Hollywood Reporter – by Rebecca Ford
The Sundance Film Festival will open with a follow-up to An Inconvenient Truth, former Vice President Al Gore’s two-time Academy Award-winning documentary about the world’s climate crisis.
From Participant Media, and directed by Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenk, the sequel follows Gore as he continues his decades-long fight to build a more sustainable future for the planet.
“Now more than ever we must rededicate ourselves to solving the climate crisis,” said Gore in a statement. “But we have reason to be hopeful; the solutions to the crisis are at hand. I’m deeply honored and grateful that Paramount Pictures and Participant Media have once again taken on the task of bringing the critical story of the climate crisis to the world.”
Paramount Pictures will release the film in 2017. It’s produced by Richard Berge and Diane Weyermann, and executive produced by Jeff Skoll, Davis Guggenheim, Lawrence Bender, Laurie David, Scott Z. Burns and Lesley Chilcott.
The original documentary, directed by Davis Guggenheim, premiered at Sundance in 2006 and was a box-office and critical success. It went on to win two Oscars, for best documentary and best original song.
The sequel will be part of the The New Climate section at Sundance, the festival’s first-ever program built around a specific theme — in this case, climate change and environmental preservation, a defining issue for Sundance Institute president and founder Robert Redford.
“We are honored to be working again with Al, Jeff Skoll and everyone at Participant on a film whose message is as urgent as ever. Al’s tireless efforts to bring about change continues to inspire all of us as we fight for the health of our world for future generations,” said a statement from Paramount chairman and CEO Brad Grey.
Gore also will appear on Sundance’s Power of Story panel, a collaboration between Sundance Institute and The Redford Center, that also will feature former President Mohamed Nasheed of the Maldives, producer Heather Rae (Frozen River, RISE), social entrepreneur and philanthropist Jeff Skoll and environmentalist and scientist Dr. David Suzuki.