Money Flows in Acquisitions Madness

My posting yesterday was limited kind of pathetically to a few brief morning items; I could make any number of excuses (note to self: never stay at Yarrow Hotel again), but you don't want to hear it. What's far more interesting -- shocking, perhaps -- is that Sony Pictures Classics paid almost $2 million for the rights to My Kid Could Paint That, a genuinely terrific documentary that nevertheless seems like an extremely tough turnaround at that price; I have no idea how SPC will market this outside the cities. Of course, I hope I'm wrong, and it may be that SPC is listening to the rumors around Park City that have Kid pegged as an Audience Award front-runner. God knows it deserves it -- and needs it. (Read more Reeler coverage of the film and its premiere here.)

Meanwhile, Fox Searchlight made its second big pick-up of the festival with the late Adrienne Shelly's Waitress (above); Gregg Goldstein and Nicole Sperling note a $4 million sale over at Risky Biz. I'm just not that impressed with the film (which The Reeler covered in depth in the run up to Sundance), but a lot of critics I've spoken to are into it and the gang at Searchlight is essentially printing money these days, so if Tony Safford says $4 million is OK, that's good enough for me.

Also, at last night's Picturehouse party, company president Bob Berney told me he bought the Slamdance video-game obsessives doc The King of Kong; the deal entitles Picturehouse to a theatrical release and remake rights for New Line to put together a fiction feature. Meanwhile, the distributor's competition feature Rocket Science continues to play to raves around town; it's set for a spring release.

Posted at January 23, 2007 10:20 AM