Evening, Bible Seal Deals

Word arrived yesterday that Andrew Wagner's feature Starting Out in the Evening and Daniel Karslake's doc For the Bible Tells Me So, a pair of New York films that premiered this year at Sundance, finally landed deals that will put them in theaters by the end of the year. Roadside Attractions will distribute the former, First Run Films the latter.

Lili Taylor and filmmaker Andrew Wagner at the Sundance premiere of Starting Out in the Evening, picked up this week by Roadside Attractions

The second film by Reeler fave Andrew Wagner and the last project to be produced by Gary Winick's now-defunct InDigEnt banner, Evening stars Frank Langella as a New York professor and novelist whose relationships with a student (Lauren Ambrose) and his willful middle-aged daughter (Lili Taylor) drive him to one final push toward his literary prime. Gregg Goldstein at The Hollywood Reporter reports that Roadside -- which just split from longtime partner IDP Distribution -- plans a late November release for a Langella Oscar push; the actor won a Tony last weekend for his performance as the ex-president in Frost/Nixon, and his stirring work here (and fearless ween exposure, to be sure) in Evening guarantees him momentum and a likely place on Oscar short lists around the country. But it's mid-June, and the Oscars are bullshit, so I digress. At any rate, for more about Starting Out's Sundance premiere, check back to The Reeler's coverage from Park City.

Also have a glance at our interview with Daniel Karslake, a first-time doc maker whose For the Bible Tells Me So questions the literal interpretations of Biblical text and theology in perceptions of homosexuality. No word yet on idling Oscar campaigns; FRF boss Marc Mauceri has the rhapsodic press release usual over at indieWIRE.

Posted at June 12, 2007 10:47 AM