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Brooklyn’s Finest Sells to Senator. Sundance Deals 01/19/09

Christopher Campbell
By Christopher Campbell posted 9 months ago
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The Sundance Film Festival had it’s first major deal go down Saturday night as young distributor Senator Entertainment (in a co-venture with Sony Pictures Worldwide) picked up North American rights to Antoine Fuqua’s admittedly unfinished Brooklyn’s Finest for a price tag of less than $5 million (with a marketing commitment of $10 million).

Other acquisitions made just before and since the festival began include the following:

All these pickups have been added to SpoutBlog’s Sundance Deals chart, which will continue to be updated throughout the festival. So remember to keep checking back and bookmark the post if you haven’t yet.

Sundance Deals 2009

Karina Longworth
By Karina Longworth posted 10 months ago
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Here’s our running tally of each of the distribution deals announced just before, throughout the course of, and just after the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. We will update this post whenever new information comes in, so bookmark it and keep checking back for the newest latest.

Title Distributor Rights Bought Reported Price Tag More Info
You Won’t Miss Me Visit Films Worldwide sales N/A indieWIRE
Tyson Sony Classics U.S. Theatrical N/A Variety
Amreeka Entertainment One Canada, international N/A Hollywood Reporter
Rudo y Cursi
Sony Classics North America N/A indieWIRE
Burma VJ HBO TV, Film Forum in NY N/A indieWIRE
Brothers at War Samuel Goldwyn US Theatrical N/A indieWIRE
William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe P.O.V. (PBS) TV N/A American Documentary
El General
P.O.V. (PBS) TV N/A American Documentary
Cold Souls
E1 Films Canada N/A indieWIRE
Brooklyn’s Finest
Senator Distribution North America $3 million indieWIRE
Kimjongilia
Visit Films Worldwide sales N/A indieWIRE
The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle
Visit Films Worldwide sales N/A indieWIRE
Humpday
Magnolia VOD; Worldwide Theatrical $100,000

mid-6 figures

indieWIRE
Black Dynamite
Sony Worldwide Acquisitions Group North America $2 million indieWIRE
Adam
Fox Searchlight Worldwide $1.5 million indieWIRE
The Winning Season
Lionsgate U.S.; UK $2 million Hollywood Reporter
An Education
Sony Classics North America; part of Latin America $3 million-$4 million Hollywood Reporter
Dead Snow
IFC Films U.S. N/A indieWIRE
In the Loop
IFC Films U.S. N/A indieWIRE
Spread
Anchor Bay U.S.; Australia $3.5 million-$4 million indieWIRE
Spread TVA Canada N/A indieWIRE
Moon
Sony Classics U.S. N/A indieWIRE
Art & Copy
Arthouse Films Worldwide N/A Hollywood Reporter
An Education
E1 Films UK; Ireland N/A Variety
Cold Souls
Samuel Goldwyn U.S. N/A indiewire
Push: Based on the novel by Sapphire Lionsgate US Distribution 5.5 million SpoutBlog
The September Issue Roadside Attractions US Distribution N/A ScreenDaily
Arlen Faber Magnolia US Distribution N/A indieWIRE

It’s Not Your Fault.

Karina Longworth
By Karina Longworth posted 1 year ago
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3-d-audience.jpgYance Ford, a producer for PBS’s documentary series P.O.V., has a long consideration of Tuesday night’s Cinema Eye Honors at the P.O.V. blog. Though Ford has much praise for the project as a whole, she takes umbrage with one portion of Thom Powers’ opening remarks, and it happens to be one section of the evening that irked me, as well. Over to Yance:

I know Thom Powers to be a thoughtful, passionate programmer and a great filmmaker in his own right. But his opening remarks included a remark that I found troubling.He said that “distributors don’t get it, critics don’t get it and the general public doesn’t get it. We wanted to fill [this auditorium] with people who get it.” I’ll be the first to agree that independent documentary does not get the recognition it deserves, but I don’t think that the problem is the fact that the general public doesn’t “get it.” The problem is that the general public doesn’t get to see it.

Ford goes on to make the case that “as long as the documentary community prioritizes theatrical release and festival runs over broadcast, the public will continue to miss a large and dynamic body of work,” which could be construed as being a bit self-serving coming from the producer of a broadcast documentary program. But I think she’s right to point out that “the general public” hardly deserves blame for not supporting films that get little to no publicity, which are reviewed in only a fraction of publications. The average moviegoer would have to do a good deal of detective work to know that 80% of the films nominated for a Cinema Eye even existed. Isn’t that why the Cinema Eyes exist in the first place?

Whether intentionally or not (and I would assume probably not), Powers is basically making the same argument that Lou Lumenick made in the most hateable quote in that Hollywood Reporter story that everyone’s mad about: the New York Post critic claimed that it’s not his responsibility to review smaller films because “The only complaints we’ve gotten (on not running some reviews) are from publicists and distributors…Not a single one from readers.” In no other market sector would the consumer be blamed for not demanding a product that they didn’t know was available.