Joseph Gordon-Levitt's 'Hesher' and Chace Crawford's 'Twelve' heading for wide release

Joseph Gordon-Levitt at the world premiere of "Hesher" at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.

Credit: AP Photo/Chris Pizzello

After the quick acquisitions of "The Kids Are All Right," "Buried" and "Waiting for Superman" you'd be hard pressed to guess "Hesher" and "Twelve" would be next in line for distribution, but the movie business works in mysterious ways. 

"Hesher," which features a great performance by Joseph Gordon-Levitt and little else, received mostly negative reviews, but according to Deadline.com, the producers were able to land a $1 million deal from Newmarket after a non-festival screening won the audience over.  The indie plans to release the film sometime this fall.

The festival ends today with the premiere of "Twelve," but the film has already landed a distributor after its press and industry screening on Tuesday.  "Twelve" stars "Gossip Girl" star Chace Crawford and other hyped young stars such as Emma Roberts and .  Directed by Joel Schumacher, the slick looking picture is set among the fabulous and catty world of upper west side teenagers and is based on the novel by Nick McDonnel.  One of the worst reviewed films at the festival (not to mention unintentionally funny), "Twelve" was independently financed by French production outfit Gaumont.  Now, a new player to the scene, the film and video arm of publisher Hannover House, is coming in to acquire the film for $2 million.  Obviously not as interested in quality as in DVD sales, the company plans a wide release later this year.  They have also hired former Lionsgate marketing chief Tom Ortenberg's new marketing firm to handle the release. Don't be surprised if they take a bath on this one.

Reports also have bidders hunting the well-recieved horror flick "Splice."

Other films expected to land deals include "happythankyoumoreplease," "Winter's Bone," "Catfish," "I Am Pat Tillman" and "The Company Men."

The 2010 Sundance Film Festival will announce this year's jury and audience awards on Sunday.

Gregory Ellwood
Editor-in-Chief, Co-Founder

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With over a decade of experience in the movie industry, Ellwood survived working for two major studios and has written for Variety, MSN and the LA Times. A co-founder of HitFix, Ellwood spends his time relaxing hitting 3’s on the basketball court and following his beloved Clippers.