Festival Buys: IFC Takes 'Unauthorized,' The Harvey Weinstein Doc; Deals For 'Rabbit Hole,' 'I Saw The Devil,' Almodovar's Next And 'Dredd'

It's been a big Toronto Film Festival for Harvey Weinstein, as The Weinstein Company picked up films like Dirty Girl, Sarah's Key and the surprise hit of the fest, Submarine. But there's another Harvey-related buy that might not make him as happy: IFC has picked up Unauthorized: The Harvey Weinstein Project, a documentary about the industry titan.

The Barry Avrich-directed and produced film is said by IFC to be "a powerful, uncensored, no-holds-barred account that traces Weinstein's path from concert promoter on the cold streets of Buffalo to his first trip to the Cannes Film Festival, where he arrived with one pair of pants and closed his first movie deal, to winning an Oscar, and breaking the bank with his first $100 million film." Avrich previously claimed the film would be balanced, rather than a hatchet job.

The film isn't yet finished, and a release date hasn't been reported.[Deadline]

After the break, sales deals for John Cameron Mitchell's Rabbit Hole, the Korean thriller I Saw the Devil, and pre-sales for Almodovar's next and Dredd.

I've heard increasingly good reaction to Rabbit Hole, the film by John Cameron Mitchell (Shortbus, Hedwig and the Angry Inch) that stars Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart as a couple dealing with the loss of their child.

LionsGate likes the movie, and has picked it up and already made plans to release it later this year in time for Oscar consideration. That's the studio's second big pickup at the Toronto Film Fest, after grabbing Robert Redford's The Conspirator yesterday. [Deadline]

Magnolia's genre arm Magnet has picked up I Saw the Devil, from The Good, the Bad the Weird director Kim Ji-woon. Starring Lee Byung-hyun and Oldboy's CHoi Min-sik, the film is a cops and killers thiller that has one hell of a trailer. (Or, it follows "a special agent on a twisted revenge mission after his wife is murdered by a serial killer.") The film will be released in early 2011. [Variety]

Sony Pictures Classics picked up North American rights to The Skin That I Inhabit, aka The Skin I Live In, aka the upcoming from Pedro Almodovar. The film, which is based on Thierry Jonquet's novel Mygale, began shooting last month with Antonio Banderas starring. Elena Anaya (Sex and Lucia) and Almodovar regular Marisa Paredes also appear in the story about "a plastic surgeon's revenge on the man who raped his daughter." [Deadline]

Finally, a couple of days back, Dredd scored a handful of pre-sale distribution deals, to the tune of $30m. And by 'a handful' I mean the picture has been sold in just about every territory other than the US. That goes a long way towards fully financing the picture, which begins shooting in November in South Africa.

Dredd is the new take on the classic British comic book series Judge Dredd. Karl Urban and Olivia Thirlby will star. [Variety]