Sundance sales heat up

On the fifth day, the checkbooks came out.

After a very slow start for sales at the Sundance Film Festival, the buyers started purchasing movies, with a flurry of deals that closed -- or were closing -- early this morning.
After an all-night negotiating session, Fox Searchlight paid $5 million for most worldwide rights to “Choke,” writer-director Clark Gregg’s adaptation of the Chuck Palahniuk novel. The film, which screened for the first time late Monday night, stars Sam Rockwell, Anjelica Huston and Kelly Macdonald.

Focus Features closed a deal for the comedy “Hamlet 2,” a late entry into the festival that was shown for the first time in Park City on Monday afternoon. Focus ponied up about $10 million for most of the worldwide rights to the film, which follows a high school teacher (David Arquette) who decides to motivate his students by penning a sequel to Shakespeare's masterwork.

And the domestic rights to “Henry Poole Is Here,” director Mark Pellington’s movie about a middle-aged man (Luke Wilson) coming to terms with his own mortality, were sold to the new production and distribution company Overture Films for about $4.5 million. Others interested in the bittersweet drama, which also screened for the first time Monday afternoon, included Focus Features and Warner Independent Pictures.

-- John Horn

(Photo: Morgan Lily and Luke Wilson attend the "Henry Poole is Here" premiere. Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)