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UNIVERSAL LOOKS AHEAD TO Q4
PIRATES REAPING REWARDS…
…BUT STAR WARS STILL YEAR’S BIGGEST
A LEGENDARY NIGHT OUT…
…AS HMV EVENT RAISES CHARITY CASH
EARLY LOOK AT EARLY MAN…
…STUDIOCANAL LOOKS FORWARD TO AARDMAN FLICK
WARNER’S WONDER-FUL FILMBOOKS
A LOT OF KING TITLES ON BLU
RAKUTEN ADDED TO LFF PARTNERS
ALTITUDE SCALES NEW HEIGHTS…
…AS DOG GETS READY TO ROCK
YOU WILL SEE THE DOCTOR NOW
MANGA IS POKEMON GO-TO COMPANY
LIFE IS SWEET FOR MCQUEEN FILM
SCREENBOUND CHESS FILM CHECKS IN…
…AND MORE FROM ITS SLEAZE IMPRINTS
ONLINE PIRATES NOW FACE 10 YEARS
MUBI DRIVES FORWARD WITH REFN
AT THE MOVIES
TWEET OF THE WEEK
TRAILERS OF THE WEEK
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It Was A Good Week For... A crucial Q4 season kicks off with the latest from the only Pirates we like…
It Was A Bad Week For… Online pirates, who, as of October 1, now face 10 years in jai, the same as their disc-based counterparts…
And with, a yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum, Q4 finally arrived this week, with Pirates Of The Caribbean invading stores and the industry gearing up for the busy months ahead. And before we get into Salazar’s Revenge and plenty more, we thought we’d ask the company that has ended up at the top of the pile after Q4 more times than we can remember in recent years what its thoughts were on the next three months, how its own titles and others in the market were shaping up. So here’s Universal md Ian Foster on Q4 from his perspective. He said: “As we enter Q4, I'm confident that our diverse slate will offer something for everyone. With action-packed tent poles from Fast & Furious 8 and Transformers: The Last Knight, thrills from The Mummy, the rise of a modern sporting icon in Conor McGregor: Notorious, fitness with Joe Wicks: Lean in 15 Workouts and family favourite Despicable Me 3 (to name but a few). This is an incredibly busy time for the business and the gifting market remains an important driver for home entertainment releases during this period.”
Into this week, and Q4 has got off to a good start courtesy of the new, latest instalment into the Pirates Of The Caribbean franchise in the shape of Salazar’s Revenge. The title had shifted some 77,000 in its first few days on sale according to the Official Charts Company’s midweek bulletin. It had helped Disney dominate the top three, with the two following titles, the most recent take on Beauty And The Beast and Moana, at numbers two and three respectively on the back of the studio’s latest price promotion. And another Disney title, Star Wars Rebels Season 3, was the other new entry in the top 10, at number 10. Other new entries into the top 40 included the fifth season of House Of Cards at number 15, The Exception at number 26 and another US take on a homegrown title, Elementary, also up to its fifth series, at number 33. And, giving the charts a nice symmetry, the final new entry in the top 40 was another nautical outing for the Pirates Of The Caribbean, a boxset pulling all five features together.
Sticking with the Official Charts Company, and the experts at the organisation have updated their bestselling DVD and Blu-ray top 40 for 2017 so far, the update going to the end of the third quarter, effectively taking in the first 75 per cent of the year. And it’s still Rogue One: A Star Wars Story at number one, its sales now having exceeded the million mark, with the offshoot from the main storyline having sold 1,050,000 units. It’s more than six figures ahead of the numbers two and three, Beauty And The Beast and Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them, which are separated by only a few thousand units, each having sold just under 920,000 units. Bridget Jones’s Baby (809,000 sales) is at number four, ahead of Moana (713,000) and a further two animated tales, Trolls and Sing. Meanwhile, Guardian Of The Galaxy Vol 2 makes a showing in the top 10 sellers of 2017 at the end of September despite having only been on sale for four weeks, selling almost half a million units in that time. You can see the full chart here.
To the Grosvenor House Hotel, in the heart of London’s Mayfair, for the annual fundraising event that is the Legends Of Football dinner – one of the highlights of the industry’s calendar form our viewpoint and the one Sir Alex Ferguson said was his favourite charity football do. This year it honoured Liverpool star Steven Gerrard and saw the great and the good from across the entertainment business attending the HMV-backed event, paying tribute to the Scouse legend but also raising more than £435,000 for the Nordoff Robbins charity in the process. Stars from the football world such as Gerrard’s pals and former teammates Jamie Carragher and Xabi Alonso were in attendance (the pair were hilarious in a Q&A about their pal), The Lightning Seeds opened proceedings with a live set and it really was as fun as ever. Gerrard said: “I am both proud and thrilled to have received this singular honour – joining an amazing roll call of footballing greats that range from Sir Stanley Matthews to Pelé, as well as more recent stars of the Beautiful Game including Alan Shearer, David Beckham and, of course, Liverpool’s own Kenny Dalglish. I’m only too happy to support Legends of Football in the great work they do to raise vital finds for Nordoff Robbins.”
