Toronto film fest accommodates fans, studios

TORONTO (Hollywood Reporter) - As the 31st Toronto International Film Festival kicks off Thursday night, local moviegoers are snapping up tickets for their annual celluloid fest. Meanwhile, in the parallel festival that buyers and sellers inhabit, studios are eyeing the menu just as hungrily, looking for a few choice dishes.

After such dramatic acquisition showdowns as last year's tussle over "Thank You for Smoking," which Fox Searchlight won after a messy fight with Paramount Classics, the big question is whether any of this year's crop of films will show the same breakout potential -- or command similar $6.5 million price tags.

To accommodate the ravenous buyers, this year the fest is initiating buyer-only screenings for 10 hot titles, including "El Cantante," starring real-life couple Marc Anthony and Jennifer Lopez, "Penelope," starring Reese Witherspoon, and Werner Herzog's Vietnam War drama "Rescue Dawn," in an effort to make the fest more of an industry-friendly environment.

Available to buyers with a premium pass, the screenings reflect the growth in sales activity, are designed to help alleviate overcrowding at press and industry screenings and, along with a new special marketing program offering bus shelter ads and display models promoting available projects, might help secure Toronto's status as the pre-eminent North American film market.

Even without the new efforts, Toronto has the full support of the industry. "Nearly everyone you'd want to run into is there, from senior executives at a junket to creative and production executives tracking new talent," said Sarah Lash, an agent at Intl. Creative Management.. "The festival organizers also appreciate and understand the sales side, instead of bucking it, without compromising their original purpose of serving local cinephiles."

While past years have seen indie distributors dominate, this year promises the possibility of at least one big studio buy: "El Cantante," Leon Ichaso's biopic of salsa musician Hector Lavoe.

"The obvious comparison would be (Lopez vehicle) 'Selena,' a musical film which tapped into the Latino market," said Guy Stodel, New Line Cinema's senior vp acquisitions and production.

A trio of romantic comedies also promise to generate some heat: Michael Ian Black's "The Pleasure of Your Company," Scott Caan's "The Dog Problem" and Alek Keshishian's "Love and Other Disasters."

Love also plays a role in such available titles as Mark Palansky's offbeat romantic fable "Penelope"; "Bella," Alejandro Monteverde's romance; and Ethan Hawke's semi-autobiographical "The Hottest State."

The female ensemble road movie "Bonneville" will be targeted to "a very underserved market for stories about real issues," producer Robert May said. Serious topics also will be on view in Herzog's "Rescue Dawn" and Sarah Polley's Alzheimer's disease-themed "Away From Her."

Foreign-language films might face a tougher commercial reception because several execs pointed out that the bottom is falling out of the foreign film market. "How many of these films have crossed over?" First Look Pictures president Ruth Vitale said.

Projects that hope to buck that trend are Lee-Sang-Il's "Full Monty"-esque "Hula Girls"; Paul Verhoeven's return to foreign filmmaking with the Dutch World War Two drama "Black Book"; Eytan Fox's Jewish/Arab gay romantic drama "The Bubble"; Antti-Jussi Annila's arty martial arts film "Jade Warrior," and Agustin Diaz Yanes' period war drama "Alatriste," in which Viggo Mortensen speaks Spanish.

Several nonfiction and/or only slightly fictionalized films are aiming to trigger hot buttons. The potentially incendiary fare includes Gabriel Range's mockumentary "Death of a President," envisioning life after President Bush's assassination, Tony Kaye's abortion documentary "Lake of Fire," and Michael Tucker and Petra Epperlein's "The Prisoner or: How I Planned To Kill Tony Blair." "Kurt Cobain About a Son" also is generating interest.

Given the popularity of horror films, the Midnight Madness section could spawn several deals. There's a growing buzz over movies from two first-time directors: Jonathan Levine's teen flick "All the Boys Love Mandy Lane" and Jonathan King's New Zealand lamb chopper "Black Sheep." Dark horses include Nacho Cerda's supernatural thriller "The Abandoned" and the twisted porn-themed pseudo-documentary "S&Man."

But as Magnolia Pictures president Eamonn Bowles noted, "the films you're interested in going in often aren't the films you want going out."

Not everything is for sale, of course. Many high-profile movies will drop into Toronto in hopes of boosting their awards season profiles or just to kick-start a release campaign. Paramount, for example, will promote Tony Goldwyn's September 22 release "The Last Kiss," starring Zach Braff.

Focus Features president Andrew Karpen, visiting the festival with Phillip Noyce's political thriller "Catch a Fire," noted that "Toronto is a great launching pad that really sets a film up for release."

Sony Pictures Classics co-president Michael Barker added, "It's a tremendous press junket, the cheapest one in the world."