This year’s Sundance Film Festival was full of great films, but the one that stood above the rest for me was Stuart Zicherman‘s A.C.O.D. The film stars Adam Scott as an adult child of divorce, who weaves his way through life between parents who hate each other (Richard Jenkins and Catherine O’Hara). It co-stars Amy Poehler, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Jessica Alba, Clark Duke, Jane Lynch and is as funny and poignant as you can possibly image.
Four months after its premiere in Park City, the film has finally been picked up for distribution. The Film Arcade will release A.C.O.D. in North America and Paramount Home Media Distribution will handle international bookings, and the home market and digital distribution.
Click here to read our rave review of the film, and read more about the deal below. Read More »
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Any film fan should make it a point to attend the Sundance Film Festival at least once. Words can hardly describe the beauty of Park City, the camaraderie of the attendees, the smooth running machine that plays dozens of movies a day on screens all over town. And those movies. Oh, those movies. Some of the best films of the past 25 years have debuted at the Sundance Film Festival. The list has been well-documented and 2013 is likely to add at least a few to that incredible legacy.
At this year’s festival, I saw 34 movies. Not a staggering, superhuman number – remember I have to eat, sleep and write about these things – but a number to be proud of none the less. I saw comedies, dramas, foreign films, Hollywood films, sports films, happy films, sad films, black and white films, sex films, kids films. You name it; one of the movies I saw fits nearly any description you can muster.
I’ve picked my ten favorite films of the festival, with an asterisk. Though I saw 34 films, I missed probably 100 others, so this isn’t by any means definitive. But out of the movies that I thought looked interesting, or were buzzed about on the streets of Park City, these were the ten that I most enjoyed. Read More »
With three days remaining, A.C.O.D. is my favorite film of the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. Directed by first-timer Stuart Zicherman, it’s about “Adult Children of Divorce” and stars Adam Scott as Carter, a man whose parents (Richard Jenkins and Catherine O’Hara) had a brutal breakup on his 9th birthday. Decades later his brother (Clark Duke) decides to take the plunge into matrimony and it brings up some major issues caused by the traumatic breakup. Amy Poehler, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Jessica Alba and Jane Lynch are also along for the ride.
Co-written by Zicherman and Ben Karlin, the script for A.C.O.D. is a Swiss watch. Everything is economical, hilarious, perfectly-paced and never in-your-face obvious. There are loads of big laughs wrapped around unexpected plot points, resonant emotion and great character development. The cast all bring such vigorous life to the film that it almost makes a sad and touchy subject, divorce, into something to be envious of.
A.C.O.D. is a special, miraculous film and the exact reason why you come to the Sundance Film Festival. It’ll leave you happy and high on the power of comedic cinema. Read more after the jump and watch a video blog. Read More »
Posted on Thursday, March 22nd, 2012 by Angie Han
Brad Anderson‘s The Hive has cast its first non-Halle Berry role. Abigail Breslin has just signed on to the Rich D’Ovidio-scripted thriller, which will enter production in Los Angeles this summer. Berry plays a 911 call operator who comes face-to-face with her own worst fears as she tries to save a teenage girl (Breslin) from a vicious killer.
Breslin’s switched easily between genres over the course of her career, but she has relatively few straight-up thrillers under her belt so The Hive represents a bit of a change of pace for her. Breslin is currently shooting Ender’s Game, from director Gavin Hood. [Variety]
After the jump, the stellar comedic cast of A.C.O.D. somehow gets even better, and Marcia Gay Harden gets a job in Get a Job.
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Posted on Wednesday, March 21st, 2012 by Angie Han
Rob Corddry and Leslie Bibb may seem like an unlikely couple, but they’ll be united in the fight against a demonic child in Hell Baby. Scripted and directed by Night at the Museum writers Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant, the comedy centers around a pregnant woman and her husband (Bibb and Corddry) who move into a dilapidated haunted house in New Orleans. In an effort to keep from having a demonic baby, they call upon the Vatican’s crack exorcism team, played by Lennon and Garant. Bet that’ll go well. Production will begin in New Orleans next month. [Variety]
After the jump, Clark Duke becomes Adam Scott’s kid brother, and Paul Rudd and Paul Giamatti pull Amy Landecker into their Christmas tree scheme.
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Posted on Thursday, March 8th, 2012 by Angie Han
Amy Poehler and Adam Scott have shown such fantastic chemistry in NBC’s Parks & Recreation that the pair are gearing up to work together again. This time, however, they won’t be romancing each other — far from it. Poehler has entered talks to join Scott in A.C.O.D., in which he plays a man named Carter who discovers that years ago, he was enrolled in a study about children of divorce. When he’s called upon for a follow-up study, chaos breaks out among his family and he struggles to keep the peace.
Richard Jenkins and Catherine O’Hara are set to play Carter’s parents, while Poehler has entered final negotiations for the role of Jenkins’ new wife. That’s right: Leslie Knope will be Ben Wyatt’s stepmom in this movie. Which is even more awkward than that time Leslie’s mom hit on Ben. Yeesh.
Shooting on A.C.O.D. is scheduled to start next week in Atlanta with Stu Zicherman at the helm. Jessica Alba, Jane Lynch, and Mary Elizabeth Winstead also star. [Deadline]
After the jump, Diablo Cody’s title-less directorial debut casts two more.
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Posted on Friday, March 2nd, 2012 by Angie Han
The cast of Stuart Zicherman‘s A.C.O.D. just keeps getting better. Mary Elizabeth Winstead has just joined Adam Scott, Richard Jenkins, and Jane Lynch in the comedy, which centers around around thirtysomething Carter (Scott). When his younger brother gets engaged, Carter must try and keep the peace between his long-divorced parents lest they ruin the wedding. Winstead is set to play Lauren Stinger, Carter’s supportive longtime girlfriend.
Winstead drew raves at Sundance earlier this year for her turn in James Ponsoldt’s Smashed, and has A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter due out later this year. [Deadline]
After the jump, Mila Kunis gets demonic, while Vera Farmiga’s little sister goes on a crime spree.
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Posted on Wednesday, December 7th, 2011 by Angie Han
Armie Hammer has been working his clean-cut golden boy looks to his advantage in The Social Network, J. Edgar, and the upcoming Mirror, Mirror, but the latest addition to his slate will see him transforming into a bit more of a “badass.” Hammer will bulk up and shave his head to star with Eric Bana in By Virtue Fall, a “gritty drama” about an ATF agent (Hammer) who gets framed for corruption and serves time into a maximum security prison. Once out, he’s determined to get revenge on his former partner (Bana), whom he blames for destroying his life.
The project marks the directing debut of Up in the Air co-writer Sheldon Turner, who also penned this script. By Virtue Fall is scheduled to start sometime in 2012, after Hammer wraps up Disney’s The Lone Ranger over the summer. [Deadline]
After the jump, Richard Jenkins becomes Adam Scott’s dad, while Juno Temple and Wes Bentley befriend Amanda Seyfried.
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