Director Thea Hvistendahl, Star Renate Reinsve on Sundance Film ‘Handling the Undead’: ‘It Is Not Your Conventional Zombie Movie’

The 2024 Sundance Film Festival is almost at an end, but there are still films to screen in the online portion of the festival and, almost as importantly, awards to hand out to happy independent filmmakers. The big winners at this year’s awards ceremony were Alessandra Lacorazza’s “In the Summers” which won the Grand Jury Prize U.S.

Filmmakers have parsed the zombie genre from seemingly every angle possible. George A.

The 2024 Sundance Film Festival is almost at an end, but there are still films to screen in the online portion of the festival and, almost as importantly, awards to hand out to happy independent filmmakers. The big winners at this year’s awards ceremony were Alessandra Lacorazza’s “In the Summers” which won the Grand Jury Prize U.S.

The 2024 Sundance Film Festival awards ceremony honoring the best of this year’s lineup in Park City is in progress right now at the Ray Theatre. Refresh frequently as the winners are announced.

April Banbury has candidly opened up about being diagnosed with incurable condition spinal stenosis after being admitted to hospital with pain in her back and numbness in her leg. The Married At First Sight UK star, 34, took to Instagram to share an update with her followers after spending four days in hospital.

America Ferrera is speaking out about her co-workers from the Barbie movie.

Love Me,” from filmmaker duo Sam and Andy Zuchero, received the juried feature film prize from Sundance Institute and Alfred P. Sloan Foundation’s joint Science-in-Film initiative at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. The prize is awarded to a film that focuses on science or technology as a theme or depicts a scientist, engineer or mathematician as a major character.

Just because “Jurassic World Dominion” earned the lowest box office total of the new ‘World’ trilogy (still at $1 billion, though), you didn’t think we’d be done with the ‘Jurassic’ franchise, did you? Silly reader, of course not! Two years after ‘Dominion’ served as a sort of kind of ending for both ‘Jurassic Park’ and ‘Jurassic World’ franchises, it appears Universal is full steam ahead on a new ‘Jurassic’ adventure. Continue reading New ‘Jurassic World’ Film In The Works From David Koepp, But Chris Pratt & Co.

EXCLUSIVE: Diego Boneta (Luis Miguel: The Series) and Martha Higareda (Queens on the Run) are set to star and executive produce the new erotic thriller film Follow for Amazon Studios from award-winning collaborators Fred Berger (La La Land) and Brian Kavanaugh-Jones (The Bikeriders). This is the first project from Boneta’s production banner Three Amigos’s overall deal with Amazon Prime.

A Different Man tackles weighty themes of disability, identity, and transformation. Directed and written by Aaron Schimberg and starring Sebastian Stan, Renate Reinsve, and Adam Pearson, what emerges is a complex portrayal of the clashes between outer perceptions and inner truths and makes valiant efforts towards inclusion to express a vital message about appearance and identity, but the execution can often feel tonally inconsistent, and overlong.Edward (Stan) is an aspiring actor with facial deformities (neurofibromatosis, to be exact), that subjects him to ridicule and isolation. Though self-conscious and lonely, Edward finds hope when he befriends Ingrid (Reinsve), his empathetic, playwright, next door neighbor. When presented with the possibility of normalcy through a risky reconstructive procedure, Edward pursues the chance to lead a life free from judgment and staring eyes. 

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Devo is headed to Sundance, not just for the festival premiere of the Chris Smith-directed documentary film that share’s the band’s name, but a Jan. 21 performance by the group at the just-opened Marquis on Main Street.

Gregg Goldstein Few directors have had greater success exposing the harsh realities of American life than Debra Granik. But after a drug abuse-themed first feature, “Down to the Bone,” the Jennifer Lawrence-led poverty saga “Winter’s Bone” and a documentary (“Stray Dog”) and drama (“Leave No Trace”) about haunted military vets, her new multipart doc, “Conbody VS Everybody” might be her most upbeat take on a tough topic to date.

Guy Lodge Film Critic If zombies weren’t so fixated on eating our brains, perhaps they’d be poignant to have around: semi-living, semi-breathing semblances of people we’ve loved, there to be seen and held and talked to, not truly present but not absent either. Whether that’s preferable to the void of death is the question underpinning “Handling the Undead” for much of its running time, even as the threat of the undead reverting to their usual habits gives this soft, sorrowful bereavement drama a core of cold-blooded horror.

In the realm of zombie-themed films, a genre often filled with clichés and predictable plot lines, Handling the Undead aims to stand out as something different.

Sundance has a long history of screening films that tackle issues of race in the U.S. from every possible angle. Some are angry (Birth of a Nation, 2016), some satirical (Dear White People, 2014), and some quite gonzo (Sorry to Bother You, 2018).

Marta Balaga Thea Hvistendahl’s “Handling the Undead,” fresh off its Sundance premiere, has already scared multiple buyers into submission, Variety has found out exclusively. Starring “The Worst Person in the World’s” Renate Reinsve and sold by TrustNordisk, it has been picked up by Hungary (Vertigo Media), Benelux (September Film), Switzerland (Filmcoopi), France (KinoVista), Spain (Avalon Distribution), Korea (Pancinema), Japan (Tohokushinsha Film Corp.), Taiwan (Swallow Wings Films) and ANZ (Signature Entertainment). Neon Rated acquired North American and U.K.

Production on Tron 3 is officially underway!

Anyone with more than a passing interest in the weird and wonderful will have seen, if not heard of, the Patterson-Gimlin footage, the cryptoozological equivalent of the Zapruder film. Shot in 1967 in the forests of Northern Carolina, it purports to show a large, ape-like creature with an elongated forehead striding purposefully into the trees. Unlike an ape, the creature walks upright, and, unlike the furtive behavior of any other forest creature, it has the casual air of the average human being popping over to the 7-11 to pick up a gallon of milk. Most people who see the footage wonder what the hell this damn thing is, but the sibling directors of Sasquatch Sunset have a couple more questions that they’d like answered. Like, where is it going? And what does it do all day?

EXCLUSIVE: Ahead of the Sundance debut of her latest short, The Looming, filmmaker Masha Ko has taken on new management at Range Media Partners.

Michael B. Jordan has worked with Ryan Coogler many times in his career and they are getting ready to team up for another project.