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Toronto film fest draws eager Hollywood studios

Posted on: Wednesday, 7 September 2005, 23:52 CDT

By Nicole Sperling

TORONTO (Hollywood Reporter) - The Toronto International Film Festival, which opens Thursday, is shaping up to be a promising hunting ground for studio executives after the disappointment of Cannes, industry insiders say.

"The product definitely looks a lot stronger then Cannes. There are many more English-language movies with casts," said Howard Cohen of Roadside Attractions, one of the firms behind the Oscar-nominated documentary "Super Size Me."

More than 300 titles will screen during the next 10 days. A half-dozen or so films have generated considerable pre-Toronto buzz, but as is the case with most festivals, it's often the under-the-radar pictures that emerge to grab the spotlight. Some of the highest-profile titles going into the 10-day festival include Jason Reitman's tobacco industry satire "Thank You for Smoking."

Screenwriter David Ayer ("Training Day," "S.W.A.T.") will raise the curtain on his directorial debut, "Harsh Times," on Sunday. "Harsh" stars Christian Bale ("Batman Begins") and Freddy Rodriguez (HBO's "Six Feet Under").

"This couldn't be a better time for a movie starring Christian Bale being available for acquisition," one buyer said.

Other hot titles include Joshua Michael Stern's "Neverwas"; Adam Rapp's "Winter Passing," starring Zooey Deschanel, Will Ferrell, Ed Harris and Amy Madigan; the Cate Blanchett starrer "Little Fish"; Bart Freundlich's "Trust the Man"; "Dave Chappelle's Block Party," directed by Michel Gondry; and Guy Ritchie's latest, "Revolver," starring current box office champ Jason Statham ("Transporter 2").

"You can't be at a better place (than Toronto)," said Randall Emmett, producer of the closing-night screener, "Edison," starring Kevin Spacey, Morgan Freeman, Justin Timberlake and LL Cool J.

"I feel that even as a smaller indie film, if the movie is good, you will get noticed in Toronto," Emmett said. "If you are a good movie, the studio will find you."

But at Toronto, the truest test of any film's prospects is its audience reception. The festival is known for attracting cineastes who aren't shy about letting creatives know what they think of their work.

"It's a very generous and expressive audience," says Chris Auty, producer on this year's "River Queen," starring Kiefer Sutherland and Samantha Morton, which is set to bow Monday. "In a way, if you are a producer, it can be the peak moment of reward. This audience vocally expresses its enthusiasm in ways not seen by any other audience."

And in an era when most acquisition executives see films in tiny screening rooms, constantly interrupted by cell phones and BlackBerrys, the impact of sitting through a screening with an audience of film fanatics is an invaluable experience.

Auty, who brought last year's hot title "My Summer of Love" to Toronto, describes the festival's audiences as "truly representative of a sophisticated but not specialized moviegoing public." He added that there is a wide age range, a diverse ethnic and racial mix and a good gender balance.

Also, because of the audience, feel-good pictures rarely get lost amid the higher-profile films.

"Audience-pleasing gems can get discovered in Toronto rather then lost in the shuffle because you have a great cross section of audiences that attend these screenings," Lions Gate Films senior vp acquisitions Jason Constantine said.

After the success of this summer's "March of the Penguins," which Warner Independent Pictures bought for a song at Sundance, acquisition execs are definitely more tuned into the documentary genre that seems to be appealing to a wider range of moviegoers. And where there's demand, there's product. A slew of documentaries are making their debut at Toronto.

Sydney Pollack's documentary on architect Frank Gehry, "Sketches of Frank Gehry," will bow Saturday; it showcases Gehry's life from the creative block that once plagued him to the construction of his masterpieces. Also available for distribution is the film "John & Jane," from Indian director Ashim Ahluwalia, which takes a look at outsourcing.

Probably the highest-profile documentary is "Dave Chappelle's Block Party," a film characterized as part sketch comedy, part live music concert. The film centers on the comedian's decision to throw himself a big party after he received a massive contract renewal in 2004. The film, from producer Bob Yari and director Gondry ("Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind"), will bow Monday.

Sony Pictures Classics is unveiling two potential Oscar contenders: the highly anticipated Truman Capote biopic "Capote," starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Neil Jordan's "Breakfast on Pluto."

"(Toronto) is one of the best places, if not the best place in North America, to launch films," Sony Classics co-president Michael Barker said. "Journalists from all over are there, and it's the most responsive audience you can wish for. That can be a liability when making an acquisition call but not a liability when you are launching a film and want to show it in the best possible context."

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

Source: REUTERS

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