With the 2012 Sundance Film Festival kicking off in, oh my, God, is that right? just one month, it’s time that the fest announce its straggler titles – four more picks joining the already-phenomenal line-up of films that, for whatever reason, weren’t quite ready to be announced when the listing of 117 other feature-length films were released. These four titles join three different sections – there’s one Premiere, two Spotlights (films that have shown at other festivals that the Sundance crew can’t help but share come January), and one Park City at Midnight title. At least one of these films made me stand up and cheer upon reading of its addition.
I won’t tease you – it’s John Dies at the End. Don Coscarelli‘s take on David Wong‘s novel will have its World Premiere at the festival, and I cannot even remotely wait. Also joining the fest? Philip Dorling and Ron Nyswaner‘s Predisposed, starring Jesse Eisenberg, Melissa Leo, and Tracy Morgan, along with the North American premiere of Sean Penn fright wig drama This Must Be the Place and Norway’s own Oslo, August 31st.
Check out the full listing details of all four additions after the break.
PREMIERES
Predisposed / U.S.A. (Directors & Screenwriters: Philip Dorling, Ron Nyswaner) — Eli Smith, a piano prodigy, is dealing with his troubled mother and enlisting help from a hapless drug dealer on the day he has an audition for a prestigious music program. Events spiral comically out of control as this gang of misfits faces the mistakes of the past, the challenges of the future, and the possibilities of love. Cast: Jesse Eisenberg, Melissa Leo, Tracy Morgan, Sarah Ramos, Isiah Whitlock Jr. World Premiere.
SPOTLIGHT
Oslo, August 31st / Norway (Director: Joachim Trier, Screenwriters: Eskil Vogt & Joachim Trier based on a novel by Pierre Drieu La Rochelle) — One man, one city, 24 hours. Oslo, August 31st is a portrait of contemporary Oslo. A visually striking and quietly shattering drama about a man in deep existential crisis. Cast: Anders Danielsen Lie, Hans Olav Brenner, Ingrid Olava, Tone B. Mostraum.
This Must Be The Place / Italy, France, Ireland (Director: Paolo Sorrentino, Screenwriter: Umberto Contarello, Paolo Sorrentino) — A bored, retired rock star sets out to find his father’s executioner, an ex-Nazi war criminal who is a refugee in the U.S. Cast: Sean Penn, Frances McDormand, Judd Hirsch. North American Premiere.
PARK CITY AT MIDNIGHT
JOHN DIES AT THE END / U.S.A. (Director: Don Coscarelli, Screenwriter: Don Coscarelli, based on a novel by David Wong) — On the street they call it Soy Sauce – a drug that allows users to drift across time and dimensions. But some who come back are no longer human. Can John and David stop the oncoming horror? No. They can’t. Cast: Chase Williamson, Rob Mayes, Paul Giamatti, Clancy Brown, Glynn Turman. World Premiere.
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If you’re in need of a refresher course on everything that’s hitting sleepy old Park City, Utah in just a month’s time, check out the list of films in-competition; the Spotlight, Next, Midnights, and New Frontiers picks; and the full run of premieres and documentary premieres.
FSR’S own Allison Loring and, well, FSR’s own me have booked our plane tickets (prop plane both ways, naturally) and our sleeping accommodations (a charming log cabin in the woods – just kidding, it’s a condo that sleeps about twelve, all bloggers) for this year’s festival, so if anything on the Sundance line-up is striking your fancy in a big way and you want (nay – demand) a patented Film School Rejects Sundance Review of it, why don’t you let us know in the comments?
This year’s festival runs from January 19 through 29 in Park City, Utah.