Indie Angst is a Guy Thing

Here is an object lesson from the indie world. Guy Pearce stunned a crowd during a press stop for his latest release "A Slipping Down Life" when he referred to one of the film's executive producers with an unclinical term for the female anatomy (the same word Larry David ended up printing in an obituary when he misspelled "aunt" on "Curb Your Enthusiasm".) The reason behind the less-than-dashing and more-than-vitriolic apellativewas the rather troubled history behind the film's eventual release after being recognized as a quality film festival selection.

"Slipping" was initially a featured selection in the 1999 Sundance Film Festival but after generating some distributer interest the executive producer--there were two, and everyone seems mum on indentifying who is the culprit--took controll of the picture and re-edited it for commercial value. The stars and director balked at backing the movie at that point and it grew mold awaiting a deal. Said producer eventually defaulted on payment and a bank took the reigns, eventually selling the rights, and the original cut, to Lion's Gate Films.

Now with the cast and crew back on board the movie is getting the proper push. It expands this week from 5 to 6 screens. So much for Sundance momentum.