Nine years ago, “Hacksaw Ridge” producer David Permut walked me through his grueling itinerary on the ground at the Toronto Film Festival. In total, he screened 54 movies over 10 days and ate popcorn for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
His schedule at the time included everything from buzzy awards-season hopefuls to shorts so obscure that the filmmakers struggled to entice family members to attend. But TIFF 2017 wasn’t an outlier for Permut, the legendary indie producer who began his career as an agent representing a young David Letterman before segueing to make classics like “Blind Date” and “Face/Off.” He keeps a similar pace every September at the north-of-the-border film mecca, as well as during his annual treks to Sundance in January. He also mixes in occasional stops at Cannes, SXSW and Tribeca, where he maintains a comparable tempo.
The DNA of that commitment to screen early and often unlike any other producer we know of can be found in his latest film, Olivia Wilde’s “The Invite.” It was the hottest film at this year’s Sundance, and was the biggest sale of the festival at $12 million.
A24 will open the comedy, which stars Seth Rogen, Wilde, Penélope Cruz and Edward Norton, in limited release Friday, before taking it wide on July 10. But in fact, the genesis of Permut’s three most recent movies can be traced to some random festival screening.
First was the black comedy “Twinless,” which featured Dylan O’Brien playing twins (one gay, one straight). It was spawned by watching director James Sweeney’s “Straight Up” at OutFest in 2019.
“I fell in love with his little micro budget movie he made for $200,000, and that’s how ‘Twinless’ evolved,” Permut says. “With ‘The Invite,’ I discovered the writers to adapt this gem of a movie at TIFF.”
Will McCormack and actress Rashida Jones made their screenwriting debut with “Celeste and Jesse Forever,” which played at the 2012 edition of the festival. About six years ago, when Permut began looking for writers to adapt an English-language version of the Spanish film “The People Upstairs,” his mind returned to that press-and-industry screening of “Celeste and Jesse Forever.” (Not surprisingly, he also discovered “People Upstairs” at TIFF and optioned the remake rights.)
His next movie, Sian Heder’s “Being Heumann” represented a six-degrees-of-Sundance effort. In 2020, Permut watched “Crip Camp,” a documentary about teens with disabilities that the Obamas executive produced, in Park City. Two months later, as Covid brought the industry to a standstill, he wrangled the narrative remake rights and eventually enlisted Heder to direct as her follow-up to Oscar best picture winner “CODA,” (a film Permut screened in Sundance, naturally).
Apple will release the awards-season hopeful sometime in the fourth quarter. (Perhaps bringing it to TIFF would be apropos.)
Either way, Permut will be at TIFF, squeezing in every last possible frame. Even at 72, his stamina is unrivaled. “Everybody from Hollywood usually goes home early. They’re in and out. Even when I have a film there, I never give up seeing as many movies if I can,” he says. “Though I’m crawling to the midnight screening sometimes at this point in my life.”
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