The Toronto International Film Festival wrapped up September 18, but the 41st edition of the fest continues to be a source of exciting film news. Both Ana Lily Amirpour’s follow-up to “A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night” and Eleanor Coppola’s feature narrative directorial debut have found homes.
Screen Media Films has acquired the U.S. rights for Amirpour’s “The Bad Batch.” The dystopian love story made its North American Premiere at TIFF following its debut at the Venice Film Festival, where it took home the Special Jury Prize.
“The Bad Batch” will get a theatrical release towards the beginning of 2017, and is scheduled to screen at Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas later this month. The film was produced by VICE and Annapurna Pictures. In addition to directing, Amirpour wrote the script.
VICE’s executive creative director Danny Gabai praised Amirpour’s “beautifully freaky vision.” “She’s created a film that’s unlike anything else out there, and we can’t wait to get ‘The Bad Batch’ on the big screen so we can start making people’s brains hurt,” he said.
“‘The Bad Batch’ is truly a cinematic experience, which needs to be seen on the big screen,” added Amirpour. “It just won’t be the same on a small scale and I’m excited to release it with Screen Media who totally gets that.” Netflix holds the SVOD rights to the film.
Amirpour made her feature writing and directing debut with 2014’s critically acclaimed vampire story “A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night.”
“Paris Can Wait,” writer-director Eleanor Coppola’s first foray into feature narrative filmmaking, has been picked up by SPC, Screen Daily reports. The film centers on an American couple (Diane Lane and Alec Baldwin) visiting Cannes. Unforeseen circumstances lead to Lane’s character embarking on a two-day road trip from Cannes to Paris with her husband’s business associate.
Coppola served as one of the producers on the film, which Screen Daily writes “is an American Zoetrope and Lifetime Films production in association with Corner Piece Capital and Tohokushinsha Film Corp.” A + E Television has second TV window rights to “Paris Can Wait.” Coppola directed 1991’s “Hearts Of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse.” The doc centers on the making of “Apocalypse Now,” which was helmed by Francis Ford Coppola, her husband.
Other TIFF 2016 deals include Lone Scherfig’s WWII dramedy “Their Finest” and “Jackie,” a Jacqueline Kennedy biopic starring Natalie Portman.
