American truck driver Paul Conroy is having what you might call a bad day. After taking a contract in Iraq delivering supplies, his convoy gets attacked and he blacks out. When he awakens, it’s a clear case of out-of-the-frying-pan-and-buried-in-a-coffin. At his immediate disposal are a lighter, a cell phone, and a limited supply of oxygen. He receives a message on the phone that he must use the phone to muster together a $5 million ransom or be left to die. A brief synopsis, but one befitting of a film like this. Buried sounds like little more than a pitch film; selling itself solely on a gimmick. But when thinking of accusing the film of taking the easy road to getting greenlit, it is vital to remember that this man-in-a-box movie is precisely that: a man in a box. The simplicity of the concept is incredibly self-limiting and presents a challenge so seemingly insurmountable that Buried had a plethora of opportunities to fail. Fortunately for the audience, director Rodrigo Cortes and star Ryan Reynolds expertly navigated this minefield.

It’s a beautiful day in the land of movies when a Sundance favorite announces that they’ll be at Fantastic Fest amongst the diaper-wearing ninjas, the drunken monsters from outer space, and the people sewn together mandibles to glutes. Director Rodrigo Cortes and Ryan Reynolds will be in attendance of the September 23rd screening of Buried, the movie that features him buried alive inside a coffin for what might be the entire run time. However, if you can’t wait that long to see the film, the Alamo Drafthouse is sponsoring an incredibly unique screening of Buried the weekend before. How can they afford to screen it before the big Austin premiere? Because they’ll only be screening it for four people. And those four people will be buried while seeing it.

Along with their very cool booth at Comic-Con, the folks at Lionsgate are looking to generate some heat and invoke more Hitchcock references with a new trailer for Buried, the movie that sees Ryan Reynolds buried alive for the entirety of its run time. The new trailer (seen after the jump) reveals much more of the plot, including some of the obstacles that get in between Reynolds’ character and his escape. But there’s still plenty of mystery. In my review from Sundance, I applauded the film for being “an interesting and bold piece of filmmaking.” It shows a great deal of potential in director Rodrigo Cortes. However, I was not then (nor am I now) convinced that it will catch the eye of the mainstream. This new trailer may help, but only time will tell. Check out the synopsis and trailer after the jump…

Just as I criticize the marketing effort Lionsgate gave to Kick-Ass earlier this year, we receive a high resolution version of the new poster they’ve released for Buried. And look, it’s quite nice. Combining the artistic merits of Saul Bass with a hint to the film’s unique execution of the buried alive premise, this poster is both saying something interesting and looking pretty.

Saturday night will be the world’s first chance to see the Rodrigo Cortés directed film Buried, which is one of the more fascinating films of the 2010 Sundance line-up. For now, we have this…

Now that we know that Ryan Reynolds’s next feature is going to be a one-man show, I’m wondering if he’ll open with, “Oh, hey! Didn’t see you there!”