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TOP OF THE POPS…
…INDUSTRY REACTS TO MAVERICK PERFORMANCE
THE BATMAN RETURNS
A PODCAST LIST NOW
A FINE VINTAGE
PIZZA TO GO
BBC BRINGS SUNSHINE…
…AND SOMETHING DARKER
RAISIN BRAND
DASHING STUFF
GETTING THE CANE
AT THE MOVIES
TWEET OF THE WEEK
TRAILERS OF THE WEEK
More on Top Gun, a brand with a new sequel at cinemas and the original drafting on home entertainment, which has managed the rare double feat of topping the UK box office charts – not to mention the US and rest of the world – as well as hitting the number one slot in the UK’s Official Film Chart at the same time. It has now been deposed by The Batman – more on that later – but for a few days, Tom Cruise was a chart-topper across theatrical and home entertainment, a rare occurrence, especially given the first film’s age, at 36 years old, it’s the oldest number one in the Official Film Chart’s history. And of course, the new sequel, Top Gun Maverick, is still pulling in the numbers at UK cinemas, with an estimated haul that is fast approaching the £40 million mark on the back of the jubilee weekend, as part of mammoth global receipts of more than $540 million. Meanwhile, sales of the first outing of Top Gun across disc and digital were still holding up too, The Batman’s performance was the only thing that bested a film originally released in 1986 during the VHS era.
Comment on the success of Top Gun as a retail drafting title on the back of the sequel’s release came from BASE chief executive Liz Bales who said: "It's fantastic to see the original Top Gun at number one in the Official Film Chart this week, as Top Gun: Maverick takes cinema audiences’ breath away on the big screen. Whether it's rewatching the original at home on Blu-ray or in 4K with the audio pumped up or discovering it for the first time with your kids on digital download, the beauty of owning and keeping classics like Top Gun is going back to them at times just like this! There is nothing quite like the Cinema for those blow-your-socks-off new releases, but staying in, grabbing the popcorn and sharing a great film like Top Gun is a great value way of making a night in with the family feel really special.” Official Charts Company director Becca Monahan said: "It’s fantastic to see Tom Cruise back in the skies again after 36 years! It’s also heartening to see him reminding film fans that there’s nothing quite like the shared experience of cinema. That the original Top Gun has made history by getting to Number 1 on the Official Film Chart and that many of those sales were digital downloads is a great achievement. The weekly Official Film Chart is such a great way to help audiences find something brilliant to watch without scrolling for hours and to discover not just what is fresh from cinemas and brand new on disc or digital, but what classic films or 4k Ultra HD or catalogue re-issues are having a special moment with audiences as well."
Podcast news and Studiocanal has launched its own podcast, under the banner of Studiocanal Presents The Podcast. The monthly offering has been put together with Simon Brew, the driving force behind the excellent Film Stories magazine, website and, yes, podcasts. He brings his own unique voice and expertise to the proceedings, with a special guest each month. It’s aiming to look at the company’s forthcoming theatrical releases, as well as its home entertainment library, with everything from physical releases to its own streaming service covered off. The first one is here now, with Brew and guest Ellen E Jones looking at Apocalypse Now, as well as other titles. Theatrical marketing manager Jamie McHale said: “We’re thrilled to be launching an official podcast to celebrate our incredible library of titles and upcoming theatrical releases. The in-depth analysis and regular features such as Dream Double Bills and Hidden Gems from Simon and his guests are sure to offer fans a new perspective on some their favourite titles, and will hopefully introduce a few new favourites along the way.” Further comment came from Simon Brew, who said: “I'm really delighted to be hosting the Studiocanal Presents podcast, and very much appreciate being given the chance to do so. Along with Jane Long, who's producing the episodes, we've already been working through the breadth and depth of the Studiocanal library, and I'm looking forward to exploring lots and lots of movies in the episodes ahead - from well-known classics to some absolute hidden gems!"
