Jordan Galland, director of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Undead, truly has every press hook a Slamdance filmmaker could ask for, from the ample involvement of celebrity children (Jake “Son of Dustin” Hoffman stars, Bijou Phillips has a cameo and Sean Lennon composed the score), to, of course, the fantastic title recalling mid-century “poster first, script later” schlock horror (which, according to Wikipedia, Galland came up with at age 14 — yet another angle!). The director also has the foolhardy balls (or is it savvy?) to admit that his film was influenced by both Masculin Feminin and Hudson Hawk, which makes it sound pretty much irresistable. Undead premieres on Monday, January 19 at Slamdance; its trailer is above and Galland answers the 4 Questions We Ask Everyone after the jump.

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During SXSW this past March, we invited filmmakers with movies at that festival to get in touch with us a few weeks before (and send screeners and any online video, if possible) so that we could highlight some of the more interesting-looking projects before the fest, and get a jump on watching stuff so that we could ultimately post more reviews. Now we’re looking to extend the same invitation to any filmmakers who are planning to show work at Sundance or Slamdance next month. More details after the jump.

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indieWIRE has the full lineup for the 2009 Slamdance Film Festival, held in Park City concurrently with Sundance. Highlights include opening night film I Sell the Dead, directed by Glenn McQuaid; the much-anticipated (by virtue of title alone) Rosencrantz and Gildenstern are Undead; and Zombie Girl: The Movie, which Kevin reviewed at Fantastic Fest.

It finally happened: my obsession with MSNBC has dovetailed with legitimate movie news! Sort of!

Tonight the New York Times broke the news that over a year ago, Dan Mirvish (filmmaker and co-founder of the Slamdance Film Festival) and Eitan Gorlin (whose directorial debut, The Holy Land, won the Grand Jury Prize at that festival and was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award) made up a fake adviser to John McCain named Martin Eisenstadt. On Monday, MSNBC’s David Schuster reported on air that Martin Eisenstadt had taken credit for the “Palin thinks Africa is a country” leak. Eisenstadt had indeed published a post on his blog (tagline: “Because freedom isn’t free”) claiming to be the leaker, which no one at MSNBC bothered to look into deeply before Schuster’s report, otherwise they might have discovered that Eisenstadt a) is a made up person, and b) didn’t actually talk to Carl Cameron, the Fox news reporter who broke the “anonymous sources say Palin doesn’t know Africa is a continent” story.

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It’ll be a bit strange at Slamdance this year without one of its most familiar faces. For eight years Sarah Diamond was a fixture at the little festival at the treasure Mountain Inn, the the upstart answer to Sundance’s Geoff Gilmore, only without the girth and goatee. She recently stepped away from Slamdance to pursue a career in law; she’ll be at Harvard this fall. Now with her media consumption opened up to things beyond Slamdance submissions, we caught up with her to talk about Flannery O’Connor, Project Runway and why Werner Herzog should let the Bad Lieutenant remake slide and make a movie about the Smiths instead.

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From the looks of it, Tom Quinn is having a pretty remarkable year. He started off by winning the Grand Jury Prize at Slamdance with his positively Cassavetian take on a disintegrating South Philly Irish clan, The New Year’s Parade. This week, he became one of Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces in Independent Film. Although the director, writer, producer, DP, gaffer, editor, financier of this micro budget film doesn’t feel like an indiewood cop-out waiting to happen, we will certainly be seeing more from him soon. While we wait for Tom’s indie darling status to cement, I chatted with him for our Media Diet interview series about what he’s listening to, his plans to remake Darby O’Gill and The Little People and how he saw The Dark Knight like everyone else. …Read more

• Twenty days after Lionsgate was rumored to be working out a deal with the WGA, the studio has finally reached one. And Marvel Studios has too! Comic book fans everywhere rejoice as Lionsgate’s Punisher: War Zone and Iron Fist and Marvel’s Captain America, Thor, Ant-Man, The Avengers and others are free to continue being written and/or re-written.
• But hey, if the strike doesn’t end soon — the WGA and moguls meet informally again today — Hollywood can just release 3D versions of old movies in 2010. That’s what Disney has planned so far (even if not directly because of the strike) with at least Toy Story and Toy Story 2. I’m fine with it; I love digital 3D, and I think The Incredibles should be next.
• With Sundance just about done, we can look back and say the star-studded films weren’t all that appealing to buyers. Or even well-received by the critics. Now, aren’t you glad you check out the star-less foreign films like I told you to?
• Meanwhile, as part of the trend of buying less-hyped titles, Slamdance has been selling some movies too.

Sundance 8: Sledding

Add to My Profile | More VideosIn this episode, Joe and Ronnie hit the Slamdance Filmmaker Sled-off.

Previous Sundance video coverage from Joe and Ronnie:
The Sucker and the Crank
Opening Night
Who Killed Davey Moore?
Melee on Main Street
George Romero
Blackout
Promotion
Gifting

You can watch all of Joe and Ronnie’s Sundance coverage, as well as the trailer and promos for Butterknife, at our MySpace page.

