You are viewing the archive: “TIFF Wrap-Up”

TOLDJA! DreamWorks Makes Multi-Year Offshore Output Deal With eOne

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Sunday September 16, 2012 @ 11:32pm PDTTags: Big Deals Film, DreamWorks, eOne, Stacey Snider, Steven Spielberg, TIFF Wrap-Up, Toronto Film Festival
Mike Fleming

DreamWorks-eOneUPDATE, 11:32 PM PT: eOne has confirmed its new output deal with DreamWorks. Press release follows below.

PREVIOUS…BREAKING…4:52 PM PT: I’m told that DreamWorks will shortly be announcing that it has made a four-year output agreement with eOne, with that company releasing DreamWorks product in the UK and Benelux. The arrangement begins with Starbuck, which stars Vince Vaughn and shoots in October. This will be the first of several deals after DreamWorks aligned with Mister Smith in an effort to be more hands on in arranging distribution in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Disney distributes in North America, Latin America, Asia, Russia and Australia. DreamWorks partner Stacey Snider was at the Toronto Film Festival, and I believe one of her missions was to meet potential distribution partners. This deal was put in place by Mister Smith’s David Garrett and DreamWorks COO Jeff Small.

Now, Reliance fully finances all of DreamWorks films, but this offshore effort will result in advances on films. While DreamWorks reupped its financing deal with Reliance that would cover three to five movies each year, getting offshore advances should allow DreamWorks the cash flow to make more films if Snider and partner Steven Spielberg choose to do so. It also gives them a more hands-on relationship in the foreign releases of their films, which can only help performance. Upcoming DreamWorks films include the Steven Spielberg-directed Robopocalypse with Chris Hemsworth starring (that isn’t part of this arrangement because the film’s foreign is being handled by Fox International) and an adaptation of the vidgame Need For Speed, among others. READ MORE »

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Toronto, Venice, Telluride Fest Wrap-Up: ‘Silver Linings’, ‘Argo’, ‘The Master’ Are Clearly Early Best Picture Contenders

By PETE HAMMOND | Sunday September 16, 2012 @ 4:30pm PDTTags: Argo, Silver Linings Playbook, Telluride Film Festival, The Master, The Weinstein Company, TIFF Wrap-Up, Toronto, Toronto Film Festival, Venice Film Festival
Pete Hammond

With today’s wrap of the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival, the Fall festival trifecta of Venice, Telluride and Toronto officially kicked off the six-month movie awards season. What does it say, if anything, about where the race for Oscar is at this … Read More »

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Toronto: TOLDJA! Anchor Bay Seals U.S. Rights On Rob Zombie’s ‘Lords Of Salem

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Sunday September 16, 2012 @ 12:34pm PDTTags: Anchor Bay Films, Big Deals Film, Rob Zombie, The Lords Of Salem, TIFF Wrap-Up, Toronto Film Festival
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: As the Toronto Film Festival draws to a close, a deal that has been in the works nearly a week has finally been closed. Anchor Bay Films acquired U.S. distribution rights to Rob Zombie’s The Lords of Salem, which debuted to a raucous crowd last Monday in the fest’s Midnight Madness section. The deal was worth in the $2 million minimum guarantee range, putting it in line with the deals that Dimension made for the Eli Roth-produced genre films Aftershock (which premiered at the fest) and Clown. Anchor Bay was the frontrunner all along, even though Image and Millennium Entertainment bid. After that, several larger distributors were in the mix, but Anchor Bay finally closed. Read More »

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Toronto: Francois Ozon’s ‘In The House’ Takes Critics Prize

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Sunday September 16, 2012 @ 12:01pm PDTTags: Antiviral, Laurence Anyways, TIFF Wrap-Up, Toronto Film Festival

TORONTO – The 37th Toronto International Film Festival announced its award recipients today at a reception at the Intercontinental Hotel Toronto.