Meanwhile, sticking with Studiocanal, and the company used the Platinum Jubilee weekend to back British by unveiling a new website for its label celebrating the best of homegrown cinema, Vintage Classics. The new website launch – you can see it here https://vintageclassicsfilm.co.uk – came as the imprint passed the 100 title-mark, with more than a century’s worth of releases. What’s more, the company has pulled off something of a coup, in getting some of today’s finest filmmakers to chose their own personal favourites from the range. These include the likes of (with their faves listed afterwards) Alfonso Cuaron (Melody), Atom Egoyan (Peeping Tom), David Walliams (The Ladykillers), Jane Asher (Laughter in Paradise), Ken Loach (A kind of Loving), Kenneth Brannagh (Dead of Night), Paul King (The Fallen Idol), Richard Ayoade (Billy Liar), Sandy Powell (Don’t Look Now), Joe Cornish (Hue & Cry) and Sofia Coppola (Darling). Commenting on the milestone and website, the company’s Kristin Ryan said: “We’re extremely proud of our Vintage Classics label that celebrates the best of British cinema and what better time to launch a celebration than around the Jubilee. With a brand-new website that includes articles, essays and an impressive and growing list of Famous Fans choosing their highlights alongside the opportunity to now enjoy the films on our Studiocanal Presents channel, there’s even more to discover and love about one of the sparkling jewels in the Studiocanal crown.”
It’s one of the finest films we’ve seen at the cinema in 2022 and finally after its impressive and lengthy run at UK cinemas, Paul Thomas Anderson’s excellent period piece Licorice Pizza makes its way to home entertainment formats with a physical bow in stores on Monday June 13 alongside its digital release. Commenting on the title, which boasts near universal critical (and audience) acclaim, Universal’s Stephanie Don said: “‘We’re delighted to release Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest 5 star masterpiece Licorice Pizza in a 2 Disc Blu-ray and DVD set on Monday. To celebrate the release we’re offering fans a limited edition set which includes exclusive artcards and reversible sleeve, and we’re supporting this title with extensive publicity and promotions across film and entertainment publications.”
BBC Studios has not one but two r3leases own Monday June 13, with a brace of goodies arriving in stores. Chief among these is a title we discussed here when it earned plenty of press coverage following the organisation’s announcement of its release. We are of course, in the first instance, the new Morecambe And Wise release, The Lost Tapes, which comes after painstaking work and a lengthy and exhaustive search to find missing elements from the comedy duo’s early years. Commenting on the release, BBC Studios’ Rob Crowe said: “It’s always especially thrilling when missing episodes are rediscovered from a classic TV series, and this was very much the case for the content of our new Morecambe and Wise release. This brings together four previously unreleased full colour episodes, all of which have undergone extensive sound and picture restoration, with 'colour recovery' software used to restore them to their original full colour for the first time since their original broadcast way back in 1968, as well as the very first Morecambe and Wise recorded for the BBC, which has been painstakingly reconstructed from a badly decomposed film print using groundbreaking new technology.
And there’s more too with comedy of a far darker kind, as the latest series of the rather excellent Inside No. 9 series, featuring many alumni from the League Of Gentlemen once again wheeling out a series of tales of terror. .Comment again came from BBC Studios’ Rob Crowe who said: “Also out this week we have the latest series of Inside No. 9, the deliciously twisted anthology comedy series, written by and starring Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton. Featuring ruthless kidnappers, injured birds, obsessive detectives and a stuffed rabbit, this is a very different type of comedy – but also unquestionably a classic!
Also out on Monday is the latest from private eye Ashley Jensen starring as Agatha Raisin, which has proved a success at both physical home entertainment across its previous three series and on Acorn’s thriving Acorn TV svod service. Now the fourth arrives alongside a complete season set and as the company’s Helen Squire said: “Our favourite PR turned PI, Agatha Raisin, played with a huge amount of charm by the inimitable Ashley Jensen, returned to our screens in May and her enduring popularity is confirmed by an uptick in sales of the previous series. With village greens, country houses and pubs aplenty, this quintessentially British show is the epitome of cosy crime and Series 4 launches on Monday along with a complete S1-4 DVD boxset. The pre-orders indicate fans can’t wait to add to their collection.”
