Following the world premiere a few days ago at Cannes, Ryan Gosling’s directorial debut Lost River was met with polarizing reactions. I’ll let Sam Adams from Criticwire catch you up on the initial reactions. Now Deadline reports that Warner Bros, who had brought the film to Cannes and has a working relationship (Crazy, Stupid, Love. & Gangster Squad) with Ryan Gosling, are now meeting with smaller independent distributors to discuss selling the film.
I’m sure I’m not alone in feeling disappointed in the largely negative feedback for Lost River, as I want Ryan Gosling to succeed not only as an actor but as a director. With that said though I’ve got enough good faith toward Gosling to see the film when it’s released and try to be as receptive as I can. And while Warner Bros selling the film screams “abandon ship!”, this may actually be what is best for both the studio and the film. Warner Bros is more familiar in selling larger budget films, the most independent they have gotten in recent years is Her and Argo, which they certainly proved they could capitalize on.
This film from the beginning (read its logline) seemed it would not be a film that would dominate the box office by any means, and that’s okay because that’s not the audience it was looking for. Good reviews or not, it’s questionable that Warner Bros would have known how to handle this film. This film would benefit in the long run a lot more from a distributor that has experience selling “risky” and “weird” films. I personally hope that A24 (Locke, The Rover, Under the Skin) is among those that Warner Bros is meeting with, as their track record proves they could handle this film well. We’ll be sure to report on the outcome of this transaction.
Lost River is written and directed by Ryan Gosling. It stars Christina Hendricks, Iain De Caestecker, Saoirse Ronan, Matt Smith, Eva Mendes and Ben Mendelsohn. It currently has no release date.
