Saturday night saw the first high-profile purchase at the Sundance Film Festival.  Senator Distribution picked up the North American rights to "Brooklyn's Finest" - the latest police drama from Antoine ("Training Day") Fuqua.

According to Variety, "Brooklyn's Finest" sold to Senator for less than 5 million dollars, though the company's spokesman would only say he paid a "strong, muscular figure."  Five million does seem muscular to me, but I live below the poverty line so what do I know?  The distributor was apparently also willing to promise a few million extra to Fuqua for eventual promotion and advertising costs in the hopes that "Finest" will not become this year's "Hamlet 2" – a real concern when you sell to a distributor few people have ever heard of. 

After the sale, the Senator folk talked about their muscular purchase being a "work in progress" and mentioned that the ending of the film may eventually be reworked, quickly adding "but Antoine must be happy with it."  Gee, I'm sure he's happy as a clam just knowing how involved his new partner plans to be on the creative side!

"Brooklyn's Finest" stars Ethan Hawke, Don Cheadle and Richard Gere as police officers facing "moral dilemmas' -- is there another kind?  The film premiered on Friday in Park City and has been somewhat polarizing – I've read some positive things and at least one report that made me think that, no matter how they rework that ending, "Brooklyn's Finest" is destined to disappoint.  You can see what you think in about ten months as Senator plans on releasing the film in time for Oscar consideration.