Katie Holmes, Ben Affleck, 50 Cent and Dakota Fanning are among the A-listers taking their films to the Sundance Film Festival.
The festival’s premieres section includes 13 films screening out of competition, among them The Company Men, a corporate-downsizing tale starring Ben, Kevin Costner, Maria Bello and Tommy Lee Jones.
Katie joins John C Reilly and Kevin Kline for the gigolo story The Extra Man, while 50 Cent appears with Chace Crawford, Emma Roberts and Kiefer Sutherland in the crime drama Twelve from director Joel Schumacher.
Dakota and her Twilight co-star Kristen Stewart team up for director Floria Sigismondi’s The Runaways, a portrait of rocker Joan Jett as she forms her band in the 1970s.
Among actors directing films are Entourage star Adrian Grenier, whose documentary Teenage Paparazzo premieres at Sundance. The film is an exploration of celebrity culture, inspired by a 13-year-old boy who snapped a photo of Grenier.
Philip Seymour Hoffman makes his directing debut with the Sundance premiere Jack Goes Boating, in which he stars with Amy Ryan in a story of romance and betrayal involving two New York couples.
Alongside such Hollywood regulars, Sundance is adding a section called Next, featuring eight films shot on ultra low budgets of less than 500,000 dollars, mostly made by unknown filmmakers and actors.
“We’re a discovery festival, but we’re not just about the discovery of films. We’re about the discovery of talent,” said festival director John Cooper. “We wanted to make sure talent wasn’t getting past us because they’re working in a low-budget form.”
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Official details/synopsis from the Sundance press release:
The Company Men / USA (Director and screenwriter: John Wells)–Three company men attempt to survive a round of corporate downsizing while trying to fend off its effects on their families and their identities. Cast: Ben Affleck, Kevin Costner, Maria Bello, Tommy Lee Jones, Chris Cooper, Rosemarie DeWitt. World Premiere
Look out for more information at the Official Sundance Films & Events page.
