MONTREAL -- The New Montreal FilmFest, which struggled to attract big-name films to its inaugural edition, has lost its only marquee title: New Line has yanked Tony Scott's Keira Knightley starrer "Domino," due to close the event on Sunday.
A New Line spokesman explained Monday that the fictionalized biography based on the life of the late bounty hunter Domino Harvey, daughter of thesp Laurence Harvey, had been given to the fest by its Canadian distributor.
However, as no talent is available to attend the fest, New Line decided there was no benefit to publicly screening the film so far in advance of its Oct. 14 commercial bow.
Now the FilmFest must scramble to find a closer; execs hope to announce a replacement today.
It's the latest blow to the fest, already suffering from a schism between prexy Alain Simard and his programming chief Moritz de Hadeln that's delighting rival execs at the Montreal World Festival, the event that FilmFest was created to replace.
The battle of wills between the two erupted in public on Saturday when de Hadeln criticized Simard's company, L'Equipe Spectra, in a front-page article in Montreal newspaper Le Devoir. Spectra runs the FilmFest, the Montreal Intl. Jazz Festival and French-music event Les Francofolies.
De Hadeln said Spectra was "good at getting sponsors" but that he wanted to be independent of the company machine. He went on to criticize Spectra's press team, which he said was not knowledgeable enough about the film biz.
Stunning attack on the night before the fest's bow can't bode well for de Hadeln's future in Montreal.
However, sources say the real reason for friction between the two men is a disagreement over next year's FilmFest dates.
Simard wants a summer berth, probably August, so he can hold a big outdoor celebration similar to his jazz and French-music fests.
De Hadeln -- a heavyweight veteran of the Berlin and Venice film festivals -- is more concerned with the worldwide film festival calendar.
His priority is to move the event as far away from September's Toronto fest as possible because he cannot compete against it for films and business. He's targeted either early June or late October, but Simard is unhappy with those dates.
De Hadeln has even suggested that the FilmFest take 2006 off to allow Serge Losique's rival Montreal World Film Festival to have one last edition to mark its 30th anniversary.
The idea is contingent on Losique agreeing to retire his fest, allowing the Spectra film festival to take sole control of the city's film scene in 2007.
The New Montreal FilmFest was designed by funders Telefilm Canada and Sodec to replace Losique's event, but Losique isn't giving up easily.
Losique told
Daily Variety on Monday that he would be back next year and for the years to come. He also said the turf war between Simard and de Hadeln was predictable.
"It's not surprising," said Losique, who has had many bitter battles over the years with de Hadeln and has instigated three fest- and sponsor-related lawsuits.
"Telefilm Canada orchestrated a putsch against the World Film Festival, and they've made Montreal the laughingstock of the world. We need a public inquiry. All that I predicted is coming true."
Contact the Variety newsroom at
news@variety.com