Unsold Films From the 2009 Cannes Film Festival Lot

Last year Wild Bunch had problems finding a buyer at their price (which was probably anywhere close from 8 to 12 million for Che (obviously parts I and II packaged together), Synecdoche, New York ending up going to Sony Pictures Classics at perhaps a rebate and James Gray’s Two Lovers ended up going back into Magnolia Film’s starting rotation (2929 Productions were looking for a sale). While there are no American casualties this year, there are some prestige titles and some definite art-house pictures patiently waiting for a home. Here is a grouping of films that at some point should find a buyer but for reason X, Y and Z still haven’t.   

So much ink has been spilt on the fate of Terry Gilliam‘s fantasy film since the moment that Heath Ledger passed away. Despite the trio of actors who came on board to save the adventure film, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is not the sort of pic that will appeal to mainstream audiences. Actually in terms of quality it is closer to The Brothers Grimm than Brazil. Who ever does buy this for the U.S. will get it at a rebate and will have to unfortunately spin this as Heath’s last perf to do more than break even.

Second place winner in Cannes Un Certain Regard section, the FIPRESCI award and local recent winner at the Transylvania International Film Festival and sold in countries such as: Greece, France, Argentina, Switzerland, Benelux, ex-Yugoslavia, Brazil, Columbia, and Sweden — Corneliu Porumboiu’s Police, Adjective is an extremely difficult sell. Hopefully Porumboiu can build on the fact that his last film 12:08 East of Bucharest was released in theaters (by the now defunct Tartan). This is an art-house film for a very select crowd.

Alejandro Amenabar‘s Agora got beat up by critics but my housemates Alex from Firstshowing.net and Yama Rahimi, our West Coast reporter both place this at among the top of their Cannes 2009 lists. So what gives? The film is a costly one and I imagine the film’s sellers are looking at that the U.S. market as with a high 7 figure price tag. Personally, I still think a major studio will claim this one even though the Cannes premiere was over a month ago. The longer we wait – the more prestige it may lose.

A film that I missed but had received good buzz all around is Bong Joon-Ho’s Mother. This is a subtitled offering and doesn’t have monsters like The Host, but its got a great lead performance from what I heard. I wouldn’t be surprised if Magnolia continues their relationship with the Korean filmmaker.

I believe Isabelle Coixet‘s Map of the Sounds of Tokyo ended up getting panned – but the film with subtitles should have got picked up by now by someone like an IFC or SPC. With titillation in the form of nudity and some hot sex, and an unlikely on screen couple, this should have already been slotted for some kind of release by now.

Speaking of nudity and graphic sex – you can pretty much count out just about every film distributor when it comes to Gaspar Noe‘s Enter the Void. This doesn’t mean that someone won’t come out of the woods to buy the film – it could be Lions Gate Films from out of the blue? Perhaps a trim job and finalized special effects might help its final outcome.