South By Southwest, the festival that is still cool and covers movies, music, comedy and technology, is upon us, and we have your movie preview (listed in alphabetical order) of 13 movies we want to see at SXSW. Without further ado….
Jason Bateman’s feature directorial debut, Bad Words has a hilarious premise (Jason Bateman competing in a children’s spelling bee — amazing), a crazy awesome cast and inappropriate cursing to boot. Advance buzz has been positive, so don’t make us spell out why you need to see it.
Chef
Written, directed and starring Jon Favreau (Iron Man, Elf), Chef premieres at South By Southwest next week. The cast is incredible (featuring Sofia Vergara, John Leguizamo and Scarlett Johansson just to name a few) and the premiere will hopefully be followed by a first trailer. Chef opens on May 9.
Cosmos: A Space Time Odyssey
Neil deGrasse Tyson. Acclaimed cinematographer Bill Pope. Seth MacFarlane. What else do we need to say about Cosmos? How about this: Cosmos  was written by Carl Sagan’s collaborators on the legendary original series, his widow Ann Druyan and Steve Soter. We can’t wait!
Doc of the Dead
Zombies have become one of the most popular horror sub-genres over the last ten years and the team who brought us The People vs. George Lucas are on a mission to figure out why. Featuring interviews with George A. Romero, Simon Pegg, and Robert Kirkman, Doc of the Dead promises to be a bloody good time. PUNS!
From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series
The first original series to premiere on director Robert Rodriguez’s El Rey Network, From Dusk Till Dawn dives deeper into the events of the film on which it was based while having a life and personality all its own. The pilot was directed by Rodriguez himself and the screening will host a Q&A with the director as well!
Hosted by Nerdist News‘ own Jessica Chobot, Godzilla (2014) director Gareth Edwards takes the stage for a Q&A and screening of the original 1954 Ishirô Honda classic. Featuring 40 minutes of footage that was cut upon its original release, Gojira is something to be seen for genre fans.
Wes Anderson’s latest, the SXSW screening of The Grand Budapest Hotel also features a Q&A with the filmmaker. Styled like a classic caper and set in the fictional European Republic of Zubrowka, the film has received mostly positive reviews thus far and boasts an all-star cast featuring Adrien Brody, Willem Dafoe, Jeff Goldblum, Jude Law, Bill Murray, Edward Norton, Saoirse Ronan, Jason Schwartzman, Tilda Swinton, Tom Wilkinson, Owen Wilson.
Directed by SXSW alum Neil Berkeley, Harmontown is a documentary about friend of Nerdist Dan Harmon and his trek across the country touring his podcast of the same name (which records at Meltdown Comics). It is a stark look at the struggles of the Community creator and has its premiere this year at SXSW.
Neighbors
The comedy starring Seth Rogen, Rose Byrne and Zac Efron follows Byrne and Rogen as a young couple trying to raise a baby despite living next door to a frat house, and has hilarious written all over it. Directed by Forgetting Sarah Marshall and The Muppets director Nicholas Stoller, Neighbors premieres this year in Austin.
The new horror thriller from Blumhouse Productions got great buzz at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival and is set for wide release on April 11. In previous years, SXSW has also featured screenings of Evil Dead (2013) and The Cabin in the Woods, so hopefully this one will follow suit in terms of quality and scares. Plus it’s hard to go wrong when you’ve got Katee Sackhoff involved!
The latest from Mike Judge, SXSW will be screening the pilot for the HBO series set to debut on April 6. Silicon Valley stars Thomas Middleditch, T.J. Miller, Zach Woods, Kumail Nanjiani and Martin Starr. Smartly written and deeply satirical of high tech start-up culture, the show is looking like yet another feather in HBO’s cap.
Supermensch
The directorial debut of Mike Myers (yes, that Mike Myers), Supermensch is a documentary about the life and times of legendary music manager turned producer Shep Gordon. The film features interviews with Alice Cooper, Michael Douglas, Emeril Lagasse and Tom Arnold and hopefully zero shots of Myers in a fat suit.
The cult favorite series has returned, so get excited Marshmallows! Director Rob Thomas famously took to Kickstarter to help fund the feature and the result premieres this year at SXSW. The film stars Kristen Bell, Jason Dohring, Krysten Ritter, Ryan Hansen, Enrico Colantoni and Chris Lowell and is guaranteed make you feel all persnickety inside.
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What films are you most looking forward to at SXSW this year? Let us know in the comments below.
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