Promising indie films in Sundance 2012 lineup

By Sarah Sluis

Let's skip past awards season for a minute. The lineup for the 2012 Sundance Film Festival has been released. Surprisingly, none of the fifteen movies in the premiere section have distribution yet. Included in the lineup are plenty of romances, comedies, and offbeat premises that will be sure to connect with Sundance's youthful core demographic. Let's take a look at some of the projects that have me the most excited.

Bachelorette. This year's Bridesmaids showed just how much fun female-centered wedding comedies can be. Bachelorette is a bit more Mean Girls, centering on a group of friends who are miffed when their least popular member becomes engaged to an extremely eligible bachelor and then recruits them to be bridesmaids. Kirsten Dunst, Lizzie Caplan, and Isla Fisher star as the friends, in what looks like a cross of Bridesmaids and the upcoming Young Adult.

Celeste and Jesse Forever. Another entry in the unconventional, weird-timelined love story (think: (500) Days of Summer), this centers on a couple that's been together since high school. As they approach thirty, they decide to divorce while remaining best friends. Rashida Jones, who's been a rising star, plays one member of the couple in a screenplay she co-wrote.

Red Hook Summer. Spike Lee directs and co-writes this story of a boy who goes to live with his grandfather who he's never met. I love this premise, and I think it's a chance for Lee to return to the kind of astutely observed social drama he showed the world in Do the Right Thing.

Liberal Arts. This romance centers on a 30-something guy (Josh Radnor, who also writes and directs) who returns to his college only to hook up with a 19-year-old student (Elizabeth Olsen). Olsen's portrayal as a cult member in the 2011 Sundance entry Martha Marcy May Marlene was powerful but also largely mute. It will be interesting to see the "third Olsen" in what has to be a more dialogue-driven performance. With the focus on Radnor, could this movie be a kind of reverse The Graduate?

The Sundance Film Festival will take place from Jan. 19-29, 2012.

'Twilight' lingers, with a third week in the top spot

By Sarah Sluis

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part I kept its spot in first place for the third week in a row. The vampire romance earned another $16.9 million for a total of $247 million. That puts the blockbuster slightly behind the previous two installments, but a second sequel tracking just 5-10% less is actually cause for celebration.

The Muppets grabbed second place by sinking 61% to $11.2 million. The modestly budgeted movie has already earned $56 million in total, more than the reported production costs. However, this weekend consisted solely of holdovers from Thanksgiving, so the family film should have held much better.

Hugo had a quiet start in just 1,277 theatres. This week it added 563 locations while dipping just 32% to $7.6 million. With a 94% positive rating, good word-of-mouth should be forthcoming. This weekend, I ran into someone who went to see Hugo last weekend, only to decide against buying a ticket because it was only showing in 3D, and she'd never seen a 3D film. Another friend quickly jumped in to explain that the 3D is a big reason why the movie is so great--word-of-mouth. Still, this shows that a certain segment of adults who like quality films by auteurs like Martin Scorsese haven't warmed to the idea of 3D.

Besides The Muppets and Hugo, four other family-targeted movies crowded the box office. Arthur Christmas fell 39% to $7.3 million. Happy Feet Two earned $6 million with a 55% drop. Jack and Jill defied its 4% positive Rotten Tomatoes rating and stayed in sixth place with a 45% dive to $5.5 million. Finally, Puss in Boots is hanging on in ninth place with $3 million and a 60% decline.

Awards season films are in full swing. The NC-17 drama Shame debuted with $36,000 per screen in ten locations. The strong debut indicates that maybe the NC-17 rating isn't the death knell it used to be. Sleeping Beauty, which also focuses on the seedy aspects of sex, earned $5,000 per location in two places, a much softer opening.

The Weinstein Company is working its magic on The Artist, which earned .2% more than last week as it moved from four to six locations. Its $34,000 per-screen average indicates that its silent, black & white throwback isn't as hard of a sell as everyone thought. The distributor's other release, My Week with Marilyn, topped $1.1 million by pulling in a $4,800 per-screen average in 244 locations.

The most successful of the specialty releases right now is The Descendants. The George Clooney-starring dramedy earned $5.2 million and the seventh-place spot, while still playing in just 574 theatres.

This week will add just two more wide releases, New Year's Eve and The Sitter. The specialty field will be more crowded, with Young Adult, W.E., We Need to Talk About Kevin, and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy joining the fray.

