Sony Pictures Classics has finalized a distribution deal for "Tyson," James Toback's documentary about the controversial boxer Mike Tyson.

The movie is getting its North American premiere at Sundance, in the Spectrum program. Sony has been circling the film since its world premiere last May at Cannes, according to Daily Variety. (That's Toback with Tyson in the photo, taken at Cannes.)

As part of Sony's deal, NBA star Carmelo Anthony has signed on as one of the film's executive producers.

Labels: Distribution, documentaries

The Hollywood Reporter's Steven Zeitchik asks the question: "What if Sundance isn't about the sales anymore?"

Some movies may roll the dice with a splashy debut in Park City, Zeitchik writes, but more producers are instead opting for a quieter courtship of potential buyers back in Hollywood. Zeitchik cites the example of "My One and Only," a period romance starring Renee Zellweger and Kevin Bacon, which bypassed Sundance and is being shopped directly to distributors.

"We're starting to screen stuff more and more outside of festivals," said John Sloss, head of the distribution services firm Cinetic Media and one of the most powerful industry people at Sundance. "I'm more unsure about the market than I've ever been."

Labels: Distribution

If the Sundance Film Festival is like the eBay of independent film - a big auction site - then Sony Pictures Classics is in the process of hitting the "Buy It Now" button, getting a jump on acquisition eight days before the festival starts.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, SPC is in talks to buy the distribution rights to "Rudo y Cursi," a Mexican soccer comedy directed by Carlos Cuaron (brother of "Children of Men" director Alfonso Cuaron) that reunites Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna (pictured), the stars of the Alfonso Cuaron-directed "Y Tu Mama Tambien."

"Rudo y Cursi" will screen in Sundance's Premieres section, and will have its first screening Friday, Jan. 16, at 9:30 p.m. at the Eccles Theatre in Park City.

Labels: Distribution

You pre-register months in advance, order tickets online weeks in advance, and stand in line for hours for the chance to be in the first audience to see a much-buzzed-about movie at the Sundance Film Festival.

Too bad you're not really the first audience to see it.

As The Hollywood Reporter's Steven Zeitchik wrote in today's edition of the industry trade paper, many prospective buyers have probably watched the movie - through bootlegged DVDs.

Some of the Sundance '09 titles reportedly making the rounds: "Paper Heart," the semi-documentary romance starring Michael Cera; "Shrink," a drama starring Kevin Spacey (pictured); the immigration drama "Amreeka"'; and Bobcat Goldthwait's comedy "World's Greatest Dad," starring Robin Williams.

Like anything in Hollywood, bootlegged screeners are a tradeable commodity and a sign of status. You're not somebody unless you've already seen what everybody else is dying to see.

But the people selling the movies at Sundance are sounding the alarms about this underground trade.

"There are films where it could virtually kill the market for a movie," Cinetic Media chief John Sloss told Zeitchik. "From our perspective, this is war, and you're at your peril if you don't treat it that way."

Labels: Distribution

IndieWire's Eugene Hernandez has sage advice for filmmakers, those who got into Sundance and those who didn't.

The upshot to both camps: Now the real work begins.

For those who got in, the work involves navigating the choppy waters of film-distribution deals - in a market that, Hernandez says, "probably won't be as robust for big on-site acquisitions" as past years.

For those who didn't get in - a larger group, considering some 3,600 films were submitted for 118 slots - Hernandez says it's time to start working the festival circuit, to get their films some attention at places that don't have snow and crowded streets.

Labels: Distribution