Agatha Raisin arrives after a busy couple of weeks for Acorn, as Helen Squire continued, saying: “Hot on the heels of The Terror S2 which was released on Monday May 23, came more horror in more mortal form courtesy of The Cane Field Killings which we released on May 30. This Iain Glen (Game of Thrones) and Kim Engelbrecht (The Flash) led crime drama flits between a present day investigation into serial killings in the South African cane fields and a childhood kidnapping of Engelbrecht’s detective by Glen’s predator.” And finally, we always like to keep Raygun readers abreast of what we’ve been up to cinema-wise and last week we joined our pals at FrightFest for a special screening of eOne release Dashcam, the latest from Rob Savage, the man behind pandemic horror hit Host. The title will arrive on home entertainment through Universal later in the year, but the pre-theatrical screening was aimed at getting the horror cognoscenti talking about it. And what a film it is, breathing life back into the found footage genre once more and a genuinely entertaining and rip-roaring ride. It also includes a scene involving pickled eggs, a rarity in cinematic terms. Don’t just take our word for it – HeyUGuys said: “Following up the fantastically frightening Host was never going to be a walk in the park for writer/director Rob Savage and writer/producers Gemma Hurley and Jed Shepherd, but the trio have thankfully smashed it with the dazzlingly demented Dashcam. With scale, production and (presumably) budget enhanced, and clout bolstered by Blumhouse, Dashcam retains the faux “found footage” online vibe that worked so well with its predecessor, yet this is more sprawling and adventurous, despite, like Host, being produced during the pandemic, with crew and fictional characters operating under Covid restrictions… Dashcam engages enough to leave viewers shaken, crazed and massively entertained as it gazelles with monstrous abandon and bat shit panache like a mad drunk witch in a rap battle with a nun.”
While he continues to try and delay the inevitable and the release of his 10th – and what he said will be his final – film, Quentin Tarantino is turning his attention once more to other media. After his novelisation of his own Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, the director has now announced plans for his next tome, entitled Cinems Speculation and looking at films from the 70s (obviously). Here’s the official blurb for the book, out later this year: “In addition to being among the most celebrated of contemporary filmmakers, Quentin Tarantino is possibly the most joyously infectious movie lover alive. For years he has touted in interviews his eventual turn to writing books about films. Now, with CINEMA SPECULATION, the time has come, and the results are everything his passionate fans – and all movie lovers – could have hoped for. Organized around key American films from the 1970s, all of which he first saw as a young moviegoer at the time, this book is as intellectually rigorous and insightful as it is rollicking and entertaining. At once film criticism, film theory, a feat of reporting, and wonderful personal history, it is all written in the singular voice recognizable immediately as QT’s and with the rare perspective about cinema possible only from one of the greatest practitioners of the artform ever.” It’s a long way off, but things are starting to ramp up for the return of The Hunger Games franchise, as Lionsgate preps the prequel due to the blockbuster series. The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes was, like all the films under The Hunger Games banner, taken from the novels of Suzanne Collins. Lionsgate is developing them, with a November 2023 release date planned. It’s already been announced there will be a young President Snow, played by Tom Blyth, and he’s now being joined by Rachel Zegler, fresh from West Side Story and, by next year, a starring role in the latest Disney take on Snow White. The film is being directed by Francis Lawrence, who was at the helm for the Hunger Game sequels. He said: “Like everybody, I first saw Rachel Zegler in West Side Story, and like everybody, I knew I was watching a star who would command the screen for a generation. Lucy Gray is a perfect match for her as an actress: the character is bold, independent, and defiant, but also vulnerable, emotional, and loving. Rachel will make this character unforgettable."
TWEET OF THE WEEK
Follow us on www.twitter.com/theraygun…
TRAILERS OF THE WEEK
Due on Apple…
Here’s that Hunger Games prequel teaser…
What’s on the menu?
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