Last week, indieWIRE ran a provocative piece by Anthony Kaufman about the financial woes of THINKfilm, one of my favorite indie distributors. Kaufman detailed the cash flow problems at THINKfilm, which were causing acrimony between the distrib and many of its filmmakers, who were alleging that the distributor hadn't paid what it owed to them, as well as to advertising companies charged with marketing films under THINKfilm's banner.

Now indieWIRE has a follow-up piece up by Eugene Hernandez, which says that director/producer Alex Gibney, whose film Taxi to the Darkside won the best documentary Oscar this year and was supposed to receive a major theatrical push by THINKfilm following its win, is seeking more than $1 million in damages from the ailing distributor.

While THINKfilm did pay the film's producers the minimums guaranteed by their contract on May 5, Gibney's complaint alleges that THINKfilm failed to disclose that it did not have the financial resources to support the film's theatrical push following its Oscar win, and "jeopardized the success of the film by failing to abide by the terms of contracts it entered into with public relations firms and advisers and failed to pay such firms for work done and expenses incurred."

Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden's Sugar, the follow-up to their critically acclaimed Half Nelson, has finally been picked up for distribution. Variety's Mike Jones reports the film has been acquired for theatrical distribution by Sony Pictures Classics, which seems like a good fit for the film. HBO Films, which financed the film, retains television rights.

Sugar, which premiered at Sundance earlier this year, felt at the time like a tough sell after Half Nelson; it still does. The film, which is subtitled, tells the tale of a young baseball star from the Dominican Republic who crashes after getting moved up to the big leagues. It's really very much a coming-of-age kind of tale about this young boy who grew up poor but talented, always believing baseball to be his one ticket out.

With Ryan Gosling in the lead role, Half Nelson wowed audiences and even nabbed the actor an Oscar nomination. Now screenwriters Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden are finishing up their second feature film, Sugar, which Erik Davis wrote about back in March. Now The Hollywood Reporter has posted that HBO Films has signed onto the sweet team to finance and distribute the film, which will celebrate its world premiere next month at the snowy Sundance Film Festival in Joseph Smith country. HBO is currently trying to figure out if they want to debut the film in the network, or in theaters through Picturehouse. (This will be determined by reaction at Sundance.)

While the straight-to-television release might sound surprising, I imagine that's because there's no big name like Gosling starring in it. With Fleck and Boden sharing the directorial chair, Sugar is a "fish-out-of-water" story about a man named Miguel Sugar Santos, "a Dominican baseball prospect who is sent to play in a small Midwestern town after being scouted in his home country." Santos is being played by newbie actor Algenis Perez Soto, and he's joined by names such as Richard Bull (Nels Oleson on Little House on the Prairie) and Michael Gaston (Jericho).

While we might not get a chance to slump into those theater chairs with our popcorn and watch Sugar, we'll see the duo's work again on the big screen soon enough. As Erik posted in May, the team is adapting Special Topics in Calamity Physics for Miramax, and It's Kind of a Funny Story for Paramount.

The creative team behind the indie smash hit Half Nelson (the one where Ryan Gosling plays a crack-addicted history teacher) have decided to go back to school ... again; this time, according to Variety, Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden will adapt Marisha Pessl's novel Special Topics in Calamity Physics, with Fleck attached to direct and Boden on to exec produce. Pic marks the third project the duo have taken on since first making a splash with Nelson last year; prior to their work on Calamity Physics, Fleck and Boden will co-direct Sugar (based on a script penned by Fleck) in which a Dominican baseball prospect attempts to fight his way to the majors through the U.S. minor league system. Apart from that, they will also adapt and direct another high school-esque dramedy; Ned Vizzini's It's Kind of a Funny Story for Paramount.

Calamity Physics tells of a high school senior who, after spending each of her first three years in a different town with her highly eccentric on-the-go father, finally looks forward to settling down for a full senior year in a North Carolina high school. Eventually she befriends a group of fellow students (and geniuses) referred to as the Bluebloods, and from there it appears a teacher is killed and, before we know it, we're right smack in the middle of a murder-mystery. So much for that normal senior year, huh? Miramax Films and producer Scott Rudin will shovel this one out. Not sure which project they'll take on after Sugar, but having loved Half Nelson, I can't wait to see what these two have in store for us down the line.

