Climate of risk aversion takes toll on acquisitions
NEW YORK -- At May's Festival de Cannes, buyers rushed to see the latest function from three American auteurs: Steven Soderbergh's "Che," James Gray's "Two Lovers" and Charlie Kaufman's "Synecdoche, New York." But the fest ended without any of the films clinching a U.S. sale.
It took iI months for the $20 million-plus "Synecdoche" to solid ground a U.S. distribution conduct with Sony Pictures Classics. 2929 Prods. gave up on finding an outside buyer for its $12 million "Lovers," deciding to release it through sister company Magnolia Pictures. And Soderbergh's $65 million "Che" is noneffervescent searching for a home.
The tough market the three films encountered reflects an indie moving picture industry rattled by folding specialty divisions, economic woes and the challenge of keeping films in theaters. A clime of risk-aversion not seen since the death of auteur-driven films in the 1970s has set in.
"I vouch you 'Synecdoche' and 'Lovers' would've been bought quickly a couple years agone," Overture Films CEO Chris McGurk aforementioned, "but now that on that point are fewer buyers, and fewer goodish buyers, they both sat there."
Soderbergh's Spanish-language Che Guevara biopic encountered resistance contempt its lead Benicio Del Toro earning best worker honors at Cannes.
The Weinstein Co. had been in exclusive pre-Cannes negotiations for North American rights with seller Wild Bunch based on footage shown in Berlin. But a deal couldn't be completed ahead "Che's" Cannes premiere, so both parties agreed to table further discussions till then.
Wild Bunch head Vincent Maraval hoped to drive a $10 million getaway to pay back investors immediately merely now says his company would demand just a $4 meg deal with longer-term payouts. Four indie offers are on the table, though not the Weinstein Co., he said.
Soderbergh wants to release the two-part, four-hour-plus film as one moving picture in limited December openings. He'd then like to release the first region in January and the second in February. Soderbergh has cut five to seven proceedings from each half, but a potentiality distributor wHO suggested one three-hour cut was ruled out immediately.
Maraval said a P&A commitment isn't an issue. "Our joke is that you need to have 'guerrilla marketing,' " he said.
Todd Wagner and Mark Cuban's 2929 was looking for at least $3.5 million for North American rights to "Lovers," the story of an emotionally disturbed valet de chambre forced to choose 'tween two women. But when four offers came in in the $1 million-$2 million range for the Joaquin Phoenix-Gwyneth Paltrow starrer, 2929 opted to hired man the film over to Magnolia.
It's the same strategy 2929 took when "The Life Before Her Eyes" failed to attract offers in Toronto and "What Just Happened?" didn't muriel Spark a bidding frenzy in Sundance. Given that Cuban and Wagner also have Landmark Theatres, DVD, pay TV and VOD outlets, 2929's Marc Butan said, "Even at our to the highest degree pessimistic poser, we ar doing OK."
"Lovers" will bow other next year with New York and Los Angeles openings. Butan said it's not as yet clear whether the film also will go prohibited via Magnolia's Ultra VOD day-and-date platform.
SPC plans to debut "Synecdoche," Kaufman's directorial debut starring Philip Seymour Hoffman as a writer staging a surreally challenging play, in the fall.
The film scored a five-minute standing standing ovation and some glowing reviews at Cannes. One indie executive called it "a flawed masterpiece," but other execs, unsettled by the recent closure of Picturehouse and Warner Independent, power saw only its high commercial risk factor.
After Cannes, Kaufman made only when minor expert tweaks. Several indies, positive that the film would need deliberate word-of-mouth, made modest bids. SPC's complicated, winning deal offered the filmmakers a lower upfront payment in return for significant long-run performance bonuses and a wide tone ending commitment.
"We met with the filmmakers deuce years ago and have pursued it ever since, but the only stumbling block was that the budget light-emitting diode to a bigger financial upfront than we were willing to do," SPC co-head Michael Barker said.
While the major studios, specialness divisions and indie distributors mostly left Cannes unrewarded, SPC and IFC Films benefited from the securities industry downtown. Both acquired the largest figure of Official Selection and market titles in their history, partly because the lack of frenzied challenger led to dropping prices.
SPC rejects IFC's day-and-date model, but both look to create a valuable library of titles to pull in viewers all over the foresighted term.
"Having a meaningful theatrical run to give a good profile to a film, whether people construe it in theaters, on DVD or TV, is our mantra," Barker aforementioned. He insists it's "rugged but not impossible" for indie films to break through the crowded marketplace. And, care IFC, SPC takes pride in non overpaying.
IFC releases about 25 films a year day-and-date in prize cities and on VOD. Part of its gross revenue pitch to emerging and foreign filmmakers is the American dream: More than 45 meg homes ar able to access their films.
IFC's Arianna Bocco aforementioned that this year unquestionably was "a buyer's market." And while IFC offers a across-the-board variety of deals to filmmakers, she said "it's also just very appealing for many filmmakers to get exposure in the U.S. that will help them with their following projects." Even if the deal offers little in the way of reimbursement.
As filmmakers wHO settled for less upfront at Cannes learned, less-than-commercial films like a shot need to be made cheaply, and beggars can't be choosers.
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