Tomorrow marks the opening day of the Sundance Film Festival, the annual winter movie orgy/buyer’s market/excuse to party for those who make, buy, watch, and act in independent films (or what passes for independent, in this IMAX 3-D superhero climate). Your humble film editor is traveling to Park City (for the first time) to take it all in: the swag, the hobnobbing, the VIP parties. Or he may just end up going to movies all day and staying up all night writing stuff about them. That’s probably a bit more likely.

Taking on the screening schedule is a bit daunting; the festival is screening 110 feature-length films from 31 countries, and, well, there’s only so many hours in the day. (If you think that’s heavy, it’s worth noting that the number of submissions was up to 4,042 films. Yikes.) But I think I’ve plucked out the cream of the crop; I’ll probably find out that I’m wrong, that the movie I missed to see the Sean-Penn-as-an-emo-Nazi-hunter movie (yes, that’s real) ends up winning the competition and getting picked up for $5 million by the Weinstein Company. But until that happens, here’s the ten Sundance films I’m most looking forward to.

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Last week, your author was charged with working up our most anticipated movies of 2012, and I must confess, it’s an assignment I was dreading. Not because there weren’t movies in the upcoming year worth anticipating (as we saw, there are many), or that it would be difficult to explain why they were worth looking forward to. No, it was because I knew I was going to have to deal with The Hobbit.

I anticipated it, even, noting in the call for comments that there would certainly be hoots and catcalls for the exclusion of Peter Jackson’s return to the world of J.R.R. Tolkien. And there were, sure enough. But here’s the problem, as briefly noted when discussing the release of they eagerly-greeted-by-everyone-but-yours-truly trailer: I don’t like The Lord of the Rings. I just don’t. It’s one of my pop culture “cold spots.” We’ve all got them. Right?

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1. The Library of Congress has selected 25 movies to be added to the National Registry in 2011. Among the diverse choices are Bambi, John Cassavetes‘ Faces, Robert Rodriguez‘s El Mariachi, Billy Wilder‘s The Lost Weekend, The Silence of the Lambs, Stand and Deliver… and, um, Forrest Gump. [via LA Times]

2. In a new interview, Sinead O’Connor says that her 16-day marriage to fourth husband Barry Herridge was like “living in a coffin. It was going to be a coffin for both of us, and I saw him crushed… The whole reason I ended it was out of respect and love for the man.” Also, crack was involved. [via People]

3. Kanye West is tweeting again, which means it’s just about time for him to attempt yet another name change. ”If you book me you have to put YEEZY WORLD PEACE on the E-vite. Or I ain’t spinning,” he announced yesterday. How much do you think a DJ set by Mr. WORLD PEACE goes for these days? [via Vulture]

4. The top five most-watched cable networks of 2011 were: 1. USA, 2. Disney Channel, 3. ESPN, 4. TNT, and 5. History (which grew by a whopping 21 percent this year). Meanwhile, critical-darling channels didn’t fare nearly as well — AMC was #17, Comedy Central was #19, and Bravo came in 20th. [via Deadline]

5. Peter Jackson discussed the ways in which his new film will diverge from his previous J.R.R. Tolkien adaptations in an interview with Total Film: “The Hobbit is very much a children’s book and The Lord of the Rings is something else; it’s not really aimed at children at all. I realized the characters of the dwarves are the difference. Their energy and disdain of anything politically correct brings a new kind of spirit to it. And that’s why I thought, OK, this could be fun!” [via io9]

Bonus link: The top scientific discoveries of 2011

Welcome to “Trailer Park,” our regular Friday feature where we collect the week’s new trailers all in one place and do a little “judging a book by its cover,” ranking them from worst to best and taking our best guess at what they may be hiding. This week’s seven trailers include several big-franchise sequels and (sort of) prequels (we think); check ‘em all out after the jump.
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The road to Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit has been a long and rocky one, with Guillermo del Toro once on board to direct, but passing on the project when MGM’s financial woes plagued the production. Some good did come out of the development delay, as Peter Jackson returned to Middle Earth to take the directorial reins. The trouble continued, however, when the filmmaker was admitted to a hospital for stomach ulcers, and union boycotts over contract mishaps loomed over the fantasy feature. Somehow the J.R.R. Tolkien adapted story rose from the ashes, and we (finally!) have the trailer to prove it.

The clip has the epic look of the Lord of the Rings movies, but also seems to capture the more lighthearted tone of The Hobbit novel. The dwarves help. Gollum appears all the way at the end, but we get tons of cool shots of Gandalf looking totally badass. Dig the song, too. Hit the jump to watch in full.

