Lopez, Anthony Sell Movie at Toronto

Marc Anthony and his wife Jennifer Lopez's movie EL CANTANTE (The Singer) did not win a big award at the recent Toronto Film Festival, but it received good buzz after its premiere last week. Anthony plays the late Puerto Rican salsa superstar Hector Lavoe, and Lopez plays Lavoe's wife Puchi. J-Marc made a deal for the biopic on Friday.

EL CANTANTE was bought for almost $5 million by executives at Picturehouse, who now plan to release the film in July 2007. Picturehouse believes the under-served Latino community will respond mightily, and they also think it will cross over to general audiences.

I say that July will be a great release date to attract the younger crowd, the salsa music should be top notch, and J-Marc will be delicious eye candy for the viewers. The track record for musical biopics in the race for Oscar® has been excellent the past three years, but will the over-all quality of the film be good enough to propel it to Oscar's door in 2008?