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Movies cheaper to buy at Toronto film festival this year
2006-09-16
Despite fierce bidding for several films screened at the Toronto film festival this year, the biggest distribution deal failed to top last year's record 5.9 million US dollars. The Weinstein Company led the pack, paying 3.5 million US dollars for Jonathan Levine's horror "All the Boys Love Mandy Lane" and 2.5 million US dollars for "Vince Vaughn's Wild West Comedy Show" about stand-up comics. "They swooped in right when the screening (of Mandy Lane) ended at midnight Saturday," said an insider. The film introduces Amber Heard as the shy, but beautiful loner title character drowning in a sea of ostentation and insecurity at a typical high-school, wooed by boys in a deadly competition for her attention. Vince Vaughn's road show borrows its name and concept from 19th century showman Buffalo Bill, who toured the United States with a cast of mythical Western talent. The film follows host Vaughn and his band of struggling comics Ahmed Ahmed, John Caparulo, Bret Ernst, Sebastian Mansicalco and Justin Long on 30 gigs from Los Angeles to Chicago in August 2005. Harvey Weinstein's company had also acquired Barbara Kopple and Cecilia Peck's documentary "Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing" before the festival. It got a standing ovation at its world premiere here. The film recounts the Texas trio's fall from stardom to near oblivion after lead singer Natalie Maines angered conservative American country music fans by bashing US President George W. Bush, and their struggle to climb back onto the music charts with the release of their latest album. Bush-bashing was big business at the festival this year. Toronto's Maple Pictures, which was spun off from Lions Gate Entertainment last year, picked up the Canadian distribution rights to "Death of a President" about his unreal assassination, while Newmarket Films, which released Mel Gibson's equally controversial "The Passion of the Christ" in 2004, paid one million US dollars for its US and European rights. Both are planning a November release. British director Gabriel Range's cautionary tale told in documentary style about an October 2007 assassination of Bush in Chicago amid Iraq war protests mixes archival footage with narrative elements to explore the loss of civil liberties, the ramifications of war and the manipulation of mass media. It sparked controversy in the United States about the US president's world view, fed mostly by Bush's detractors, and others who deemed it inappropriate to bespeak the death of a living person, especially a US president. However, Toronto audiences said it offered few new ideas. Lions Gate, which bought "Crash" at the festival two years ago, picked up American distribution rights to first-time Canadian director Sarah Polley's "Away From Her," based on an Alice Munro story, for 750,000 US dollars. And, Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM) purchased the North American rights to acclaimed director Werner Herzog's "Rescue Dawn" that recounts the true story of American fighter pilot Dieter Dengler's escape from a Vietnam prison camp. TVA Films and Lions Gate were already onboard as Canadian and US distributors, respectively, before the production even started for Canadian spoof "Fido" about a boy and his pet zombie, played by Scottish comedian Billy Connolly. But the film, which also stars Carrie-Anne Moss ("The Matrix" and "Chocolat") as a housewife and doting mother, picked up several more worldwide distributors at the festival. Last year, director Jason Reitman's "Thank You For Not Smoking" about America's big tobacco industry was ecstatic when he broke the festival sales record at 5.5 million US dollars. But, the record was beaten the next day by Bart Freundlich's "Trust the Man" starring David Duchovny and Julianne Moore with a deal worth 5.9 million US dollars.
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