Day 8 - 27 January

Blair Witch duo return to Park City

As we close in on the final weekend of the Sundance Film Festival, the relatively warm temperatures of last week have given sway to a deep chill. Although skiers are irked due to lack of quality snow, the brief flicker of flurries Thursday morning, gave them hope.

Although Kevin Spacey was paid a tribute by the festival on the 25th, he's been spotted numerous times around Park City since then. Perhaps he decided to hang out to promote John Swanbeck's directorial debut The Big Kahuna. The film screened Thursday morning to a sold out audience. Ironically, Swanbeck began his career working as an assistant director on the Broadway production of Hurlyburly. In 1998, Spacey starred in the screen version of the play alongside Sean Penn.

Surprisingly, the darlings of Sundance 2000 are Blair Witch directors Eduardo Sanchez and Dan Myrick. The dynamic duo hosted a party for Haxan Films, The Orlando based filmmaking collective behind Blair Witch. The collective, which consists of Ed and Dan as well as close friends, launched their website today. Their new project is called Heart of Love. Information on Ed and Dan's labor of love can be found at www.holtthemovie.com. The site features research that Haxan conducted on followers of an obscure doctrine called Heart of Love which they believe originated in India during the 14th century. Their followers are called Lovians. The project smacks of Blair Witch pretention.

Park City's main strip was busy Thursday night. Sofia Coppola hosted a party for her film The Virgin Suicides. Across the street, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the co-creators of South Park, attracted the ire of the local police with their Sundance parody party Lap Dance. Vince Vaughn was seen entering the party long after the cops and the fire department arrived. Down the street, Hollywood.com was treating festival goers to complimentary martinis.

Additional highlights from Thursday include the press conference for The Virgin Suicides. Peter Weller, who stars in the film, repeatedly insisted that Sofia Coppola had finally avenged herself of her acting debacle in Godfather 3. Los Americanos, the film on Latino life in the United States which features wonderful footage of Latino Elvis impersonator El Vez, was a definite crowd pleaser.

On Friday, Sundance premieres the Ben Affleck showcase The Boiler Room. Tim Burton drops in town to promote his new web project. Following the lead of Trey Parker and Matt Stone, Burton's using Shockwave to create a new online animated project.

FilmFestivals.com reporter
Rita Johnson

Sundance