THE PRIZES OF THE INTERNATIONAL CRITICS (FIPRESCI PRIZES)
The Festival welcomed an international FIPRESCI jury for the 21st consecutive year . The jury members consist of jury president Peter Keough (United States), Jon Asp (Sweden), Ashok Rane (India), Louis-Paul Rioux (Canada), Juan Manuel Dominguez (Argentina) and Brian McKechnie (Canada). The Prize of the International Critics (FIPRESCI Prize) for Special Presentations is awarded to Francois Ozon’s Dans la maison
(In the House). The jury remarked: “For achieving an exquisitely crafted entertainment that blurs the distinction between the storyteller and the story told, and that assuages with playful complexity the tragedies of life with the consolations of art, the FIPRESCI award for Special Presentations goes to Francois Ozon’s In the House.”

Prize of the International Critics (FIPRESCI) for the Discovery programme is awarded to Mikael Marcimain’s Call Girl. The jury remarked: “With an intense sense of cinema reminiscent of the American thrillers of the 1970s, Mikael Marcimain’s debut feature achieves a portrait of an obscure world involving women’s rights and political corruption. Marcimain deals with his sensitive subject with immense ease and cr aftsmanship. Because of these accomplishments the FIPRESCI Award for Best Film in the Discovery programme goes to Mikael Marcimain’s Call Girl.”

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Toronto: ‘Silver Linings’, ‘Seven Psychopaths’ Win People’s Choice Awards

By PETE HAMMOND | Sunday September 16, 2012 @ 10:08am PDTTags: Silver Linings Playbook, TIFF Wrap-Up, Toronto
Pete Hammond

David O. Russell’s Silver Linings Playbook has been named the big winner of the BlackBerry People’s Choice Award at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival. Fest Artistic Director Cameron Bailey leaked the news via Twitter as the ceremony was taking place. The critically acclaimed comedy which stars Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence and Robert De Niro won unanimous praise across the board and is not a surprising choice. It’s a real crowd-pleaser and follows in the footsteps of recent TIFF audience award winners like Slumdog Millionaire and The King’s Speech which both also went on to win Oscars for Best Picture. American Beauty also took the People’s Choice Award and went on to win Best Picture at the Oscars over a decade ago. However last year’s TIFF winner, the Lebanese Where Do We Go Now didn’t even manage to get a Foreign-Language Film Oscar nod and quickly disappeared from theatres when Sony Pictures Classics released it in the U.S. It surprisingly won the TIFF honor over eventual Best Picture Oscar winner The Artist. Still this should be a big boost in further establishing  the Weinstein Company’s November 21st release as a major awards contender. Additionally, Seven Psychopaths took the Audience Award for movies that screened for the festival’s Midnight Madness sidebar. TIFF doesn’t offer up a major juried list of award winners like Cannes or Venice so the People’s Choice Award is the best barometer of what really scored at the fest.

From the press release:
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Toronto: IFC Close On Noah Baumbach’s ‘Frances Ha’ In Second Deal Of The Day

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Thursday September 13, 2012 @ 12:19pm PDTTags: Frances Ha, IFC Films, Mira Nair, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, TIFF Wrap-Up, Toronto Film Festival
Mike Fleming

UPDATE, 12:19 PM: This is the time of a big movie festival when IFC starts taking off the table the titles that didn’t turn into big theatrical release auctions. The company made a big play Tuesday for the Neil Jordan-directed vampire tale Byzantium, and now the distributor is this close to closing a deal on the Noah Baumbach-directed black-and-white film Frances Ha. We’ll post when it’s final.

EARLIER: 11:19 AM:

TORONTO, CANADA (September 13, 2012) – IFC Films announced today from the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival that the company is acquiring all North American rights to director Mira Nair’s THE RELUCTANT FUNDAMENTALIST starring Liev Schreiber, Kate Hudson, Kiefer Sutherland, and Riz Ahmed in the title roles.

