Film & TV News February 6, 2025

Atropia takes home the top prize at a slow Sundance.

The debut feature from writer-director Hailey Gates, a comedy about a role-playing facility used for training by the U.S. military, won the festival’s Jury Prize for U.S. Dramatic Competition, while Seeds, a meditative portrait of Black farmers in the South, won the award for U.S.
Documentary. The festival was more notable, however, for what it lacked than what it offered. At the time of Friday’s award ceremony,
there had been only two major sales of films to distributors – two more have since followed – with the L.A. wildfires and the recent
industry downturn perhaps making studios and streamers more hesitant to throw around large sums of money. Further, the political fervorthat overtook the festival eight years ago following Trump’s first inauguration, when thousands in Park City formed their own
Women’s March, was largely absent this year following his second inauguration. The languidness of this year’s festival comes amidst
uncertainty about its future. The festival’s contract with Park City, Utah, where it has been held since 1981, expires in 2026, and it is unclear where the festival will be held following that; top candidates are Cincinnati, Boulder, and Salt Lake City. For now, though, the
festival that has long been the hotbed of American indie cinema is in a strange limbo. See the full list of the festival’s winners.


Several new cast members embark on Nolan’s Odyssey.

The known cast of Christopher Nolan’s next project, an adaptation of Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey, has about doubled since the
project’s initial announcement in December. That announcement littered the film with stars Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland,
Robert Pattinson, Charlize Theron, Zendaya, and Lupita Nyong’o, and in the last couple weeks Jon Bernthal, Benny Safdie, John Leguizamo,
Elliot Page, Himesh Patel, Samantha Morton, and Bill Irwin have all joined. Among the new additions, Safdie, Page, Patel, and Irwin have
worked with Nolan before. None of the actors’ roles have yet been revealed. The film is expected to begin shooting in March, with
production taking place in Sicily, Morocco, and the U.K. The film is slated by Universal for a July 2026 release. Read more.


Marvel releases first Fantastic Four trailer.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps will be Marvel Studios’ first attempt to integrate the original heroes of the Marvel Comics into their cinematic universe. 20th Century Fox twice tried their hand at an adaptation of the group, and in 1994 B-movie emperor Roger Corman produced a Fantastic Four film that was never officially released, but there has yet to be a widely embraced film version of the group. The new film, sporting a retro 1960s aesthetic, is directed by Matt Shakman, who helmed Marvel’s WandaVision series, and stars Pedro Pascal as Mr. Fantastic, Vanessa Kirby as Invisible Woman, Joseph Quinn as Human Torch, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach as The Thing. It is set to release July 25. Watch the trailer here.

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