Buyers getting Sundance fever
Steve Coogan loves drugs almost as much as Layne Staley
Bust out the flannel and Doc Martens, put on some Spin Doctors and shoot up some heroin, because it’s the friggin 1990’s all over again! And I don’t just mean because a promising young star took a trip on the good ship Ambien up the ol’ River Pheonix, no… I mean because Sundance buyers are throwing around loot like Pearl Jam’s “Ten” is still only triple platinum. Thanks in no small part to the inexplicable success of director Jason Reitman and celebrity screenwriter El Diablo Coyote’s pro-life-affirming heart-warmer JUNO – and of course the gnawing fear of being without product to put out there should this Writer’s Strike drag on for eternity – indie pick-ups are back in vogue in a big way.
First there was the bidding war over enabler Steve Coogan’s high school comedy HAMLET 2 which resulted in a pick-up for Focus Features to the tune of $10 million Earth dollars on Tuesday.
Then there was Searchlight’s $5 million grab for director Clark Gregg’s adaptation of Chuckles Palahniuk’s 2001 book-exactly-like-Fight-Club, CHOKE.
Overture Films got into the game when they put up $3.5 mil for HENRY POOLE WAS HERE, a “spritual dramady” about a cat breeder and his diabetic uncle (just guessing from the name) which stars the non-suicidal Wilson brother.
And late last night Paramount Vantage (named after a delicious cigarette) dropped $1 million (plus a “significant” P&A commitment ) on the doc AMERICAN TEEN (which was a no-brainer since any doc with the word “American” in the title’s guaranteed to sell at Sundance).
You’ll notice none of the companies above involved the name Weinstein. You just KNOW that bomb’s about to drop.
Somewhere in New York, Edward Burns just kicked over a garbage can.
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db
excellent article mon ami
Jan 23rd, 2008
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