The Laramie Project to open Sundance 2002

Variety reports that the HBO production of The Laramie Project will be the opening-night film of the 2002 Sundance Film Festival. Moises Kaufman makes his film directing debut, adapting the acclaimed play he created with the Tectonic Theater Project about the aftermath of the brutal murder of Matthew Shepard and its impact on the town of Laramie, Wyo. The all-star cast includes Christina Ricci, Laura Linney, Jeremy Davies, Steve Buscemi, Janeane Garofalo, and Camryn Manheim. Other films of GLBT interest on the Sundance lineup that were announced Tuesday include The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys, produced by lesbian icon Jodie Foster, which was scheduled to debut at Sundance 2001 but was withdrawn when the animated sequences (by Spawn creator Todd McFarland) couldn't be completed in time; the new film from gay director Gus Van Sant, Gerry, starring Matt Damon and Casey Affleck; The Good Girl, a new film from collaborators Miguel Arteta and Mike White (Chuck and Buck); the thriller One Hour Photo, produced by Christine Vachon's Killer Films; Lan Yu, director Stanley Kwan's portrait of a Beijing businessman in the late 1980s who has an affair with an ambitious country boy; and the documentary Britney Baby--One More Time, in which struggling filmmaker Ludi Boeken's anticipated exclusive interview with Britney Spears mutates into a wild road trip with transvestite Britney look-alike Robert Stephens.