Sundance '07: The Preview
It's strength in numbers for this year's edition of Sundance, where everyone will be looking for another Little Miss Sunshine.

By Stephen Saito

Sundance '07 Docu-Drama Click here to read more about doc directors making narrative debuts.

If Sundance 2006 was the year when celebrities like Paris Hilton took over Park City, then Sundance 2007 is the year the filmmakers are taking it back. Sundance alums Justin Lin (Finishing the Game), Andrew Wagner (Starting Out in the Evening), Tom DiCillo (Delirious), Gregg Araki (Smiley Face), and Tamara Jenkins (The Savages) are all returning to the scene of some of their greatest success with new comedies. The festival will also see stars like Lindsay Lohan (the Mark David Chapman biopic Chapter 27) and Queen Latifah (the HIV survivor story Life Support) show their dramatic chops. And following the success of 2006 Sundancer Little Miss Sunshine, distributors will be on their toes looking for the next breakout hit.

That title might go to writer/director Mike Cahill's dramedy King of California, which stars Michael Douglas as an ex-mental institution patient father who tries to reconnect with his daughter (Evan Rachel Wood) by digging for Spanish gold in suburbia. If the premise alone doesn't entice, buyers may be drawn to because it was produced by Sideways director Alexander Payne. Also up for grabs is The Ten from Wet Hot American Summer director David Wain, which features an ensemble including Jessica Alba, Winona Ryder, Adam Brody, Paul Rudd, Liev Schreiber, Famke Janssen, and Gretchen Mol in ten comic scenarios inspired by each of the Ten Commandments.

Evan Rachel Wood in King of California

The festival also opens with 10, as in The Chicago 10, Brett Morgen's part animated, part archival footage filled documentary about the infamous trial of eight protestors who were arrested for demonstrating against the Vietnam War and clashing with police at the 1968 Democratic Convention. Hank Azaria, Nick Nolte, and Mark Ruffalo are some of the famous names lending their voices to Morgen's followup to 2002 Sundance fave The Kid Stays in the Picture.

Speaking of numbers, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory screenwriter John August is premiering his directorial debut The Nines, a drama comprised of three vignettes revolving around the lives of an TV star, a reality TV showrunner, and a video game designer. It stars Ryan Reynolds, Hope Davis, and Gilmore Girls' Melissa McCarthy in three different roles. Nacho Libre screenwriter Mike White is also presenting his first feature as a director, Year of the Dog, which stars former Saturday Night Live star Molly Shannon as a lonely secretary whose life goes into disarray when her beloved pooch dies.

Christina Ricci in Black Snake Moan

Like many of the eagerly anticipated films at Sundance, Year of the Dog already has a distributor, Paramount Vantage, who will also be premiering Hustle and Flow director Craig Brewer's Black Snake Moan, about a blues guitarist (Samuel L. Jackson) who chains up a sex addict (Christina Ricci) to save her from herself. In fact, if any actor is set to rule Sundance in '07, it's Jackson, who will also appear in Resurrecting the Champ, directed by The Contender helmer Rod Lurie, which co-stars Josh Hartnett as a reporter who finds a story and a kinship with a forgotten boxing legend (Jackson) who lives on the streets.

Champ is representative of the mid-range dramas that the major studios have shied away from actually producing in recent years, but look to be a hallmark of the 2007 festival. Chief among those in the festival's dramatic competition is Grace is Gone, the John Cusack drama about a father who takes his two kids on a road trip after learning their mother has died in Iraq. Other films tackling the Iraq war include American Hollow director Rory Kennedy's Ghosts of Abu Ghraib, a documentary examining the Iraqi prison abuse scandal of 2003 from all perspectives, and No End in Sight, from documentarian Charles Ferguson, which has interviews with many of the key decision-makers who created the Iraq plan of attack.