Sundance in 60 Seconds

Wednesday featured a fight between a film critic and a producer's rep that became physical -- detailed by Erik Davis -- which doesn't sound as much fun as a celebrity food fight would have been. Oh, to see Jim Carrey and Ewan MacGregor hurling cherry pies at Paris Hilton!

Deals. Norwegian Nazi zombie comedy Dead Snow proved irresistible to IFC Films; indieWIRE reports that the distributor picked up US rights. Gregg Goldstein of Movie City News noted that IFC plans a 2009 release. A little later in the day, Goldstein assessed the scene: "The reality is that by Wednesday at any Sundance, bidding wars are replaced by wars of attrition." He says that, though most buyers are heading home, "people seem happy the films are good ... slower sales will mean better deals on films likely to have legs with audiences."

Reviews/Interview. James Rocchi talked to Ratatouille voicer Patton Oswalt about his starring role in Robert Siegel's sports drama Big Fan, which Erik Davis, an admitted "die hard Giants fan," says is more about fandom than football; it's "full of real life and complicated characters." As to John Krasinki's Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, our not-hideous-at-all man Scott Weinberg thinks it's an "aimless, pretentious mess," so Krasinski should probably keep his day job at The Office. Scott much preferred Scott Sanders' blaxploitation spoof Black Dynamite ("Feels like one of those eminently quotable comedies that frat guys and movie geeks will come back to time and again"). Check out all of Cinematical's coverage at the Sundance Hub on Moviefone.

Blog Talk. You want to hear more about the fight, don't you? Plus critical reactions to a baby movie, texting during Indiana Jones, and more.



Fight Table"I suggested a year or so ago that it might not be a bad idea to have an organized Movie Critics Fight Club." -- Jeff Wells, Hollywood Elsewhere, who posted a photograph of the table where film critic John Anderson was allegedly sitting.

More on the confrontation between Anderson and producer's representative Jeff Dowd: A. J. Schnack of All these wonderful things talks to Dowd; Anne Thompson of Variety filed a lengthy report. From earlier in the day, Karina Longworth of Spout gave her first impressions (since updated).

"Dolphin meat, cultural legacy or not, doesn't have much of a market share in the country." -- Alison Wilmore, Indie Eye (at IFC.com), writing about The Cove, a doc about Japan's capital of dolphin hunting.

"Oh. My. God. ... I'm not the squeamish type, but I have to say, I don't think I've ever been as traumatized by a film as I was by Grace. And I mean that in a good way." -- Kim Voynar, Movie City News, writing about zombie baby movie Grace.

"It was a shit thing to do, alright? Wanna fight about it?" -- Eric Kohn, Screen Rush, referencing the "sudden impulse" he had last year to text message his reactions to Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull while the film was screening at Cannes. "Mobile technology, when used properly, offers just as much an opportunity to spread information as the laptop."

"It was movie nerd heaven, all the more so because Ms. Dargis was a cup of coffee ahead of us and randomly spilled all sorts of things that she has in the databank from seeing waaay too many movies – girl can go." -- David Carr, AKA The Carpetbagger, talking about his New York Times colleague/film critic Manohla Dargis.