“The Hero” Photograph: Beth Dubber/AP Courtesy: The Guardian
Production companies Park Pictures and Washington Square Films were selected to showcase their feature films in the 2017 Sundance Film Festival’s prestigious Dramatic Competition. The films will premiere at Park City, UT from January 19-29 and demonstrate the widest heart-wrenching ranges of dramatic production, from courtroom thrillers and tousles with the idea of “family” to reflections on our own place in today’s tumultuous political society.
Producers Houston King (“Results”), Sam Bisbee (“Infinitely Polar Bear”, out of Park Pictures) and Erik Rommesmo (“I’ll See You in My Dreams,” “It Follows”) are proud to announce that their feature The Hero, starring Sam Elliott, Nick Offerman, Laura Prepon, Krysten Ritter and Katharine Ross, has been selected for the 2017 Sundance Film Festival, where it will premiere in the US Dramatic Competition. Directed by Brett Haley (“I’ll See You In My Dreams”), and scripted by Haley and Marc Basch, the film centers on Lee (Elliot), a former Western film icon, who is living a comfortable existence lending his golden voice to advertisements and smoking weed. After receiving a lifetime achievement award and unexpected news, Lee reexamines his past, while a chance meeting with a sardonic comic has him looking to the future. The film was produced in Los Angeles by Northern Lights, Park Pictures and Houston King Productions. Gersh and WME are handling sales.
“Crown Heights” Courtesy: The Playlist.net
Washington Square Films will present “Crown Heights,” executive produced by Joshua Blum, in the US Dramatic Competition. Scripted by Matt Ruskin, the feature depicts the true story of Colin Warner’s wrongful murder conviction, where his best friend, Carl King, devotes his life to proving Colin’s innocence. The film stars Keith Stanfield, Nnamdi Asomugha, Natalie Paul, Bill Camp, Nestor Carbonell and Amari Cheatom.
“Golden Exits” Courtesy: The Playlist.net
Washington Square Films will also premiere “Golden Exits,” produced by Blum and Katie Stern, for the US Dramatic Competition. The story comprises the arrival of a foreign girl to a greater community, which disrupts the lives of two Brooklyn families. The cast includes Emily Browning, Adam Horovitz, Mary-Louise Parker, Lily Rabe, Jason Schwartzman and Chloë Sevigny.
“Beach Rats” Courtesy: IndieWire
Eliza Hittman, managed by Washington Square Films’ Melissa Breaux, will present “Beach Rats” for the US Dramatic Competition. In the film, starring Harris Dickinson, Madeline Weinstein, Kate Hodge and Neal Huff, an aimless teenager on the outer edges of Brooklyn struggles to escape his bleak home life and balances his time between delinquent friends, a love interest, and older men he meets online.
Bushwick / U.S.A., from directors Cary Murnion and Jonathan Milott, was scripted by screenwriters Nick Damici and Graham Reznick. The cast includes Dave Bautista, Brittany Snow, Angelic Zambrana, Jeremie Harris, Myra Lucretia Taylor and Arturo Castro.
Cary & Jon, a directing team from Honor Society, have a dramatic film in Sundance 2017 called “Bushwick.” The feature has its world premiere in Sundance’s Midnight section, which has a cult following for good reason. “From horror and comedy to works that defy genre classification, these films will keep you wide awake, even at the most arduous hour.”
The duo states, “Our fictional storyboards looked eerily similar to the scenes we saw on the news from the Paris attacks – contemporary storefronts and cafes smoking and destroyed as snipers hid on rooftops. Recently, as we finished the long process of post-production, we again watch as the United States becomes even more politically, economically and racially divided because of the 2016 Presidential election.”
Sundance 2017 tickets are available HERE.