The L.A. Film Festival, which starts next month and already has a packed slate, announced three notable late additions to the roster this week.
Zack Snyder’s mega-budget, heavily-trailed “Man of Steel” will show in a special preview screening on June 12th (one day before advance public showings on June 13th) and Pixar’s latest entry in the ‘Monsters’ franchise, “Monsters University,” will get an early airing on June 18th, just a few days before it goes wide on June 21st.
It’s also balancing all that big-budget studio razzmatazz with an in-person discussion with indie auteur Spike Jonze. It’s billed as a discussion forum, titled “A Brand of His Own: Spike Jonze” where the writer-director will talk about his eclectic career – from music photography to creating “Jackass” to serving as creative director for Vice Media’s VBS.tv — and will also screen clips from his highly anticipated new movie “Her,” his first since 2009’s “Where the Wild Things Are.” It’s apparently an oddball, sci-fi romance which stars Joaquin Phoenix as a lonely writer who falls in love with a Siri-like computer system.
Other events announced Wednesday by the festival include a program honoring costume designers and the Academy launch of the Costume Designers Branch as well as a film titled “Women in the Cut: A Celebration of Women Editors,” a conversation featuring some of the many female editors at the top of the film business. The full festival runs June 13th to June 23rd. [L.A. Times]