Friday: I always vowed never to go to Sundance until I had a film in
the festival - so this year I was lucky enough to have been a producer on
Morgan J. Freeman's "Hurricane," and here I am in Park City.
After a farewell dinner in New York attended by some of the crew and cast
of the film, and such friends as Christina Ricci ("The Adams Family,"
"Casper"), Boaz Yakim ("Fresh") and Lawrence Bender
(producer of "Pulp Fiction"), and drinks and dancing at Don Hill's,
I had one hour of sleep and took a taxi to Morgan's at 5 AM where we had
a car taking us to the airport. The plane was full of familiar faces, everybody
from lawyer and Executive Producer John Sloss and the cast of "subUrbia,"
including my friend Samia Shoaib, to lawyer Ira Schreck, to Martha Plimpton,
who I offered my seat to so she could sit with her friend (thinking I should
start the good karma for the festival). The "Hurricane" crew
included fellow producer Galt Niederhoffer, Executive Producers LM Kit Carson
and Cynthia Hargrave, Line Producer Nadia Leonelli, star Brendan Sexton
III, and of course Morgan. At the airport in Salt Lake City, we met First
AD Jamin O'Brien, who will be part of the 20 man contingent that makes up
the "Hurricane" coalition at Sundance (all staying in a three
bedroom condo). Ran into Greg Araki producer Andrea Sperling and cineBLAST!
short film director Jamie Babbitt (whose short "Frog Crossing"
is at the festival this year). The "Love God" crew was floating
around and we had a Julianne Moore sighting...Arrived in Park City, figured
out lodging logistics, picked up our passes and then went straight to MTV
where Morgan, Brendan and I were interviewed for their alt.film@MTV show.
Then it was off to the Hospitality Suite where I ran into "100 Proof"
producer George Nicholas, and I ended up getting interviewed by Kirk Honeycutt
of the Hollywood Reporter about the film I just co-produced with Jean Luc
Godard, Rob Tregenza's "Inside/Out." Kirk assured me that there
was wicked buzz on "Hurricane" and pushed his number into my palm
and said "as soon as anything happens, call me." Then it was
back to the condo for a quick kip and regroupment, and then had a meeting
with Ari Gold who co-directed "Frog Crossing" at the Treasure
Mountain Valley Inn where John Pierson was launching his show "Split
Screen." Then it was dinner with William Morris agents at the Seafood
place on Main street and this turned into quite the scene, distributors
coming over to say hi, Sidney Poitier's lovely daughters Anika and Sidney
at an adjoining table, "Hurricane" co-star Jose Zuniga and star
of the upcoming "Shoot That Clown" all joining our table.
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