Now, it seems like that several movies get rapturous responses in 2005 Sundance Film Festival :
"Hustle & Flow" , "Inside Deep Throat", "Murderball", "The Matador," "Brick" "Mad Hot Ballroom".
http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout ... egoryid=13
Posted: Sat., Jan. 22, 2005, 6:22pm PT

Wheelin' and dealin' in Park City

Par looks at Singleton's 'Flow,' distribs might play 'Murderball'

By IAN MOHR, CATHY DUNKLEY


PARK CITY -- High-level dealmaking and schmoozing is in full force at fest this year.
Agency heads and studio power players, including HBO's Chris Albrecht, Universal vice chairman Scott Stuber, Endeavor's Arie Emanuel, producer Brian Grazer and actors Pierce Brosnan, Tobey Maguire and Kevin Costner are among those powering up Main Street in high-end black SUVS and emerging to mingle with execs, filmmakers, talent and festgoers at screenings and parties.

Newly installed Paramount chief Brad Grey, who is not in Park City, has also been in talks over the weekend with filmmaker John Singleton to try and make a deal for his pic "Hustle & Flow," which screens Saturday at the fest. Viacom co-president and COO Tom Freston is expected to fly into the fest tonight to try and clinch a deal with UTA reps for Singleton's pic.

Pic, financed and produced by John Singleton was written and directed by Craig Brewer. It's the story of a pimp (Terrence Howard) who suffers a midlife crisis and yearns to become a respected rapper. UTA reps the film.

Meanwhile, Main Street is jammed as festgoers try -- and fail -- to get into parties. Clout meant nothing in the face of a headset-wearing Sundance volunteer; even Tobey Maguire and his entourage were turned away from a sold-out screening.

"Inside Deep Throat," Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato's documentary about the cultural impact of "Deep Throat," has been the talking point of the fest so far, with a rapturous response for its filmmakers at its screenings this weekend.

Also wowing audiences is "Murderball," the ThinkFilm doc chronicling the lives of young male quadriplegic athletes who play murderball (aka quad rugby). Pic received standing ovations at screenings over the weekend and several distributors, including MTV Films, has approached ThinkFilm to partner up to co-distribute pic.

Going into the weekend, the temperature in Park City rose as Main Street was overcrowded with cars and people spilling over into traffic as festgoers anticipated a night of frenetic party hopping.

Meanwhile, the fest also gained heat as a number of high-profile pics that screened Friday and Saturday were already in hot pursuit by buyers.

Though no deals had closed, acquisitions execs were circling "The Matador," "Brick" and the Slamdance title "Mad Hot Ballroom."

"Matador," starring Pierce Brosnan, Greg Kinnear and Hope Davis, gained keen interest after the contempo hit man pic first screened Friday. Sources said that the film, sold domestically by CAA, had a number of distribs taking a closer look, including Lions Gate Films, Warner Independent Pictures and TriStar Pictures.

Modern-day film noir "Brick," from tyro helmer Rian Johnson and starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Lukas Haas, seemed close to a deal this weekend. Lions Gate and Focus Features among others were circling "Brick" on Saturday being repped at fest by John Sloss' Cinetic Media.

Likewise, Slamdance opener "Mad Hot Ballroom" has attracted keen interest from Lions Gate, which came away with the lucrative shark tale "Open Water" a year ago. A ballroom dance doc, "Mad Hot" screened again in Salt Lake City Saturday. Among the distribs clamoring to see the film are Fox Searchlight, New Line, Focus Features, Roadside Attractions, Samuel Goldwyn Films and Miramax, but rep John Sloss at Cinetic Media has insisted that they wait until Tuesday to see the pic in Park City, rather than arrange a private screening.

Slamdance is generally considered an also-ran for fest fare, which is why so many of the indie decision makers have been caught by surprise. Pic's programming is an early coup for Slamdance's new fest director Kathleen McInnis, formerly of the Seattle Fest, who was looking for pics to raise Slamdance's profile as an acquisitions hotbed.

Rumors also blew around Main Street Saturday morning that Lions Gate had eaten up pic "Hard Candy" before its premiere here Sunday, but the talk proved to be untrue. Helmer David Slade's pic, being repped by William Morris Independent, follows the relationship between a teen girl and a man she meets on the Internet.

Also high on the radar is Paul Provenza and Penn Jillette's behind the scenes doc about comedians, "The Aristocrats." Both pics bowed Saturday night.

Paramount/MTV paid $9 million to acquire "Hustle & Flow"
(the highest price at Sundance since "Happy, Texas" )

http://www.moviecitynews.com/festivals/ ... 50123.html

3 deals today
http://www.screendaily.com/story.asp?storyid=20672
Paramount, MTV, Miramax lead buying fever at Sundance


Jeremy Kay in Park City 24 January 2005



An initially restrained Sundance 2005 finally kicked into life yesterday (23) with a flurry of deals closed, led by Paramount Pictures and MTV Films' $16m three-picture deal with producer John Singleton that includes the acquisition of Craig Brewster's early festival favourite and American Dramatic Competition entry Hustle & Flow.

