Fox Searchlight acquires crowd-pleasing Slumdog

Disc Announcements, News

In less than a week, Fox Searchlight has acquired not one, but two properties at the Toronto International Film Festival that could potentially position themselves in the Juno (formerly Little Miss Sunshine, formerly Sideways, formerly The Full Monty) slot for Best Picture at Oscars.

We’ve already mentioned how Searchlight acquired The Wrestler, but now the distributor has also picked up Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire, a coming-of-age tale set in India that involves a competition on the country’s “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?”

Both films screened to enthusiastic applause, and Slumdog signaled its potential to become a fall crossover hit, just as Searchlight’s Juno did last year after Toronto.

The two hits of the festival, along with another Toronto crowd-pleaser, “The Secret Life of Bees,” ensure that Searchlight should become a major player in the fall box-office race and the awards competition.

The word is that Searchlight is planning a very limited start for its Slumdog release when it bows in November, with the option of expanding up to 1,000 screens quickly if the film immediately catches on.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

Travis Leamons is one of the Inside Pulse Originals and currently holds the position of Managing Editor at Inside Pulse Movies. He's told that the position is his until he's dead or if "The Boss" can find somebody better. I expect the best and I give the best. Here's the beer. Here's the entertainment. Now have fun. That's an order!