Sundance shopping spree begins

Other than being a great launching pad for smaller Indie films, the Sundance Film Festival is also the perfect place for micro-budget flicks to find distributors.

Which has been wholeheartedly proven this weekend over in Utah.

Ryan Reynolds’ one-man-in-a-box flick Buried screened to rave reviews on Saturday, which resulted in a massive bidding war for the film’s distribution rights.

Lionsgate emerged victorious, forking out $3.2m for the film.

Meanwhile, over in Hollywood, 20th Century Fox picked up the rights to Robert Rodriguez’s Machete . The super-studio apparently beat off competition from five other studios who were all sniffing around the project.

Hopefully this means we’ll see both films within the next 12 months or so. Stay tuned for more bargain buys at Sundance...

Think Lionsgate made the right move? Speak to us...

Josh Winning has worn a lot of hats over the years. Contributing Editor at Total Film, writer for SFX, and senior film writer at the Radio Times. Josh has also penned a novel about mysteries and monsters, is the co-host of a movie podcast, and has a library of pretty phenomenal stories from visiting some of the biggest TV and film sets in the world. He would also like you to know that he "lives for cat videos..." Don't we all, Josh. Don't we all.