The last edition of Sundance saw wallets not being opened and checkbooks go ink free. Indeed the market place has changed in terms of domestic pick-ups, and aside from Focus Features nabbing Hamlet 2, more than anything else, the Park City film fest saw window shopping attitudes. Among the titles that were without a mommie and/or daddy were the recent Cannes film festival closer What Just Happened? and Bristol Bay Productions/Playtone Pictures’ The Great Buck
Howard.
Magnolia Pictures have announced that they have picked up director Sean McGinley’s ensemble piece starring Tom Hanks in a minor role and John Malkovich in the starring role of Buck Howard. With plans to release the picture this fall, this is about a faded mentalist who in
his prime was a marquee act in Vegas and was featured 61 times on
Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show. He’s now living out his days performing
in community centers and decaying theaters across the heartland. Colin
Hanks is disillusioned law student Troy Gable who takes a job as
Howard’s road manager against his father’s (Tom Hanks) wishes. With a
little help from his beautiful publicist (Emily Blunt) and a bold
stroke of fate, Buck unexpectedly lands back in the limelight, becoming
the unlikeliest of teachers for Gable as he learns a few tricks he
couldn’t possibly have picked up in law school.
