Reuters
By Daniel Miller and Jay A. Fernandez

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – Sundance 2011 can chalk up its first bomb.

“The Son of No One,” a highly anticipated crime drama starring Al Pacino, Channing Tatum, Ray Liotta, Juliette Binoche and Katie Holmes, prompted a stream of walkouts during a preview for media and industry players Monday.

The gritty New York-set feature from Dito Montiel, the filmmaker behiond the award-winning 2006 Sundance crime drama “A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints,” will premiere as the closing-night selection on Friday.

Though the theater wasn’t full Monday, the room was crowded with executives from such studios as Samuel Goldwyn, Paramount, Summit, Weinstein Co., Sony, IFC Films, Morgan Creek, Miramax and Relativity.

Some of them, however, were gone well before the end credits. In addition, enough regular audience members left early for one observer to describe it as an “exodus.”

The negative response went beyond the walkouts. One viewer’s attempt to begin applause after the lights came up drew almost no takers.

None of this is to say that the film won’t find a studio home. As Sundance veterans know, plenty of films with lukewarm responses go on to find buyers and audiences, especially genre films featuring big stars. But as of the first viewing, that work just got a lot harder for the agents handling the film.

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