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Toronto: Weinstein Co Pushes Brad Pitt Pic ‘Killing Them Softly’ Back Into Oscar Race

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Tuesday September 11, 2012 @ 6:41pm PDTTags: Brad Pitt, Harvey Weinstein, Killing Them Softly, TIFF Wrap-Up, Toronto Film Festival
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Taking advantage of a sliver of daylight in the Oscar season release corridor, The Weinstein Company has moved from an October 19 to a November 30 release on Killing Them Softly, the Andrew Dominik-directed crime drama that … Read More »

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Toronto: IFC Sinking Teeth Into Neil Jordan Vampire Tale ‘Byzantium’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Tuesday September 11, 2012 @ 12:20pm PDTTags: Byzantium, IFC, Neil Jordan, TIFF Wrap-Up, Toronto Film Festival
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: In the second seven-figure deal so far today at the Toronto Film Festival, IFC is acquiring U.S. rights to Byzantium, the vampire film by Neil Jordan that has festgoers feeling the filmmaker has returned to the terrain of Interview With The Vampire. I’m told that the deal coming together is several million dollars in minimum guarantee and marketing commitment. While IFC has been heavy into multiplatform, this film has designs on a theatrical release broadening out to several hundred screens.

Related: Toronto: Lionsgate & Roadside Near Consummation On ‘Thanks For Sharing’

Scripted by Moira Buffini, Byzantium stars Gemma Arterton, Caleb Landry Jones, Daniel Mays, Jonny Lee Miller, Sam Riley and Saoirse Ronan. It is produced by Stephen Woolley and Elizabeth Karlsen. The story focuses on two vampires who are on the run from the past and who are hiding a terrible secret. Read More »

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Toronto: Lionsgate & Roadside Near Consummation On Sex Addict Dramedy ‘Thanks For Sharing’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Tuesday September 11, 2012 @ 10:15am PDTTags: Lionsgate, Roadside Attractions, TIFF Wrap-Up, Toronto Film Festival
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: In what is shaping up as their second big Toronto Film Festival deal in the last 12 hours, Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions have teamed to acquire the Stuart Blumberg-directed Thanks For Sharing. I’m hearing the deal is nearly done for an over $2 million minimum guarantee for U.S. rights with a commitment for a theatrical release and not a day-and-date VOD plan. The film stars Mark Ruffalo, Tim Robbins, Josh Gad and Gwyneth Paltrow, and it made its debut Saturday night at the Ryerson.

This follows last night’s Lionsgate-Roadside deal for the Kristen Wiig-Annette Bening comedy Imogene. Blumberg, who scripted this and also wrote the indie smash The Kids Are All Right, here focuses on three recovering sex addicts who, despite a history of promiscuity and raucous romps, struggle to maintain meaningful relationships among lingering temptations as they go through a 12-step rehab program. It’s Blumberg’s directing debut. Read More »

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Toronto: Radius-TWC, Participant And History Team For Errol Morris’ Donald Rumsfeld Doc ‘The Unknown Known’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Monday September 10, 2012 @ 3:37pm PDTTags: Big Deals Film, Participant Media, Radius-TWC, TIFF Wrap-Up, Toronto Film Festival
Mike Fleming

BREAKING… The Errol Morris-directed The Unknown Known: The Life And Times Of Donald Rumsfeld has been a hot topic ever since promo material for the controversial feature documentary was shown this year at Cannes. Now History Films, … Read More »

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Toronto: The Deals Are Slow, But This Festival Is A Rocking Good Time

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Monday September 10, 2012 @ 7:14am PDTTags: Argo, The Impossible, The Master, TIFF Wrap-Up, Toronto Film Festival
Mike Fleming

Last night, as I was talking with director Juan Antonio Bayona and producer Ghislain Barrois at a Soho House afterparty, they asked me how the Toronto Film Festival crowd reacted at the end of their tsunami survival tale The Impossible. I had to be honest: Once a picture of the actual family that survived the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami that killed 230,000 people was shown onscreen (the parents are played by Ewan McGregor and Naomi Watts) and then the actual Belon family stood up to embrace Bayona, the crowd rushed to their feet for a standing ovation so fast and it lasted so long it was hard to tell if they were rooting for the harrowing film, the family that survived it, or both.