This year’s Legends Of Football dinner, supported by HMV, also marked the final turn for departing chairman and former HMV chief Brian McLaughlin, the driving force behind the event for much of its 20-plus year history. Geoff Shreeves will replace him, and those involved paid tribute to him as well as the Liverpool and England captain. As well as this year’s grand total of £435,276, Legends of Football has raised more than £7 million for the music therapy charity. McLaughlin said: “We’re proud to have honoured Steven Gerrard on what turned out to be an unmissable event. This has proved the perfect time to step down as Chairman and I look forward to welcoming Geoff Shreeves in his new role of Chairman. He is the perfect choice to continue the good work of Legends of Football supporting Nordoff Robbins in its continued commitment to changing the lives of vulnerable and isolated people across the country.” Premier League Executive Chairman, Richard Scudamore, said: “Legends of Football is now a permanent fixture in the football calendar and contributes to the fantastic work of Nordoff Robbins. Every club would love to have their own Steven Gerrard. His outstanding achievements with Liverpool FC make him a worthy recipient of this year’s Legends of Football Award.” Paul McGowan, executive chairman of Hilco Capital Ltd, which owns HMV, commented: “We’re delighted to have continued our longstanding association with this outstanding event and help support the fundamental work of Nordoff Robbins. Each year we celebrate the shared passions that exist between football and music - all for a worthy cause. We congratulate Steven Gerrard tonight for what he has accomplished in his career and celebrate amongst the football community.” Julie Whelan, ceo of Nordoff Robbins added: “A massive congratulations to Steven Gerrard tonight! As a charity, we depend on fantastic events such as Legends of Football. We are appreciative of all the hard work that goes into organising such a prestigious event and are grateful for all the funds generated. Every penny raised goes towards supporting the life changing work we do.”
To the Ham Yard Hotel in London’s Soho, where Aardman was showing off footage from its forthcoming claymation animated outing Early Man. The film is being released by Studiocanal in January at cinemas before making its way to home entertainment, and it is, as Aardman co-founder Phil Lord noted during the presentation, a “soon to be classic”. After seeing a select bunch of clips from the film it’s easy to see why – all the hallmarks of director Nick Park’s previous stop-frame animation works for the Bristol-based studio (it is, as one of the Aardman team told The Raygun, "all about the thumbs” and ensuring that it’s not too polished), with in-jokes aplenty, and, in the clips we saw, so many gags that it’s impossible to to take them all in in one sitting. Park was joined on stage by voice talents Maisie Williams and Tom Hiddleston, both fans of their previous outings (“Wallace and Gromit was part of my childhood”, said the latter). Park himself said: “We’ve been working on it for four or five years at least. I’ve always loved the idea of cavemen and women, and the medium of clay lends itself to that. We then started riffing about football and the tribal aspect of football [for the plot].”
Meanwhile, Studiocanal executives were out in force for the event and, alongside the forthcoming Paddington 2, the latest trailer for which was unveiled this week (see below) sees it now firmly established as a big league family event film player. Commenting from the home entertainment side, Studiocanal’s Thom Leaman said: "We’re thrilled here at Studio Canal to give assembled press and guests their first look at Early Man, hot on the heels of the trailer and teaser launch a couple of weeks back. The footage we had on show made it clear that Early Man was packing Aardman’s trademark classic animation style, rip-roaring British humour and an A-grade voice cast in Tim Hiddleston, Maisie Williams and Eddie Redmayne. We’re deep in preparation for the launch of the film theatrically on January 26 with the home ent bow to follow in Q2. We’ve got some great activations and promotions lined up already and we look forward to presenting the title to retail in due course."
It’s good to see Warner still pushing the envelope when it comes to encouraging ownership of physical product and looking for new ways to bring products to market. As well as more traditional SKUs for Wonder Woman, the year’s most successful comic book blockbuster and one of the summer’s bona fide success stories, it is releasing the Patty Jenkins directed Gal Gadot starrer in a luxury Filmbook version aimed squarely at the collectors’ market. It sees a Blu0ray of the film being housed in a sumptuous hardback tome, complete with a raft of articles and features about the movie, the making of the film and some of the background to the Amazonian DC Comic character. What’s more, there’s a clutch of similarly-themed DC titles from the catalogue appearing in premium priced Filmbook versions too, available on the same date, October 9, with Batman V Superman and Suicide Squad released in similarly packaged SKUs. Commenting on the release, Warner md John Stanley said: “We are always looking for ways to add value to our physical product and to drive excitement amongst fans and collectors with new premium offerings. These Limited Edition Blu-ray Film Books are a fantastic addition to our portfolio; they are beautifully made and give our consumers added insight into the making of these iconic DC films.”
