Deals Start to Flow at Sundance

Paramount Vantage today agreed to buy American Teen, a documentary about four Midwestern high school seniors—a cheerleader, jock, art kid, and band geek—for an estimated $1 million to $2.5 million, according to Variety.com.

Paramount Vantage declined to confirm the price, Andrea Chalupa reports from Park City, Utah.

Critics praised the documentary for being an authentic representation of the awkwardness, humor, and drama of high school. Fox Searchlight and Sony Pictures Classic also went after American Teen but dropped out of negotiations last night.

In other deals, Fox Searchlight Pictures bought Clark Gregg's Choke for $5 million om a deal that closed yesterday at dawn.

"Fox Searchlight was very quick, very certain, very aggressive. They know how to pursue a movie," says United Talent Agency agent Rich Klubeck, who represented the twisted comedy. It's based on a Chuck Palahniuk novel and stars Sam Rockwell and Anjelica Houston as a dysfunctional mother/son team.

"They made us feel like they were the right company for the movie," Klubeck adds, "and illustrated during the process how working with them would be a good fit."

That was important, he says, because once a movie is sold, the distributors will be spending the next year with the filmmaker and cast to promote the movie, so you better go with a buyer whose easy to work with.

In one of the largest payouts ever, Focus Features paid $10 million for the foreign rights to Hamlet 2, a satire starring British comedian Steve Coogan.

Overture Films paid $3.5 million for the U.S. rights to Henry Poole is Here, a dark comedy starring Luke Wilson as a man who's figuring out how to spend his last days on earth. Mark Pellington is the director.

This Sundance, Klubeck and other big sellers didn't get the instant gratification of buying frenzies in previous years.

"The films are strong this year," Klubeck says. "But I don't know how many times I heard from buyers, 'Loved the film, [but] tough sell.'"

After a rough 2007, buyers are looking at films with obvious marketability. Klubeck points out that this is never a reliable formula: Last year's Once, a musical love story set in Dublin, was overlooked at the festival. Fox Searchlight bought it later, and the movie went on to gross nearly $10 million. Meanwhile, the much-hyped Grace Is Gone went to Harvey Weinstein for $4 million and grossed only $31,000.

With the buyers holding back this year, they'll be plenty of films leaving Sundance without distribution. This backlog could be a bargain bin as buyers stay away until the price gets really low.

(Photo: Hamlet2)