John August

Sundance

The Nines screening schedule at Sundance

Sundance, The Nines

The good folks at Sundance just sent out the screening times and locations for The Nines. Their [website](http://festival.sundance.org/2007/festival/festschedule.aspx) doesn’t show the schedule yet, but I presume it will be up soon.

**Sun. Jan 21, 9:30 pm**
Eccles, Park City

**Mon. Jan 22, 8:30 am**
Prospector, Park City

**Tue. Jan 23, 9:00 pm**
Sundance Village

**Sun. Jan 28, 3:30 pm**
Rose Wagner, Salt Lake City

The first Sunday is the premiere, and by far the largest theater — the same place we premiered Go in 1999. That’s the place to be if you want to see John hyperventilate. The subsequent screenings are generally calmer and more intimate, though I don’t know how intimate I’ll feel like being at 8:30 in the morning with a hangover.

Why isn’t The Nines in competition at Sundance?

QandA, Sundance, The Nines

questionmark
I was wondering if you could explain the difference/reason for competitive and non-competitive categories at Sundance and why you chose the latter?

— Steve
Lakeland, FL

It’s the Festival’s call. They decide whether or not they want to show the movie, then which category they’re going to put it in. They don’t explain their logic, but if you look at the lists, you can sort of see the thought process.

Traditionally, the [Premieres](http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117954801.html) have included bigger movies by established directors. There are are a few of those this year — Craig Brewer’s BLACK SNAKE MOAN, Rod Lurie’s RESURRECTING THE CHAMP — but there are also other first-time feature directors, including Sarah Polley and Jake Paltrow. Last year’s LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE was in the Premiere category, with first-time co-directors. (Worked out for them.)

Another difference is name recognition of the actors involved. If you look at the [list](http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117954727.html) of films in competition, you’ll see that while some of the films star people you’ve heard of, most of them don’t. Ryan Reynolds and Hope Davis are comparatively name-brand actors, and would attract some attention just because they’re in our movie. Many of the competition movies are relying on the attention and acclaim that “winning at Sundance” would bring. For us, an award would be great, but it wouldn’t be nearly the boost it was to a film like last year’s [Quinceanera](http://imdb.com/title/tt0451176/).

Honestly, you could have put us in either category. I was fine either way. And not having to think about awards will be one relief in what promises to be a very chaotic week.

The Movie is premiering at Sundance

News, Projects, Sundance, The Nines

RyanAfter months of vague hints, I can finally reveal information about [The Movie](http://johnaugust.com/archives/2006/so-i-made-a-movie) I wrote and directed this summer.

* It’s called The Nines.What? There’s a show on ABC called “The Nine”? Oh wait, it was [cancelled](http://www.zap2it.com/tv/news/zap-abcpullsthenine,0,7597771.story). Or put on indefinite hiatus. The truth is, we had just finished clearing the title “The Nines” through the MPAA when ABC decided to retitle their pilot “Nine Lives” as “The Nine.” Guess how happy that made us. We made back-up plans, but I had a hunch that nobody would give a damn about what happened during a bank robbery. For once, America did not disappoint me.
* It stars Ryan Reynolds, Hope Davis and Melissa McCarthy.
* It’s a drama. Funny in places, suspenseful in places, but basically a drama.
* It will be premiering at the Sundance Film Festival.

This last point was the primary reason for secrecy on the first three. I made the film with the goal of debuting at Sundance, where my first film (Go) launched in 1999, and didn’t want to shine too big a spotlight on it until we knew whether the festival would pick it up.

We found out last week that we got in, but the Filmmaker Agreement we signed required us to keep a lid on the public “woo-hoos” until the official announcement came out. Which [it did](http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117954801.html?categoryid=13&cs=1), today. So, woo-hoo!

The film was produced by Dan Jinks and Bruce Cohen (American Beauty, Big Fish), along with Dan Etheridge (Veronica Mars and many indies). It was independently financed,A polite euphemism for “rich people paid for it.” with the hope of finding the right distributor.

Feel free to ask about the budget. I will whistle and look in the other direction.

In an [earlier post](http://johnaugust.com/archives/2006/test-screening-the-movie), I bemoaned the difficulty of trying to arrange a test audience screening, given the danger that any internet leak could be deadly. I can now tell you that there were two screenings, which were invaluable. The first one helped us figure out what movie we’d actually made. The second one told us which scenes we actually needed.There was in fact one blogger at the first test screening, but he so rarely posts that even Tyra Banks feels a little neglected.

What is the movie about? Well, if you got a Sundance catalog, the description would read something like this:

A troubled actor, a television showrunner, and an acclaimed videogame designer find their lives intertwining in mysterious and unsettling ways.

Which is entirely true. There’s also a lot more going on, but there’s no sense in spoiling it now. The movie isn’t The Sixth Sense; it doesn’t hinge on one giant twist. But it rewards paying very careful attention.

So, hey, if you’d like to see it, [come to Sundance](http://festival.sundance.org/2007/festival/festschedule.aspx)! In addition to the premiere, there will be at least two more screenings that week. The movie is playing out of competition (that is, it’s not eligible for awards), so I’m honestly not trying to stuff the ballot box. But a friendly audience is always welcome.

For the majority of readers who won’t be able to make it to Park City, I’ll try to keep up with the blogging to give a virtual Sundance experience.