I got 13 hours of sleep last night...awesome.
I got up for an 8:30 am film, then stayed awake until the midnight Signal premiere, then partied after the sale at the condo, had breakfast with Alex, AJ, Justin, JD, Pete, Mark, and Dan. They all went to bed and Mark and I toughed it out. I was off to Broken English with Parker Posie. She rocked it out. Then off a panel on Doc funding, then another one on doc funding. Great panels, but of no use to me unfortunately. Then off to the new Hal Hartley film, Fay Grim. Totally off the hook. Not anything that I would expect from a Hartley film. Mystery, thriller, fast moving and over the top. It was awesome. I then went to dinner at 412 Bistro again. I love that place. We're eating there every other night.
Then I posted all those photos and went to bed at 9:30pm....woke up at 10:30 am this morning. I felt good, refreshed, ready to conquer the world.....ready to see movies and actually write up a blog.
Wow...Sundance sure is different this year. Last year, I came out with no agenda, just to hang out and absorb the craziness.
This year, I'm with a film that just sold to Magnolia for over $2 mil, so says Hollywood Reporter.
The messed up part is that it doesn't actually mean I get into parties. I forgot The Great World of Sound pary, which blows. I really like the director, Craig Zobel, and Melissa. I can't believe I wasn't there. I saw the director earlier and congratulated him, and sent them both e-mails, but it would have been good to show up and say HI. Bummer. I suck. I also never received the invite from Effie, so I missed that party too. Oh well.
I'm seeing lots of great movies.
Joshua was insanely freaky. Another Magnolia purchase. Creepy stuff. This was hitchcockian in nature with a bit of Damian thrown in. The kid was awesome.
Hounddog, the Dakota Fanning rape movie..it was really overblown. The movie was actually quite heavy...Crystal-like actually. Her performance was brilliant.
Khadak was an amazing foreign art film. I loved it.
You want to know more about these...go to http://festival.sundance.org/filmguide/ and read all about them.
I gotta tell ya, we're all overwhelmed, shocked, thrilled and crazed that the Signal sold here literally right after the screening.
Here's what you want and don't want at your screening....
If a distributor walks out and keeps walking, you're screwed. But if they walk out, then walk back in, then walk back out again, over and over again...they are making phone calls....they are figuring out what to do with it...they are getting everyone on board for a sale.
I was getting text messages about the first reviews about 3:30-4:30 am...about the same time that Alex, Jacob and our investor were signing on the dotted line. The reviews freaked us all out...I mean, damn...does it get any better than that?
Shortly after, I was getting calls to come out to the condo. JD & I, as you know, are in a love shack right on main street, and the kids are all out around lot G, near the Prospector. The buses weren't running anymore, so we hoped in a cab and headed out to the condo. Our sales reps and the Magnolia guys were all there to celebrate.
Everyone was drunk and having a good time. We all actually watched the Academy Awards announcements together at 6am.
That's when the party finally broke up and we all went to breakfast.
It's pretty overwhelming for the boys...selling this film, getting approached by agents and managers, pitching their movies. I know, I mean, what, are they complaining...hell, no, but you gotta imagine, this is pretty crazy. We're all just trying to remain calm and appreciate what we all did together...cause it's really about the collective and what we have in Atlanta, that is special to this place...our Dailies collective. We are a team and we all will keep making amazing movies in Atlanta, together.
Look out Hollywood, the Hollywood of the South has finally been recognized.
