Sony Pictures Classics

Daniel Radcliffe (Allen Ginsberg), Dane DeHaan (Lucien Carr) and Jack Huston (Jack Kerouac) in "Kill Your Darlings."

Provided

Answering questions after "Kill Your Darlings" screened at the Sundance Film Festival are, from left, financier Michael Benaroya, actors Michael C. Hall, Jack Huston, Ben Foster, Dane DeHaan and Daniel Radcliffe; co-screenwriter Austin Bunn and director and co-screenwriter John Krokidas.

Assistant professor Austin Bunn’s movie “Kill Your Darlings” was picked up for distribution by Sony Pictures Classics during the Sundance Film Festival in January, and it is tentatively scheduled for release in theaters this fall.

Bunn and director John Krokidas, his college roommate, co-wrote the screenplay of “Kill Your Darlings,” which stars Daniel Radcliffe as a young Allen Ginsberg and tells the story of a group of writers in the 1940s and 1950s known as the Beat Generation. The film focuses on the 1944 murder of David Kammerer by Lucien Carr, a key member of the nascent writers’ circle. (Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs were arrested as material witnesses and later collaborated on a mystery novel inspired by the murder.)

“This is an amazing movie, a great American drama, thriller, and perfect evocation of New York in the 1940s as you have never seen on screen before,” Sony Pictures Classics said in a statement. “With an ensemble cast that is truly mind-blowing led by Daniel Radcliffe in a profoundly moving performance as Allen Ginsberg, we are witnessing the birth of a major new American filmmaker.”

Bunn, the Koenig-Jacobson Sesquicentennial Faculty Fellow, teaches screenwriting classes in the Department of Performing and Media Arts. He said Sundance was somewhat surreal: "I felt like I was on a snowy episode of 'Fantasy Island.'"

One of only 16 films chosen for the U.S. Dramatic Competition at Sundance, “Kill Your Darlings” was shown in the 1,270-seat Eccles Center in Park City, Utah, and “every seat was full,” Bunn said. The screening included a Q-and-A session where he, Krokidas, Radcliffe and other principals talked about making the movie, which Bunn and Krokidas began working on in 2004.

The buzz about the film and reviews have been overwhelmingly positive, as was the atmosphere at the festival, Bunn said.

“Sundance is about film itself, about its message and meaning,” he said. “I was so proud of the work that we have done. It feels very gratifying.”

Bunn talked about his Sundance experience at a program for students Feb. 7 at the Schwartz Center, and he remains involved in events surrounding the film. He joined the ensemble of “Kill Your Darlings” for a screening in late January at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, as part of the Sundance Film Festival’s efforts to show films to audiences across the country.

Sony may decide to enter the film in other festivals, including Toronto or Cannes, Bunn said. When the film is released, he said he hopes to offer a screening at Cornell.

Kathy Hovis is director of marketing and public relations for the Department of Performing and Media Arts.