Space Tourists
Switzerland (Director: Christian Frei) - A humorous and laconic view of the way billionaires depart our planet earth to travel into outer space for fun. North American Premiere

Sundance 2010 Midnight Screenings

Splice

France, Canada (Director: Vincenzo Natali; Screenwriters: Vincenzo Natali, Antoinette Terry Bryant, and Doug Taylor) – Clive and Elsa are young, brilliant, and ambitious. The new animal species they engineered has made them rebel superstars of the scientific world. In secret, they introduce human DNA into the experiment. Cast: Adrien Brody, Sarah Polley, Delphine Chaneac, David Hewlett. North American Premiere. (Commenter Goldfarb worked on this film.)

The Violent Kind
USA (Directors and screenwriters: The Butcher Brothers) - A group of rowdy young bikers party it up at a secluded farmhouse when they're tormented by a mysterious force and things take a turn for the worse. Cast: Taylor Cole, Christina Prousalis, Tiffany Shepis, David Fine, Joseph McKelheer. World Premiere.

All My Friends Are Funeral Singers
USA (Director and screenwriter: Tim Rutili) – A fortune teller lives and works in and old house crowded with ghosts. When a mysterious light appears in the woods, the ghosts realize they are trapped and begin to rebel. Cast: Angela Bettis. World Premiere

All My Friends Are Funeral Singers Trailer from Califone on Vimeo.

Souls stars Paul Giamatti as an actor called Paul Giamatti, who discovers a company that offers to transplant or store human souls, only to give his own soul up in favor of someone else's. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the movie — written and directed by Sophie Barthes — has "drawn comparisons to the work of Charlie Kaufman," which may be a polite way of saying that it sounds very like a couple of Kaufman's earlier movies.

The movie's US rights were purchased by Samuel Goldwyn; no release date has been announced.

Samuel Goldwyn warms to 'Cold Souls' [Hollywood Reporter]

According to Indie Wire, IFC Films has purchased the US rights to Dead Snow. Congrats to the crazy crew of Norwegians that had the zombie guts to go after this genre. IFC plans to release the film later this year. And to celebrate, here are some more awesome moments from the goose-stepping, brain-eating splatterfest:

[Clips via Collider]

Grace
Paul Solet's film Grace premiered in Sundance this year (or right now, I should say), and here's a look at the teaser trailer. Grace is about a mother whose baby dies in the womb, but the mom decides to carry it to term nonetheless. After the delivery, the baby comes back to life - but now has an insatiable thirst for blood. I've said if before and I'll say it again, children = evil.

Romeo & Juliet vs. The Living Dead:
What if Romeo and the rest of the Montagues clan was made up of the undead? And poor dear Juliet fell desperately in love with the zombie boy himself? Well that story would probably go a little something like this.

The Horde
Hooray! There are finally stills from Yannick Dahan and Benjamin Rocher’s zombie French film La Horde (The Horde) which blends cops, robbers, zombies and skyscrapers. The zombies are absolutely gorgeous (I'm especially enjoying the teeth)... there is nothing like a well crafted corpse. I cannot wait to see this horror on the big screen.

[MySpace]

The movie focuses in on a guy putting in his solo work time on a desolate moon, waiting for his time to be up so he can return home and rake in the cash. But Rockwell's unfortunate hero finds out his company may have other plans for the rest of his career. It's dark, lonely and yet pretty beautiful at the same time. Moon will be premiering on Friday, January 23rd at this year's Sundance Film Festival. Go see it.

Update: All fixed! Here are the clips thanks to Collider. BE WARNED some are super spoilery.

Moon will screen at Sundance this year and I couldn't be more excited to learn more about what David Bowie's son Duncan Jones (aka Zowie Bowie) thinks about space madness. I mean, if anyone would know, it's him. Take that kind of pedigree and match it with the incredible acting range packed into Sam Rockwell, and add the gorgeous look of Moon that we've only seen glimpses of and you have my dedicated attention. I've been super hyped about this film since I found out Kevin Spacey was going to be the robot voice in it.

It's a complicated story line and thank goodness they finally released more plot details on imdb:

Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell) is nearing the end of his contract with Lunar. He's been a faithful employee for 3 long years. His home has been Sarang, a moon base where he has spent his days alone, mining Helium 3. The precious gas holds the key to reversing the Earth's energy crisis.

