More Toronto International Film Festival acquisitions abound, including the comedy "Imogene" and the documentary "The Unknown Known: The Life and Times of Donald Rumsfeld," right on the heels of Roadside Attractions picking up Sarah Polley's documentary "Stories We Tell."
Roadside, along with Lionsgate, grabbed the U.S. distribution rights for "Imogene," which stars Kristen Wiig as a writer who fakes her own suicide to win back her boyfriend and winds up living with her gambling-addicted mother (Annette Bening). Robert Pulcini and Shari Springer Berman ("American Splendor") directed the movie from a script by Michelle Morgan ("Cinema Verite"), but, according to our review, the movie belongs to Wiig and Bening, who both "elevate the material" alongside co-stars Matt Dillon and Darren Criss.
No word yet on when "Imogene" will land in theaters, but we wouldn't be surprised if the film sneaks into limited release before the end of the year to give Bening a chance at Oscar contention, before opening wide early next year. Alternately, it may well follow the path of another Wiig-starring picture, "Friends With Kids," which premiered at last year's TIFF, was also picked up by Lionsgate/Roadside Attractions, and went on to take a very healthy $7 million at the box office when released in March this year. If "Imogene" can manage the same, we imagine the companies would be delighted.
Meanwhile, "The Unknown Known" is the latest documentary from acclaimed director Errol Morris ("The Thin Blue Line"), and History Films, Radius-TWC and Participant Media are teaming up for the doc, which Radius (the simultaneous theatrical/VOD label of The Weinstein Company) plans to release theatrically sometime next year. As the title suggests, the film is a look at the former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's role in American politics from Watergate through the 9/11 attacks, through interviews and never-before-seen material taken from Rumsfeld’s private archive. If the doc is half as compelling as Morris' Academy Award-winning "The Fog of War," audiences win. [THR/Deadline]