Indie Deals: 'Special' to Magnolia/Magnet
Filed under: Drama, Independent, Deals, Magnolia, Distribution, Cinematical Indie
I saw Special at Austin Film Festival back in October 2006 and hadn't heard a thing about the quirky little film since then. As you can see from my review, I liked this story about a guy whose antidepressant makes him think he's a superhero, and Michael Rapaport was excellent in the lead. Now the news in Hollywood Reporter is that Special's North American theatrical distribution rights have been sold. Magnet Releasing, the genre division of Magnolia Pictures, plans to release the film in the late summer, which should provide a fun counterpoint to early-summer comic-book-hero blockbusters.Special premiered at Sundance in 2006, which shows you can't give up hope that a film-fest movie you enjoyed might someday hit theaters. Hollywood Reporter notes that the film's leads may be one reason the deal was made. Rapaport has a role on a continually popular TV show, The War at Home. Josh Peck, who plays one of Rapaport's comic-book-loving sidekicks in Special, starred in one of the hits of Sundance this year, The Wackness. Scott Weinberg didn't like it much, or Peck's performance, but he seems to be in the minority. Perhaps this deal is Magnolia's gamble that if The Wackness does well, Special can ride on its coattails, but I think Special has its own comic merits.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
2-18-2008 @ 6:15PM
Joseph J. Finn said...
"and Michael Rapaport was excellent in the lead."
I'm sorry, but that's unpossible. I've seen "War at Home."
Reply
2-18-2008 @ 7:16PM
MCW said...
He was excellent in War At Home. See him in My Name is Earl? Hilarious in that too. Why does everyone hate him?
2-18-2008 @ 9:49PM
Joseph J. Finn said...
Because he's stupefyingly unfunny and his Boston shtick is even worse. Even on My Name is Earl, a show with much better writing than War At Home (which even on Fox couldn't last more than a couple of seasons), he was unable to produce more than a mild chuckle.
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2-18-2008 @ 10:19PM
Jen said...
I absolutely would have agreed with you-- before I saw this movie. Give him one more chance because this is a great film and his best performance yet.
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2-19-2008 @ 12:04PM
Tom Quinn said...
The acquisition of SPECIAL was all because of the movie. Not really any other reason. We actually tried to buy it when we saw it at Sundance, but a competing deal, which later fell apart, beat us to the punch.
-Tom Quinn, Magnolia/Magnet
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