PARK CITY, Utah – Philip Seymour Hoffman literally phoned in his voice performance for tonight’s opener at the Sundance Film Festival, the animated feature “Mary and Max.”
“The cost of flying any big-name actor to Australia would be extreme,” explained director Adam Elliot, who is making his feature debut after his Oscar-winning animated short “Harvie Krumpet.”
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“We didn’t have a lot of money, and it’s not like we could have flown him in on economy. So we piped him in for two sessions, in New York and London, with high-quality sound that makes him sound like he was in the studio with us in Australia. I was quite surprised at how good the technology is.”
Hoffman plays a 44-year-old New Yorker – an overweight Jewish atheist with Aspberger syndrome – who develops an unlikely pen-pal relationship with a lonely 8-year-old girl living in Melbourne.
Aussie actress Toni Collette plays the girl. Another countryman, Barry Humphries – better known as Dame Edna Everage – provides narration.
“The Sundance thing was a bit of a shock, and we’ve got our fingers crossed,” Elliot says from Los Angeles, where he’s making some last-minute tweaks to the sound mix. “I was hoping for some small test screenings.”
“Mary and Max” is one of many films seeking US distribution after premiering at Sundance, North America’s leading independent film festival, which is celebrating its 25th year.
“It’ll be interesting to see where it ends up, whether it breaks into the mainstream,” said Elliot.
“It’s not a ‘Shrek’ or a ‘Finding Nemo,’ and the stop-animation style is closer to ‘Wallace & Gromit.’ But our story is much darker and more adult, sort of like an animated ‘About Schmidt.’ ”
This is Elliot’s first trip to Park City, even though “Harvie Krumpet” premiered here in 2003. “We were nominated for the Oscar, and we couldn’t afford to make both trips,” he said. “But I’ll definitely be at Sundance [tonight].”
But Hoffman, who is off on another movie, won’t.
“It sounds weird, but I’ve never met him in the flesh,” says Elliot. “We could see him on Skype when he was recording his part all by himself. He was so professional.”