Big wheels keep on turning

By Steven Zeitchik

Could "Trucker" be the first big feature deal to come out of Tribeca in years? Sure, James Mottern's drama, about a hard-bitten truck driver reconnecting with her pre-adolescent son after her ex falls ill, has so much minimalism, moodiness and blue-collar atmosphere it makes a Ray Carver story look like a chocolate milkshake (though with Michelle Monaghan at the center, it also has the most attractive truck driver you'll ever see; we'll never look at a CB radio the same way again).

But the film's premiere at New York's Village East Cinema -- for our money, home to the coolest old theater in Gotham -- drew a stable of acquisition execs Thursday evening. Buyers from Par Vantage, Sony Classics, Miramax, Searchlight -- and, most juicily of all, Harvey Weinstein, who rarely sits for festival screenings but turned out for this one for at least an hour -- all showed up to view the Plum Pictures title just a little while after Madonna's Malawi advocacy piece "I Am Because We Are" unspooled for distributors down in actual Tribeca.

With many heads of companies at home in either New York or Los Angeles, an overnight sale on "Trucker" is unlikely. But six figures and a respectable theatrical run -- something which hasn't been all that common at Tribeca over the last few years -- may not be too farfetched for the Cinetic-repped pic being handled by 42 West.

If you're thinking those elements makes the movie seem like a Sundance pic, you should. The movie actually was on a shortlist to play there this year until it became clear it wasn't ready. But Plum, which after last year's run with "Grace is Gone" and "Dedication" had a less auspicious Sundance this year with Craig Morgan's "Birds of America" and the Alan Alda-Matthew Broderick collaboration "Diminished Capacity," may have figured out a nifty little secret: Instead of premiering a movie into the maw of Park City because it feels like it belongs there, open the same movie in a smaller festival. That will make a tough-to-sell indie drama seem bigger and less difficult, and it could find buyers in a mood to spend money instead of to say no.

And, oh yes, do it after a really earnest screening of a documentary about an AIDS pandemic in Africa. That might help too. It could make a drama seem...not quite as bleak.

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