Jane Campion’s much buzzed-about “Bright Star” starring an excellent Abbie Cornish, might have ended-up empty-handed award-wise at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, but the distributors of the film still feel the 18th century, period-piece romance has awards legs.
Bill Pohlad (formerly of River Road Entertainment) and Bob Berney’s (founder of IFC Films) new North American distribution venture bought the film before the festival began and haven’t come up with a name for their company, but they’re sounding secure the film could do well during awards season. The film is now set for a September 18 release, which is right after the Toronto International Film Festival.
“Toronto will be the launch of the campaign,” Berney told Anne Thompson during Cannes, presumably confident that TIFF will accept the film (if they haven’t already).
Even more remarkable, Pohlad and Berney, bought the film sight unseen and simply purchased it based off its script and a set-visit they once made. They’re planning on marketing this one towards teenage girls which seems like a dubious prospect considering something like “Twilight,” is in a different stratosphere, but who knows. Either way, “Bright Star” may have missed out on awards during Cannes, but sounds like it will have another shot during the beginning of awards season which generally commences with TIFF.
According to the Globe & Mail, Campion says her next feature-film project is adapting Alice Munro’s short story collection, “Runaway,” which generally centers on young women trapped or fleeing certain, often romantic, situations.