When Robert Redford holds court with the press at his annual news conference today, look for him to talk about launching a national chain of movie theaters in 1998 under the Sundance imprimatur.
Word is that before the end of the year the West Valley City-based Sundance Group - composed today of the Sundance Resort, the Sundance Catalog and the Sundance Channel - will grow its fourth leg: a Sundance chain of "art houses" catering to a growing audience of film watchers who favor independent productions.Such venues would serve, too, as an outlet for many movies that come to the Sundance Film Festival homeless and in search of a wider public.
For every four films shown at the yearly January festival, only one gets substantial distribution. But developments during the 1990s suggest that sizable, paying audiences exist for more of the often offbeat fare that is presented in Park City, Salt Lake City and Ogden during the 10-day event.
Economics, as always, is what drives such shifts, and where there is demand, supply will surely be found.
"Circumstances have changed the marketplace," explained festival director Geoffrey Gilmore this week, noting the growth of cable television and the rise of home satellite dishes but - "more importantly" - the recent multiplication of distribution companies that specialize in buying and promoting movies made outside the Hollywood studio system.
When Gilmore took over direction of the festival eight years ago, only a dozen or so films were picked up by distributors. But in 1997, closer to 30 were acquired, according to Gilmore, and this year about 15 already have been sold, even though the festival has only just begun.
The trend merely reflects an increasing call for cinema that defies the formulaic and frequently predictable product put out by Hollywood year after year.
Still, meshing independent movies with broad audiences has been an elusive goal. "One problem is actually finding theaters," Gilmore said, thus the notion of a Sundance theater chain.
And why not? History would suggest that the Sundance label is a near-automatic success.
The Sundance Channel, which is barely 2 years old, has taken off like no one expected. Through a partnership with the Showtime movie network, it is available in 10 million American homes already, 4 million of which subscribe to it.
The Sundance Catalog, which sells rustic Wild West sorts of goods via a battery of telephone operators in West Valley City, has grown so much that last year a new 140,000-square-foot warehouse was added to keep enough stock on hand.
And Sundance the resort just east of Provo has also undergone a recent expansion to meet a crush of patrons that sometimes translates into waiting lines at its restaurants and capacity crowds on its slopes.
Not much has been said publicly about the theater chain. Last year an announcement was made that an effort was under way, but no time line was offered and no specific locales were proposed. The film festival offers the perfect occasion for a bigger pronouncement, mostly because of a global press contingent in the hundreds this year.
That Sundance movies have value is apparent by the prices they fetch.
Though rights to a feature called "Care of the Spitfire Grill" sold for a festival record $10 million in 1996, it did so poorly at the after-Sundance box office that its price was later - and widely - considered a gaffe.
"There hasn't been any (sale of a Sundance) film that has come close," Gilmore said. "Most are in the $2 million to $3 million range."
These are not whopping numbers by film-industry standards, but many Sundance movies are made on a shoestring, some for as little as $50,000 - and sometimes less.
That distributors are willing to spend any money at all on low-budget productions - much less $2 million or $3 million - is an indication that the market is strong.
Many Sundance movies, of course, are produced for much more than five or even six figures, stretching the traditional definition of independent film.
"We have a number in the $15 or $20 million range this year," Gilmore said.