That’s what makes Toronto so great. There are so many surprises and this one reminded me of the way I felt when I attended the 127 Hours premiere, a movie that blew me away even though I didn’t really want to see it. And then hiker Aron Ralston took the stage with Danny Boyle and James Franco to explain how they pulled it off. Last night, Enrique Belon told me that he, his wife Maria and sons Lucas, Tomas and Simon actually enjoyed watching the film, though they admit it helped having watched production and an earlier screening to prepare themselves to relive a nightmare. And no, they don’t relive the nightmare in dreams each night, at least not anymore.

That is why, even though I come here to chronicle the dealmaking, I have never had a bad experience at Toronto — not even that year when the only film that sold here was Tom Ford’s A Single Man. Even though acquisition activity has been slow so far, Toronto has been nothing but fun. Festivals like Sundance and Cannes I mostly spend in a hotel room dogging deal stories. So far, I’ve been able to attend the premieres of three films to beat in the Oscar race: Ben Affleck’s Argo, David O Russell’s The Silver Linings Playbook (Affleck and Russell should hold a master class on how to lighten the mood on serious subjects like hostage-taking and mental illness with the perfect mix of cracklingly good and funny dialogue that doesn’t undermine the sober subject matter), and Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master. Read More »

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Toronto: Robert Redford & Dustin Hoffman Show Off Directorial Talents 36 Years Later

By PETE HAMMOND | Monday September 10, 2012 @ 1:04am PDTTags: Dustin Hoffman, Quartet, Robert Redford, The Company You Keep, TIFF Wrap-Up, Toronto Film Festival
Pete Hammond

They famously co-starred as Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein in the 1976 classic All The President’s Men. And Sunday at the Toronto International Film Festival they were together again – sort of.  In an odd coincidence, both Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman unveiled their latest directing efforts in back to back North American premieres. At 10 PM in another theatre nearby, Redford with little fanfare and no other cast members present presided over the North American premiere of his new all-star drama The Company You Keep which Sony Pictures Classics will release next year. While Hoffman hosted the world premiere of the senior comedy Quartet and then conducted with the cast a post-screening Q&A filled with laughs and behind-the-scenes intel.

Quartet about a retirement home for opera stars features Maggie Smith, Tom Courtenay, Pauline Collins and Billy Connolly as seniors who refuse to go gently into that good night. They were all in Toronto for the debut at the Elgin Theatre, and the crowd-pleasing film will be released by The Weinstein Company in December in time to qualify for Oscars.  Read More »

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Toronto: Fox Searchlight Brings ‘The Sessions’ To Reignite Awards Talk

By PETE HAMMOND | Sunday September 9, 2012 @ 11:30pm PDTTags: Fox Searchlight, Helen Hunt, Hitchcock, John Hawkes, The Sessions, TIFF Wrap-Up, Toronto, Toronto Film Festival
Pete Hammond

Fox Searchlight brought its Sundance pickup and Oscar hopeful, The Sessions, to the Toronto International Film Festival today to kick-start the film’s October launch. (Now set for October 26 but very possibly moving up a week to the 19th). Last January, the film debuted under the title The Surrogate and immediately sparked early 2012 awards talk, particularly for the performances of John Hawkes and Helen Hunt. It’s a small but surprisingly funny and ultimately quite touching film that drew so many big laughs at today’s Elgin Theatre screening the dialogue was drowned out during some scenes, usually those between Hawkes and William H. Macy. There were three standing ovations for the director and principal stars, a very enthusiastic response to be sure.

Fox Searchlight Co-Presidents Steve Gilula and Nancy Utley were there and said after the Sundance sale no cuts were made to the film and none requested by the MPAA in order to get the ‘R’ rating (for some explicit but tastefully shot sexual content).

