It seems Robert Redford’s “The Conspirator” has become the first significant sell of Toronto (a few things have been picked up here and there already). Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions (which is really stepping it up this year) have nailed down the domestic rights, but go ahead and strike the film from your longlists. It won’t be released until the spring, Deadline’s Mike Fleming reports.
Meanwhile, Patrick Goldstein sat down with Sally Hawkins, who has three films at the festival in “Never Let Me Go,” “Submarine” and “Made in Dagenham.” Andrea Riseborough is in two of those films (as well as “Brighton Rock”) and has been getting similar notices, but it’s Hawkins who could really make a dent on the season.
In his piece, Goldstein offers that for him, “what makes [‘Made in Dagenham’] work so well is that it doesn’t treat its story as a weighty political screed.”