Last season, Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden had a career year -- the kind most young filmmakers dream about when they're first starting out. Thanks, in part, to a superb Oscar-nominated performance by Ryan Gosling, their Half Nelson went from tiny indie film to major awards contender in the span of only a few months. Now, Fleck and Boden are looking for another break-out performance -- this time, they're heading to the Dominican Republic to find a star. The two will write and direct Sugar, to be produced by Journeyman Pictures and Hunting Lane Films (the two shingles behind Nelson), with HBO Films possibly interested in coming onboard as well.

Pic will delve into the world of minor league baseball, shown through the eyes of a young Dominican prospect snatched from his home country and brought to the United States to play ball. Though the film will be based on a fictional character named Miguel "Sugar" Santos, there's no doubt Fleck and Boden will look to expose the often shady world of baseball scouting by taking an innocent kid and dropping him in a cutthroat, competitive environment. With production set to begin later this summer, Fleck and producers are currently searching for their cast (which could include nonpros) and scouting locations in the Midwest and Dominican. Aside from Sugar, Fleck and Boden have also signed on to write and direct It's Kind of a Funny Story for Paramount.

Not many films take us inside the world of minor league baseball, especially from the vantage point of a foreigner asked to compete with and against a group of guys who have been training their entire lives to land a spot on one of these teams. Fleck chose a very claustrophobic style for Half Nelson, partly because the majority of scenes took place indoors -- thus, I'll be curious to see if he spreads things out a bit now, utilizing the open-aired environment of a baseball diamond as his canvas. Needless to say, I cannot wait for this one.

Perhaps host David Cross said it best when talking about the ever-present indie vs. studio issue currently shining a negative light on the Gotham Awards (a 16 year-old event that's supposed to honor low-budget indie flicks, yet somehow managed to include films with budgets close to $100 million): "We're here to celebrate the films that show you don't need a big studio, films with an untested director and cast -- films like The Departed. How that got greenlit I have no idea."

Of course, he's referencing the Martin Scorsese pic, which was one of five films nominated (Half Nelson, Little Children, Marie Antoinette and Old Joy being the other four) in the Best Feature category, despite it's $90 million budget. However, with its minuscule $1 million budget, Half Nelson came out victorious, taking home the award for Best Feature, while Ryan Fleck picked up the prize for Breakthrough Director and newbie Shareeka Epps won for Breakthrough Actor (an award she shared with Babel's Rinko Kikuchi). Babel also came out on top in the Best Ensemble Cast category, Iraq in Fragments won for Best Documentary and, last but certainly not least, Choking Man claimed the prize for Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You -- a category that specializes in honoring films that currently do not have theatrical distribution. For those of you interested in watching the ceremony (which took place last night), you can catch it on NYC TV next Wednesday, as well as on iFilm beginning this Monday.

So, what do you think -- do films like The Departed, Marie Antoinette ($40 million budget) and Babel ($25 million budget) belong at an event that's supposed to be geared toward indie flicks? Then again, the definition of "indie" was thrown out the window a long time ago, and is now used as more of a marketing tool than anything else.

Nominations have gone out for the 16th annual Gotham Awards, with Ryan Fleck's Half Nelson leading the pack. Pic, which revolves around the strong bond formed between a drug-addicted high school teacher and one of his students, picked up three nominations: Best Feature, Breakthrough Director (Ryan Fleck) and Breakthrough Actor (Shareeka Epps). This year's ceremony will be held on November 29 at New York's PIER SIXTY, Chelsea Piers. (Hey, I got married right next door at the Lighthouse!)

The Gotham Awards, which are presented by IFP and look to "celebrate the authentic voices behind and in front of the camera in films made this year" separate their awards into six categories: Best Feature, Best Documentary, Breakthrough Director, Best Ensemble Cast and, my personal favorite, Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You. Also on the agenda, Kate Winslet and Edward Norton will receive Gotham Tributes, while Alfonso Cuarón, Guillermo del Toro and Alejandro González Iñárritu will receive Gotham's first annual World Cinema Tribute for contributing "significantly in transforming their native cinema of Mexico."

