Thompson on Hollywood

TIFF#: Toronto Day Five: Get Low Builds Buzz

With distributor ranks cut to the quick and a dicey domestic market for indie films, sales are slow at this year's TIFF. There are plenty of excellent and not so good films on view, but buyers are hanging back. "It's a buyer's market," says ex WMA agent Cassian Elwes. "They'll figure out which ones they want and wait until the sellers are desperate and then buy them."

By Anne Thompson
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September 14, 2009 9:14 AM
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Overture Buys Brooklyn's Finest; Senator Slate in Flux

Antoine Fuqua's operatic cop drama Brooklyn Finest, starring Richard Gere and Ethan Hawke, debuted at Sundance in January and was instantly acquired by neophyte distrib Senator, whose CEO Marco Weber invested in a new cut of the film, seven minutes longer, which just screened at the Venice Film Festival. (Fuqua isn't happy with that cut, which boasts a new ending, and wants to spend more time in the editing room.) Now Senator is under financial duress and several of its films, including Brooklyn's Finest, are finding new homes.

By Anne Thompson
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September 14, 2009 7:20 AM
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TIFF#: Precious Producers Want Credit

Without Colorado-based producers Sarah Siegel-Magness and her husband Gary Magness, Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire might never have been made.

By Anne Thompson
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September 13, 2009 7:51 AM
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Oscar Talk 2: Bright Star, An Education, The Road, Up in the Air

In Contention's Kris Tapley and I talk 0scars again post-Telluride (Up in the Air, An Education, Bright Star and The Road) and pre-Toronto. And we disagree this time!

By Anne Thompson
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September 12, 2009 10:13 AM
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Toronto Buzz

There are three Torontos. The launch/press/interview side of the festival is in full swing (yes, George Clooney is here). Oscar prospects are being weighed. And buzz is building--or waning--on the hunt for acquisitions titles. Besides button-holing folks around town, Twitter is one way to gauge reaction. Among the titles for sale so far: cool response to opener Creation, Dorian Gray and Love and Other Impossible Pursuits. Early good word on Lu Chuan's City of Life and Death and UK film Cracks.

By Anne Thompson
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September 12, 2009 4:57 AM
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Scherfig, Mulligan, Arnold Talk An Education and Fish Tank

There's a plethora of women directors this fall, from Lone Scherfig (An Education), Andrea Arnold (Fish Tank), Mira Nair (Amelia) and Jane Campion (Bright Star) to Karyn Kusama (Jennifer's Body) and Rebecca Miller (The Private Lives of Pippa Lee) .

By Anne Thompson
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September 12, 2009 3:30 AM
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Toronto Day Two: The Coens Deliver with A Serious Man

Joel and Ethan Coen's Latest, A Serious Man, is a portrait of a period (1967) and place (Minnesota) and milieu (Jewish) that the brothers know very well. They cast it with excellent actors; Richard Kind as pathetic Uncle Arthur and Adam Arkin as a well-heeled lawyer are probably the only recognizable names. The writer-directors start the movie off in a wintry shtetl, evoking the dread spirit the dybbuk hovering over an uneasy marriage. This movie is utterly assured, personal, serious, sad and very funny.

By Anne Thompson
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September 11, 2009 9:51 AM
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Toronto Day One: Creation, The Informant!, Jennifer's Body

The reason why film festivals pick movies like Creation for opening night is that they have all the right credentials: respected producer (Jeremy Thomas) and director (Jon Amiel) and two major stars (Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly) willing to show up for the gala TIFF screenings and party. But Creation was DOA tonight.

By Anne Thompson
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September 11, 2009 1:38 AM
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TIFF: Toronto Gets Started

I'm checked in. Not enough hangers. The air conditioning works. The weather is balmy, humid, not too hot. I will install the new BlackBerry TIFF program app that's similar to the iPhone app at the Seattle Film Fest, and this year they're handing out a transit pass. Cool.