They might be in a tight spot right now, but at the end of the rainbow The Weinstein Co. have Rob Marshall‘s Nine, John Hillcoat‘s The Road (Dimension) and Andrew Jarecki‘s All Good Things. Sight unseen, I imagine they’re all Oscar bait potential and have the ingredients to be profitable, but there is one title that might see the financially troubled unit regain some of that glitter from the old Miramax days (where they grabbed a film with subtitles and made American audiences fall for them. E.g: Pelle the Conqueror, Cinema Paradiso, Mediterraneo, Koyla.)
Radu Mihaileanu‘s The Concert was a packaged and sold Wild Bunch item that the Weinsteins pre-emptively picked up at last year’s Cannes, and now currently in post-production, the film is probably setting its sights on a double preem at Venice and TIFF in the fall. By the sound of the plot, I expect this to be an audience favorite – something that Mihaileanu specializes in – Live & Become was received with much affection from global audiences.
Based on an original story by Hector Cabello Reyes and Thierry Degrandi which was scripted by Mihaileanu with Alain-Michel Blanc & Matthew Robbins, The Concert is partly based on a true story, focuses on a former conductor (Alexei Guskov) of the Bolshoi Orchestra who was demoted during the communist era for refusing to fire the Jewish players. 25 years later still working in the orchestra’s theater as a janitor, he stumbles upon a faxed invitation for the Orchestra to play in Paris and decides to gather up his old musician buddies, go to Paris and play as the Bolshoi.
Inglorious Basterd‘s Melanie Laurent happens to star in this picture.
