As the sun set over the wintry and cold panorama of film goers, swag hunters, celebs, critics, actual movie fans, and some phonies in Park City, Utah at the Sundance film festival yesterday, three different sets of directors, cast members and producers could celebrate for they had all landed the best honor there is to be had at the festival: a domestic distribution deal.
The Kids Are All Right: Focus Features picked up this drama/comedy which stars Julianne Moore and Annette Bening as a lesbian couple whose children do some sleuthing and find out that their biological father is Mark Ruffalo. I have to say that I love the premise of this movie because it’s rather unique among all the kinds of stories one could tell about the new nuclear family.
Directed by and co-written by indie-familiar Lisa Cholodenko, Focus will be releasing Kids in the U.S., the U.K., Germany, and South Africa to the tune of $4.8 million but they haven’t announced when they would be doing so.
Hesher: I never thought I’d hear the word “hesher” ever again, but here it is as the name of Joseph Gordon-Leavitt’s character in a drama about a motherless boy (played by Devin Brochu) who forms an unlikely friendship with Hesher and Natalie Portman’s character and what happens when their lifestyles collide. Newmarket Films picked up the U.S. distribution rights for $1 million and there’s apparently a deal in the works to bring the film to Canada as well.
Twelve: The only reason why the $2 million purchase of the domestic rights to Joel Schumacher’s teen drama—which hasn’t even made its public debut yet—would make sense to me would be if either the buyers received a private screening or if Hannover House is trying to capitalize on the “Let’s watch rich Manhattan teens ruin their lives” zeitgeist.
Based on the novel by Nick McDonell, the ensemble drama features a performance by Chace Crawford as a teenage drug dealer who sells pot to his rich prep school friends and takes place over the course of five days at the turn of the 21st century.
Sundance closes its festival this coming Sunday. (Source: Variety)