Isolated, determined and steadfast, Sam has followed the rulebook obediently and his time on the moon has been enlightening, but uneventful. The solitude has given him time to reflect on the mistakes of his past and work on his raging temper. He does his job mechanically, and spends most of his available time dreaming of his imminent return to Earth, to his wife, young daughter and an early retirement.

But 2 weeks shy of his departure from Sarang, Sam starts seeing things, hearing things and feeling strange. And when a routine extraction goes horribly wrong, he discovers that Lunar have their own plans for replacing him and the new recruit is eerily familiar.

Before he can return to Earth, Sam has to confront himself and the discovery that the life he has created, may not be his own. It's more than his contract that is set to expire.

Please give me a Sam-Rockwell-fighting-Sam-Rockwell moment — at least that's what I think they're getting at here. I cannot wait for this movie. And for those of you headed to Sundance, this is a must-see.

I predict that Dead Snow (Død Snø) will sweep over Sundance like an unholy snow storm. If the rest of the fight scenes are like this small clip, then Dead Snow is sure to succeed. Dead Snow takes place during a snowy holiday for a bunch of medical students. Their mountain top debauchery unleashes a clan of undead Nazis, who formerly occupied this winter wonderland. The rest is blood and gore. Please, please release this movie in the U.S. right now, I can wait no longer.

If character actor-extraordinaire Paul Giamatti playing himself in Cold Souls didn't convince you to check out this film, these pictures certainly will. This incredibly interesting indie film features Giamatti struggling with a crisis and seeking solace in a New York soul extraction facility, where he's encouraged to lay down the burden of his soul. These pictures are stunning and I can not wait to hear more about the obvious buzz this flick will generate over at Sundance.

Meanwhile, a haunting still showing a clone standing over the body of its original astronaut body is from The Clone Returns Home, a new Japanese movie whose trailer we posted a while back. The story starts with the death of an astronaut, which leads to the activation of his clone. But faulty memory programming startles the clone and his memories immediately revert back to childhood, when the original's brother died. The clone panics and escapes on a journey back to his childhood home (or at least the original astronaut's home).

For more information about the festival explore the Sundance site.

The movie follows a bunch of young kids on a winter holiday, when all of a sudden they awaken the undead Nazis that used those mountains as their secret hideaway. It's kill or be killed, by super scary, super mean Nazi zombies. So what do the kids do? Simple: Tie a massive gun on top of a snowmobile.

[via Twitch Film]

The Clone Returns to the Homeland or (Kuron wa kokyo wo mezasu) is a Japanese film about an astronaut who dies but is brought back as a clone. Variety called it a, "bewitchingly intense low-budgeter" that looks better than it should thanks to smart cinematography. A grieving widow is shocked when the government replaces her deceased husband with a memory-implanted clone. Unfortunately, the clone can't get over a tragic memory from the original astronaut's life, where he blames himself for the accidental drowning of his twin brother. After being returned by the wife for being faulty, the clone escapes and journeys out, searching for the answers to his troubled memories.

The second film, titled Cold Souls has Paul Giamatti famous actor dealing with an internal crisis who stumbles upon a soul stealing workshop in New York City. It is written and directed by Sophie Barthes and also stars Emily Watson and Lauren Ambrose. I'm absolutely dying for more information about this diabolical little film.

The press release doesn't mention space convicts movie Stingray Sam, allegedly because it's appearing in a non-competitive section.

Besides these movies, Sundance will be holding a New Frontier exhibition which will house all sorts of movies, installations and other forms of art that have been influenced by "evolving media landscapes." More details on that soon I hope!

[Sundance Festival]

You see that? He looks really pissed off and hyper, like he's on a meth kick. I really want to see the full-length Tomo now. Tomo, directed by Paul Catling, is about a guy who crashlands on a barren ice planet. His only hope of rescue is the emergency survival robot, or companion, called Tomo. The man is wary at first, but learns to trust the robot and finds friendship — and humanity — where he least expects it. And the director says it'll be an "unflinching" look at our future relationship with technology. [Quietearth, via Avery Guerra]

Vigalondo says:

You can be sure my next one hundred movies won't have time travel in it. Well, actually you never can tell. I'm thinking now porn and time travel would be an incredible combination: People fucking themselves!

