“Bad Education,” a dramedy starring Hugh Jackman as the embezzling superintendent of district of schools in Long Island, N.Y., was set to be this year’s “I, Tonya.” Th…
as the embezzling superintendent of district of schools in Long Island, N.Y., was set to be this year’s “I, Tonya.” The movie has the same biting tone, shifting between comedy and tragedy. It received strong reviews out of the. And like “I, Tonya,” it even co-stars Allison Janney, this time playing a corrupt school administrator instead of the heartless matriarch to Tonya Harding.
“Bad Education” is hardly alone in a club of orphaned festival indies. Distributors are more reticent to shell out top dollar, even with the names of big actors attached. “The Friend,” a dramedy with Casey Affleck and Dakota Johnson; “Citizen K,” Alex Gibney’s documentary about a Russian plutocrat who runs afoul of Putin, and “Blackbird,” with Susan Sarandon and Kate Winslet, are still looking for studio homes.
Privately, sources say, the sales agencies for “Bad Education” considered screening the film at some point in the summer to distributors in hopes of scoring a lucrative deal setting an early awards agenda. The film’s producers pushed back against that strategy, opting instead to roll the dice in Toronto, according to one knowledgeable insider.
Tom Bernard, who co-heads the indie label, said that quality was a problem. “If you had ten great movies here, they’d go for large amounts of money,” he argued.
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