The Hobbit is the two-part prequel — shot back to back — to Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. Several actors will reprise their roles, including Elijah Wood as Frodo, Sir Ian McKellen and Andy Serkis as Gandalf and Gollum, respectively. Martin Freeman from BBC’s The Office will star as the reluctant hero Bilbo Baggins, who is swept up in a quest to reclaim a lost treasure from the dreaded dragon Smaug. An Unexpected Journey hits theaters on December 14, 2012, while The Hobbit: There and Back Again arrives December 2013. Keep an eye out for the trailer in theaters too, where it’s supposed to make an appearance before the Peter Jackson-produced Adventures of Tintin releasing tomorrow. Read More »

1. Madonna has finally confirmed rumors that she’ll play the halftime show at Super Bowl XLVI on February 5. Her set will be created by a team from Cirque du Soleil, and it’s expected that she’ll be performing some new material from her forthcoming album. [via Rolling Stone]

2. Peter Jackson‘s production company WingNut Films has finally completed work on West of Memphis, a documentary about the West Memphis Three. The film, which was written and directed by Amy Berg (Deliver Us From Evil), has been a passion project of Jackson’s since he became involved in the case back in 2005. [via Deadline]

3. Breaking Dawn – Part 1 topped the box office for a third consecutive week — which is surprisingly a first for a Twilight film — bringing its total gross so far to a whopping $247.3 million. [via MTV]

4. New Yorker film critic David Denby is in big trouble with Sony Pictures for breaking the studio’s embargo on any reviews for The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo running before December 13. The funny part? He had only nice things to say about the film. [via Vulture]

5. When life imitates art: Meet Irina Kristy, the real-life version of Walter White from Breaking Bad. A 75-year-old college professor in Boston, she’s been accused of running a meth lab out of her home with some help from her 29-year-old son. [via THR]

Bonus Buzz: Jeff Bridges Playing Peek-A-Boo

1. It’s official: Shooting on Skyfall, the 23rd installment of the James Bond franchise, begins on Monday. Joining Daniel Craig for the Sam Mendes-helmed project (which it should be noted, will not connect with Craig’s previous two Bond films, plot-wise): Academy Award winner Javier Bardem, who was previously cast as the villain — although it’s not confirmed yet whether or not he’s playing Blofeld. [via Deadline]

2. “I’m sure it wouldn’t have happened if I were a man. What other people think of me is none of my business but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt my feelings… My mood changes about it depending on the day. In general, you don’t want anyone to say anything bad about you.” – Lana Del Rey discusses her detractors

3. Wu-Tang’s RZA — who scored both Kill Bill films for Quentin Tarantino — is the latest actor to join the cast of his anti-slavery spaghetti Western, Django Unchained. At this point, the star-studded ensemble already includes Jamie Foxx, Kerry Washington, Leonardo DiCaprio, Don Johnson, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Anthony LaPaglia, Misty Upham, Gerald McRaney, and M.C. Gainey. [via Variety]

4. The Peter Jackson-directed second Tintin film will not be based on Prisoners Of The Sun, as was previously rumored. Instead, that book may be the plot of Tintin 3, leaving the storyline for the sequel still up for discussion. [via Slashfilm]

5. The world premiere of Edward Albee’s new play Laying an Egg — which was set to makes its Off-Broadway debut in February — has been indefinitely postponed. Explains artistic director James Houghton: “All good things are well worth the wait, and most certainly a new play from one of our most treasured playwrights is no exception.” [via Guardian]

Bonus Buzz: Zach Galifianakis Stand Up From 1999

Some interesting news from our friends at The Playlist: Peter Jackson has confirmed that following his work on The Hobbit movies, he plans to direct a sequel to The Adventures of Tintin, which begins opening internationally tomorrow. While the fact that he, and not Steven Spielberg, would be the one helming the second film is nothing new, talk of the project had all but petered out recently; now, in the wake of positive critical response, it seems that Jackson is feeling pretty confident that a sequel will really happen.

Good buzz aside, as Spielberg explained to The Hollywood Reporter, nothing is definite yet: “[Sony and Paramount] were willing to do one movie with us and then give us the financial werewithal to develop a script, do all the visual storyboards and get it really in launch position. So we can launch pretty quickly on a second movie. The script is already written.” While we can’t imagine the first film being a total flop given its pedigree, American audiences are notoriously fickle, and Hergé’s Tintin is a more beloved character overseas. Also important to note: regardless of how The Adventures of Tintin performs at the box office, The Hobbit films will keep Jackson busy for the next few years, making any follow-up a distant, if exciting, reality.

Andrew Ainsworth, the British prop designer who made the stormtroopers’ helmets for George Lucas’s Star Wars back in 1977, won a Supreme Court case in Britain today that gives him the right to sell replicas of the costumes (which go for around $2,500 a pop) without permission from the filmmaker or his studio — as long as he doesn’t ship them to the US.

According to ArtsBeat, James Cameron, Peter Jackson, and Steven Spielberg, all wrote letters hoping to help tip the odds in Lucas’s favor, but ultimately had no impact on the court’s final decision: the helmets were props, not works of art, and as such, are not subject to British copyright law. “I am proud to report that in the English legal system David can prevail against Goliath if his cause is right,” Ainsworth said in a statement. “If there is a force, then it has been with me these past five years.”

Welcome to “Trailer Park,” our regular Friday feature where we collect the week’s new trailers all in one place and do a little “judging a book by its cover,” ranking them from worst to best and taking our best guess at what they may be hiding. This week, we’ve got new films from Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Steven Soderbergh, and Guy Ritchie — but don’t get too excited, there’s a new Adam Sandler movie too. Check ‘em all out after the jump.

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