Toronto Film Festival: Where Were All the Big Sales?

Although agents and buyers were gearing up for what they called a healthy acquisitions market leading up to this year’s Toronto Film Festival, the annual event wrapped on Sunday with relatively few big sales — and many filmmakers still scrambling to find distribution for projects with A-list talent. By midday Monday, hot sales titles like Dakota Johnson and Jason Segel’s “The Friend,” Hugh Jackman’s “Bad Education” and Daniel Radcliffe’s “Guns Akimbo” still hadn’t sold. But according to multiple insiders, that’s not because the quality of the product on offer. After this year’s Sundance, where a handful titles were sold for eight-figure prices only to fizzle out at the indie box office, filmmakers and distributors are taking their time to make sure the deal is beneficial on both sides, one insider told TheWrap. “The pacing of Toronto is different than Sundance,” another insider said. “There are millions of dollars at stake, so people are taking their time.” After all, ahead of the festival, many sales agents had anticipated sales, but not at the volume of Sundance. Also Read: Riz Ahmed's 'Sound of Metal' Picked Up by Amazon Studios Still, some indie distributors did take the plunge. Sony Pictures Classics acquired two...

Read original story Toronto Film Festival: Where Were All the Big Sales? At TheWrap