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    “Palm Springs” sets a Sundance record in $17.5M sale

    By SHOOTUpdated:No Comments2350 Views
    Cristin Milioti and Andy Samberg attend the premiere of "Palm Springs" at the Library Center Theatre during the 2020 Sundance Film Festival on Sunday, Jan. 26, 2020, in Park City, Utah. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)

    By Jake Coyle, Film Writer

    PARK CITY, Utah (AP) --

    The "Groundhog Day"-esque comedy "Palm Springs," by Andy Samberg and the Lonely Island, has set an acquisition record at the Sundance Film Festival by 69 cents. 

    The indie distributor Neon and the streaming service Hulu bought "Palm Springs" for exactly $17,500,000.69 in a sale announced Monday evening at the Park City festival. The previous record Sundance sale was the $17.5 million Fox Searchlight paid for Nate Parker's "The Birth of a Nation" in 2016. 

    In a statement, Samberg and his Lonely Island partners Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone, along with producer Becky Sloviter, joked that the financial terms of the deal were unfavorable. 

    "We spent over $85 million of our own money on this movie, WE ARE TAKING A BATH on this deal," they said. "We hope Neon and Hulu are happy but we definitely have a lot of explaining to do to our families."

    "Palm Springs," directed by Max Barbakow, stars Samberg and Cristin Milioti as a pair of wedding guests who are trapped living the same day over again in the Southern California desert town. The film, one of the most obviously commercial at this year's Sundance, drew acclaim after its premiere Sunday for its clever twist on the "Groundhog Day" premise. 

    Neon will give "Palm Springs" a theatrical release, with Hulu taking the film's streaming rights. No release date was announced. 

    Tags:Andy SambergHuluNeonPalm SpringsSundance Film Festival



    Ex-OpenAI engineer who raised legal concerns about the technology he helped build has died

    Saturday, December 21, 2024
    Suchir Balaji poses for a photo in Hawaii in 2018. Balaji was a former OpenAI engineer and whistleblower who died in November 2024. (Balaji Ramamurthy via AP)

    Suchir Balaji, a former OpenAI engineer and whistleblower who helped train the artificial intelligence systems behind ChatGPT and later said he believed those practices violated copyright law, has died, according to his parents and San Francisco officials. He was 26.

    Balaji worked at OpenAI for nearly four years before quitting in August. He was well-regarded by colleagues at the San Francisco company, where a co-founder this week called him one of OpenAI's strongest contributors who was essential to developing some of its products.

    "We are devastated to learn of this incredibly sad news and our hearts go out to Suchir's loved ones during this difficult time," said a statement from OpenAI.

    Balaji was found dead in his San Francisco apartment on Nov. 26 in what police said "appeared to be a suicide. No evidence of foul play was found during the initial investigation." The city's chief medical examiner's office confirmed the manner of death to be suicide.

    His parents Poornima Ramarao and Balaji Ramamurthy said they are still seeking answers, describing their son as a "happy, smart and brave young man" who loved to hike and recently returned from a trip with friends.

    Balaji grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and first arrived at the fledgling AI research lab for a 2018 summer internship while studying computer science at the University of California, Berkeley. He returned a few years later to work at OpenAI, where one of his first projects, called WebGPT, helped pave the way for ChatGPT.

    "Suchir's contributions to this project were essential, and it wouldn't have succeeded without him," said OpenAI co-founder John Schulman in a social media post memorializing Balaji. Schulman, who recruited Balaji to his team, said what... Read More

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