Speaking with Michelle Monaghan & James Mottern about Trucker at the Tribeca Film Festival.

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Still, among the titles generating some buzz, was first-time director James Mottern’s “Trucker,” which stars Michelle Monaghan as a steely truck driver. (Ms. Monaghan also stars in the upcoming “Made of Honor” with Patrick Dempsey.) Many buyers compared the movie, which premiered Thursday night, to “Sherrybaby,” another American independent film which garnered a Golden Globe nomination for actress Maggie Gyllenhaal last year.

Ms. Rattray said she chose to premiere “Trucker” at Tribeca “as opposed to getting lost in a bigger festival like Toronto.” But she said it will most likely take some time to find a distributor and close on a deal. “At Sundance, we’ve been lucky to have bidding wars where films have sold that night. Tribeca is a different market,” she said. “The expectations are so different.”

• Full Article: Wall Street Journal

-This year’s Tribeca Film Festival had barely begun when the fest received the kind of vindication it has eagerly been seeking: A screening for the Michelle Monaghan family drama “Trucker” on Thursday night brought out execs from such studio specialty divisions as Miramax and Paramount Vantage, and even the Weinstein Co.’s Harvey Weinstein.

…The premiere of Plum Pictures’ “Bart Got a Room” played strongly Friday as Brian Hecker’s coming-of-age dramedy earned high marks for its depiction of teenage romance and family life in the South Florida suburbs. The screening of “Trucker,” another Plum movie, bore fruit, with at least two buyers said to be interested in acquiring the title. Other buzz titles included the Celia Cruz documentary “Celia the Queen,” Sissy Spacek’s “Lake City” and the Frank Langella thriller “The Caller.”

…Tribeca deals seemed likely to cook at their traditional slow burn. Titles like “Bart” and “Trucker” could find deals by fest’s end. Others may take longer and yield smaller pacts. (One overseas TV deal materialized: Channel 4/More 4 acquired U.K. TV rights to Julie Checkoway’s Billy Pappas doc “Waiting for Hockney.”)

• Full Article: www.hollywoodreporter.com

Could “Trucker” be the first big feature deal to come out of Tribeca in years? Sure, James Mottern’s drama, about a hard-bitten truck driver reconnecting with her pre-adolescent son after her ex falls ill, has so much minimalism, moodiness and blue-collar atmosphere it makes a Ray Carver story look like a chocolate milkshake (though with Michelle Monaghan at the center, it also has the most attractive truck driver you’ll ever see; we’ll never look at a CB radio the same way again).

But the film’s premiere at New York’s Village East Cinema — for our money, home to the coolest old theater in Gotham — drew a stable of acquisition execs Thursday evening. Buyers from Par Vantage, Sony Classics, Miramax, Searchlight — and, most juicily of all, Harvey Weinstein, who rarely sits for festival screenings but turned out for this one for at least an hour.

…If you’re thinking those elements makes the movie seem like a Sundance pic, you should. The movie actually was on a shortlist to play there this year until it became clear it wasn’t ready. But Plum, which after last year’s run with “Grace is Gone” and “Dedication” had a less auspicious Sundance this year with Craig Morgan’s “Birds of America” and the Alan Alda-Matthew Broderick collaboration “Diminished Capacity,” may have figured out a nifty little secret: Instead of premiering a movie into the maw of Park City because it feels like it belongs there, open the same movie in a smaller festival. That will make a tough-to-sell indie drama seem bigger and less difficult, and it could find buyers in a mood to spend money instead of to say no.

• Full Article: www.riskybusinessblog.com

Films with big buzz: supernatural thriller “From Within,” from some director named Papamichael. Drama “Trucker,” with an A-1 performance from Michelle Monaghan plus “Desperate Housewives” regular Nathan Fillion. “The Objective” from “The Blair Witch” people. The doc “This Is Not a Robbery” about America’s oldest bank robber. “The Auteur,” about the adult-film world’s Spielberg with Katherine Flynn, daughter of Jane Seymour, as a love interest. “Mister Lonely,” which stars Samantha Morton and Werner Herzog and features - ready? - a skydiving nun.From 2,329 submissions, it’s 121 feature films from 31 countries. Have a good time.

• Full Article:www.nypost.com/…