Rocknrolla Stars

By Borys Kit

Guy Ritchie's "Rocknrolla," which debuted here in Toronto Thursday night, got a warm welcome from the fest audience. But the Warners movie is still being set for a release that's not as wide as some involved with it would like.

The movie has seen its planned wide release curtailed to a limited release on Oct 8th, widening only to 800 screens on the 31st, mainly due to Warner Bros' execs having concerns about the movie's playability.

But not everyone involved with the film sees it the same way. "Watching it with this audience, it would be hard to agree" with those concerns, producer Susan Downey told Risky Biz. Downey also tipped that plan now may not be what's executed when the pic comes out. "(The release) is somewhat in flux," she said. "There are conversations that it could change."

What could make a change happen? Besides Toronto, the movie's play in the UK, where it opens this weekend.

One thing that's hard to dispute is the appeal of Gerard Butler, who may have become the first real buzz star of the festival when the movie bowed Thursday. The audience went ape for him at the screening, and, when he turned out at a party in the city's distillery, he found himself beset by hordes of female groupies -- so much so that other actors in the pic, including Jeremy Piven, Toby Kebbel and Ludacris were ribbing him about it. Kebbell even jokingly accused the actor of rigging the front row with fans.

Butler? He just volleyed back that Kebbell had his own growing female contingent. We guess that passes for an insult among the young-celeb set.