It was the first and arguably the only great drama of the 2010 Sundance Film Festival (sorry, Blue Valentine!), and at last, Australia’s instant-classic crime drama Animal Kingdom is coming to U.S. theaters courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics. Writer-director David Michôd’s feature debut won last month’s Grand Jury Prize in Sundance’s World Dramatic Competition; a release date was not announced, but late summer-early fall seems to be the likeliest window.
The Splice is Right: 
The gruesome Sundance darling Splice may have finally found a distribution home with… Joel Silver? The megaproducer, whose genre label Dark Castle Pictures generally outputs through Warner Bros, has reportedly roped the Adrien Brody/Sarah Polley genetic-mutation thriller into his stable with a summer release on 3,000 screens and a P&A commitment upward of $35 million. Without spoiling anything about the film, I’d guess the hope here is for long-term franchising; it’s got the potential. Developing… [Deadline]
After stirring festival crowds at Sundance and elsewhere over the last year, the recently Oscar-nominated animated short film Logorama has finally made its debut online. No one was sure if and/or when this day would ever come, if only because the nature of the short — set in a world composed entirely of unlicensed corporate logos — opened itself up to more than 2,500 potential lawsuits from the represented brands. (What, McDonald’s might not approve of Ronald McDonald as a psychopathic, potty-mouthed fugitive?) And for all anyone knows, the two NSFW clips after the jump still might disappear shortly — which is all the more reason to get a look now and find the David Fincher cameo hiding in plain sight.
Tillman's Time: 
indieWire reports The Weinstein Co. has closed its deal on its second Sundance acquisition: the well-received Pat Tillman documentary, The Tillman Story. Let’s hope this thing gets a release sometime in our lifetimes, and that the original title (I’m Pat F—king Tillman) doesn’t spook TWC into employing a marketing campaign revolving around a square-jawed stick-figure in a football helmet.[indieWire]
The Movieline Interview
When Tilda Swinton told Movieline the other day how eager she was to play Conan O’Brien, that was only the tip of the interview iceberg. The Academy Award winner was at Sundance to promote Luca Guadagnino’s romantic melodrama I Am Love, where she stars as Emma, a rich housewife who finds carnal excitement and personal fulfillment outside of her marriage to a wealthy Italian industrialist (if you’re unfamiliar with her early work, it might shock you that Swinton speaks fluent Italian throughout the movie; then again, the actress has all but made a career out of such stylish surprises).
I sat down with Swinton in Park City for a lengthy talk about the state of melodrama, her opinion of film festivals (she organizes a rather unconventional one herself), her directorial ambitions, and the boggling thing she’d just discovered moments before.
Joan Rivers Doc to IFC: 
Less than a week after claiming an editing award at Sundance, the candid documentary Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work landed a theatrical buyer in IFC Films. Directors Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg followed the tireless comedienne for months, assembling a glimpse at the grueling regimens and routines that built one of this era’s great comedy careers. Celebrity roasts, Sacramento morning show appearances… you name it. A release date hasn’t yet been set, but trust you’ll hear more here once it is. [THR]
The Movieline Interview
In America, we’ll get our chance to know Sam Taylor-Wood soon, and she’s hoping you’ll keep an open mind. In her native Britain, the 42-year-old is different things to different people: a famous visual artist (with headline-grabbing portraits of stars like Robert Downey Jr. and David Beckham), a cancer survivor, a feature film director making her debut with the young John Lennon biopic Nowhere Boy, and a tabloid fixture for dating the movie’s 19-year-old-star Aaron Johnson (soon to be seen as the lead in Kick Ass) and becoming pregnant with his child.
Movieline sat down with Taylor-Wood last week in advance of her film’s Sundance premiere (Nowhere Boy’s U.S. release is thus far undated by the Weinstein Co.) to discuss the scrutiny of Beatles fans, the tyranny of physical resemblance when making a biopic, and the circuitous, fortuitous theft that got her the project in the first place.
Freebie Sells: 
The microbudget dramedy The Freebie was officially the last deal of the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, with Katie Aselton’s feature debut closing a deal with Phase 4 Films late Sunday. The movie — about a married couple who permit each other one-night stands to enliven their relationship — was the second of five needy Sundance films we’ve seen offloaded to good homes in the last few days. Have a look at the others and please open your hearts and wallets where you can. [Deadline]
Sundance 2010
The big jury prize winners of this year’s Sundance Film Festival were announced at a ceremony last night emceed by David Hyde Pierce. U.S. Dramatic Competition honors went to Debra Granik’s Winter’s Bone, an adaptation of the Daniel Woodrell novel about a girl forced to care for her poverty-stricken family in the Ozark mountains after her meth-making father disappears. (Good news: it was picked up yesterday by Roadside Attractions, who plan a summer release.)
Sundance 2010
Tomorrow night, Sundance will host the official Closing Night Awards Ceremony — but if utterly subjective hardware-distribution is what you seek, your wait is over! The First Annual Movieline Sundancies Awards are about to get underway, its twenty gleaming trophies — each painstakingly hand-cast in the shape of a pair of golden Ugg boots — lined up and ready to be presented to this year’s list of illustrious winners. Click on for the results!
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