick as a military husband trying to explain their mother's absence to the couple's two daughters.

A Sundance spokeswoman couldn't confirm the deal, but we suspect Variety will have details. - Ellen Fagg

Real big love

Actor Ginnifer Goldwin, who plays giggly young third wife Margene Heffman in HBO's "Big Love," said she couldn't reveal plot twists for the upcoming season. But she could promise this: "Most of the issues the audience wants resolved, will be resolved."

Goldwin said she was at Sundance to support friends in the cast of "The Good Life," but hoped to come back to Park City for a longer stay to visit galleries for Native American art. On Saturday, she showed off big love of her own, as she was photographed with boyfriend Chris Klein at the Getty Images gallery. - Ellen Fagg

Hidden Talent

Sundance is a place where people do surprising things. Timothy Hutton played a mean set on the drums Saturday about 5 p.m. at the Gibson Guitar lounge, according to our spies. - Ellen Fagg

Do I know you?

While Alan Alda and Kathryn Morris, stars of "Resurrecting The Champ," were being interviewed upstairs by "Entertainment Tonight!" at Main Street's Miners Club, Steve Buscemi and Sienna Miller, stars of "Interview" (which Buscemi also directed), were being photographed downstairs by a Getty Images portrait photographer.

As Kathryn Morris and her minders wandered down the stairs, the star noted for her complicated messy hairstyle and nervous expressions on TV's "Cold Case," she and Miller exchanged warm cocktail-party style greetings. "How are you?" "Good."

Seconds later, after Miller turned back to the photographer, Morris mouthed to her assistant: "Is that Sienna Miller?" - Ellen Fagg

Tea leaves extra

Sign on the door of Aura Spa, 405-B Main Street: "Will your movie get distribution? Come in for a psychic reading. Sundance special: 60-minute massage or facial with a 20-minute psychic reading $115. - Ellen Fagg

Adaptation

To understand why the following quote is funny, you must know that the guy who said it, JJ Lusk, wrote the novel On the Road With Judas before writing and directing the movie of the same name - and that the movie (which premiered Sunday morning at the Racquet Club Theatre) is about an author named JJ Lusk (played by Kevin Corrigan) whose book is being made into a movie:

"Books stay with you for life, and I always hate when they make it into a movie."

-- Sean P. Means

Artfully dodging

The too-familiar, and oft-avoided, question asked of filmmakers at the Sundance Film Festival is "What was your budget?"

A decade ago, filmmakers loved to answer the question, if only to play the game of financial limbo - how low could you go? - and brag about how much they accomplished with so little money. Today, though, filmmakers dodge the question, because it could let potential distributors pre-set a price in negotiations.

Jason Kohn, director of the beautifully constructed documentary "Manda Bala (Send a Bullet)," had a perfect answer at the Q-and-A after Saturday's screening: "It cost me five years of my life."

-- Sean P. Means

Don't go there

How do you write a script about a man who dies after having sex with a horse? With great difficulty.

"It was a thought experiment," said Charles Mudede, writing partner of "Zoo" director Robinson Devor, at the Q-and-A after Saturday night's screening at the Holiday Village. "If somebody could get there physically, I could get there mentally."

-- Sean P. Means

A Star-Studded Free-for-All

At Sundance's biggest mess of a screening yet, Mike White's "The Year of the Dog." As they exited the bus at Eccles Theatre, ticket holders met with an agonized chorus of the damned. I was asked for an extra ticket for various multipliers of its value no less than 20 times on my way to the door. Not many of the scroungers got one, and the theater was almost full before most of the the hundreds of waitlisters could be accommodated.

Molly Shannon and her co-stars, including John C. Reilly and Peter Sarsgaard (everyone but Laura Dern showed) rewarded the 1,270 people lucky enough to get inside with a Q&A. One at a time, each cast member answered the most dreaded question of all star-studded Q&As: "What drew you to the project?"

—Jeremy Mathews

Bound for Bootlegs

Chinese director Xiaolu Guo found a more entertaining reason to be excited over getting a movie into Sundance than any of her peers at Saturday's Egyptian Theatre screening of her semi-narrative/semi-documentary "How is Your Fish Today?"

Once a film gets into Sundance, she said, it is instantly pirated with the festival's logo on the packaging. There will now be millions of copies of her film floating around, she joked.

