That's right folks, not even indie film festivals are safe anymore from the movie moguls and their "throw more money at it" philosophies. Movie production studio Paramount offered writer/director Craig Brewer $10 Million dollars for his feature length film Hustle & Flow which played over the weekend at the Sundance Film Festival. It marks the largest amount of money ever paid for rights to a movie debuting at the festival.
With a chain of flops and mediocre movies over the last couple of years (including the abismal Stepford Wives, sleepy Without A Paddle, embarrassing Perfect Score, unsuccessful Suspect Zero, and the disappointing remake of The Manchurian Candidate) Paramount's man-in-charge Brad Grey seems to be trying a new strategy. It's not all original as business strategies go; the rest of the business world has been doing it for centuries: buy low, sell high.
Hustle and Flow is Craig Brewer's third film. It tells the story of a pimp living in Memphis Tennessee. During a midlife crisis he decides to quit his job and become a rap artist. Presumably the few hundred people at Sundance enjoyed the film, despite it's thin sounding plot. Paramount is praying that the other 285 million people in America will find it enjoyable too.
Meanwhile, Sundance should be expecting a major surge in movie submissions for next year's festival. If the lottery system has taught us anything, it's that people will do anything for a chance at millions of dollars, no matter how slim their odds. I fully expect to see my neighbor's summer vacation footage in an envelope next week, addressed to the Sundance Submission Selection Committee.
