By David Poland poland@moviecitynews.com

Sundance Sales and the Oscar Nomination Effect

Posted Thursday, January 22nd, 2009 - Comments Off on Sundance Sales and the Oscar Nomination Effect
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By Gregg Goldstein
Last year’s Oscar nomination day at Sundance may have been the worst one ever.
Indie execs were trying to recover from a Fall season filled with political and Iraq war film bombs, most of which didn’t score nominations – so much for noble aspirations. A series of big-star Sundance entries that opening weekend failed to deliver artistically or show commercial potential. Then news came of Heath Ledger’s death, severely dampening enthusiasm at Focus and many other studios.
Today was a much different story. Sony Pictures Classics, which picked up the $500,000 Frozen River for just under $1 million the night before those nominations, just scored best actress (Melissa Leo) and best original screenplay (Courtney Hunt) nominations from the film, its first pickup ever during the fest. It went on to win the Dramatic Grand Jury Prize that weekend and a $2.3 million at the boxoffice – the DVD hits Feb. 10.
Despite mixed reactions to last year’s opening night film, the Focus entry In Bruges, the film scored a best original screenplay nomination for Martin McDonagh. Three post-fest Sundance premiere doc buys, Man on Wire (Magnolia), Trouble the Water (Zeitgeist) and The Betrayal (Cinema Guild) earned three of five best documentary nominations.
How will all this good news affect the available film remainders at Sundance? It’s been a remarkably slow sales year for acclaimed docs, so that could change. Last year’s first weekend started with What Just Happened. . . and Sunshine Cleaning as frontrunners, then ended with docs Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired and American Teen as the big buzz titles, but neither lit a fire in theaters – one contributing factor.
If best acting nominations for no-name vets like Richard Jenkins (Overture’s 2007 Toronto buy The Visitor) and Leo can be had for $1 million-range purchases, it could cause execs to take a second look at talent in each title with a fine-toothed comb. SPC’s $3 million pickup of An Education came with an eye towards making breakout star Carey Mulligan next year’s Leo.
But perhaps the biggest boost from today may be to the Weinstein Co., which managed to score a best picture, best director (Stephen Daldry) and best actress (Kate Winslet – not supporting, thank you) noms for The Reader – a shocker given the film’s mixed reviews and Scott Rudin’s decision to pull his name off the film to protest TWC rushing it to the finish line. Suddenly Harvey’s first impression isn’t that of a guy who may be having money problems, or the one who made several big Sundance buys he dumped (Grace Is Gone, Dedication) or bought at other fests & let go elsewhere (Penelope, All the Boys Love Mandy Lane, the Vince Vaughn comedy doc). He’s the guy who made the Academy forget about all of the above.
As one of several execs interested in acquiring Push (in a joint deal with, rumor has it, BET), his street cred has risen in producers’ eyes. Though they’re still likely to insist that their checks clear quickly.
The nominations may also put some wind into the sails of a few last-minute deals for titles viewed as awards-worthy (SPC, it should be noted, picked up The Wackness just hours before its Sundance narrative audience award win).
But don’t expect any bidding wars – the pressure for those is off, and it’s still a buyers market. Late Wednesday night, I asked a seller behind several big titles if it matters whether a film sells now or, say, next week. “Not really,” he said.

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Posted in 10 Days of Sundance, Festivals | Comments Off on Sundance Sales and the Oscar Nomination Effect

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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.

And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.

There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.

I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher

“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.

~ David Simon