LOS ANGELES — Whether muse or friend or both, actors and directors choosing to work together again is a tale as old as cinema.
It’s no different this year at the Sundance Film Festival, which kicked off in Park City, Utah on Thursday and sees the reteaming of some must-see collaborators, from “I’ll See You In My Dreams”‘ Brett Haley and Sam Elliott to the “Obvious Child” team of Gillian Robespierre and Jenny Slate.
Here’s a look at a few at this year’s festival:
• “The Hero” (Director: Brett Haley, Actor: Sam Elliott) — Writer-director Haley became friends with Elliott while making the underseen gem “I’ll See You In My Dreams,” where Elliott’s character charms a fellow retiree in Blythe Danner. He and his co-writer Marc Basch knew they wanted to follow it up with a film written for Elliott. Initially, they thought they’d draw on his cinematic legacy and make a Western. But they quickly realized everyone makes a Western with Elliott, so they decided to play on that idea. “He’s a Western icon of sorts and a guy who now makes his living doing voiceovers,” Haley said. “We basically took what we loved about Sam, the legacy that he has, and we made him less famous, less successful and more of a screw up.”
• “Landline” (Director: Gillian Robespierre, Actor: Jenny Slate) — While casting for the “Obvious Child” short, Robespierre remembers stumbling upon Slate, an SNL cast member for a single season in 2009-10, and knew she’d found her muse. “She felt like a friend and she had a whole audience in laughter but also there were quiet moments where they were engaged,” Robespierre recalled. “She’s so present and beautiful and not traditionally what Hollywood considers a movie star. She’s got a beautiful, ethnically Jewish looking face and curves and this non-perfect blonde hair, blue-eyed presence. We just thought, ‘Wow wouldn’t that be wonderful if the main star of our movie looked like a real woman.”‘ It was a no-brainer that they’d re-team for “Landline,” a ’90s-set comedy about two sisters (Slate and newcomer Abby Quinn) investigating their father’s suspected affair and trying to keep it from their mother (Edie Falco).