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Features
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A Bittersweet Sundance Smash
It began with a sold out screening on Main Street, and ended with a heartfelt dedication to shockingly deceased Darwin Awards co-star Chris Penn.
Wednesday, August 1, 2007 at 11:50 AM
By Pam Grady
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Jeff Vespa/Wireimage.com
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Filmmaker Finn Taylor
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Most filmmakers would be thrilled with the scene that played out for filmmaker Finn Taylor at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival: an overflow crowd at the Eccles Theatre, Park City, Utah’s largest venue; a scalper working the wait line, offering four tickets for $70 each; and a number of ticket holders turned away as the theater filled to capacity. Even Taylor, the man who wrote and directed the movie, had to buy a pair of tickets on eBay for $200 in order to get his brother and sister into the auditorium.
But for Taylor, the heady experiences of having one of the hottest films in the festival and selling it were tempered with grief at news of the death the previous day of co-star Chris Penn, who plays a Minnesota ice fisherman in the movie, new this week on DVD. "We're all saddened, but we're filled with great memories of working with him. He was so into doing a comedy," Taylor told FilmStew.
"Chris loved the idea of his character in The Darwin Awards,” Taylor continues. “He was this Midwestern guy, so meticulous about planning how to play the role, the costume he'd wear, what his character's home would look like, getting the Minnesota accent down."
"It was just really great getting to see him work as an actor and he's great in the film,” the 48-year-old Oakland born writer-director declares. “He brings a totally three-dimensional feel to the character, you know, that pushes [it] beyond the screen."
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Steve Granitz/Wireimage.com
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Penn at 2004 Hollywood premiere
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The Eccles screening sold out long before the January 26th premiere, so it is unlikely that there were many ghouls in the audience drawn strictly by Penn's passing, which is appropriate for an event that inadvertently became both a memorial and a celebration of the actor's life. "It was sad and poignant, but it made us all appreciate him all that much more," Taylor observes. "We're all going to miss him; he was wonderful. I think he's truly one of the great underrated character actors of the past 10-15 years. Just look at all the films he's been in. Reservoir Dogs, At Close Range... I could go on and on."
In The Darwin Awards, Joseph Fiennes and Winona Ryder star as, respectively, a risk-averse former police investigator and a cynical insurance claims investigator who team up to try to come up with a common profile for those who practice self-natural selection through poor judgment and foolish behavior. The movie arrived in Park City with foreign distribution through Icon, but was eventually snapped up by Bauer Martinez Studios for domestic distribution.
Ironically, this much buzzed about Sundance flick has wound up going straight to DVD this week in the U.S. The bulk of The Darwin Awards' theatrical box office receipts - some $144,000 of the $177,211 U.S. foreign totals - came of all places from Italy this summer after the film was released there June 1st.
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