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Sundance: Sony Pictures Classics Acquires ‘The Guard’ With Brendan Gleeson

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Tuesday January 25, 2011 @ 2:03pm PSTTags: 2011 Sundance Film Festival, Brendan Gleeson, Don Cheadle, John Michael McDonagh, Sundance Film Deals, Sundance Film Festival, The Guard
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Sony Pictures Classics has closed a 7-figure deal for U.S. and Latin American distribution rights to The Guard, the Irish action comedy written and directed by John Michael McDonagh. The film premiered last Thursday and multiple distributors have been circling since.

Brendan Gleeson plays a local cop who begrudgingly assists an FBI agent (Don Cheadle) who is chasing the members of an international drug smuggling ring that has taken up residence in the Irish town. McDonagh, the brother of In Bruges writer/director Martin McDonagh (the pic’s executive producer), makes his feature debut. It’s the third deal of the festival for SPC partners Michael Barker and Tom Bernard, but the first one they made on the ground at Park City. They are distributing Morgan Spurlock’s documentary POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Story Ever Sold. And made a sight-unseen preemptive acquisition of the Jeff Nichols-directed drama Take Shelter, the drama that stars Michael Shannon as a small town man who builds a storm cellar in his yard after dreams tell him that an imminent apocalyptic event. Jessica Chastain plays his wife. That drama premiered today at Eccles Theater and it has received glowing reviews.

UTA’s Rena Ronson and David Flynn brokered the deal with Metropolis Film Sales.

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Sundance: Screenings Start Very Sloooow; Buyers Circle ‘The Guard’ With Don Cheadle

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Friday January 21, 2011 @ 8:04pm PSTTags: 2011 Sundance Dealmaking, 2011 Sundance Film Festival, 2011 Sundance Films, John Michael McDonagh, Margin Call, Martha Marcy May Marlene, Movies, Pariah, Sundance Film Festival, Sundance Sceenings, The Guard
Mike Fleming

On the second day of Sundance, buyers were beginning to get antsy. The first screenings generated moderate interest, but buyers haven’t loved anything and only liked a few films. So far, the consensus is that the unveiled crop of films can’t be released on a high screen count. Deals will be … Read More »

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SUNDANCE OPENING DAY: Robert Redford Has “Not Thought About Retirement”

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Thursday January 20, 2011 @ 6:40pm PSTTags: 2011 Sundance Film Festival, 2011 Sundance Films, Harvey Weinstein, John Cooper, Movies, Pariah, Project Nim, Robert Redford, Silent House, Sing Your Song, Sundance Film Festival, Sundance Institute, Sundance Sceenings, The Guard

SUNDANCE OVERVIEW From Mike Fleming: Is Dealmaking Avalanche In The Forecast? Handicapping The High Priority Acquisitions

(Freelancer Sharon Swart is helping Deadline’s Sundance coverage.)

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