Element Pictures are delighted with today’s announcement that Lenny Abrahamson’s much anticipated Frank has been selected to screen as part of the prestigious Premiere’s section at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, January 16-26, which showcases the very best of independent cinema.
Frank is an offbeat comedy about a wannabe musician who finds himself out of his depth when he joins a maverick rock band led by the enigmatic Frank – a musical genius who hides himself inside a large fake head.
Starring Domhnall Gleeson, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Scoot McNairy and Michael Fassbender and directed by Lenny Abrahamson (Adam & Paul, Garage, What Richard Did), Frank is a fictional story based on the memoir by Jon Ronson and loosely inspired by Frank Sidebottom (the persona of cult musician and comedy legend Chris Sievey), as well as outsider musicians like Daniel Johnston, Captain Beefheart and Harry Partch.
Speaking on the selection, director Abrahamson said “It’s wonderful news that Frank has been selected for Sundance. I can’t think of a better place for this film to begin its life,” while producer Ed Guiney added “Sundance is the perfect place to launch the worldwide campaign of this great new film from Lenny Abrahamson. And its great to be there with fellow Irishmen and collaborators, Michael Fassbender and Domhnall Gleeson.”
And not to be outdone by his young-pup-of-a-son Domhnall, Brendan Gleeson stars in Calvary, a blackly comic drama about a good priest tormented by his community and which is directed by John Michael McDonagh.
The film is McDonagh’s follow-up to 2011’s ‘The Guard’ and, as well as Gleeson Senior, also stars Chris O’Dowd, Aidan Gillen (‘Mister John’, ‘Shadow Dancer’), Dylan Moran (‘Good Vibrations’, ‘A Film with Me In It’), Domhnall Gleeson (‘Sensation’, ‘Shadow Dancer’) and Killian Scott (‘Good Vibrations’, ‘Black Ice’).
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