It was just over a year ago that Warner Bros. turned heads by picking up the domestic rights to Ryan Gosling‘s directorial debut, then called “How To Catch A Monster.” Not only was it surprising that the ambitious movie had landed at a major studio, and the amount of money WB paid — $3 million — raised eyebrows. But it seems the studio is now having some major second thoughts.
Deadline reports that Warner Bros. are now buying drinks for indie/specialty distributors in the hopes that one of them will be interested in picking up and distributing the movie, since it had its ass handed to it by critics at Cannes. It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out, and who will roll the dice on releasing what some have already called this year’s “Southland Tales.” (And whether or not WB can get that $3 million back.) That being said, let’s not go crazy and call this film unreleasable.
While our review called the movie “kind of juvenile and dumb,” it’s not without its merits. As we noted in our feature today, the performances are pretty solid, the soundtrack by Johnny Jewel is ace, and even while this movie doesn’t work, it does show that Gosling has some good directorial instincts at his core.
And while Deadline thinks “Lost River” will see a release in theatres by the end of the year, something tells us that whoever winds up with this one, they’ll wait until 2015 — perhaps the spring — where they can get the most mileage out of what is a decidedly oddball picture.
As one of the critics said, it's sometimes bad when you get to know your heroes. An imitative mess put out by a shallow poseur. The best thing that could happen to Gosling is that his "fans" never see this.
Whats with all the back handed comments on The film. Indiewire is now just a place where jealous writers write about others peoples work and for the sake of trying to make themselves feel good. Chill out on the flop, we get it you don't like the film because its bit budget superhero production right?
3 million for an actor's stab at an indie, avant-garde-esk art film? That seems like chump change. Maybe hire a lesser known for Green Latern rather than Bradley Cooper.
"let's not go crazy and call this film unreleasable."
Oh no, Kevin. Let's not do that…
This may end up as a cautionary tale to the many, many, many actors who are planning to make their directorial debuts.
And this is AFTER they made him change the title too lmao. Cold but funny.
As a long time Gosling disliker, trying to fight the good fight in convincing people that he was overrated and mediocre, this is a GLORIOUS time.
They were dumb for blind buying it in the first place. For one, Gosling has NEVER been bankable. They had just come off of Gangster Squad which was a huge bomb for the studio. Why would they put that trust in him? I haven't seen it but I read the script and it was awful. The red flags were all present.
Seriously, what's with the vitriol from the commenters? Because he's a young handsome guy you want to see fail? Some girl who dumped you really loved The Notebook? Whether this is a good movie or not some of you seem more obsessed with giving him a hard time than girls on tumblr are about fawning over him. It's hilariously creepy.
Gosling's career crashing and burning so quickly. The fall cometh!
The twenty people who pant over him online are the only people who see his movies. Why is he still around?
All Gosling movies are apparently releasable – they just always lose money.
The way you guys are backpedaling since the original critic is frigging hilarious.
Have you been scolded by some studio exec ?
Great headline, dick bags.
lolzzzzzz