"God" gets distribbed
Eight months after debuting at Sundance '06 and being pretty much praised to the heavens, Christopher Quinn and Tommy Walker's God Grew Tired Of Us has finally landed a distribution deal.
National Geographic Films, which "co-presented" March of the Penguins, is pooling forces with Newmarket Films on a plan to open it "early next year", according to this story by Variety's Nicole LaPorte.
NGF "is providing funds to complete the film," she reports. (What does that mean? Pay off the catering bill? It looked completed to me when I saw it eight months ago.) Nicole Kidman is narrating the doc. Brad Pitt exec produced; Catherine Keener and Dermot Mulroney co-produced.
"We're a big media company with a lot of different moving parts," NGF president Adam Leipzig told LaPorte.
Leipzig and his homies saw God at Sundance also (probably the same screening I attended). "We were blown away," he tells LePorte. "We walked out of the theater and found the agents at CAA who were representing the movie, and said, 'We have to be involved in this movie.' It was one of those responses that was instantaneous and completely clear to us."
And yet it took eight months to put a deal together. Lots of deal points to smooth out, right? Everybody's gotta get their cut, lotsa lawyers involved. Anyway, fast work!
Will the film at least open sufficiently for it to compete for the Best Doc Oscar? It should.
God Grew Tired of Us tells the story of three young Sudanese guys -- John, Daniel, and Panther -- all of them refugees from their country's ongoing, utterly devastating civil war, and members of a massive army known as the "lost boys of Sudan". The film is about their escape to America to start new lives only to encounter profound longings for home and family, and no small measure of guilt.
The HE piece I wrote about the film last January is called "Lonely Deliverance" -- you'll have to scroll down some.
Posted by Jeffrey Wells on September 9, 2006 at 12:29 PM
comment #1
tholl-yung
says ...
Jeheff, finish could mean cut neg or bump up and print master the sound track to accompany it. No telling what they threw up on the screen at Sundance, unless a print was required, it could be a very finished looking on-lined pro tape format with a sound mix. Toronto took Bobby as a work in progress (no print there). Along those lines, notice the bozos who spent 40 mil on a commercial-less 5 hour piece of political agenda -- the ABC Diz Path thing, they don't have a print to worry about -- they're still editing (painful as that is to do) for airing (should they go through with it) tomorrow or the next day, whenever the air date is. Ahem, why'd ya take down the subway photo -- your proxy for B.O. tracking? Miss Russian is no Miss Cannes, but the can cans are nice for leading with. Sorry, I was delirious when I wrote this, but I think I saw shots from Miami Vice in the Casino Royale trailer.
Posted by tholl-yung
at September 9, 2006 3:11 PM
comment #2
JD
says ...
On an unrelated note, it needs to be pointed out that Jeff's source/plant on Rescue Dawn was way, way off base, calling it unreleasable and sub straight-to-video. When I read this quote, it felt like someone reaching way too far -- probably with an ulterior motive in mind -- and boy, was this person wrong (if they sincerely hated the film, then there's absolutely no way they liked Aguirre, Stroszek, Fitzcarraldo, etc.). For my money, Rescue Dawn might have been Herzog's greatest film, if not for a clumsy, conventional final 10 minutes that kind of reduces the meaning of the film. In essence, I'd describe it as an intriguing hybrid of Aguirre the Wrath of God, Apocalypse Now, Deliverance, The Pianist and Little Dieter Needs to Fly (obviously). Also, it just got picked up by MGM (there was an MGM logo before the print that screened at TIFF tonight). Anyway, don't believe the bullshit. It's an amazing film.
Posted by JD
at September 9, 2006 11:51 PM
comment #3
Nicol D
says ...
What about the Tony Kaye doc 'Lake of Fire' on abortion.
Supposedly it truly shows both sides and blew people away.
Why is this film not getting any attention? It surely is a hot button topic and kaye can direct...
Posted by Nicol D
at September 10, 2006 6:35 AM
comment #4
jumpy
says ...
thanks for this post!
Posted by jumpy
at September 10, 2006 7:35 AM
comment #5
Steve Rhodes
says ...
Often a documentary only has festival rights to the archival footage and music used (I've heard of films where the final music rights were more than the original budget for the film).
And there sometimes is other sound and image work done before film prints are made.
Posted by Steve Rhodes
at September 11, 2006 4:54 PM