Gary Dretzka
Leonard Klady
David Poland
Ray Pride
Notes From A Festival Junkie ...
Monday
Navigating a film festival the size and density (and thank god there aren't many) of Toronto is a bit like running the hurdles. If you're doing it right, you get the height and speed and clip down the track to the finish line. But it's also important to remember that if you hit a barrier you should adjust something and if you crash and fall, you better get up and continue on even if it means finishing out of the medals.
The first hurdles have now been cleared. Opening weekend tends to be slightly nightmarish as a result of its concentration of high profile titles and splashier parties where people indulge in various manifestations of scream therapy to deal with anxiety, frustration and the viscidities of festival life in general.
Historically, its when the majors make their beachhead and fly in junket press that don't quite fit in with the vets looking for the discoveries and tiny gems from Asia, South America, Eastern Europe or other spots on the globe where English is not the native tongue. Toronto's been criticized in the past for its cooperation with studio junkets and I can recall editions where as many as nine separate releases from the majors were tub thumping during the festival's first three days.
However, in the grand tradition of damned if you do, damned if you don't, this year's event was junket-lite. Fox Searchlight was active in that area with I (Love) Huckabees and Sideways but decided, as a result of talent availability, not to do it for Kinsey. Lions Gate did a junket for the Bobby Darin bio Beyond the Sea but Universal decided not to for Ray (as in Charles). DreamWorks chose to send the voice talent from its animated Shark Tale to Venice and Paramount, Disney, Miramax, Fox and Warner Bros. passed on Toronto or played second tier titles. Later in the week Paramount will do a promo reel promotion of Team America with Trey Parker and Matt Stone.
This might all add up to an anomaly but the feeling among press and industry vets is that the majors are seriously rethinking festivals as a venue to launch movies. Hollywood has long been wary of submitting pictures into competitive slots at Cannes or Berlin because of the possibility of no prize or a consolation award. Toronto doesn't have "official" awards and in the past it's afforded the majors an opportunity to do one-stop blitz promotion with mainstream, junket and international press.
An executive at a studio that bypassed Toronto this year claimed he didn't having anything appropriate that was ready to be screened. But he also said that as far as junket press was concerned, he thought his company could do a better job outside a festival situation and that national press attending a major fest had too many distractions and were likely to give short shrift to movies they could see once they returned to base.
It's also dawning on the press corps that the relative absence of the historically fest friendly Miramax (it's presenting only Les Choristes and Dear Frankie) has turned down the frenzy level several stops. The acquisition's contingent also seem quite pleased by Miramax's seeming indifference to pursuing distribution rights. One rep also noted that MGM/UA and Lions Gate was being less than proactive because of a saturated release schedule (it still picked up Crash, one of the early hot titles).
In truth, there's not a lot in the Toronto lineup that has the acquisition community salivating. There's been some heat on the non-fiction Tell Them Who You Are, Mark Wexler's portrait of his father Haskell and the Canadian feature Saint Ralph that sold to Japan but is angling for a sale to a major for the rest of the world. And there are a number of foreign-language and niche titles upcoming on the sked. Still, the consensus is there's very little available with mainstream or crossover potential.
Most industry reps don't expect Miramax to be around six months from now or, if it is, not under the stewardship of Harvey Weinstein. Though he turned up in Venice for the premiere of Neverland, he's not expected in Toronto and he's been characterized as absent of AWOL from the scene. Rumors have been circulating about him raising cash to acquire Lions Gate or getting into bed with DreamWorks. There's even speculation about a new company that's be dubbed Maximar or Maximum.
Tomorrow: Panning for Gold or The Quest for the Hidden Gem
Sunday's Notes
Saturday's Notes
Friday's Notes
