Sundance day 2/3

I’ve got a couple of recommendations to pass along: First, the “Henry Poole” movie with Luke Wilson from my previous entry got picked up and is definitely heading to theaters, so watch out for that.

Watch your TV schedule for “Kicking It,” which got picked up by ESPN. It’s a documentary about soccer teams for homeless people who competed in a Homeless Soccer World Cup, and one of the teams is from Charlotte. It prominently features a Charlotte guy who was living in a tent at the time, and now has an apartment and works at Mert’s Heart & Soul – I eat there frequently, so I hope to run into him. Charlotte’s attitudes toward homelessness aren’t portrayed in a very flattering light.

And on Feb. 25, mark your calendar for the ABC broadcast of “A Raisin in the Sun,” which has the same cast as the recent Broadway run. For some reason they decided to premiere it here, and I lucked into a series of one-on-ones with the actors – John Stamos, Phylicia Rashad, Sanaa Lathan, Audra McDonald, and headliner “P. Diddy” Sean Combs. As a group, they were all breathtakingly beautiful (except Stamos had a bit of a scruffy beard). Combs has always struck me as egotistical and ‘larger than life’ onscreen, but here he was just a dude in a ski jacket you’d hardly notice if he walked by. He spent most of the interview eating a cup of chicken noodle soup, but answered everything politely enough.

Two other films I’m a bit less enthusiastic about: “Pretty Bird,” written and directed by Paul Schneider, an actor you’d recognize from “Lars and the Real Girl,” “The Assassination of Jesse James” and a bunch of other indie-type projects. It’s based on a true story of three entrepreneurs who get together to build and market a rocket jet-pack that lets people fly, but they all turn on each other. It starts out really funny, and I’m a big fan of star Paul Giamatti, but it veers into depressing/who-cares territory. (Giamatti is also in a bizarre graphic sex scene that’s been hard to erase from my memory, much as I’d like to).

And this morning I saw “The Deal,” starring William H. Macy and Meg Ryan, and it’s hilarious, but it’s a movie about trying to make a movie, and it’s so “insider-y” I can’t see it having much of a general theater run. Macy showed up for a Q&A afterward, and I liked him as much as I liked his wife Felicity Huffman earlier – I sure hope they beat the Hollywood couple curse and manage to stay together.

What stands out so far is that I’ve managed to avoid the usual litany of gloomy movies that make me want to seek treatment for depression, as in previous years at Sundance – so far everything has been pretty upbeat. I’ve got more screenings to go, so hopefully I’ll have a few more to recommend soon!

Other little tidbits:

--Heath Ledger’s untimely death caused quite a stir yesterday, with people bolting from screenings after getting the message via cellphones/Blackberries. It was all anyone was talking about on the buses or other public spots.

--There’s an abundance of “swag,” suites where celebs can go by and grab bags of free designer goodies. One had a twist I liked: For every item a celeb took, they made a donation to “Save the Children.” How nice of them to assuage the celebs’ guilt about helping themselves to so much free stuff.

--More free food: Stella Artois sponsored a media dinner last night – four courses, each paired with a different beer. It was exquisite, easily the best meal I’ve had in a long time. I met some cool reporters too, and here just about everyone you meet knows somebody you know.

--A good line this morning from the post-screening Q&A from “The Deal,” which features a screenwriting character who quits in disgust after new writers are hired to rip his movie script to shreds: actor Jason Ritter (John’s son), when I asked whether the film brought up any painful real-life memories, deadpanned: “I’ve never heard of an idealist getting screwed over in Hollywood.”