Meanwhile Miramax was believed to be in final negotiations with CAA last night for multiple territory rights to Richard Shepard's popular Premieres entry The Matador, starring Pierce Brosnan in outrageous form as a world-weary assassin.

The approximately $8m deal is expected to be confirmed today and flies in the face of any notion that Miramax's uncertain future has curtailed its acquisitive ambitions.

In the other domestic deal of the day, Warner Independent Pictures and National Geographic Feature Films teamed up to acquire US and UK rights to Luc Jacquet's The Emperor's Journey (La Marche de L'Empereur), which plays in the Special Screenings strand.

Meanwhile Andrew Herwitz's The Film Sales Company has taken on all English speaking sales for World Dramatic Competition hopeful Live-In Maid and picked up rights excluding US pay cable to American Documentary competitor After Innocence.

At time of writing buyers were circling a number of hot pictures including: Rian Johnson's noirish debut and American Dramatic Competition entry Brick, which is represented by Cinetic Media; Dan Klores and Ron Berger's American Documentary Competition entry Ring Of Fire: The Emile Griffith Story, which has attracted the attention of USA Network, among others; and Tim Kirkman's bittersweet family drama Loggerheads, which is also represented by The Film Sales Company and plays in American Dramatic Competition.

Paramount Pictures and MTV Films, its sister company at Viacom, paid $9m for Hustle & Flow, an energising account of an angst-ridden pimp who tries to achieve his dream of becoming a rapper. Terrence Howard, Anthony Anderson and rapper Ludacris star, among others.

Hustle & Flow is the first of three pictures that Singleton and producing partner Stephanie Allain will deliver to the Viacom stable, which paid $3.5m for each of two further, as yet unannounced, projects, although they are not guaranteed theatrical distribution in the deal.

Paramount and MTV Films picked up worldwide rights in all cases. Paramount Classics will likely distribute Hustle & Flow with MTV Films as it did on Better Luck Tomorrow.

Paramount Classics co-presidents David Dinerstein and Ruth Vitale and David Gale of MTV Films negotiated the deal with UTA's Jeremy Barber, Jeremy Zimmer and Rich Klubeck.

Paramount moved in immediately after Saturday night's festival screening. "This is part of the agenda that Tom [Freston, Viacom co-president and co-chief operating officer] has been speaking about over the past six months and Brad [Grey, incoming Paramount Pictures chairman] feels the same way," Viacom motion picture group vice chairman and Paramount chief executive officer Rob Friedman told Screendaily.

"One of the type of films we're interested in is lower-cost genre and music-driven movies that we can brand across Viacom's sister companies."

"This is a great follow-up to Napoleon Dynamite, which we released with Fox Searchlight last summer and has gone on to gross $45m at the domestic box office," added MTV Films senior vice president of communications Janet Hall.

"It's great that we were able to make the picture and great that people will be able to see it," Singleton said. "The whole three-picture deal is really cool."

Singleton is currently shooting Four Brothers for Paramount in Canada, which is not part of yesterday's deal. Mark Wahlberg and Andre 3000 star in the story of brothers who investigate the supposed murder of their mother. Lorenzo di Bonaventura is serving as producer.

Warner Independent Pictures (WiP) and National Geographic's deal for The Emperor's Journey was for approximately $1m. WiP's Andrew Kramer negotiated the deal with Carole Baraton of The Wild Bunch and a domestic release is scheduled for the summer. Canadian rights are still available.

Jacquet's 16mm French production charts the journey by a colony of penguins to their traditional breeding ground. The crew endured 13 months of Antarctic winter without access to sea or air transportation to get the story.

Live-In Maid, which The Film Sales Company has picked up for English-speaking territories, centres on the bittersweet relationship between two women and was directed by Tim Parsa. Norma Aleandro and Norma Argentina star.

The company will also represent the wrongful imprisonment documentary After Innocence, which receives its premieres on Jan 24. Showtime has US pay cable rights but all other rights are available.

Wow...sounds like crap actually. I hope there's more to it? Some critique of these two life styles, along with basketball, being the restricted ways in which most urban poor envision mobility in. Or something?



Can't wait...this one's been a long time in coming. You know how far back there was speculation. I think if you couple this film with Almodovar (last year's Cannes winner) NC17 doesn't look like a box office killer afterall.



Uh? Do you know anything more about this movie. I don't care to pass an inititial response yet because I've really never heard of it. This write-up sounds kind of bad, but its one sentence in the paper, so we'll see. Depends on if its a creative doc or if it just resorts to sentimentalism.



