River West Films’ romantic-mob-comedy “Osso Bucco” is now playing during an open-ended theatrical self-release at the Wilmette Theatre through Feb. 14.
The Wilmette run has the option of continuing and of expanding to additional theatres depending on how the first week goes.
The filmmakers are shopping for domestic and foreign sales agents, and are particularly focused on positioning the film for a European sale.
“We’re trying to create a pedigree, or a compelling argument for why the film will succeed,” said Gary Taylor, who wrote the script, and directed with Fred Blurton. They produced with Douglas Weidner.
“You want to be armed with that argument when you shop the film to buyers,” Taylor said. “We decided that a quicker strategy than [the festival circuit] was to get into theatres right away, generate as much good press as we can and have a statistical sampling of the box office.”
Costume designer Ellen Ryba introduced the filmmakers to Wilmette Theatre owner Carole Dibo. Since buying the Wilmette in 2006, Dibo and her partner Sam Samuelson have devoted one of their two screens to independent film much of the time, with a “Talk Back” series.
It brought John Turturro and Jeff Garlin to the theatre with their films “Romance and Cigarettes” and “I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With.”
