Trade Round-Up: Sundance's Sunshine
· We have our first official big-buzz Sundance hit: Little Miss Sunshine, an ensemble comedy starring Greg Kinnear, Toni Collette and Steve Carell, was snapped up by Fox Searchlight for $10 million after an enthusiastically received premiere and a bidding war that went into the "wee hours." Look for a huge release next year, followed by disappointing box office take when it is completely eclipsed by a Norwegian documentary about sea lion reproduction. [Variety]
· As we mentioned earlier, Brokeback Mountain earns the Producers Guild's top honor. Larry H. Miller reacts by banning any movie with a producer credit from screening at his theaters. [Variety]
· Fox orders a half-hour sitcom based on former NBAer Paul Shirley's blog, "My So-Called NBA Career." The blogification of Hollywood begins, with agents adapting first: Goodbye Armani suits, hello soiled boxers! [Variety]
· Tommy Mottola has optioned the book Queens Reigns Supreme: Fat Cat, 50 Cent and the Rise of the Hip-Hop Hustler, with plans to develop a series. Industry watchers are touting it as the next Designing Women, just with bullet-riddled gangsta rappers sitting around trading saucy quips instead of southern belle interior decorators. [Variety]
· Ron Howard's The Da Vinci Code will open the Cannes Festival in May, to be immediately followed by crowds of French cinema elitists doing their weird-sounding version of booing. [THR]