Toronto 2005: Day Four

DAY FOUR

Sunday was hardly a day of rest in Toronto.

As hopes for once buzzy titles like Isolation (playing in Midnight Madness) dried up, the one film that has drawn some serious buying interest (meaning: more than a million bucks), Thank You For Smoking, became the subject of a minor war between Paramount Classics and Fox Searchlight in the $6 million range. The film, starring Aaron Eckhart, played quite well for industry and critics, though it still offers some distinct marketing challenges.

The trouble centers around neophyte producer David O. Sacks, who tried to talk Fox Searchlight into buying the picture, failed, went on to the interested Paramount Classics, made a handshake deal and then woke Team P.C. up a few hours later with news that he had closed a deal with Searchlight. Team Searchlight, knowing there was a problem brewing, quickly moved to get a press release out. ParCla responded with a steady drumbeat of, "Press releases are great, but we already own the movie and look forward to distributing it. We are happy to forgive Mr. Sacks' inexperience in the film acquisition business. Had we woken up in the morning and called him to tell him we changed our minds, he would be suing us right now."

Stuck (by going along with the post-handshake flip-flop) in the middle of the mess is William Morris Independent and its chief, Cassian Elwes. Is this how they now do business? Is a new lack of trust between studios and WM Indie going to change Elwes' role in the game? Will William Morris earn the wrath of Big Paramount as well?

Depositions are likely to occur before Sundance. Let's hope that some sort of settlement takes place before then, because when the lawyers reign, it is not good for the studios, the producers or the filmmakers.

Meanwhile, Sony Classics, which has a very strong fall schedule and nearly complete ownership of its niche in the industry right now, closed a deal for The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, a Cannes award winner. But things aren't quite as rosy for the film as some reports indicate. Not only didn't SPC come close to the $6 million asking price, but some distributors would suggest that the deal may have been done with no cash on the table at all after the film has sat unsold for more than three months since Cannes.

The basic argument is that the first act is brilliant, the rest of the film is muddy, but Jones will not sell to anyone who demands that he makes changes. That said, no one wants to pay to be Tommy Lee Jones bitch for months on a movie that doesn't have much commercial upside, offering primarily the chance of an Oscar nomination for Jones' acting or Guillermo Arriaga's screenplay.

Look for SPC to make a Monsieur Ibrahim-like run at the awards season with very little downside for the studio and an openness to expanding the effort of the movie somehow takes off.

As Sunday rolled around, I had a chance to sit down with William Hurt, who makes a powerful appearance in David Cronenberg's A History of Violence. I was thrilled to have the chance to talk to hurt, who has been one of the best actors of his generation and particularly compelling to me, as my movie maturity was marked by Altered States, Eyewitness, Body Heat and The Big Chill. Tom Grunick is the least flashy, but perhaps the most special character in Broadcast News, a man who is not the smartest or the quickest, but undoubtedly the most honest, with himself and others.

At 55, Hurt is exactly what you would pray for him to be, at least in this context. He is smart, funny, honest, challenging and willing to take conversational turns that emulate Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, eventually finding his (and your) way to a clear and valuable point.

I got the feeling that about two hours into a conversation about his work and his life, you would just be scratching the surface. But he's fearlessly willing to "go there." And it's not just talking to hear himself talk. He offers real intellectual and emotional complexity as a goal, even in a 20 minute conversation... at least one that he feels is a conversation.

Hurt, as it turned out, was friendly with David Cronenberg's sister, Costume Designer Denise Cronenberg, through whom he sent the message - repeatedly - that he really wanted to work with Cronenberg. This role in A History of Violence came along, and as he explains it, at first he was thrilled just to receive a script that good, then he was thrilled to focus on the part he was offered, and then he was thrilled that Cronenberg could see that he could do this role.... a role he knew immediately he could hit out of the park.

As it turns out, Hurt pulled out "the afterburners" on his one week of shooting and Cronenberg was more than happy to let him go there. As a result, both Hurt and Ed Harris have to be considered serious contenders for Best Supporting Actor nominations, though in the case of Hurt, it clearly is not a priority. He was just happy to find a great role and a great director to work with.

And I was happy to meet a guy with a reputation for difficulty who turned out to be a great guy whose troubles with being "difficult" were clearly connected to an end purpose. I can't speak to whether he had times of being someone else. But the guy I met yesterday... that is a guy I want to know and root for.

I saw The Brothers of the Head, directed by Louis Pepe and Keith Fulton, who brought us the horrifying delight, Lost in La Mancha. These guys are incredibly talented and this film, a fake documentary - distinctly not a mockumentary - is often a clear show of enormous talent. The story of conjoined twins who turn punk rock phenoms, the film follows their childhood, maturity and career.

The only problem with the film, which may keep it from finding the right distributor, is that Fulton & Pepe are clearly a little too close to the film, even though Terry Gilliam collaborator Tony Grisoni adapted the Brian Aldiss novel and Bill Diver cut the film. It really needs a set of fresh eyes looking to recut the film to its perfect self.

In my eyes, the film desperately needs some shaping and a narrator, in the style of The Compleat Beatles. Preferably, Dead Ringers' star Jeremy Irons would do it, continuing the twin theme and offering a mellifluous speaking voice. The key to the narration would be to create structure for the audience. I'm not saying that Pepe & Fulton haven't done that and it's very apparent that they shot the film to conform to similar filmmaking rules that they used on Lost In La Mancha. But that film had characters/participants with whom we were already familiar. It had the natural structure of a film starting, a countdown to production and then a countdown to destruction. Here, there is no way to anticipate where the directors are going and as a result, the audience is not always comfortable enough to go along with the film.

You have to give the audience a chance to anticipate if you want your audience to go with you.

The film could also use another "real song" or two from the twins, as the used of music thins out in the third act, not being used as a point of style the way you would expect it to be at that point.

Another advantage of the narration is that people in the doc don't have to offer as much exposition.

There is a really good movie in there, but if you were an outsider, you would "fix" things that make the film less entertaining than it could be. There are some people buzzing around the title, but it would be - I think - in the interest of everyone involved to do a minor rethink, because while Spinal Tap is probably too far from this reality, it could get pretty darned close.

by David Poland