PARK CITY, Utah — The hottest new writer-director at this year’s Sundance Film Festival is also the oldest person to have a film in the US dramatic competition here.
Ben Lewin, a 65-year-old polio survivor who wears a leg brace and walks with crutches, brings a unique perspective to “The Surrogate,’’ an immensely moving true story about a severely disabled poet/journalist who sets out to lose his virginity at the age of 38.
The film was acquired by Fox Searchlight for a reported $6 million, hours after it premiered Monday to a standing ovation and rave reviews.
There was instant acclaim for stars John Hawkes and Helen Hunt, as well as for Lewin and his often darkly hilarious cross between “My Left Foot’’ and “The 40-Year-Old Virgin.’’
“I had no particular personal agenda to make this film,’’ says Lewin, who, like the subject of the film, Mark O’Brien, contracted polio when he was 6 and spent time in an iron lung.
“I was researching a sitcom for material about sex and disabilities when I came across Mark’s story, ‘On Seeing a Sex Surrogate,’ and I was blown away,’’ he says.
The son of Polish Holocaust survivors who was raised in Australia, Lewin has directed feature films and TV. Inspired by O’Brien, who died in 1999, and interviews with his surrogate, Cheryl Cohen Greene, he spent six years raising financing.
“I had never done that before, and we raised money from people who had never invested in a film before,’’ says Lewin. “The Surrogate’’ was made for around $1 million.
Besides Hunt, an Oscar winner for “As Good As It Gets,’’ Lewin was fortunate to land Hawkes right after his Oscar nod for playing a redneck in “Winter’s Bone.’’
“I realized he could play anything, and here he’s a man who can only move his head — and then only 90 degrees — and has to be transported by an attendant on a gurney,” Lewin says. “He was incredibly dedicated to the role.’’
“The Surrogate’’ has been praised for explicitly discussing the mechanics of sex for the disabled without being exploitative. (Hunt, who appears nude in several scenes, received advice from the real surrogate.)
“I’m sort of shocked about the way that evolved,’’ Lewin says. “Stuff that would make you cringe now makes you laugh. We were able to use Mark’s real-life priest [played in the movie by William H. Macy] as his inner voice.’’
A Hollywood Reporter reviewer compared Lewin to David Seidler, the veteran writer of last year’s Oscar winner, “The King’s Speech.’’
“He called himself a late bloomer,’’ says Lewin of Seidler, stunned by the reception he and “The Surrogate’’ received on his first trip to Sundance. “Personally, I’m really enjoying this late blooming.’’
Monday’s other high-profile debut was “Bachelorette,’’ directed by first-timer Leslye Headland, based on her 2010 off-Broadway play. Co-produced by Will Ferrell, it recalls last year’s “Bridesmaids,’’ but is more abrasive and less funny.
Kirsten Dunst, Isla Fisher and Lizzy Caplan play a trio of bad girls who spend a night filled with cocaine, sex and efforts to screw up the wedding of an overweight former classmate they call “Pigface.’’ The film is seeking a distributor.