Joining Half Nelson with multiple nods were Babel (Best Ensemble Cast, Breakthrough Actor, Rinko Kikuchi), Little Miss Sunshine (Best Ensemble Cast, Breakthrough Actor, Abigail Breslin) and In Between Days (Breakthrough Director, So Yoing Kim, Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You). Days has yet to find domestic distribution. So, what did they leave out?

Full lists of nominees after the jump.

Director Kevin Smith, guest hosting on Ebert and Roeper this week (he was sitting in for Roger Ebert, who is still recovering), waxed rhapsodic on Half Nelson, which opened today. How much did Smith love Half Nelson? Check out these quotes (courtesy of the PR firm repping the film):

"This pops. This pops in a big bad way. And also, when you look at it, it's the work of people who haven't made a lot of flicks. Like this dude, Fleck, this is, he took the short film he had, blew it up into this feature and it holds . . . You know, like it's an amazing piece to look at where, I sit there as a filmmaker and I'm like, this dude's way better than me. I've been doing this twelve years. This dude is phenomenal."

and ...

"There aren't enough thumbs in the world to do HALF NELSON half the justice it deserves. This is just simply an incredible film."

I have to agree with Smith that Half Nelson is great filmmaking. I'm curious to see how it does, box-office wise. It's opening against another indie flick, Conversations With Other Women, which stars the more well-known Aaron Eckhart and Helena Bonham-Carter, Oliver Stone's World Trade Center, family-flick Zoom, Pulse (which I haven't seen, but it doesn't seem to be the same demographic as Half Nelson anyhow) and dance extravaganza Step Up, which likewise caters to a different crowd. If Half Nelson can build up a little momentum in its release, star Ryan Gosling might very well be one to watch for come Oscar time. He certainly deserves a nod for this performance, but will he get enough notice to rate one?

By the by, no quotes from Ebert and Roeper co-host Richard Roeper were provided by the PR rep, which makes me wonder ... did Roeper not like the film? Or is his opinion just not considered as important as Smith's?

Teaching at an inner city middle school can be stressful, but Dan Dunne (Ryan Gosling) handles the kids under his tutelage with ease, engaging them in classroom discussions, bantering about their lives, even coaching the girls' basketball team. He's the kind of teacher you wish all your middle school teachers had been -- interesting, fair, and not condescending to his students just because they're kids. Yes, Dan is the perfect teacher, while he's on the job. It's after work, when he brings out the crack pipe, that his dark side comes out.

Dan, the protangonist of Half Nelson, is living a double life: Responsible schoolteacher by day, crackhead by night. An idealistic young man caught in the throes of a reality he doesn't know how to handle, Dan deals with his stressors by making them go away for awhile. He thinks he's got it all under control, and, like a lot of addicts, maintains the illusion of control on the surface, for awhile -- until the day one of his students, Drey (newcomer Shareeka Epps), walks in on him in the locker room post-game, prone on the floor, crack pipe in hand.

At only 26, writer Ned Vizzini has written three books, two of which are now being adapted for the big screen. His comedic voice, which tends to lean towards coming of age tales, has built him a strong cult following. I had the chance to meet Ned awhile back, right before his second book (Be More Chill) came out. At that time, Vizzini was desperately trying to solicit fans (through his website) to plant stickers promoting the book anywhere and everywhere. Down to earth and, well, chill, Vizzini was a one-man marketing army. Barely above the legal drinking age, he paid his rent by traveling from school to school, speaking to kids and reading from his books. Soon after, Miramax acquired the rights to Be More Chill and tapped the Weitz brothers to direct. However, that project seems to have fallen off the map, but not before Vizzini's third book (It's Kind of a Funny Story) found a home.

It was announced the other day that Paramount Pictures has teamed up with MTV Films and acquired Funny Story, with Ryan Fleck (Half Nelson) attached to direct. Described as a teenage One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, story centers around a clinically depressed 15-year-old who checks himself into an adult psychiatric ward in search of help. Regardless of whether or not this story makes it to the screen, I'm sure Vizzini has a bunch more lined up.