Isiah Whitlock Jr., John C. Reilly, Anne Heche and Ed Helms in "Cedar Rapids." (Fox Searchlight photo)
By Colin Covert
Minnesota-connected filmmakers play key roles in one of the most anticipated entries in this year's Sundance Film Festival -- "Cedar Rapids," starring Ed Helms and John C. Reilly as insurance salesmen on a wild weekend in Sin City, Iowa.
Helms plays a good-natured but naive policy pusher for Brown Star Insurance whose idealism is challenged when he's sent to a convention in the wicked metropolis of Cedar Rapids. Reilly is a man-child rival agent.
The R-rated corporate comedy is the feature debut for writer Phil Johnston, a former KARE 11 reporter whom the trade paper Variety named one of its 10 Screenwriters to Watch. The film was produced by University of Minnesota alum Jim Burke, whose credits include Alexander Payne's "Election" and Bobby and Peter Farrelly's "Kingpin."
The film is scheduled to open in the Twin Cities Feb. 18. You can view the trailer here.
