Fresh from a well-received bow that the continuing 2017 Sundance Film Festival, Amazon Studios has acquired the family dramedy Landline. The film marks reunion for Obvious Child director Gillian Robespierre and star Jenny Slate – that film made a major splash at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival and became and specialty hit in the summer of that year. This acquisition joins two other films the streaming giant has picked at this year’s Sundance following the crowdpleasing The Big Sick and the Grateful Dead documentary Long Strange Trip. Variety was the first to report.
Landline explores the dysfunctional relationship of a Manhattan family in the not-to-distant past of the 1990s – the title is none too subtle nod at the pre-cell phone era. Slate plays a neurotic young woman on verge of a breakdown as her wedding day approaches while her young sister (portrayed by newcomer Abby Quinn) is in the midst of a rebellion in her own right. Multiple Emmy winner Edie Falco (Nurse Jackie) and John Turturro (Hands of Stone) co-star.
As is their custom, Amazon will likely plan out a standard theatrical release before making the film available on their streaming service. (This is in stark contrast to Netflix, their main competitor, who releases their films via streaming as well as in theaters on the same day.) There’s no word yet on when exactly Landline will be released.
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