Focus Commences TIFF Shopping with ‘Beginners’

Apparently I’m not the only one to think highly of Mike Mills’ Beginners — Focus Features was the winner among a five distributor horse race and will agree to a significant P&A to help push the film. Pic will be released in 2011 – my guess is another festival release to help promote the rom dramedy in other territories, and then they’ll have to strategically place the film during a mid year release — perhaps the same date as The Kids Are All Right. Mills’ highly personal film received its world premiere fairly early in the festival (here’s opening night coverage), so this means negotiations lasted for close to a week. 

Ewan McGregor plays a young man rocked by two announcements from his elderly father (Christopher Plummer)…one, that he has terminal cancer, and two, that he’s coming out of the closet. The second narrative sees McGregor hook up with Laurent – the manner in which these characters meet will make audiences melt.