Park City Star Movies Don't Make the Sale

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The prospect of Jim Carrey making out with Ewan McGregor was just the kind of thing that got the media buzzing during the Sundance Film Festival.

But four weeks later, “I Love You Philip Morris,” a dark comedy featuring Carrey as a gay con man and McGregor as his prison lover, is still not sold, and the producer says it has been taken off the market.

Other star-laden vehicles from this year’s independent film festival remain in limbo, despite the fact that plenty of other films – mainly without stars – were bought for distribution.

"Paper Heart," a quirky, low budget mockumentary starring recent Hollywood “It” kid Michael Cera, attracted buyer attention at Sundance but left the festival without a sale.

“Brief Interviews with Hideous Men," an adaptation of the late writer David Foster Wallace's work and the directorial debut of John Krasinski, remains the strangest of the Sundance star vehicles -- continues to reside in distribution limbo.

"The Greatest," a drama starring Pierce Brosnan and Susan Sarandon as grieving parents whose child dies in a car accident has not sold.

Festival buzz is not always the same thing as mainstream success – even when big stars are attached.

In the case of several titles from last month's Sundance Film Festival, the route to theatrical distribution has proven difficult, to say the least.

While a few movies with marquee names appear close to landing deals, a number of others are finding themselves faced with no buyers, the result of the lack of mainstream appeal and a tough distribution market.

"Going into the screening, it's an available film with Michael Cera," Urman said. "Coming out of it, people are lazy. They don't want to work to sell the available film with Michael Cera."

”If someone cynically packages a movie they think will sell just because it has stars, they're probably in for trouble," said sales agent Josh Braun of Submarine Entertainment.

"Those films will sell," insisted Andrew Herwitz, president of The Film Sales Company, which sold the Sundance drama "Adam" to Fox Searchlight during the festival.

He added: "If it's a film that has somebody with marketing value, but it's a more difficult film, the price may not be large. Whoever's handling the sale of the film may take a while to come to terms with that."

"I Love You Philip Morris" is a case in point. It marked the directorial debut of "Bad Santa" scribes Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, and features Jim Carrey as a gay con man and Ewan McGregor as his prison lover.

Considered a hot property in the weeks prior to the festival, the tonally complex film left many distributors scratching their heads after its Sundance premiere -- even though some of those who passed said they enjoyed it. The simple fact: They could not envision the film finding an audience.

According to producer Andrew Lazar, it is no longer on the market and the production company plans to announce a theatrical deal "very soon." But during the festival, the filmmakers said they intended to continue editing the film -- turning its premiere into a de facto work-in-progress screening -- so it remains unclear how the newer version will play.

"Brief Interviews with Hideous Men," an adaptation of the late writer David Foster Wallace's work and the directorial debut of John Krasinski, remains the strangest of the Sundance star vehicles. Mainly composed of several dry monologues about botched relationships, the movie centers on a disillusioned academic seeking to understand why her boyfriend recently dumped her.

Despite Krasinski's popular role on NBC's "The Office," the stagy, experimental content of the movie, in which he also acts, remains unsold.

Buyers have not obscured their reservations. "David Foster Wallace had and will continue to have a fan base," said Mark Urman of Senator Entertainment. "But make no mistake about it: There's ‘The Da Vinci Code’ and there's David Foster Wallace."

A rough journey also lies ahead for "The Greatest," a drama starring Pierce Brosnan and Susan Sarandon as grieving parents whose child dies in a car accident. Directed by first timer Shana Feste, it received a mixed response at the festival.

Magnolia Pictures senior vice president Tom Quinn said the backlash may have led to an inaccurate portrayal of the movie's chances at success. "Sundance is a vacuum in terms of what's going to happen to these films in the marketplace," he said. "It's not an indicator of how audiences will flock to a movie."

Other movies with stars in them were bought. Urman’s Senator Entertainment purchased "Brooklyn's Finest" starring Richard Gere, Don Cheadle, Ethan Hawke and Wesley Snipes at the festival.

He said that stars definitely do give independent projects greater visibility. "You can't 'discover' a movie with Jim Carrey or Pierce Brosnan," he said. "They are easily found."

A better fate has come to "World's Greatest Dad," an independent Robin Williams vehicle directed by Bobcat Goldthwait.

Due to its hard-R content, “Dad” seemed like a tough sell during the festival, but an executive with Cinetic says agent John Sloss is now fielding several offers and expects to close one soon.

Last week, Goldthwait said he wanted to make sure the movie's future marketers did not conceal the dark material. "I'm really afraid of people putting together a silly trailer and doing a bait-and-switch with the audience," he said.

Tough, dark material – that’s the signature of Sundance films, most of the time. And those films – including Robin Williams’ “One Hour Photo” in 2002 – often sell.

With Krasinski’s film, Magnolia's Quinn expressed a little more optimism. "There's definitely a way to position that film," he said, but issued a caveat: "It's still an uphill battle every step of the way."

Published Date:

2 years 49 weeks ago

Tags: Movies [2]