PARK CITY, Utah -- Josh Hartnett's secret to staying thin is simple.
"If the movie's good, I'm happy. If it's terrible, I run away," he says.
And as anyone who has seen Pearl Harbor or The Black Dahlia knows, he's done a lot of running.
Now, though, with Resurrecting The Champ, which he filmed in Calgary last summer and premiered at this year's Sundance Film Festival, he has cause to stand still.
The drama, about a sports reporter who discovers a former boxing champion living on the streets, is a knockout -- smart, emotional and finely-attuned.
Moreover, so is Hartnett, who holds his own against dynamo Samuel L. Jackson.
"We're pretty stoked," says director Rod Lurie of the reaction the film's received from Sundance crowds.
Non-festival audiences can expect it in theatres sometime this year.
As for Calgary's starring role, it makes for a convincing Denver -- enough so that it should provide ample evidence to Hollywood studios that the city can play host to more than just westerns.
"I miss Calgary. We had a great time there," says the director, who would consider returning to shoot there again, but "not in the winter."
For Hartnett, as he told crowd at the premiere, Champ allowed him for the first time to play more than "kid-like people" with Peter Pan complexes.
Instead, in Champ, he is cast as a flawed journalist and newly-separated father of a six-year-old son.
"It's had a big effect on fathers in the audience," Lurie says.
"Some of them are leaving with tears in their eyes."
And, yes, for those who care about such things, Hartnett has been spotted around town with Sienna Miller, who's here for her Sundance entry, Interview.
