Sundance 2024 Takeaways: Fewer Oscar Movies, Slower Sales and Some Horror Hits

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Sarah Snook said during an interview on Times Radio that her “Succession” co-star Brian Cox had a habit of outbursts on set fueled by his Type 2 diabetes. Snook, who recently won an Emmy for playing Shiv Roy on the final season of “Succession,” said Cox’s voice could get “terrifying sometimes” during these moments of rage. “He has a habit of sometimes going into a false — or could it be real, who knows? — diabetic rage,” Snook said.

Valerie Wu Intern Gru and the Minions are back, as Universal and Illumination’s “Despicable Me 4” has released its first trailer. The film, which hits theaters on July 3, 2024, continues the popular animated franchise, which follows the reformed supervillain Gru (Steve Carrell) trying to do good and finding family while he’s at it. Kristen Wiig, Miranda Cosgrove, Steve Coogan, Chris Renaud, Dana Gaier, Pierre Coffin also return for the fourth installment.

EXCLUSIVE: In a deal that when closed will be worth $15 million, Warner Bros Discovery has emerged as frontrunner to land the Sundance buzz title documentary Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story, sources said. The inspirational film is about the late actor best known for playing the Man of Steel. Docu’s focus is on how he found strength and purpose through activism after he was paralyzed in an equestrian accident. I believe that puts the film in precedent setting territory for a docu launched at Sundance. Numerous bidders have been in the mix, but I hear it’s likely to land at the home of the Superman film franchise.

Addie Morfoot Contributor The 40th edition of Sundance proved that despite corporate consolidation, there is still a market for independently made documentaries. While there haven’t been many sales so far, there has been strong buyer interest in two celeb-focused docs — “Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story” and “Will & Harper,” featuring Will Ferrell — and healthy interest in others. “The market didn’t have a pulse six months ago,” says Submarine Entertainment sales agent Josh Braun, who came to the festival with nine documentaries seeking distribution, including “Daughters,” “Gaucho Gaucho” and “Union.” “So there was a reason to be a little bit fearful coming into Sundance.

Angelique Jackson Amazon MGM Studios is in final negotiations to acquire Megan Park’s sophomore feature “My Old Ass,” starring Aubrey Plaza and Maisy Stella, following its Sundance Film Festival debut. The high-concept film — which was produced by LuckyChap’s Margot Robbie, Tom Ackerley and Josey McNamara, with Indian Paintbrush’s Steven Rales — made its world premiere on Saturday night in a sold-out screening at the Eccles Theatre in Park City, UT. The deal is for roughly $15 million.

The premise of the documentary “Will & Harper” is so simple that it almost seems presentational, self-serving, or stunt-y. The idea is, after 30 years of friendship, comedian Will Ferrell learns, through a personal email, that an old friend and former “Saturday Night Live” writer, then Adam Steele (yes, the dead name is used at first), is coming out as a trans woman.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Unlike Cannes and Venice, Sundance isn’t a film festival that inspires too many standing ovations. But moviegoers at the Eccles Theatre were moved (more than once!) to stand up and applaud after the premiere of “Will & Harper,” a funny, heartbreaking and poignant documentary about Will Ferrell taking a road trip with his longtime friend, Harper Steele, who transitioned at 61.

Pending Woody Allen’s final and absolute cancellation, few directors have emerged to take his place as an erudite and literary artist whose work combines snappy wordplay, base sex jokes and a philosophical willingness to stare into the abyss. Jesse Eisenberg staked a tentative claim to that throne with his 2022 debut When You Finish Saving the World, an amiable but scrappy political satire about a left-wing mother and son, but his follow-up makes a stronger case, being much more adult, less broadly scripted, and as depressing as Woody Allen circa Stardust Memories (which his sophomore film as director obliquely resembles, with its talk of chance, fate and irony).

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic More actors than ever are now stepping behind the camera to take a shot at directing. To me, they always end up falling into one of three categories. There are the ones who simply aren’t very good at it.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Jesse Eisenberg’s “A Real Pain,” one of the buzziest movies to premiere so far at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, has sold to Searchlight in a huge $10 million deal. Given the warm reception in Park City, the film sparked a bidding war among several distributions to land global rights. Eisenberg directed “A Real Pain” in addition to starring alongside Kieran Culkin.

EXCLUSIVE: The dealmaking has begun. Searchlight Pictures closed the first major deal on the ground at the Sundance Film Festival — $10 million for WW rights for A Real Pain, directed and written by Jesse Eisenberg. He stars with freshly minted Emmy winning Succession star Kieran Culkin as mismatched cousins David and Benji. They reunite for a tour of Poland to honor their grandmother, but older tensions resurface against the backdrop of their family’s history. The film will get a big theatrical release later this year.

be him. Benji blurts out totally inappropriate comments that other people could never get away with.

PARK CITY – There are multiple meanings to the title of Jesse Eisenberg’s latest directorial effort, “A Real Pain.” There is the pain that cousins Benji Kaplan (Eisenberg) and David Kaplan (Keiran Culkin) are experiencing over the passing of their beloved grandmother and there is the pain Benji is feeling over a horrifying incident in his cousin’s life. The most pressing example, however, is in David’s soul.

Stephen Rodrick Jesse Eisenberg‘s “A Real Pain” stars Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin as mismatched New York Jewish cousins. They’re on a trip to Poland in search of the life that their recently dead grandmother lived before the Holocaust. Benji is a buttoned up neurotic on OCD medicine while David is a charming fuckup with no prospects but a mouth that is equally hilarious and malignantly obnoxious.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Jesse Eisenberg is officially giving his Lex Luthor advice to Nicholas Hoult, and it’s blunt: “Don’t watch me!” During an interview at the Variety Studio presented by Audible while attending the Sundance Film Festival, Eisenberg suggested Hoult should forge his own path and not pay attention to Eisenberg’s own work as Lex Luthor in Zack Snyder’s DC Universe. “Whenever you play a role you feel connected to it,” Eisenberg added to Variety‘s Matt Donnelly about playing the DC villain for a short time.

William Earl Variety is returning to the Sundance Film Festival this year with its annual Interview Studio, presented by Audible, the leading creator and provider of premium audio storytelling. Throughout the festival, videos from the interview studio will be distributed across Variety.com as well as Variety and Audible’s social media channels (Instagram: @audible, @Variety; Twitter: @audible_com, @Variety; TikTok: @audible, @VarietyMagazine).

When the Oscar shortlist of feature documentaries was announced in December, it was dominated by films that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival – films like Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project, The Eternal Memory, Beyond Utopia and A Still Small Voice. 

Pedro Pascal put Kieran Culkin on blast!

Succession and The Bear both scored major success with six wins during the Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony, closely followed by Beef which received five on-stage awards. Hollywood stars descended at the Peacock Theatre in Los Angeles for the annual awards on Monday, 15 January, which were pushed back from September due to the US actors' and writers' strikes, to celebrate the best in television.

Emmy Awards for the 2022-2023 TV season had to overcome the challenge of seeming like a complete afterthought — and for the most part it succeeded. The ceremony for the 75th Emmys was designed as a tribute to the medium, and featured reunions from shows such as “All in the Family,” “The Sopranos,” “Martin” and “Grey’s Anatomy,” the last of which featured the beloved, departed cast members Katherine Heigl and Justin Chambers, alongside OG stars Ellen Pompeo, Chandra Wilson and James Pickens Jr.