Sundance Roundup: ‘The East’ Trailer, First ‘jOBS’ Clip Stirs Controversy, Acquisitions, And More

The 2013 Sundance Film Festival is still in full swing. Studios are scooping up indies left and right, and we have the details on who’s bought what thus far. Also, we have the first clip of jOBS, starring Ashton Kutcher as Steve Jobs, and the first trailer for the eco-terrorist thriller The East, starring Brit Marling and Ellen Page. All that and more below.

Tupac Shakur Biopic Gets New Writer: The Tupac Shakur’s biopic is still happening. Writer Michael Starrbury, who wrote this year’s Sundance pic The Inevitable Defeat of Mister and Pete, has been hired to do a rewrite of the script. Starrbury is also working on Jorma Taccone‘s upcoming adaptation of The Great Unknown. Source: /Film
Sundance Announces Short Film Winners: The Sundance Film Festival has announced the jury prizes and honorable mentions in the short filmmaking for the 2013 festival. Whiplash, Skinningrove and Until The Quiet Comes were among the U.S. shorts that won. See the complete list at IndieWire.
Breakout Stars To Watch From Sundance: A lot of actors, directors and writers owe their success to Sundance. Every year there’s a breakout star. IndieWire put together a list of 15 Breakout Artist To Watch from the festival. Their list includes Miles Teller from The Spectacular Now, Lake Bell, The Walking Dead‘s Danai Gurira and Skins‘ Kaya Scodelario. Check out the article.
Sundance Acquisitions: Studios have been buying up indie films all week at Sundance. Here are a few notable buys: A24 picked up James Ponsoldt‘s The Spectacular Now, starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Shailene Woodley. Relativity bought Joseph Gordon-Levitt‘s Don Jon’s Addiction, and The Weinstein Company went for Ryan Coogler‘s debut film Fruitvale, Stacie Passon‘s Concussion, the porn drama Lovelace and the documentary Inequality For All. Sony Pictures nabbed the comedy Austenland (by Napoleon Dynamite‘s Jerusha Hess), Daniel Radcliffe‘s Kill Your Darlings and Richard Linklater‘s Before Midnight. IFC Films scooped up Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, starring Rooney Mara and Casey Affleck, and The Look Of Love, which stars Steve Coogan as adult magazine publisher Paul Raymond.

Videos:

jOBS clip: The first clip from jOBS hit the web this week. In it, Ashton Kutcher’s Steve Jobs excitingly explains computers to Josh Gad‘s Steve Wozniak, the co-founder of Apple. Wozniak saw the clip and thinks the filmmakers got it totally wrong. He said that he never looked professional, and that the relationship between him and Jobs was so different than what was portrayed. These comments were made before the film premiered at Sundance, and he was basing his judgement on just that one clip. Do you think he’s overreacting? Check out the clip below:

[via /Film]

The East Trailer: The East trailer is trippy. Starring Brit Marling, Ellen Page and Alexander Skarsgard, the film tells the story of a brilliant operative for an elite private intelligence firm who finds her priorities irrevocably changed after she is assigned with infiltrating a group of anarchists who are known for executing covert attacks on major corporations. The film is directed by up-and-comer Zal Batmanglij (Sound Of My Voice), and was picked up by Fox Searchlight. Check out the trailer: