After Saturday night’s Sundance premiere of the Cincinnati-shot Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, reviews continue to pour in for the movie and, in particular, Zac Efron’s portrayal of mass murderer Ted Bundy, including this from The Hollywood Reporter: “Not to say that Zac Efron was born to play Ted Bundy, but the former High School Musical teen heartthrob is more than a bit convincing..” Read the full Hollywood Reporter review HERE.
With Wicked joining hundreds of films in a dozen categories screening over the coming week, the Sundance Film Festival highlights what this independent film showcase is all about—finding an audience for your work. Actress/writer Mindy Kaling, known for The Office and in movies such as Ocean’s 8, found her audience the first weekend of Sundance, premiering Late Night, which she wrote, produced and starred in, on Friday night, and announcing its sale to Amazon Saturday morning for a cool $13 million, a Sundance record for a US-exclusive deal, to be distributed first in theatres, then on line.
Kaling and her director, Nisha Ganatra, held a Q&A discussion on the movie Saturday afternoon at the Stella Artois house in Park City, comparing her movie about a female talk show host reluctantly hiring a female joke writer, to women helping other women launch their careers. “It’s really to slip into a place when you start out, I’m just trying to get my foot in the door, I want to help myself,” Kaling said. “The movie is so much about women helping other women, and mentorship, and learning how to become a mentor.”
Ganatra added, “I think there’s this false lie that everybody’s been told, there’s only room for one percent or whatever, there’s room for only one woman at the table, but why?
“This movie really is about when you get in, when you’re successful, open the door and share it with as many people as possible and that we all rise together.”
Kaling talked about what led her to Sundance. “I grew up as a teenager and in my 20s hearing about Sundance and I just really put it on a pedestal. And so me it feels extremely glamorous and I’m just so grateful and excited for more people to see the movie.”
Want to know more about the Sundance Film Festival and this week’s schedule? Go to sundance.org. And follow Film Cincinnati at Sundance on Film Cincinnati’s Facebook page.