SpoutBlog on spout.com

IFC Slims Down: Trade Roughage 08/15/07

Under discussion:
Escape from New York (1981)
Mr. and Mrs. Smith (2005)
300 (2007)
Little Miss Sunshine (2006)
Day Night Day Night (2006)
Live Free or Die Hard (2007)
The Boss of it All (2006)
This is England (2006)
Paranoid Park (2007)
Hannah Takes the Stairs (2007)

Under discussion:

Escape from New York (1981)

Mr. and Mrs. Smith (2005)

300 (2007)

Little Miss Sunshine (2006)

Day Night Day Night (2006)

Live Free or Die Hard (2007)

The Boss of it All (2006)

This is England (2006)

Paranoid Park (2007)

Hannah Takes the Stairs (2007)

Giving credence to rumors that have been floating around for many weeks, IFC confirmed yesterday that they’re planning to move away from distributing moderate-budget festival acquisitions in order to concentrate more attention on their IFC FirstTake program. This can only be good news for VOD-loving indie film fans. FirstTake has brought some of the year’s best films to cable boxes, including Day Night Day Night, Lars Von Trier’s The Boss of it All, and current selection This is England; they already have plans to distribute highly-anticipated (by me, at least) festival holdovers such as Hannah Takes the Stairs and Gus Van Sant’s Paranoid Park. Can you imagine what they could do if they tried harder?
Fox has struck a deal with what appears to be some kind of unofficial union called the Writing Partners, designed to lure top screenwriters to the studio by promising that the scribes will earn money off the gross if the movies get made. This seems to be more thinly-veiled strike hysteria: Fox is worried that the crunch to get pictures in the can over the next twelve months will result in a dearth of quality, so they’re doing whatever it takes to get confirmed hit makers (Mr and Mrs Smith scribe Simon Kinberg and Little Miss Sunshine Oscar winner Michael Arndt are among the Partners) on board while they can.
Len Wiseman, fresh off of resurrecting the Die Hard franchise, is in talks to steer a remake of Escape From New York. Gerard Butler (better known as “that guy from 300“) is apparently lined up to play the Kurt Russell role.