Digital Hollywood NYC: Theatrical holds steady in a turbulent media world

By Kevin Lally

FJI correspondent Doris Toumarkine reports on the buzz about new media at the annual Digital Hollywood New York City conference.

The annual Digital Hollywood New York City conferences over the past few years have emitted less the vibe of a cross-industry gathering than that of a soul-searching, 12-step meeting convening similarly rattled souls seeking group support, encouragement and advice.

But the 2011 edition, held Nov. 17-18 again at midtown Manhattan's McGraw-Hill Building, emitted more welcoming signs of optimism and excitement vis--vis the changes that the digital revolution has and is unleashing on all the entertainment/media/communications sectors.

Attracting those in advertising, marketing, cable, film, media, mobiles, tablets, supporting technologies, finance and related businesses, the event this year also underscored the fact that digital capabilities are increasingly responsible for converging businesses and sending them into new ones while providing more bounty to consumers. Less sanguine is what this historic and ongoing changeover is doing to the other side.

Amidst the turmoil in the media and entertainment sectors, panelists in film again declared that the theatrical window remains strong because consumers, no contest, still want the big screen. Indie filmmakers, however, continue to confront the challenges of getting their films seen and sold. A panel discussing "Film Festivals in the Digital Age: Tribeca, New York, Hamptons, Toronto, IFP, Vimeo" made clear that fests are no longer what they used to be. As IndieWire writer Eric Kohn, Independent Filmmaker Project's Amy Dotson and Tribeca Film Fest chief creative officer and former Sundance director Geoff Gilmore noted, festivals that used to focus on the business of setting deals or beginning the discussions are now more about building audiences and getting films noticed by functioning as showcasing platforms.

What used to be an all-important "premiering" of a film at a fest is almost a non-issue. Also fading is the dream of someone like a Harvey Weinstein discovering a movie at a fest and grabbing it. Said Gilmore, "The issue today is really about raising the visibility of a film." Indicative of this trend is how many festivals now offer their selections day-and-date online via video-on-demand.

This virtual trend is fully realized by panelist Sebastien Perioche's Eurocinema On Demand, whose virtual fest anyone can see online 24/7. The fest finds its selections by partnering with usually government-run cultural groups across Europe. He emphasized that "it's all about mobility and accessibility�people want to see their festivals anywhere, any way they can."

"Curating" has also become integral, whatever the festival. Panelist Terence Gray's New York Television Festival has evolved into a carefully curated, must-see, rich showcase for pilots. Said Gray, "We're in the business to put the very best in front of the networks and agents and that's how we've built our brand and gotten them to pay attention." His fest also offers mentoring programs addressing subjects like what networks are actually looking for.

Regarding any profits going to filmmakers from nontheatrical, TV or video situations, panelists cited a number of hands in the till before the creators see revenues. Grabbing cuts are cable providers, middlemen/aggregators who curate, and specific channels. At least fests can offer a more streamlined, less hijacked road to viewer eyeballs and filmmaker benefits. Maybe.

As for avoiding crippling marketing costs, finding deep-pocketed sponsors is the way to go, as the Tribeca Fest has done with founding sponsor American Express. Sugar daddies come in plastic.

Gilmore, citing the Venice Fest's decision to show just an episode of HBO's Mildred Pierce, characterized this and other "transmedia" crossovers to new avenues as "murky," even wondering whether presenting nonlinear programming like gaming narratives has a place in the festival realm.

Festivals and markets also suggest that the world of independent filmmaking has gotten more inclusive. The IFP, the longtime marketplace for independent films, used to be, as Dotson put it, "very New York-centric. But now the films are coming from everywhere, not just from New York and L.A. So we're getting all kinds of fresh content."

Panelists noted that because DVD has been down for about a decade, other platforms like VOD have become all the more coveted. Filmmakers were reprimanded for not strategizing early in production who their audiences are and how to reach them. Concrete goals, panelists agreed, must be set early in the filmmaking process.

The question of the quality of film content also emerged. Will content from the top (curated, elitist) prevail over the kind of content from the bottom that Google's YouTube favors? Viewers seem divided.

Like just about everything else in flux, film fests were declared "in a transitional moment." And panelists concurred with IndieWire's Kohn that "everyone wants to see their work on the big screen."

"The Future of Content Distribution: Pay, VOD, Broadband, Cable and Mobile" addressed the new feature film avenues opened by digital. There seems to be life beyond theatres, but where are the revenues?

