The Circuit

Palm Springs opened over the weekend with a special live version of "Shootout," where Peter Bart and Peter Gruber put the question "why festivals?" to the four assembled directors: Jason Reitman, Adam Shankman, John Sayles, and Joe Wright.  For films with distribs, loyalty and location are good reasons:

Reitman expressed a loyalty to Palm Springs for having shown his first short film while he was still a teen. Shankman, acknowledging the venue's accessibility from L.A, said the fest offered a celebratory reunion for the cast of the summer release.

For indies, John Sayles has other motives:

Sayles acknowledged that Palm Springs was "a great place to start buzz" while likening his film's rollout strategy to a "Paul Revere approach." On a city-by-city basis, Sayles and producer Maggie Renzi could effectively alert townspeople: " 'Honeydripper' is coming!"

Read Lael Loewenstein's article here.