January
21
Sundance Watch: Day Five
It's a little early to be calling this year's fest a dud just because Geoff Gilmore programmed a bunch of films that aren't selling the first weekend. The NYT is measuring the fest's success on the basis of its acquisitions numbers. By that measure, last year's fest was a huge success. And there were many great films at Sundance 2007. But the big sale titles --aside from Waitress--went on to do no business, or haven't opened yet.
Remember, Once was a critical hit at Sundance that didn't sell until afterwards. And it was not considered a hot title by anyone. Fox Searchlight took on that movie as a labor of love, which is what releasing these indie pics requires: backbreaking labor and investment over a long time with no guarantee of boxoffice results. So all these buyers are looking for love. And some may not have found it yet.
I wonder if Gilmore wouldn't be better off pulling back a tad from the business side of the fest---he gets a kick out of finding homes for his babies--and sticking to programming the best films he can find. He says he does both. My sense from talking to buyers is that they simply decided to take back control, to return the power to their purse strings and the ability to just say no and walk away from overpaying. Here's my wrap-up of the fest's first weekend.
The festival operates on several levels: pics looking for distribs and pics looking for a media launch for their release that will play well at the Eccles Theatre. Of the press launches, Focus Features' fest opener In Bruges, starring Colin Farrell, went over well on opening night; while Smart People, starring Dennis Quaid, Sarah Jessica Parker, Thomas Haden Church and Ellen Page, which Groundswell's Michael London sold at the Salt Lake City airport last year to Miramax as a pre-buy, and New Line Cinema's Be Kind Rewind, directed by Michel Gondry and starring Jack Black as an inventive video clerk, received mixed response from fest crowds and critics.
The pics that were supposed to generate the biggest sales will probably sell eventually, but not at their hoped-for numbers. Two bigger-scale studio/indie hybrids from Hollywood players were intended to be commercially viable, with stars, but somehow didn't seem hip enough for the room: Playtone's Great Buck Howard, which couldn't find a studio home and came to Sundance in a last-ditch search for a distributor, and Art Linson and Barry Levinson's $20-million What Just Happened, which 2929 Entertainment funded, hoping to find a buyer. There is a possibility that both will go home empty-handed.
On a smaller scale, Magnolia's getting good response on both the sci-fi spanish-language thriller Timecrimes (which has already been acquired by UA for a remake) and Alex Gibney's Hunter Thompson doc Gonzo.
The titles picking up heat, just in terms of good-word-of-mouth--which has nothing to do with their commerciality--are The Wave, Mermaids, Ballast, Stranded, Trouble the Water, and Phoebe in Wonderland, among others. Expected to sell imminently are the doc American Teen, The Wackness, and Sunshine Cleaning.
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Once WAS a cherished title even at Sundance... it didn't have buzz BEFORE the festival started but once the first screening happened, there was a mad rush for tickets.
Posted by: Sid | January 22, 2008 at 02:19 AM