As Sundance is coming to a close today, the festival’s most talked-about distributors, Neon, A24, and Netflix, continue to make news. Following Neon’s recent acquisition of Together in the $15M range, Netflix has acquired the Joel Edgerton/Felicity Jones drama Train Dreams, while A24 has picked up Eva Victor’s Sorry, Baby, with more deals likely to come.
Netflix has reportedly paid in the high-teen millions for Train Dreams, which I reviewed here. The film is based on the Denis Johnson novella and stars Joel Edgerton as Robert Grainer, an ordinary man who lives a simple but profound life as a day laborer and logger in the early 20th-century American West. Joining Edgerton in the cast are Felicity Jones, William H. Macy, and Kerry Condon.
The duo of Clint Bentley and Greg Kwedar teamed up on the film. Bentley directed and co-wrote the script with Kwedar. They previously worked together on two other festival favorites, Jockey in 2021, and Sing Sing in 2023.
It’s a little disappointing on my end that Train Dreams might not get a long theatrical rollout as it certainly deserves one.
Meanwhile, indie distributor A24 has acquired Sorry, Baby from writer, director, and star Eva Victor. Final numbers appear to be in the $8M range. Victor stars as Agnes, a college professor attempting to move on from a sexual assault. Also in the cast are Naomi Ackie, Lucas Hedges, Louis Cancelmi, John Carroll Lynch, and Kelly McCormack.
A24 would not have been where I thought Sorry, Baby would end up. I would’ve thought Focus Features or maybe even Bleecker Street would have been more likely. But having A24 behind it guarantees Victor’s observant drama a certain amount of attention and that’s a good thing.
It’s been a quiet year for acquisitions at Sundance so far, but I expect that to change when Kiss of the Spider Woman undoubtedly racks up a record-breaking deal.
