Excerpt:

In the first major deal of the festival, one of the more commercial-looking prospects of the Sundance market, rookie director J.C. Chandor’s Wall Street drama Margin Call, went to Lionsgate and its subsidiary Roadside late Saturday night. The movie is a testament to what can be done on a shoestring—shot for $3.5 million in 17 days in New York City. And that makes a modest minimum guarantee that is slightly less than $2 million, combined with foreign sales, a decent deal. Meanwhile Chandor has already a two-picture deal at Warner Bros.