In a deal closed late Saturday night, Lions Gate Films ponied upclose to $4m for North American rights to Paul Haggis’ red-hot Toronto ensembledrama Crash. Easilythe biggest deal of both Venice and Toronto so far, the Crash negotiations took place after the Fridayafternoon public screening and Saturday morning press and industry screening ofthe film.

Meanwhile Sony Pictures Classics took North American rights offthe table on Jan Hrebejk’s latest picture Up And Down in a deal closed Saturday morning withNeil Friedman’s Menemsha Entertainment.

Lions Gate bought Crash from Bob Yari’s companies Bob Yari Productions and Bull’sEye Entertainment and Blockbuster subsidiary DEJ Productions which co-financedthe film.

The film, which marks Paul Haggis feature directorial debut, is ananalysis of race relations in Los Angeles through multiple storylines. Amongthe cast are Sandra Bullock, Don Cheadle, Matt Dillon, Brendan Fraser, ThandieNewton and Ryan Philippe.

Lions Gate Films Releasing chief Tom Ortenberg told Screenyesterday that it wasn’t yet decided if the film would be released for awardsconsideration before the end of the year. “It’s a terrific companion piece to Fahrenheit9/11,” he said. “It’sprovocative and entertaining cinema in a post 9/11 world. We have very highexpectations for the film critically and commercially.”

Bob Yari pointed out that he had watched the emergence of LionsGate into bigger films after its acquisition of Artisan Entertainment. &#20@;We hadsold them House Of D and are developing some projects together and I think theyare the perfect distributor for this film,” he told Screen.

The deal was negotiated by Peter Block, Jason Constantine andOrtenberg for Lions Gate with CAA’s John Ptak and Kevin Iwashina with NeilSacker, COO of the Yari Film Group and Andrew Reimer on behalf of president ofDEJ Productions.

David Glasser and Lisa Wilson are handling international sales onthe picture.

The Czech film, which was sneak previewed at the TellurideFilm Festival last week, follows two family dramas in contemporary Prague. Itis playing in the Contemporary World Cinema section here and screens for pressand industry this afternoon.

SPC has an existing relationship with Hrebejk from his wartimedrama Divided We Fallwhich won an Oscar nomination for best foreign-language film in 2000.

- Otherfilms drawing sales heat at Toronto include Michael McGowan’s crowd-pleasingCanadian movie Saint Ralph, Pawel Pawlikowski’s Edinburgh prize-winner My Summer Of Love and Sally Potter’s Yes which is polarizing audiences andcritics. Other hot movies to come without domestic distribution in placeinclude Mike Barker’s A Good Woman and Laurence Dunmore’s The Libertine.