Aquisitions: Imogene Goes To Lionsgate And Roadside Attractions As Errol Morris’ Next Finds A Home, More

As with any film festival, the biggest films and those with the most buzz often times find themselves a home relatively fast. And this year’s Toronto International Film Festival has been no different.

First up, Roadside Attractions have made quite a splash as they have not only taken the rights to Sarah Polley’s documentary, Stories We Tell but they have also picked up the rights to a film entitled Imogene. That picture stars Kristen Wiig, Annette Benning and Matt Dillon, and follows the story of a woman who fakes her own suicide in the hopes of getting back her main squeeze. The film is penned by Michelle Morgan and is helmed by the team of Robert Pulcini and Shari Springer Berman of American Splendor fame, so the potential there is very high. The Polley documentary? Well, that is an autobiographical feature looking at the life of her mother, and has been almost across the board praised. Lionsgate is working with Roadside on the former while the company has all the rights to the latter.

In other acquisition news, Errol Morris will be back with a new film, The Unknown Known, which has just been nabbed up by the team of History Films, Radius TWC and Participant Media, with Radius looking to toss the film into theaters come next year. Radius is the day and date VOD/theatrical wing of The Weinstein Company, so expect this to get quite a good deal of buzz leading up to its debut. It tells the story of Donald Rumsfeld and his involvement in US politics, so while the film itself should have a ton of buzz given its director, expect the subject matter to bring with it quite a good deal of baggage.

Finally, three companies are looking to nab the finally revealed Lords Of Salem from director Rob Zombie, and with some calling it the director’s best to date, expect either Anchor Bay, Millenium or Image to nab the film up relatively soon. Nothing has been set in stone yet, but it does seem likely that the film will hit either late this year (if someone decides to not rest on their laurels) or a Halloween release next year would be prime for what appears to be quite a brutal horror feature. One can only hope.