Wednesday, September 3, 2014

TIFF -- 15 Movies That Will Attract Buyers



Since I agree with THR list, I'm going to post the same. And Yay, this is the year of women movies. Like it. From Chastain to Kristen Wiig. I cant wait. Love them. These movies haven't got any distributor yet, especially US distributor. But since they looks powerful, hoping I;m right about them will get 2014 release.

High-profile titles that could spark deals out of the Venice and Telluride festivals include the Andrew Garfield drama 99 Homes, Mia Wasikowska's Madame Bovary and two Al Pacino films: BarryLevinson's The Humbling and David Gordon Green's Manglehorn. One twist: Because of TIFF's new rule banning Telluride titles from playing the first week­end, the fest is allowing private-buyers screenings the first weekend to avoid a logjam the following week.
Here are the Toronto titles topping buyers' lists:

Before We Go (CAA/WME/Sierra)
Director: Chris Evans
Stars: Evans, Alice Eve
Buzz: This dramedy, which revolves around two strangers stuck together during a long night in NYC, marks the directorial debut of Evans -- aka Captain America -- making it a definite curiosity.



Big Game (WME/Altitude)
Director: Jalmari Helander
Stars: Samuel L. JacksonOnni Tommila
Buzz: The Midnight Madness entry stars Jackson as the U.S. president, saved by a 13-year-old boy after Air Force One crashes in the wild. Another adventure movie at Toronto pairing older and younger actors is The Reach, starring Michael Douglas and Jeremy Irvine.

Cake (WME/CAA/Conquistador)
Director: Daniel Barnz
Stars: Aniston, Anna KendrickSam Worthington
Buzz: In a dramatic career shift, Aniston plays an emotionally empty person who becomes obsessed with the suicide of a woman from her chronic-pain support group. Buyers will look for strong perform­ances to overcome the bleak subject matter.


The Cobbler (WME/Gersh/Voltage)
Director: Tom McCarthy
Stars: Sandler, Dustin HoffmanSteve Buscemi
Buzz: Buyers are intrigued by this fantastic tale of a cobbler who experiences the lives of others while wearing their shoes.

The Face of an Angel (WestEnd)
Director: Michael Winterbottom
Stars: Daniel BruhlCara DelevingneKate Beckinsale
Buzz: Winterbottom maintains that his isn't an Amanda Knox movie but rather a fictional account of her trial in Italy for the 2007 murder of her roommate.

The Forger (WME/ICM/The Solution)
Director: Philip Martin
Stars: John TravoltaChristopher PlummerTye Sheridan
Buzz: This multigenerational heist film will test Travolta's star status as well as audiences' appetite for the genre. Another family crime movie that could make noise is Sarik Andreasyan's American Heist, starring Adrien Brody and Hayden Christensen as two brothers who become involved in a high-stakes bank robbery.

Good Kill (CAA/Voltage)
Director: Andrew Niccol
Stars: Ethan HawkeJanuary JonesZoe Kravitz
Buzz: The first film about the U.S. military's drone program is sure to be controversial and was made by Voltage Pictures, home of Oscar winner The Hurt Locker (it first plays in Venice).

Love & Mercy (CAA/Lionsgate)
Director: Bill Pohlad
Stars: John CusackPaul DanoElizabeth BanksPaul Giamatti
Buzz: This biopic about Brian Wilson of Beach Boys fame is the directorial debut of the respected financier-producer, whose credits include 12 Years a Slave. Dano's performance as a young version of the singer is said to be impressive.


Pawn Sacrifice (CAA/WME/Lionsgate)
Director: Edward Zwick
Stars: Maguire, Peter SarsgaardLiev Schreiber
Buzz: This retelling of the famed 1972 chess battle between Bobby Fischer (Maguire) and Boris Spassky (Schreiber) boasts a powerful pedigree, and buyers loved the script.

Miss Julie (CAA/Wild Bunch)
Director: Liv Ullmann
Stars: Chastain, Colin FarrellSamantha Morton
Buzz: Set in 1880 at an English manor, the film stars Chastain as a restless aristocrat who seduces her father's valet. Alan Rickman also has directed a period piece headed to Toronto: A Little Chaos, starring Kate Winslet as the woman commissioned to construct the gardens at Versailles for King Louis XIV. (Call it Downton Abbey syndrome.)

While We're Young (UTA/FilmNation)
Director: Noah Baumbach
Stars: Ben StillerNaomi WattsAmanda SeyfriedAdam Driver
Buzz: Baumbach and Stiller's previous outing, 2010's Greenberg, grossed only $4.2 million domestically, but buyers are eager to check out their film about a couple who re-examines their relationship when a younger couple enters their lives.

Time Out of Mind (Paradigm/ICM/WME/QED)
Director: Oren Moverman
Stars: Richard GereJena Malone
Buzz: Moverman is considered a brilliant writer (he also co-wrote Love & Mercy), and Gere showed box-office muscle with 2012's Arbitrage. In an unusual role, the debonair actor plays a homeless man in NYC trying to reconnect with his daughter.

Still Alice (CAA/Memento)
Directors: Richard GlatzerWash Westmoreland
Stars: Julianne MooreKristen StewartAlec BaldwinKate Bosworth
Buzz: As with Cake, the subject matter potentially is a tough sell despite the star power: Moore plays a Columbia University professor who is grappling with the early stages of Alzheimer's disease.

Welcome to Me (UTA/WME/Cargo)
Director: Shira Piven
Stars: Kristen WiigJames MarsdenJennifer Jason Leigh
Buzz: This satirical comedy centers on a woman with borderline personality disorder who wins the lottery and launches her own cable talk show (she loves Oprah).

Ruth & Alex (CAA/WME/Myriad)
Director: Richard Loncraine
Stars: Diane KeatonMorgan Freeman
Buzz: The actors play a married couple in real estate hell after they put their Brooklyn home on the market. One downer: Keaton's comedy And So It Goes just bombed. Other films targeting a distinctly older audience are Ben Kingsley and Patricia Clarkson's Learning to Drive and Hoffman'sBoychoir.

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