Based on Jack Kerouac’s ’50s novel, Walter Salles’ On the Road movie adaptation starring Garrett Hedlund, Sam Riley, and Kristen Stewart (photo) will be screened at the upcoming Toronto Film Festival. We all knew that. What we didn’t know is that TIFF 2012 will unveil a new cut of the film (via indieWIRE), which premiered last spring at the Cannes Film Festival to mixed reviews.
The 2hr20m drama has been downsized to approximately 125 minutes. That’s an interesting development, as On the Road has already been screened in several countries, with varying degrees of box-office success: $2.7m in France, $1.47m in Brazil, $423k in Belgium, $248k in The Netherlands, $160k in Finland, and $51k in Sweden. [Check out the On the Road trailer.]

The new cut is clearly a move to make On the Road more "commercial" in the United States, where IFC Films / Sundance Selects will be opening the film for awards consideration on Dec. 21.

"The response at Cannes was that some people loved it and some people were respectful of it, like some people loved the book. And Walter took a lot of that to heart. … He’s added certain things that weren’t in the cut that was in Cannes. He has been in New York and Rio and L.A. working on it the past couple of months, and it’s going to be very wet when it gets to Toronto."

In addition to Garrett Hedlund, Sam Riley, and Kristen Stewart, On the Road features Viggo Mortensen, Tom Sturridge, Danny Morgan, Amy Adams, Alice Braga, Elisabeth Moss, and Kirsten Dunst. The Motorcycle Diaries screenwriter José Rivera penned the adaptation, while Francis Ford Coppola, who bought the rights to the novel more than three decades ago, is listed as one of the film’s executive producers. Brokeback Mountain‘s Gustavo Santaolalla composed the score.
On the Road box-office figures via Box Office Mojo.

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