• IFC is expanding their efforts to bring film festival hits to the masses by developing a second video-on-demand label. Called Festival Direct, it will bring international festival favorites directly to cable boxes, skipping the middleman theatrical run afforded films on the IFC FirstTake program. Already on the slate: Ken Loach’s It’s a Free World…, and the Icelandic festival hit Jar City. 
• Roger Avary’s publicist issued a statement yesterday, apologizing for the screenwriter’s role in the accident that killed a friend and seriously injured his wife. “Words cannot express how sorry he is, and this tragic accident will always haunt him,” the statement read in part. Avary is due to be arraigned on charges of vehicular manslaughter on Friday.
• Charlize Theron will star alongside Viggo Mortensen in the upcoming adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. Mark Cuban’s 2929 Entertainment is producing the film, for distribution by Weinstein subsidiary Dimension.
• Guatemalan Handshake director/Hannah Takes the Stairs co-star Todd Rohal, True/False Film Festival director David Wilson, and IFP’s Amy Dotson are some of the familiar names on the recently-announced Slamdance jury. 

The Playlist points to the trailer for I Think We’re Alone Now, a documentary about stalkers/devoted fans of late 80s teen pop tart Tiffany, which will debut at Slamdance next month. The film centers on two fans, the creepier of whom is seen standing in the front row of a modern-day Tiffany show, despite the fact that the singer apparently got a restraining order against him during her heyday. The whole thing looks extremely creepy, but my favorite part is an exchange at the end, where a normal Tiffany fan has her relationship to Tiffany questioned by the aforementioned creepazoid. Ick.

For more info on the film, including Slamdance screening times, check out its website.

Slamdance has announced their 2008 lineup. On first glance, three documentary titles immediately pop out:

• I Think We’re Alone Now (Documentary Feature Competition): Labeled “stalkers” by the media, Jeff and Kelly profess their love for the 80’s pop icon, Tiffany.
• Spine Tingler! The William Castle Story (Twilight Screenings): A chronicle of the last great American showman, filmmaker William Castle, a master of ballyhoo who became a brand name in movie horror with his outrageous audience participation gimmicks.
• Wesley Willis’ Joyride (Documentary Feature Competition): An underground rock icon and revered artist, the late, great Wesley Willis attracted and offended people from all walks of life. The film follows the prolific and controversial artist on his journey from obscurity to cult hero.

indieWIRE has the full report.

Is overexposure bad for the Sundance Film Festival?
Is a reputation for schmooz bad for the Sundance Film Festival?
Is Paris Hilton (and the like) bad for the Sundance Film Festival?

We could all go on and on, right? However you choose to phrase it, the heart of the question is the same: Has the “true meaning” of Sundance become lost in the party madness?

The first wording of the question–Is overexposure bad for the Sundance Film Festival?–came from Robert Butler in a piece he wrote for PopWire on PopMatters. He doesn’t actually answer his own question, but he does raise some interesting points:

…with success has come second-guessing. Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly’s chief movie critic, has said that increasingly Sundance is showcasing films with such big names and solid financial backing that the word “independent” doesn’t apply.

Gleiberman has also written about the Sundance “bubble effect,” in which certain films generated a frenzy among festival goers and were fought over by competing distributors. The problem, Gleiberman writes, is that many of these festival favorites become real-world flops. They are “bubbles, destined to burst.”

Starting the Slamdance festival 13 years ago was obviously a way to counter the growing glitz of Sundance and the scores of people who go each year motivated by attractions other than movies.

But many people still don’t think Sundance has issues that need to be countered. Again, from Butler’s article:

Kevin Willmott, the Lawrence, Kan., filmmaker who took his mini-budgeted film C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America to Sundance in 2004, said the fest is invaluable in getting a low-budget film in front of a large audience.

“For a genuine independent filmmaker Sundance is a huge deal. The day they announced that C.S.A. had been accepted by Sundance I got about 100 phone calls from agents and other folks.”

It all comes back around to that big, hairy distribution monster, doesn’t it?

As IndieWire blogger Eugene Hernandez just said in a post yesterday, Little Miss Sunshine seems to have hit on a formula that was first proven wildly successful by Napoleon Dynamite. That formula, as Hernandez’s industry friend put it, is this:

Quirky comedy + funny dance number at end + premiere at Sundance + Cinetic = big sell to Fox Searchlight.

I completely resist the idea that formulas work in the film industry (or in any creative field, for that matter), but Hernandez’s friend seems to be right about Napoleon and Sunshine. Sigh.

At least this formula is a bit more involved than the one several Slamdance films apparently tried last year: goofy protagonist + outcast friends = hilarious + endearing hit. (See Paul’s post for more on this.)

So what’s with the formulas? When Napoleon first came out, it was the freshness of the film’s approach that made it work. It embodied the Anti-Formula. Obviously, trying to repeat freshness defeats the purpose. (How many times can you successfully repurpose a baby greens salad?) Anyway, I’m planning to see Sunshine tomorrow–I’m curious to see if it hits some version of a true “Napoleon Formula”–the anti-formula that isn’t stale.