Duncan Jones’ ‘Source Code’ to open SXSW film festival

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When Duncan Jones’ directorial debut, ‘Moon,’ screened at the South by Southwest film festival in 2009, the low-budget sci-fi movie reminded many of the kind of gritty realism that defined the genre in the pre-CG era ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ and ‘Alien.’

SXSW has just announced that Jones will return to open the festival next year with ‘Source Code,’ an action thriller starring Jake Gyllenhaal as a soldier who is part of a government program that enables him to inhabit another man’s body for the last eight minutes of his life. Michelle Monaghan, Vera Farmiga and Jeffrey Wright also star in the Summit Entertainment film.

The Austin, Texas, film festival is increasingly a destination for genre filmmakers. This year at SXSW, the comic book comedy ‘Kick-Ass’ opened the festival, the low-budget British sci-fi film ‘Monsters’ had its world premiere and Robert Rodriguez showed the first footage from ‘Predators.’

The full festival line-up, including nine days of screenings and more than 80 panels and workshops, will be announced in February. Some of the workshops have already been set, including one to be led by ‘Twilight’ director and native Texan Catherine Hardwicke. The festival kicks off March 11.

-- Rebecca Keegan
twitter.com/@thatrebecca