Like the other panelists, SnagFilms CEO Rick Allen's goal is to get his films on all platforms, "get independent films in front of everyone, whether [the movies are] ad-supported or transactional."

Screen Media Ventures senior VP of digital distribution Gary Delfiner, too, is building his now 320-film library and looking at additional platforms in a reach to ten countries so far. Also in this game is Cinetic Rights Management head of content Matt Dentler (former honcho at South by Southwest), whose filmbuff.com is releasing content across the globe.

With viewers in the driver seat, the content is available, but where is the money? There are bright spots. As an example of generated revenues that flowed back to content creators, Dentler pointed to a small film made in France by the Polish Brothers and strategically released straight to VOD that "netted a healthy six figures."

Panelists also discussed how filmmakers are splitting rights rather than giving away the farm, and how to find supportive people amidst this twisty rights conundrum. Snag and Cinetic might be a good start if content creators propose attractive material. This whole area of indie films going out non-theatrically and digitally is, as Allen said, "too new a medium to predict outcomes, so we try to innovate as best we can."

And innovate they are. SnagFilms, for instance, will release Splinters, its first theatrical release, in early 2011. Asked if there might be a conflict of interest, considering the company runs the popular IndieWire indie-focused news site, Allen assured that Snag is "so aware of this issue and have always been careful to keep up that China Wall." Additionally, he said, the strict and watchful IndieWire staff taskmasters will assure objectivity and no favoritism.

Filmmakers were encouraged to look into branded entertainment as a way of getting financial help. And short films can have a way of finding life. Allen discussed a case in which shorts funded by Goldman Sachs were re-cut into a longer-form program made available on the SnagFilms platform.

Suggesting the murkiness that the new distribution spaces present, Dentler noted that even celebrity status is different in the digital space. Web-generated stars aren't necessarily those bold-faced names that traditional media trumpets.

There was agreement that theatrical for smaller titles is not much more than "a strategy to build buzz for digital." Delfiner summed up the wobbly state of things for filmmakers and providers alike: "The Holy Grail remains�how do you get people to watch your movie?"

Film aside, the conference was most prominently loaded with discussions about the multi-screen universe of devices (TVs, tablets, broadband, smart-phones and IPTVs, etc.), constant changes in technology and user adoption, content and favored platforms, the impact of social media on advertising, marketing and growing awareness, current hegemonies like Facebook, Apple products like the iPad and services like iTunes, and so much more. Again, topics were propelled by the fury of never-ending technological innovation that impacts the media/entertainment/communication environments ("eco-systems," being the favored word).

The one constant amidst so much uncertainty seems to be the attraction of motion picture theatres that are still filling seats by filling screens with good stories. Hooray for Hollywood and gifted independents who thrive on the big screens! Their display of stability in an otherwise unstable, rocked and flummoxed world is encouraging.

As more vulnerable players experiment with radically different businesses (e.g., Apple, Google and Facebook moving into consumer electronics), filmmakers, the studios and theatres just have to continue doing the same thing better.

Still, those in this safer film haven may be missing out on uncertainty's byproduct�the excitement generated by new ideas and often rewarding risk-taking required of the more vulnerable players on the digital playing field. At least the studios have Ultraviolet in the works to provide their off-screen thrills and chills.

But let exhibitors beware: Panelists shared their own excitement about the high quality of images that the small screen can now deliver. Smaller is getting better.

The tale of the competing 'Snow Whites'

By Sarah Sluis

The success of Alice in Wonderland prompted Hollywood to furiously pursue other fairy tales. That means 2012 will bring two Snow White films. Relativity Media's Mirror Mirror will open first, on March 16. Summit's Snow White and the Huntsman will release in the summer, tentatively on June 1. I've previously scoffed at the idea of two Snow White films. After seeing the second film's trailer, which came out today, I've revised my thinking. Each take on the classic fairy tale is so different I actually think audiences won't mind.

Snow White and the Huntsman, which stars Charlize Theron as the evil queen and Kristen Stewart as Snow White, takes itself very, very, seriously. The trailer is reminiscent of all those male-dominated action movies about Greek gods--like Clash of the Titans and Immortals. Creepy special effects, like a black cape dissolving into thousands of crows, or the evil queen sucking the life out of a poor woman, may make the magic-infused action worthwhile.

