The film to get the most attention coming out of Sundance ’09 is easily Lee Daniels’ Push: Based on a Novel by Sapphire. The harrowing drama (based on a novel by Sapphire, duh!) about a young woman named Claireece Precious Jones who is abused by her mother, raped by her father and grows up poor, angry, illiterate, fat, and unloved, won both the grand jury prize as well as the audience award.
Even though it has been picked up by Lionsgate, a film with this line-up of depression would usually be relegated to a direct to DVD release but thanks to Oprah and Tyler Perry, we may actually have a chance to see it on the big screen. Cinematical is reporting that both Oprah and Perry have signed on to help finance the film’s distribution. Sounds like a winning situation for everyone involved and as Mr. Snider points out, no need to worry about the film being messed up since it’s already in the bag – no artistic meddling involved.
At the moment, there are no trailers for the film but I did find a great interview with the director in which he discusses the project.
And since we’re talking distribution, I’ll add in this little tidbit of news which is completely unrelated but also very exciting. The fine folks at IndieWire have news that Shane Meadows’ Somers Town (for which we posted a trailer last year) has been picked up for North American release by Film Movement. Look for that opening in limited release sometime in 2009.
That girl would be perfect to play Biggie Smalls.
There’s another movie out this week called “Push”, a kind of bad looking sci fi movie or something that looks like the kind of crap Shia Leboeuf or Hayden Christensen would star in.
It’s directed by Paul McGuigan though, which is both interesting and sad.
I’m actually looking forward to the McGuigan directed Push. Agreed that the effects look like they’re on the budget side of things but it could be fun. Plus, what else am I going to watch?
The picture for this post says a thousand words.