A couple stuck in a balloon this time with killer albatrosses?



Heh! Sundance seems to have discovered sexual content.


On another note: http://www.landmarktheatres.com/
For all who aren't familiar, Landmark theatres is the associated chain of theatres that were started by Redford to assist in discemination of Sundance participants, so many of these movies will cilculate through these particular theatres. Check out the site and see if there is one near you. There are at least 25 of them I believe.

More news:

1. Lions Gate Films paid slightly less than $1 million to purchase worldwide rights to "Rize", David LaChapelle's dance documentary about the krump craze in South Central Los Angeles.

2. Lions Gate Films purchased worldwide rights(outside United Kingdom, Australia and Spain) of Angry teen revenge flick "Hard Candy". Lions Gate would release this movie with NC-17.

3. Focus Features paid about $1 million to acquire North American rights of "On a Clear Day" ,a UK film from director Gaby Dellal and starring Peter Mullan , Brenda Blethyn.

4. Paramount Classics/Nickelodeon Movies paid around $2 million for worldwide rights outside Australia and New Zealand to "Mad Hot Ballroom."

5. Warner Independent Pictures paid in the region of $3 million to acquire North American rights to "Strangers With Candy", whuch is based on the cult Comedy Central TV show.

6. Samuel Goldwyn Films and Roadside Attractions bought North American rights to dark comedy "Pretty Persuasion," which stars Evan Rachel Wood, Selma Blair and Ron Livingston. Before that, Samuel Goldwyn Films and Roadside Attractions had co-distributed two movie in US: "Super Size me" and "What the #$*! Do We Know?! ".

I want to see "Brothers".

IFC Films and Focus Features will co-distribute this movie in US.

http://www.variety.com/?layout=sundance ... =1854&cs=1

'Blue' tops Sundance

By VARIETY STAFF, Sat., Jan. 29, 2005, 8:06pm PT




Check back in one hour for full analysis
Ira Sachs' "Forty Shades of Blue" takes the top dramatic prize at this year's Sundance Film Festival.

SUNDANCE 2005 COMPETITION WINNERS

AMERICAN DRAMATIC GRAND JURY PRIZE FOR DRAMATIC FILM
"Forty Shades of Blue" Ira Sachs

AMERICAN DOCUMENTARY GRAND JURY PRIZE
"Why We Fight" Eugene Jarecki

WORLD CINEMA DRAMATIC JURY PRIZE
"The Hero" (Angola-Portugal-France) Zeze Gamboa

WORLD CINEMA DOCUMENTARY GRAND JURY PRIZE
"Shape of the Moon" (Netherlands) Leonard Retel Helmrich

AMERICAN DRAMATIC AUDIENCE AWARD
"Hustle & Flow" Craig Brewer

AMERICAN DOC AUDIENCE AWARD
"Murderball" Henry-Alex Rubin and Dana Adam Shapiro

WORLD CINEMA DRAMATIC AUDIENCE AWARD
"Brothers" (Denmark) Susanne Bier

WORLD CINEMA DOCUMENTARY AUDIENCE AWARD
"Shake Hands With the Devil: The Journey of Romeo Dallaire" (Canada) Peter Raymont

AMERICAN DIRECTING DRAMATIC AWARD
Noah Baumbach, "The Squid and the Whale"

AMERICAN DOCUMENTARY DIRECTING AWARD
Jeff Feuerzeig, "The Devil and Daniel Johnston"

AMERICAN EXCELLENCE IN CINEMATORAPHY AWARD
Dramatic competition: Amelia Vincent, "Hustle & Flow"
Documentary: Gary Griffin, "The Education of Shelby Knox"

WALDO SALT SCREENWRITING AWARD
Noah Baumbach, "The Squid and the Whale"

AMERICAN DRAMATIC SPECIAL JURY PRIZE FOR ACTING
Amy Adams, "Junebug"
Lou Pucci, "Thumbsucker"

SPECIAL JURY PRIZES FOR ORIGINALITY OF VISION
Miranda July wrote, directed and acted "Me and You and Everyone We Know"
Rian Johnson "Brick"

AMERICAN DOCUMENTARY JURY SPECIAL PRIZE FOR EDITING
"Murderball" Geoffrey Richman and Conor O'Neill

SPECIAL JURY PRIZE DOCUMENTARY
"After Innocence" Jessica Sanders

WORLD CINEMA DOCUMENTARY JURY SPECIAL JURY PRIZES
"The Liberace of Baghdad" (U.K.) Sean McAllister
"Wall" (France-Israel) Simone Bitton

WORLD CINEMA DRAMATIC SPECIAL JURY PRIZE
"Live-In Maid"(Argentina-Spain) Jorge Gaggero