Telluride Post-Date: Ghosts of Cite Soleil and Rescue Dawn

Here's some more Telluride news (and my full-length THR wrap):

Ghosts of Cite Soleil: Among the films that lacked distribution, only thrill-seeking documentarian Asger Leth's Ghosts of Cite Soleil generated any interest from buyers. A shocking cinema verite, it follows a fearless blond French relief worker into the inner sanctum of the vicious gangs running Haiti's notorious slum, Cite de Soleil. A sizzling soundtrack by Haitian rapper Wyclef Jean should enhance its marketability.

One invited film never made it to Telluride: Werner Herzog's recently completed feature Rescue Dawn, starring Christian Bale as Deiter Dengler, an American pilot whose story was told in Herzog's 1997 docu Little Dieter Needs to Fly. Herzog said he couldn't get the money to free the print from the lab. In Telluride, one distributor reported that he had screened and liked the movie, but the film was so tied up with multiple producers and accounting issues that it would be difficult to negotiate a sale. There is still a question as to whether Rescue Dawn will make its scheduled dates at the upcoming Toronto International Film Festival. Waiting for his bags at LAX, a zen-like Herzog said that he thought the print would come through in time.