If I had put a bet on the most likely film to get picked up at the past Sundance film festival, I would have placed my money Sunshine Cleaning. Going in it had all the interesting premise, b.a fresh Oscar winning actor in Alan Arkin and c. came from the same production company (Big Beach) that produced Sundance smash hit Little Miss Sunshine. The festival came and went and the reality is that though this stars the very pleasant Amy Adams it is an Amy Adams with a warning label: Not-Enchanted.
Variety reports that Overture Films has plucked the film from the prod company in the 2 mill range – significantly less than what Big Beach was hoping for.
Written by Megan Holley, Christine Jeffs‘ once again taps into darker material (she sent Paltrow over the edge in Sylvia) in a character piece
about Rose Lorkowski, tired and frustrated by her job cleaning other people’s
homes, anxious to earn more money to send her eight year-old son Oscar to
private school, Rose goes into business with her unreliable sister Norah doing
biohazard removal and crime scene clean up. In the process of their new
business, the sisters come to terms with the messiness of their own lives and
begin to move beyond it.
Apparently, Overture is considering a title change and don’t know whether to place this as 4th quarter fair or as part of their 2009 slate.