Gilula notes that with so many movies competing for attention at TIFF it’s tough for a movie that debuted at Sundance or Cannes. Media, he says, just want to spotlight the newest movies even though this one doesn’t even open until next month. At this point it is the mini-major’s only fall/holiday release, and it’s hoping to build strong word of mouth and awards attention. The studio is still trying to determine whether to push Hunt for lead or supporting. (The Oscar winning star of As Good As It Gets could probably slip comfortably into either slot.) Fox Searchlight also have summer releases Beasts Of The Southern Wild  and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel on their potential awards plate. And there still is the possibility of a last-minute contender coming in December if they decide to rush Hitchcock. Read More »

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Toronto Q&A: Radius-TWC Presidents Tom Quinn And Jason Janego On How Multi-Platform Is Changing The Indie World

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Sunday September 9, 2012 @ 11:25am PDTTags: Bachelorette, Harvey Weinstein, Jason Janego, Radius-TWC, TIFF Wrap-Up, Tom Quinn, Toronto Film Festival
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: This weekend marks exactly one year since former Magnolia execs Tom Quinn and Jason Janego were hired by Harvey and Bob Weinstein to launch Radius-TWC, their first division dedicated to releasing acquisitions in a multi-platform strategy where films premiere first on VOD at a $10 price that drops to $7 when the film reaches theaters. This VOD-centric business is still being honed, and it’s a lightning rod for debate. Theatrical release traditionalists call it a second class way to release films, little more than shuffling the deck to place the ancillary revenue cycle before the theater part that always came first. Exhibitors, concerned that giving screens to films that go VOD first is potentially harmful to their business, are also torn. Stars accustomed to seeing their work on big screens with big P&A commitments are also worried. At the same time, Margin Call and other films show there is a viable business here, particularly for films that don’t justify a big P&A spend. Considering how Harvey can dominate the festival acquisition market, everyone’s waiting to see how Radius will influence the multi-platform game. Quinn and Janego made their first splash with Bachelorette, a pitch black comedy acquired during Sundance for $2 million, and which topped the iTunes movie rankings before it rolled out to theaters this weekend. Here, Quinn and Janego explain their view of a new business that is changing the indie world.

DEADLINE: What will Bachelorette do at the box office this weekend?

JASON JANEGO: In 47 runs across 16 markets, the estimate is $191,033 for the weekend, with a significant increase from Friday to Saturday through word of mouth, and core metropolitan runs performing at or near the top of their complexes. We’re extremely pleased that the film is outpacing much wider releases vying for the same demographic. Our rollout will continue to build on this success in the weeks to come.

DEADLINE: It’s your first release and it became the first VOD title to top the iTunes top movies chart. Besides a good sound bite, what does that mean in revenues?

TOM QUINN: iTunes is one piece of a big puzzle, but what you should know is, going into our opening weekend we grossed over $4 million through VOD already. That’s the fastest grossing film in this space. It has already exceeded Margin Call. We’re on pace to very quickly top All Good Things, which is the biggest VOD earner in the multi-platform stage. We were number one on iTunes but Rentrak does a national Top Ten ranking for all cable VOD transactions. It’s unanimously all studio films in the top ten, and we reached number four.

JANEGO: That’s a big deal because it is based on transactions.

QUINN: So the number one film is a studio film working at a $4 price point and we’re working at a $10 price point. That starts to put it all in perspective. And the only other films in this category that have been on this top ten list are Margin Call and All Good Things, which both reached nine. Nobody before had exceeded that, and so to be there within 36 hours of release, this is the story that Jason and I have been telling everybody for the last 12 months.

