The 5 Films Likeliest to Ignite a Toronto 2010 Bidding War

· Rabbit Hole

WHAT IT'S ABOUT: John Cameron Mitchell directs Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart in an adaptation of David Lindsay-Abaire's Pulitzer Prize-winning play about a married couple recovering from the death of their young son in a hit-and-run accident.

UPSIDE: Again with the pedigree. This one's managed to corral quite a bit of behind-the-scenes momentum heading into the festival, with its obvious Oscar-readiness in question as it prepares to premiere next week.

DOWNSIDE: A total downer, and audiences are about as cool on Kidman as they've ever been. (At least the film should forever affirm or rebuke the critics who say her immobile face can't act.) We know Mitchell's bold, but can he pull off his biggest creative coup yet with material this heavy?

POTENTIAL BUYERS: The Weinstein Company, Sony Pictures Classics

HOW MUCH? Under $3 million

· SUPER

WHAT IT'S ABOUT: An all-around nobody (Rainn Wilson) adopts a superhero persona -- and the requisite sidekick (Ellen Page) -- after a drug dealer (Kevin Bacon) steals away his ex-addict wife (Liv Tyler).

UPSIDE: Director James Gunn (Slither) has just the right touch for this kind of absurd but humane genre material, and hey, superheroes are in!

DOWNSIDE: Does the world really need another Kick-Ass? I thought we'd already discussed this. Moreover, is the world ready for Rainn Wilson, leading man? You're either selling the suit or you're selling him, and in either case, you're selling to a pretty narrow viewership.

POTENTIAL BUYERS: Summit Entertainment, Rogue Pictures, Magnolia Pictures

HOW MUCH? Under $2 million

· What's Wrong With Virginia

WHAT IT'S ABOUT: Dustin Lance Black makes his directing debut with what sounds like a Sirk-meets-Lynch psycho-melodrama with Jennifer Connelly -- gone blonde! -- as the mentally ill title character, whose tormented son may be the illegitimate offspring of their community's righteous, politically mobile, fetish-sex craving Sheriff Tipton (Ed Harris).

UPSIDE: Yowza! Everybody's been waiting to see how Black would follow Milk -- or if he could follow it. This cast implies he's on to something, and assuming he can just keep the camera in focus, it's hard to imagine a whacked-out Jennifer Connelly and pervy Mormon Ed Harris really screwing this kind of thing up.

DOWNSIDE: Word has it Black might veer a little on-the-nose with his themes of mental illness and hypocrisy. And good as they potentially may be, Connelly and Harris will have to be really good to get the wider audience Black found with Milk.

POTENTIAL BUYERS: Focus Features, Fox Searchlight

HOW MUCH? Under $2 million

Stay tuned to Movieline in the week ahead for more about these films, their prognoses and the rest of Toronto 2010!

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