Stars Find Their Independents

What’s in a name? Well, it depends on where you find it.

At this year’s Sundance Film Festival, there are plenty of big names in smaller independent movies: Val Kilmer. Ethan Hawke. Kate Winslet. Alec Baldwin. Peter Fonda. Helen Mirren. Lili Taylor. Rosie Perez. Gina Gershon. Roseanna Arquette. Ally Sheedy. Anna Paquin.

In a mainstream Hollywood film, these names wouldn’t occasion comment, but in the independent film community they’ve raised a few eyebrows. To some, Sundance is supposed to be about discovering new names, not recycling old ones.

“I was definitely shocked when I opened the catalog,” says Tod Williams, who directed “The Adventures of Sebastian Cole,” one of the few films in the dramatic competition cast with unknowns. “There’s, like, one other film that doesn’t have a star. I briefly thought, ‘Damn, we’re going to just get forgotten.’ ”

Apparently, a lot of independent filmmakers are feeling the same way--and with good reason. Ironically, the success of Sundance and independent film in general has made financing and marketing cutting-edge films more difficult--there are just too many of them.

“They’re very hard to distinguish one from the other,” says Amy Israel, a senior vice president of acquisitions and co-production at Miramax. “When you’re trying to finance a film, even if it’s an under-$5-million film, where in years past people were more interested in getting involved, they’ve gotten a little nervous now. And I think that the cast does [factor] in how they make decisions.”

For their part, stars aren’t getting involved in indie films for the money. Sometimes they’re just helping out a friend. More often they’re fighting a slumping career or rigid typecasting. Eric Mendelsohn, director of “Judy Berlin,” which is in this year’s dramatic competition, says that Madeline Kahn agreed to appear in his movie on the condition that she be allowed to do something besides broad comedy.

Sheedy, who was resurrected by last year’s “High Art” (she’ll be appearing this year at Sundance in “The Autumn Heart” and “Sugartown”), says: “It took me seven years to break through in an independent film because I was fixed in people’s minds as an ingenue.” She also points out that if you look at the list of recognizable names, many are women, particularly women of a certain age who can’t find interesting parts elsewhere.

Then there are the TV actors. Several years ago Tori Spelling, of “Beverly Hills, 90210,” surprised audiences by turning in a credible performance in the black comedy “House of Yes.” This year she’s back with “Trick,” a film in dramatic competition.

But perhaps the most dramatic example of instant credibility is Lisa Kudrow, best known as the bubble-headed Phoebe on NBC’s “Friends.” She’s won critics’ awards and could be on track for an Oscar nomination for her role as the sexually repressed sister in “The Opposite of Sex,” which played last year at Sundance.

Kudrow, however, says she wasn’t looking for something different; she was looking for something good. “I just liked the script,” she says of “Opposite of Sex.” “I didn’t even realize my role was that different” from “Friends.”

Among the bigger names represented in this year’s festival: Hawke and Kilmer appear in “Joe the King” (dramatic competition), Winslet in “Hideous Kinky” (premiere), Baldwin in “Thick as Thieves” (premiere), and Fonda and Mirren in “The Passion of Ayn Rand” (premiere).

Mark Urman, co-president of Lions Gate Releasing, says a recognizable name can’t make or break an indie film. “Does Tori Spelling make ‘Trick’ more important? I don’t think so.”

‘Ammunition Is Names’

Nevertheless, Urman makes a distinction that a lot of people in the indie film world seem to be making: “Sundance was once a place where one went to discover films, and now it’s a place where one goes to launch films,” he says. “You launch something, you need ammunition. Ammunition is names.”

To which Sundance’s program director Geoffrey Gilmore says: “That’s ludicrous. If you think about it, we’ve got 118 films in the festival this year. Do you know how many have distribution? Twenty.”

But Tom Bernard, co-president of Sony Pictures Classics, says that distribution is the only thing that independent filmmakers care about. “I would have to say greed is one of the reasons that you’re seeing these independent filmmakers going after these recognizable names,” he says.

“I am very disappointed in Sundance because to me it’s turned into the festival of commerce. Years ago it used to be the festival of discovering new talent and new films, almost a convention of people who were in the grass-roots of the American independent scene. I think the people in the film schools and out in the field are now looking at Sundance as a steppingstone to get rich and to get into Hollywood.”

Of course, there are exceptions. Casting director Todd Thayler says that “Tumbleweeds,” which is in this year’s dramatic competition, was cast without regard to names, aside from the lead, Janet McTeer, who’s a Tony Award winner (“A Doll’s House”) but hardly known outside theater circles.

Director Williams says he asked his casting director to hire the best actor for each role in “Sebastian Cole,” even if they were unknown.

“I thought we wouldn’t get them [big names], and I didn’t want to think about trying to get them and to try shoehorning people into parts,” he says. “All of our money comes from outside the film business, so none of our investors either were savvy enough or cynical enough to ask for any of that.”

Some Films Still Use Cast of Unknowns

Mendelsohn says he could have gotten more money had he heeded producers’ suggestions to consider Nicolas Cage and Tea Leoni for “Judy Berlin.” Like Williams, he went with lesser names and less money instead.

So perhaps independent moviemaking is being compromised by the fact that filmmakers aren’t selling blood, maxing out their credit cards, and borrowing from Mom and Dad anymore. But Gilmore thinks this view is too simplistic.

“They want to make this argument that it’s no longer what it used to be, the archetypal independent with no resources, and that it slipped into this category where all these major productions exist. That’s been true for the last three or four years,” Gilmore says. “But where did the 840 films that we looked at come from? Well, I can tell you that the much greater percentage of films . . . came from that archetypal [independent film] world, and they’re represented all through the festival.”

But that’s not as true in the festival’s dramatic competition. Whether this signifies creeping commercialization is arguable--Gilmore says this is the most experimental lineup in years--but it does lead to other problems, such as miscasting--squeezing prominent actors into roles just for their box-office potential.

Another pitfall of employing a prominent actor in an independent film is that they are well aware of their importance to the project and may be tempted to throw their weight around.

“All of these films are made with limited budgets,” says Ted Hope of the independent production company Good Machine. Hope, who is moderating a panel discussion at the festival on actors and independent film, says: “As a producer I have to say, ‘Look, we can only get five takes on this.’ It’s up to the director to find a creative way to do that. But if [a prominent] actor says, ‘I’m not happy with my performance,’ there’s nothing the director or producer can say to influence that.”

Bernard says that last year his company got involved in an independent film called “The Governess,” with a rising young star, Oscar nominee Minnie Driver, and what he describes as a “promising young director,” Sandra Goldbacher.

“It was certainly a situation where a lot of time had to be spent dealing with the talent that wouldn’t be spent on an independent film with unknowns,” he says.

Then there are those who think that such input is not a bad thing. “It’s all about sharing,” Urman says. “Was Quentin Tarantino less of a success having made ‘Reservoir Dogs’ with Harvey Keitel than he would have been if the film was populated with anonymous people? I don’t think so.”

Sometimes performers acquire critical impetus from the sheer number of festival films they’re appearing in.

“We laugh a lot about it,” Gilmore says. “Every year there’s the X, Y, Z film festival. The Eric Stoltz Film Festival, the Lili Taylor Film Festival. This year it’s Sarah Polley. Why does that happen? I don’t know.”