Danny Boyle's 'Slumdog Millionaire' First Film Co-Bought In Warner Bros. Movie Firesale

“Everything must go! We’re slashing prices on tons of films we acquired! Bargain basement prices!” OK, it wasn’t like that exactly, but just last week Warner Bros. chief Alan Horn (who’s seemingly well disliked these days), said due to the absorption of Warner Independent Pictures and New Line, WB was overstocked with film titles and the company was looking to sell off some of their fall surplus (see it sounds like rug warehouse, no?).

Films titles that came up in contention, deemed worthless enough to be sold were Guy Ritchie’s “Rock N Rolla” (too British apparently), “Pride and Glory” starring Ed Norton and Colin Farrell (too NYPD-bluey evidently) and Danny Boyle’s “Slumdog Millionaire” (too everything, hold that thought).

Well, it seems like someone was listening when Horn said a lot of good (but un-mainstream in his eyes) films were up for grabs. Fox Searchlight – who worked with Danny Boyle on his vastly underrated psychological sci-fi drama “Sunshine” – have jumped on board and struck a deal to co-finance the distribution of ‘Slumdog.‘ It’s exactly what Warners was looking for. Someone to carry the load of distribution so their burden lessens and they can preoccupy themselves with larger, un-specialty-like audience films.

Based on a true story, the film is about an illiterate boy from the Mumbai slums who wins a ton of money on the Indian version of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire,” in hopes of winning the affections of his ex-girlfriend. It sounds a bit more “Millions” than “Trainspotting” (i.e. sweet instead of hip), but that’s more than OK with us.

‘Slumdog’ was due November 7 when it was under the aegis of WIP, but it remains unclear if that date will be held. The film will appear at the upcoming Toronto International Film Festival and according to Variety it will also play at the Telluride Film Festival which runs August 29-September 1, but films aren’t generally announced to the day of (and it still totally sells out in advance!)