NEW YORK (Reuters) – Ashton Kutcher‘s turn as Apple co-founder Steve Jobs and actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt‘s directorial debut about a modern day Don Juan are leading a slew of star-studded premieres unveiled Monday for the 2013 Sundance Film Festival.
Kutcher stars in “Jobs,” a biographical look at the career rise of Jobs from wayward hippie to charismatic inventor and entrepreneur, which Sundance said Monday will officially close the indie film festival backed by Robert Redford that runs January 17 to January 27.
The premiere lineup also features Gordon-Levitt directing, writing and starring in “Don Jon’s Addiction,” about a self-centered porn-addict attempting to reform his ways opposite Scarlett Johansson, Julianne Moore and Tony Danza.
Behind-the-scenes tales of pornography will also be explored in British director Michael Winterbottom‘s “The Look of Love,” starring Steve Coogan and based on British adult magazine publisher and entrepreneur Paul Raymond.
“Lovelace,” starring Amanda Seyfried and James Franco, tells the story of porn star Linda Lovelace famed for the film “Deep Throat.”
Sundance, the top U.S. film festival for independent cinema held in Park City, Utah, unveiled the premieres section – which typically feature more established directors – after it announced its competition films last week.
Adding to the premieres list is “Before Midnight,” director Richard Linklater’s third film collaborating with Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy after “Before Sunrise” and “Before Sunset,” in which the audience encounters their characters nine years later in Greece.
New Zealand director Jane Campion will screen her new six-hour epic, “Top Of The Lake,” a haunting mystery about a pregnant 12-year-old girl who disappears, with Holly Hunter.
Other big-name actors in the lineup include Steve Carell and Toni Collette in “The Way, Way Back,” Naomi Watts and Robin Wright in “Two Mothers”, Dakota Fanning and Elizabeth Olsen in “Very Good Girls,” and Shia LaBeouf and Evan Rachel Wood in “The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman.”
Australian actresses Nicole Kidman, Mia Wasikowska and Jacki Weaver star in psychological thriller “Stoker,” which marks South Korean director Park Chan-wook’s English-language debut.
WIKILEAKS, POLITICS LEAD DOCUMENTARIES
Among documentaries premiering at Sundance in January is Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney’s insight on WikiLeaks, the power of the Internet and the beginning of an information war in “We Steal Secrets: The Story of Wikileaks.”
Author and documentarian Sebastian Junger chronicles the life of late photojournalist Tim Hetherington in “Which Way Is The Front Line From Here?” after Hetherington’s death in Libya in 2011. The photojournalist had collaborated with Junger on the 2010 Oscar-nominated film “Restrepo” about the Afghanistan war.
“The World According to Dick Cheney” promises to examine the former vice president while “Anita” profiles how Anita Hill’s allegations in 1991 of sexual harassment against then-U.S. Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas brought sexual politics into the national consciousness for the next two decades.
“Linsanity” offers a portrait of basketballer Jeremy Lin and “Running From Crazy” follows actress Mariel Hemingway, granddaughter of Ernest Hemingway, and her insights into her family’s mental illness and suicide.
“Pandora’s Promise” looks at a growing number of environmentalists and anti-nuclear activists changing their minds after decades of opposition to support nuclear power.
Continuing the rise of music documentaries in the last several years, Foo Fighters’ musician Dave Grohl looks at the history of Sound City studios in California, where Grohl’s former band Nirvana had recorded their classic 1991 album “Nevermind.”
Veteran Los Angeles rock band The Eagles will also showcase their past in “The History of the Eagles Part 1.”
(Reporting By Christine Kearney, editing by Piya Sinha-Roy and Cynthia Osterman)
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