During the Q&A, she let the audience know that many of the crew members also appeared in front of the camera. In China, she explained, you don't need to move the camera while filming, you can just start the camera and leave it. One scene, featuring a peasant family eating a fish head in silence, played out between a husband and wife while no crew members were around.
- Jeremy Mathews

Jet lag

At Friday's premiere of "The Savages" at the Eccles Theatre in Park City, Director Tamara Jenkins thanked Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney for making long journeys to attend the heavily hyped screening. She was in Argentina, and he was in Australia. - Jeremy Mathews

Selling at Sundance

Here's a perfect example of how corporations exploit the money and celebrity os Sundance to their own ends, while doing good deeds too, of course.
Saturn has recruited actors Nick Cannon, Christian Slater, Kristen Bell and Keri Russell to read to Park City first and second-graders next week. Saturn isn't promoting cars - never! - but literacy as part of its partnership with the National Education Association's Read Across America program. - Anne Wilson

Irishman on the ropes

Everyone's favorite sowboarder on the man-made course outside the DC House on Friday was Brian Mac Intyre, cousin of "A Very British Gangster" filmmaker Donal Mac Intyre. The Irishman strugged to get the hang (so to speak) of the course's tow rope for a good half hour or so as onlookers (L.A. types there for a party and competitive snowboarders playing on the course) first looked in wonder, then began cheering him on. Everyone whooped when he finally made it to the top. - Christy Karras

Nice and dirty

"Delirious" writer/director Tom DiCillo said he wrote the part of his main character, a paparrazzi photographer, for Steve Buscemi. "I knew this guy was going to go dirty places in this film, but he'd never be despicable," DiCillo said of Buscemi's portrayal. - Christy Karras

She's no germaphobe

Gina Gershon, who plays a high-powered publicist in "Delirious," was refusing to shake hands on Friday - not because she's a snob (unlike her character in the movie) but because she didn't want to pass on any germs. She'd been swiping at a runny nose after coming in and out of the cold outside air. - Christy Karras

Furor over 'Hounddog'

The Catholic League is asking the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate whether the makers of the controversial 2007 Sundance Film Festival entry "Hounddog" - in which a character played by 12-year-old actress Dakota Fanning is raped - violated federal child-pornography laws.

"It matters not a whit whether Fanning's mother, along with Fanning's teacher/child welfare worker, gave their consent," said Catholic League president William Donohue in a statement. "What matters is whether they are an accessory to a crime."

Donohue has asked Andrew Oosterbaan, who runs the Justice department's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, to investigate. He also has sent a letter to First Lady Laura Bush requesting her help.

Donohue has not seen the film. Neither have the festivalgoers in Park City, as the movie does not debut until Monday night.

At issue is a scene in which Fanning's character, an Elvis-loving Southern child in the 1950s, is raped by an older boy. The scene brought protests when the movie was being filmed in Wilmington, N.C., last summer -- though, according to The New York Times, a Wilmington prosecutor saw a cut of the film and decided no child-pornography laws were broken and Kampmeier treated Fanning "more than appropriately."

"I have to say I have started to feel very sorry for these people who are out to silence this," the film's writer-director, Deborah Kampmeier, told The Los Angeles Times. "These are really wounded people, just like the characters in the film."

-- Sean P. Means

Sending a message to Alaska

The team behind the documentary "Everything's Cool" (which premiered Saturday morning at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival) isn't just talking about global warming, but trying to do their part to combat it.

Monday morning at 8 a.m., some 800 students from Park City's Treasure Mountain Middle School will help form a message to be photographed by aerial artist John Quigley. The message will be an answer to a similar message, featured in the movie, that was formed by residents of an Alaskan village dealing with thawing permafrost.

Quigley and the film's directors, Judith Helfand and Daniel B. Gold, are still looking for about 100 adult volunteers to join the students. If you're interested, go to the Eccles Theatre at Park City High School and look for the balloon leading you to the field behind the administration building.

Helfand and Gold also announced a program to build new wind farms - which will, they say, offset the carbon-dioxide emissions for 300 miles of every festival participant's travel to Park City.

The film's producers also arranged to hand out three-packs of Ikea compact fluorescent light bulbs, which are more energy-efficient than incandescent bulbs. "If you don't want to schlep these around," Helfand said, "we recommend you switch out the light bulbs in your hotel room."

Here's the movie's web site, which has more information about ways to fight global warming.

-- Sean P. Means

For rent: unfurnished stall

It's not uncommon to see folks in Park City this week selling extra Sundance Film Festival tickets. But on Friday afternoon, Tuck Lowe was strolling down Main Street hawking a new kind of Sundance commodity: His parking space.
Lowe owns a condo with a garaged space at the base of Main Street - ground zero for celebrity-spotters, restaurant-goers and other Sundance crashers. He was asking $30 a day for its use while he's out of town this weekend.
"They're always talking about how hard the parking is [during Sundance], so that's what gave me the idea," said the soft-spoken guy. "But I'm not a very good salesman."
It didn't seem to matter. Within minutes he had several takers.
- Brandon Griggs

No more pizza before bedtime

The horrific opening scene of "Weapons" - in which Nick Cannon's smiling face explodes as a shotgun blast takes out half his head - began as a dream in the mind of the movie's writer-director Adam Bhala Lough.

"I dreamed that scene, I woke up and I wrote the scene down," Lough said Friday in a post-screening Q-and-A at the Racquet Club Theatre

And while some may find the shot's violence gratuitous, Lough said there would have been no movie without it. "I wrote the whole script asking, 'How would this scene come about?' " Lough said.
- Sean Means

Set your watches

Festival director Geoffrey Gilmore is not putting up with tardiness this year.

"We're going to start all of our screenings on time," Gilmore vowed as he introduced the first U.S. Dramatic competition screening, "Weapons," in the Racquet Club Theatre.

