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First Look buys pic fit for a ‘King’
As part of a serious refocus in acquistions, the folks at First Look picked up one more Sundance selection. Michael Cahill’s directorial and screenwriting debut was produced by Alexander Payne, Michael London, Avi Lerner and Randall Emmett.
Magnolia smokes out ‘Signal’
Imagine premiering your film for the first time in front of audiences (that happen to include buyers) and having the door blocked off after the screening. This is what seems to have happened in the case of writers-directors David Bruckner, Jacob Gentry and Dan Bush. Magnolia Pictures bought the North American, Aussie and U.K. rights to the film for close to 2 million.
Vantage is Sly in film deal
Last year’s most expensive pick up in Park City was the crowd pleasing Little Miss Sunshine – this year another crowd pleaser was the center of a bidding war. This year a film pegged as a "Millions" meets "Billy Elliott" was given the biggest paycheck of them all. Paramount Vantage beat out rivals for worldwide distribution (excluding 3 countries) for Son of Rambow.
Weinstein & Searchlight are living ‘La Misma Luna’
Add a new name to the list of Mexican filmmakers that will leave a filmic imprint stateside. Featured in the Spectrum section at Sundance, worldwide rights to La Misma Luna (The Same Moon) was picked up for a cool $5 million-$6 million. Searchlight will take the lead in the Americas, while the two companies will pick and choose which will handle international territories on a case-by-case basis.
Weinstein & First Look Dedicated to Theroux debut
The Weinstein Company came to Sundance this year and don’t mind sharing a piece of the pie – just as long as they eat with the same fork....