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Mirror Mirror, however, is the unlikely winner. The trailer is surprisingly cheesy--word is the movie is going for a PG rating. But there's also a feeling that the movie's poking fun of conventions, in the style of Shrek or The Princess Bride. As the evil queen, Julia Roberts is self-involved but not too scary--her evil notch is only slightly higher than when she tried to steal the man in My Best Friend's Wedding. Armie Hammer (The Social Network, J. Edgar) proves himself a rising star as the prince who's in a love triangle with the queen and Snow White. There are actually dwarves in this version (at least in the trailer). It looks so bad it's good, something the Internet has already picked up on. Indiewire called it a "future camp classic."

Mirror, Mirror looks like it may have some groany laughs, but at least it doesn't take itself too seriously. Snow White and the Huntsman has more work ahead of it. All action and special effects and cavalries riding in to battle? Not my cup of tea. With each movie taking an entirely different route, however, it will be interesting to see if the light or dark vision of Snow White wins over more audiences.

The full rundown on the 'Hunger Games' trailer

By Sarah Sluis

Last month I was on an airplane, when I recognized the Hunger Games font in my seatmate's book. "She's reading The Hunger Games!" I thought. Conversation ensued. We were both in our mid-twenties. She was reading the second book on the recommendation of her sister. These are what Hunger Games fans look like. We're not as swoony and crazy as the Twi-hards, but we also don't include the younger fans of the Harry Potter series. Quite a lot of the readers have long aged out of the young adult category but still find themselves turning to the series, which has an immensely satisfying dystopian vision. Twelve districts, used only for their natural resources or manufacturing capabilities, must sacrifice a male and female teen to play in the Games as a Tribute. Armed with weapons and survivalist gear (if they're lucky), they fight to the death in the Arena, a natural environment that's been tweaked by the Gamemakers to make it more dangerous.

The trailer for the movie, which opens on March 23, 2012, released yesterday, unleashing a furor of comments and posts from the blogosphere. I list the trailer's biggest disappointments and successes.

1. District 12. The poor coal town looked exactly as I had envisioned it. The (un-)electric fence looked old and rusty, the citizens downbeat and drained of hope. The platform Effie (played by Elizabeth Banks in makeup that appears to channel Johnny Depp in Alice in Wonderland) uses to announce the Tributes is bigger and grander than I imagined, with lots of extra screens to amplify the action.

2. The city shot of the Capitol looked bland and boring, like a modern Star Wars ripoff. No budget was spent on this. The interiors were much more promising. Hollywood knows how to create futuristic, modern interiors without a problem. It's the special effects that are lacking here.

3. The makeover. For me, the biggest Jennifer Lawrence transformation was seeing her first as a poor Ozarks girl in Winter's Bone, then as a glamorous blonde at the Oscars. The Hunger Games can't replicate that kind of transformation. She does look prettier and more done up after receiving her makeover at the Capitol, but don't expect The Princess Diaries.

4. The Games. This is really the most important part of the story, and so far there's nothing to disappoint. The trailer stops after all the Tributes enter the arena, and Katniss (Lawrence) grabs the same, single bag that she does in the book. The initial bloodshed occurs just moments later.

Some of the book's biggest assets can't be intuited from a trailer. Suzanne Collins' novel reads like a screenplay at times. There aren't a lot of superfluous details to edit out, and the action is brisk, satisfying, and extremely page-turning. If the actors and director can transfer that energy to the screen, The Hunger Games will have no trouble being a huge success.

'Immortals' rule the box office

By Sarah Sluis

The 3D swords-and-sandals epic Immortals outperformed industry expectations and finished with $32 million. Young filmgoers, who haven't been turning out in force lately, returned for the picture, which may have been perceived as offering more value with all its special effects. 3D, too, did well, accounting for 66% of the total. Distributor Relativity Media pulled off its biggest debut ever, but the expensive film will still have to do well in secondary markets in order to pull in a profit.

Eking out a second place finish, Jack and Jill debuted surprisingly high, to the tune of $26 million. Audiences who grew up with Sandler didn't abandon him. 52% of audiences were over 25. The PG-rated comedy also got 52% of its business from families, indicating that the all-ages rating was a savvy move.

Puss in Boots finished neck-and-neck with Jack and Jill, earning an estimated $25.5 million. In its third week, it dipped just 23%. Despite debuting to just $34 million, the CG-animated movie earned three times that much in three weeks. This is an unusual multiple to achieve, but one that DreamWorks Animation consistently pulls off for its titles. With over $100 million in the bank, Puss in Boots doesn't have a lot to worry about when Happy Feet 2 joins the animated fray this Friday.