Timecrimes will be released later this year, unless time travel actually gets invented, in which case you will have already seen it.

Nacho Vigalondo interview [Bloody Disgusting]

In Sleep Dealer, the U.S. has finally succeeded in stopping illegal immigrants crossing over from Mexico. But Mexicans can still work in American factories and farms for almost no money, thanks to the miracle of telecommuting. The people in Alex Rivera's film hook up their nervous systems to the Internet to control robots in the U.S., but it takes a toll on them, as you can see from the spooky clip and stills above. The film's title refers to workers who get so drained they collapse.

Rivera says this bizarre scenario may be what America wants: "to use the labor, but not have the person."

Here's the official synopsis for this Sundance-bound film:

The story begins with Memo Cruz, a young campesino, or peasant farmer, in southern Mexico. He's always dreamed of leaving his small pueblo and maybe finding work in the big cities in the north. His dream comes true in the worst possible way when his home is mistakenly identified as a terrorist hideout in a hilariously reckless "Global War on Terror."

Rudy Gaeta is a soldier fighting in this future war. He works for an American security company flying a remote control war machine — a pumped-up version of today's Predator Drone. Rudy's first assignment is to take out the "terrorists" in southern Mexico. Following orders, from his office in sunny San Diego, Rudy dispatches a drone and attacks Memo's home in Mexico.

Uprooted as a consequence of the attack, Memo has to leave the pueblo and go north to earn money to help his family start again. He heads to the massive border city of Tijuana.

On his way into Tijuana Memo meets a young woman named Luz. Luz is a writer, and going into the city to look for stories. After she meets Memo we see what "writing" means in this future. Alone in her room, Luz connects her body to the net and speaks. As she describes her day, the computer records visuals from her memories and the sound of her voice. She puts these recorded memories up for sale on the net - a blog, straight from the brain.

In Tijuana, Memo finds work in a futuristic factory - he earns dollars by connecting his body to the net, and controlling a worker drone in America.

At home in San Diego, Rudy, the soldier, is lonely and disconnected from the world. He spends his free time plugging in and watching recordings of other people's memories. A few days after he attacked Memo's home, Rudy has doubts - something about the attack didn't feel right. He searches for information on the net, and finds Luz's story. He buys it, and for the first time, through Luz's recorded memories, he sees Memo's face - the face of his victim.

Through Luz's stories, effectively through her eyes and ears, Rudy gets to know Memo. And as Luz and Memo fall in love, Rudy realizes what he's done.

Even that allegedly friendly year brought only three sci fi-ish films to be screened in competition, including Primer which was critically lauded, but seen by very few viewers. In fact, if you haven't seen it, it's well worth your time.

Sundance has a "Park City at Midnight" category that serves up what the jury thinks of as weird, alternative films, and it tends to serve as a catchall for anything remotely in the scifi vein. Last year Crispin Glover's bizarre It Is Fine! Everything Is Fine screened in this slot, and it's also been host to films like Saw and The Blair Witch Proejct. But why? Science fiction can clearly be as deep (or as shallow) as any other kind of art film.

Marteinn Thorssson, co-director of the 2004 indie sci fi film One Point O put it best:

A science-fiction film doesn't need to be $80 million and use CGI. Science fiction is about human beings interacting with each other and with technology, and technology has become part of who we are today.

Here are the synopses for this year's semi-science fiction films:

• The Broken is a psychological horror project, starring Lena Headey as a woman whose life descends into nightmare after she sees an apparent double of herself driving by in her own car. Granted, it sounds like an episode of The Twilight Zone, and might have little, if any, science fiction in it. At least they're throwing us a bone and it's not just another hack and slash film!
• Timecrimes: A man accidentally gets into a time machine and travels back in time nearly an hour. Finding himself will be the first of a series of disasters of unforeseeable consequences. Again, sounds like a Twilight Zone episode, and based on the thumbnails they both look like they have a high horror potential.

• So where are all the indie science fiction films? If you're trying to seek them out at Sundance, you're going to have a hard time of it, but we recommend checking out the Midnight films, and the Animation Program. In fact, one of the coolest retro science fiction steampunk films we've ever seen, The Mysterious Geographic Expeditions of Jasper Morello, screened as part of the Animation Program in 2005 and was nominated for an Academy Award in 2006. Check out part one below.