The fact that Gilmore took the podium at 11:35 a.m. for an 11:30 a.m. show is a positive sign. Sundance screenings have been known to be 20 or 25 minutes late.

-- Sean P. Means

Shuttle Trouble: A Transportation Manifesto

It took my sister and I five minutes to come up with a better shuttle system than the one Sundance has had three years to fine tune. Ever since the introduction of the Racquet Club Theatre venue, the once-efficient Sundance transportation system has become a mess of tangential loops that make Park City's traffic problem feel like the Apocalypse to anyone who needs to be at a theater in 30 minutes. This year, there isn't a route that goes from the Library to Main Street without looping around to every other theater first.

As an alternative to shuttles, Sundance is officially encouraging festival-goers to walk through scenic Park City — in the freezing cold and over that special coating of black slush that serves as the mountain resort town's only major export.

To solve the shuttle problem, the festival should take the time-sucking Racquet Club off the main PCT/Theatre Loop and add a stop at the merging of Monitor Drive, Prospector Blvd. and Prospector Ave. From here, a couple shuttles should run back and forth to the Racquet Club — a few miles down Monitor Drive.

If unforeseen logistic problems prevent an express shuttle of this type, a stop at this location would still do wonders for the festival's pro-walking agenda. Moviegoers could hop off before the shuttle loops in the wrong direction, and walk to Eccles, the Racquet Club or Prospector Theatre, taking in such scenic Park City landmarks as The Taco Maker along the way.

For now, however, you'll have to run really fast if you're late for a screening. - Jeremy Mathews

Parking a pretty penny

Finding a parking space in Park City during Sundance was already a nightmare - now you have to pay for it. While people who examined the festival's catalogue knew they needed $10 cash to park at Lots G and F on Prospector Square - festival mainstays that have been free for years — most people didn't. Hopefully the price gouging will cut down on traffic.

The Trib has already recommended that you park at Kimball Junction and take the bus up, but if you must park, we've tried to track down some costs. (There is no master list available.)

- The lot across from the city park by the library (on Park Avenue) is free, but fills up fast.

- The Monitor Drive lot, en route to the Racquet Club, is only open after 3 p.m. on weekdays and all-day Saturday. Sunday, it's closed.

- Lots G and F are $10.

- The Yarrow Hotel, next to the Holiday Village Cineplex, charges $15.

- The China Bridge lot in Swede Alley behind Main Street is $20. (Don't expect to find spots near Main Street.)

- Jeremy Mathews

On the button

Festival director Geoffrey Gilmore said he usually doesn't wear buttons around Park City. But he showed up at Thursday's pre-opening press conference with a few on.

Three small ones, he said, represented the opening-night film, Brett Morgen's "Chicago 10." The other, larger than all three combined, is one being seen all over Park City: "Focus on Film."

It's the festival's mantra, urging moviegoers to concentrate on the festival's films (and its official sponsors) rather than the celebrities, parties and other "unofficial" trappings that have grown up around Sundance.

Or, as one volunteer said, "it's our anti-swag campaign."

-- Sean P. Means

Got non-fat milk?

How does Tiger Woods keep his boyish figure? By drinking hazelnut non-fat lattes, which he was spotted ordering Thursday afternoon at the Starbucks on Park City's Park Avenue.
- Anne Wilson

"Monkey"-ing around

Director Catherine Hardwicke ("thirteen," "The Nativity Story") is sporting a t-shirt with an R. Crumb illustration of "The Monkey Wrench Gang" - and she says she's determined to make the long-awaited movie version of Edward Abbey's environmental novel this year.

Hardwicke, a member of Sundance's U.S. Competition jury, said she's working on the screenplay, while the producers are trying to nail down a couple of big stars who will forego their usual salaries to be in the low-budget film.

Shooting should begin sometime this spring. Hardwicke said she loves the Moab area, the landscape that inspired Abbey's book, and would love to shoot there. But she said incentive deals in other states, particularly New Mexico, may be too good to pass up.

"Go call your governor," Hardwicke urged Abbey fans who want the movie made in Utah.

-- Sean P. Means

"Casablanca" in 60 seconds

The festival's program director, John Cooper, proudly opened up the New Frontier on Main venue to VIPs Thursday afternoon. The location, downstairs in the Main Street Mall, is a showcase for avant-garde video installations - as well as a cafe and a demo ground for new gizmos.

In one area, video plays on two TV monitors still attached to their old bus-station chairs. In the cafe, video images are beamed onto the tabletops - everything from a couple in bed to a pan of frying bacon.

One of the coolest exhibits is R. Luke DuBois' "Academy," in which every Best Picture Oscar winner is compressed into one minute each, a mega-fast-forward with occasional freeze-frames so viewers can identify the films. In six minutes, one could watch "Gone With the Wind," "Rebecca," "How Green Was My Valley," "Mrs. Miniver," "Casablanca" and "Going My Way" - and still maintain a semblance of each movie's plot and style.

-- Sean P. Means