Leonardo DiCaprio-starring J. Edgar had a respectable finish of $11.4 million. Releasing in less than 2,000 locations, the biopic's per-screen average of $6,000 strikes an optimistic note. However, this
specialty/awards title has an uphill battle ahead of it. Only 40% of critics rated the movie positive, compared to the 91% positive rating of this Friday's opener, The Descendants. Director Clint Eastwood appears to have hit another double or triple, not the home run it needs for a big Oscar presence.

Melancholia, the end-of-the-world meditation from director Lars von Trier, opened with a $14,000 per-screen average in nineteen locations. Given the large number of theatres showing the drama, the Kirsten Dunst starrer performed well. Werner Herzog's Into the Abyss came up with $4,200 per location in twelve theatres. The documentary, which focuses on the death penalty, may not be as enticing a subject as his 3D spelunking doc Cave of Forgotten Dreams. Paramount Vantage's Like Crazy picked up the pace in its third week, netting half a million and going up 97% from the previous week. Now playing in 70 theatres, the romance wrangled an impressive $7,500 per location.

This Wednesday, The Descendants will get a head start on the weekend. Starting Thursday at midnight The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn (Part One) will ravage audiences, and families will have another animated option, Happy Feet Two.

'Immortals' spars with 'Jack and Jill'

By Sarah Sluis

The swords-and-sandals epic Immortals (3,112 theatres) will have to fight a little in order to top the box office. Jack and Jill, Puss in Boots, and Immortals are all expected to land somewhere north of $20 million, but Immortals' 3D action should make it the biggest crowd-pleaser. 40% of Rotten Tomatoes critics rated the movie positively, and our Maitland McDonagh was one of them. She praised the "old-school epic entertainment dressed up with state-of-the-art effects." The driving force in the plot is the search for a bow that will allow a person to become a "one-man army." The bow sounds an awful lot like the "Macguffin" or "weenie" trope, but hey, at least it's an excuse for "deliriously bloody battle sequences and fetishistic fascination with lightly clad male flesh."

Adam Sandler cross-dresses in Jack and Jill (3,438 theatres), which may be the comedian's most groan-inducing premise yet. "Brains can be checked at the coatroom," critic Doris Toumarkine snipes, but acknowledges that some "Sandler fans may welcome the brainless diversion." After last year's Grown Ups, count me out--I'm a fallen Sandler fan. With an insanely low 2% positive Rotten Tomatoes rating, I doubt even those who count Happy Gilmore and Billy Madison as their favorite comedies will turn out. Ouch. Unlike most of the star's films, Jack and Jill is rated PG, so perhaps it will draw in family crowds and eleven-year-old boys who think Sandler is the funniest guy ever.

Director Clint Eastwood's J. Edgar (expanding to 1,910 theatres) opened in limited release on Wednesday, posting a $7,500 per-screen average. Leonardo DiCaprio stars as famed FBI head J. Edgar Hoover in the biopic. This is the kind of film that thrives on good reviews, but not many are coming. Sure, DiCaprio delivers a "committed performance," according to critic Kevin Lally, but there's also the "old-age makeup [that] isn't always convincing" and a speechy setup. "As agent Clyde Tolson, Armie Hammer says more with a knowing smile than any line of [screenwriter Dustin Lance] Black's wordy dialogue," Lally concludes. Sounds like a classic case of not following "show don't tell." Since the filmmakers can only speculate on certain things--like the exact nature of Hoover's relationship with Tolson, to whom he left his entire estate and spent a lot of close time with--it's often unsatisfying. The scope, too, is so large Black often just brushes the surface. Count this one out of the major Oscar races. At least, I hope there are better films out there this season.

On the specialty front, there's a tiny release of Elite Squad: The Enemy Within (1 theatre), a sequel to the smash Brazilian cops and gangsters hit that's "as intelligent as it is entertaining," according to critic Doris Toumarkine. Also in the mix is director Lars von Trier's Melancholia. Kirsten Dunst stars as a bride who marries just as a planet inches closer to destroying Earth. Critic Chris Barsanti felt the movie amounts to a "trite apocalypse," though he's in the minority of reviewers. Finally, director Werner Herzog mulls over the death penalty by focusing on one heinous crime in Texas in Into the Abyss (10 theatres). Barsanti had kinder words for the documentary, praising it as "essayistic yet visceral"

On Monday, we'll see if Immortals, Jack and Jill, and Puss in Boots all landed above the $20 million mark and if J. Edgar debuts higher than its middling reviews suggest.