September
15
Toronto Watch: Sony Pictures Classics Buys Every Little Step
James D. Stern's L.A.-based Endgame Entertainment is on a roll.
As expected, Stern sold North American and Australian rights to his showbiz documentary Every Little Step to Sony Pictures Classics. The deal was in final stages Monday after the film won raves from auds and critics at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Endgame funded and produced Every Little Step, a behind-the-scenes look at auditions for a revival of the Broadway classic. Filming started back in 2005 as the show auditioned some 1,700 actors/singer/dancers hoping to land a slot on the 2006 Chorus Line. The pic blends audition footage with vintage material from the original 1975 production. The moving doc plays like a reality-TV show crammed with winners and losers as talented hoofers put themselves on the line. It’s a likely awards contender for best doc.
Stern and Adam Del Deo both produced and directed. The team also made docs So Goes the Nation and The Year of the Yao. Stern also produced shobiz productions The Producers, Hairspray, Stomp and Legally Blonde.
Endgame's other Toronto pics were Brothers Bloom, starrng Mark Ruffalo, Adrien Brody and Rachel Weisz, which Summit acquired in December 2007, and Stephen Elliot's romantic comedy Easy Virtue, based on the Noel Coward play, starring Jessica Biel, Colin Firth, Ben Barnes and Kristin Scott Thomas, which is also expected to sell. Endgame has also co-financed past releases I'm Not There, Hotel Rwanda and White Noise.
William Morris Independent repped Every Little Step in the sale. The agency's New York Theatre department was involved in early discussions on the project because they repped the attorney and the estate of A Chorus Line creator Michael Bennett, who died in 1987. William Morris Independent's Rena Ronson sold the Japanese rights to the film to Shochiku early on, and took the project to Endgame, which put up the lion's share of the budget.
[Sharon Swart contributed to this report]
Subscribe to this blog's feed
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d8341bfc7553ef010534ac6423970c
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Toronto Watch: Sony Pictures Classics Buys Every Little Step :
Comments