DEADLINE: What story is that?
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Toronto: Weinstein Finds ‘Silver Linings’ At World Premiere For Another Oscar Race

By PETE HAMMOND | Sunday September 9, 2012 @ 8:28am PDTTags: Bradley Cooper, Harvey Weinstein, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro, Silver Linings Playbook, The Master, TIFF Wrap-Up, Toronto, Toronto Film Festival
Pete Hammond

As the Toronto International Film Festival maintains its intense pace, the race for Oscar is clearly heating up. And after last night’s rousing world premiere for David O. Russell’s Silver Linings Playbook, you can chalk up yet another major Best Picture contender. The tweets about its inevitable awards potential began almost immediately. The response to this strikingly original and human film was ecstatic, not only during the screening and standing ovation but from everyone I cornered at the Soho House after-party - including several awards pundits who are supposed to be jaded about such things.

Harvey’s Silver Linings almost certainly puts stars Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence and Robert De Niro in contention for acting nominations. Lawrence and Cooper play two very broken people trying to put their lives back together by helping each other. It reminded me of Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine  in The Apartment (1960), deftly navigating the tricky terrain of a film that can change tone from comedy to drama on a dime without ever seeming forced. Both simply inhabit these characters and make a great screen team. And just like Lemmon and MacLaine did after The Apartment when they reteamed on Irma La Douce, Cooper told me they have already completed a second film together, Serena.

Lawrence leaps to the front of the pack with a revelatory performance that seemed to knock most observers out. Cooper also was terrific in a challenging role in The Place Beyond The Pines (acquired today by Focus Features). He had nothing but praise for his co-star who at just 22 years old takes on a part that would challenge much older stars. Writer-director David O. Russell told me  at the after-party she was actually a last-minute casting. “We were seeing just about every major actress for the role but thought she was just too young. Then when she ‘Skyped’ in her audition from her home, there was no question. Lawrence was nominated for Best Actress for Winter’s Bone (2009) and should start preparing now to go through it all over again. So should Russell who was in the Oscar race with The Fighter two years ago for the first time and should be right back in there this year. Read More »

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TOLDJA! Focus Features Lands ‘The Place Beyond The Pines’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Sunday September 9, 2012 @ 5:33am PDTTags: Big Deals Film, Bradley Cooper, Derek Cianfrance, Focus Features, Ryan Gosling, The Place Beyond The Pines, TIFF Wrap-Up, Toronto Film Festival
Mike Fleming

2ND UPDATE: Focus Features has confirmed Deadline’s scoop. Release is at the bottom of the story

UPDATE: I’m told that Focus Features indeed closed a distribution deal for one of Toronto’s hottest acquisition titles, the Derek Cianfrance-directed The Place Beyond The Pines. The negotiations between the Focus … Read More »

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Toronto: New Film With Ryan Gosling & Bradley Cooper Draws Distributors

By PETE HAMMOND | Saturday September 8, 2012 @ 1:55am PDTTags: Bradley Cooper, Derek Cianfrance, Eva Mendes, Ryan Gosling, The Place Beyond The Pines, TIFF Wrap-Up, Toronto, Toronto Film Festival
Pete Hammond

The Place Beyond The Pines is perhaps the most eagerly awaited acquisition title of the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival. And Friday night it premiered to an enthusiastic reception from a sold-out crowd. With stars Ryan Gosling, Bradley Cooper and Eva Mendes lighting up the Princess of Wales theatre’s Red Carpet, there was much anticipation about this unique crime thriller from director and co-writer Derek Cianfrance (Blue Valentine also starring Gosling). At the 19 Mercer Street after-party, producer Jamie Patricof (Lynette Howell and Alex Orlovsky co-produced with him for Sidney Kimmel Productions) told me they have kept this film under lock and key until the TIFF showing. Because no one had seen it, a lot of distributors were in the audience eager to get a look. Patricof and helmer Cianfrance both said they are looking for a company who is most passionate about the film. Whether it gets out this year (in time for the Oscar race) or later is secondary to that. Cianfrance did add that his natural inclination is always to “have the film out tomorrow” if he could.

Related: Ryan Gosling To Make Directing Debut On ‘How To Catch A Monster’

A snap poll of reaction after the screening indicated the film had true impact. There’s no doubt buyers will be circling this one – and snapping it up fast. Clearly the movie has a lot of marketing potential with Gosling and Cooper in the leads. Gosling  said that working with Cianfrance “has changed my life and changed me as an actor”. He plays a bank robber and said he always had a fantasy about making his getaway by riding a motorcycle into a U-Haul truck which was incorporated here. Cooper might have the most difficult role. ”But I was ferocious in wanting to work with these two guys. It was one of the most incredible experiences I have ever had acting,” he said. Read More »

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Toronto: ‘Anna Karenina’ Risky New Version Receives Standing Ovation Opening Night

By PETE HAMMOND | Saturday September 8, 2012 @ 12:59am PDTTags: Anna Karenina, Focus Features, Joe Wright, Keira Knightley, Les Miserables, TIFF Wrap-Up, Tim Bevan, Toronto Film Festival, Working Title
Pete Hammond

Tolstoy as re-imagined by Joe Wright and Tom Stoppard came to the Toronto International Film Festival in a big way Friday night as Focus Features’ adaptation of Anna Karenina made its North American debut. “They gave us a nice little standing ovation,” said a modest Wright who told me at the Soho House after-party this film means so much to him that he doesn’t know how he is going to follow it. He had great success early in his directing career with Oscar nominees like Pride & Prejudice and Atonement (which both featured his Anna Karenina star Keira Knightley) but then detoured to different kinds of films like The Soloist and action flick Hanna. Now that he’s back in this literary space he can appreciate the success more, he says.

Related: Toronto Oscar Talk: Ben Affleck’s ‘Argo’ And Paul Thomas Anderson’s ‘The Master’

Wright came up with the concept of staging the story in a theatre and then moving it in and out of that setting. It’s a unique and risky idea but really pays off in the execution. As Focus Features chief James Schamus told me, “This film is ravishing to look at.” A couple of critics have been naysayers but Schamus isn’t concerned about them. He says most will get it. Schamus plans an aggressive platform release strategy after the November 16th opening and should be relatively wide by December. Focus hopes it will draw upscale audiences who flock to this sort of thing but also younger women who may relate to the plight of Anna and the young actors cast here. It premiered in England earlier in the week and opens there this weekend.

Related: ‘Looper’, ‘On The Road’, Marion Cotillard Kick Off Festival Packed With Oscar Hopefuls

This Anna Karenina certainly is a lot different than the version MGM and Greta Garbo served up in the 1930s. Wright’s bold concept of losing some of the naturalism and putting it in a theatrical setting wasn’t in Stoppard’s script – and he had to convince the writer it was the way to go. But in the end it all worked out. He said the premiere at Toronto’s classic Elgin theatre was almost surreal since it looked like the theatre-in-the-film-in-a-theatre. It’s an instant contender for a Best Picture, Director and Screenplay slot. Knightley’s go-for-broke work is likely to land her in the Best Actress race again, and producers also hope Jude Law as her husband gets attention in the supporting category. Pic also can easily expect Oscar nominations in numerous categories including the cinematography of  Seamus McGarvey, production design of Sarah Greenwood, costume design of Jacqueline Durran, and musical score of Dario Marianelli (who is already an Oscar winner for Atonement). Read More »

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Toronto: ‘Looper’, ‘On The Road’, Marion Cotillard Kick Off Festival Packed With Oscar Hopefuls

By PETE HAMMOND | Thursday September 6, 2012 @ 11:02pm PDTTags: Bruce Willis, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Kristen Stewart, Looper, Marion Cotillard, On The Road, Rust & Bone, TIFF Wrap-Up, Toronto, Toronto Film Festival
Pete Hammond

The Toronto International Film Festival officially kicked off tonight with gala screenings of FilmDistrict’s time-tripping sci-fi action flick Looper starring Bruce Willis and Joseph Gordon Levitt, plus two Cannes premieres making their official North American bows. On The Road, the 1950s beat … Read More »

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