We recently applauded Warner’s marvellous Iconic Moments set and there’s more from its catalogue arm on Monday. it has already worked its magic with the original TV movie take on Stephen King’s It, with the drafting version appearing in the top 10 on the back of the new take becoming the most successful horror film ever in the UK and US. And now it is going deeper into the horror-meister’s feature adaptation catalogue with a title pack Blu-ray featuring It alongside both The Shining and Salem’s Lot, the latter another epic TV take on a King classic. What’s more it seems to have nailed the thorny issue of how to feature three films on a single sleeve with each retaining its identity too; further kudos must go to the major for its efforts here. Commenting on the release, Warner’s Colin Thomas said: “We are delighted with the new creative for the box set which will also feature Salem’s Lot on Blu-ray for the first time. The results from our drafting campaign with IT have been fantastic and we are excited to be bringing this new Stephen King box set to market too.”
London Film Festival kicks off this week and it’s interesting to note that Rakuten TV has entered the fray as one of the event’s partners, adding its name to the sponsors’ list which will further raise its profile, as will its involvement with the prestigious event. Its key involvement will see the video on demand service adding its full weigh to the world premiere and archive gala of Shiraz: A Romance In India, which will be announced as “presented in partnership with Rakuten TV”. It will only boost its profile following the recent rebranding and its new standing as a sponsor of Barcelona FC and is all part of its ongoing efforts to increase awareness of the company. Clare Stewart, Festival Director, BFI London Film Festival, said “The BFI London Film Festival is pleased to welcome a new partner on board for this year’s edition and delighted that the Archive Gala will be presented in partnership with Rakuten TV. We are thrilled that Shiraz will reach wider audiences through Rakuten TV and allow more film lovers to discover this film treasure.” Simon Homent, European Content Director Rakuten TV added: “We are thrilled to have secured a partnership with the UK’s largest film event - The 61st BFI London Film Festival. As well as being an amazing platform to raise awareness of our Rakuten TV brand, the deal means bringing our aim of greater synergy between cinema and VOD to the fore. Our users love watching movies on their Smart TVs. This is why we want to increase our collaboration with the film industry - being on the UK’s most important red carpet is definitely coherent with this strategy.”
One company with a keen presence at the LFF this year is Altitude Film Distribution, which boasts a record 11 films on show at the event this year, an impressive feat for the indie. Among the films on show are the eagerly awaited The Florida Project (we can’t wait for this one, it’s receiving a Festival Gala offering); official competition entry Loveless (another title boasting five-star reviews); first feature entry Beast; the what-he-did-before-he-became-a-serial-killer tale My Friend Dahmer; fully painted animated tale Loving Vincent, about artist Van Gogh; Joe Cole banged up in Bangkok in A Prayer Before Dawn; rodeo-based drama The Rider; Sicilian Ghost Story; The Boy Downstairs and Australian biker flick 1%.
Before those make their way to the home entertainment sector – most will land in 2018 – the company has a fair few other releases heading to our sector, not least Monday October 16’s release of family film Rock Dog, which will land ahead of the half-term holidays and, after a similarly successful theatrical bow during the school holidays, will offer fun during what is bound to be a rain-soaked week. It has the approval of kidzcoolit.com and their part-time contributor (and full-time Raygun junior correspondent) Albie Murray, with words from his review appearing on the sleeve for the Altitude release through Spirit. We covered it earlier this year, but updating on the HE marketing is the company’s Adam Eldrett, who said: “We have some fantastic distribution ahead of the HE release of Rock Dog, the film has benefitted from a significant theatrical campaign which was boosted by the day and date offering with Sky Cinema. By working closely with the broadcaster the overall awareness of Rock Dog has increased exponentially and as you have already highlighted has been well reviewed by its target audience. It’s a fantastic family movie that certainly benefits from a brilliant voice cast.”
Most talked about programme on television currently has to be the homegrown hit Doctor Foster, which, judging by what we’ve seen, has become as close as you can get to a bona fide water cooler, must see programme in these days of multi-channel, time-shifted viewing and streaming. The series, with former Coronation Street star Suranne Jones leading the cast, is the kind that you had to watch live to join in the numerous conversations taking place after about the affairs and mental stability of its cast. What’s more, the success of the second series has given a new lease of life to BBC Worldwide’s first series release, which has been hovering in and around the top 10 television titles and in retailers’ charts since its sophomore outing arrived on screens. And now those that have missed out on all the fuss, or just want to relive the madness that was Doctor Foster can catch up courtesy of BBC Worldwide, which is releasing the second series and S1&2 boxset on October 9. BBC Worldwide head of retail Matthew McNamee said: “We are delighted with the support and performance around Doctor Foster Series 2 and the new release represents a great start to our strong Q4 line up.”
We’ve been tracking Manga’s increasing presence in the world of brands and franchises for some time now, not least in the world of Pokemon, which has ratcheted up some incredible sales over the past year. And now there’s more to come: positioned as a must-have for all die-hard Pokémon fans and tapping into the incredible success of the augmented reality Pokémon Go mobile app, Manga will release its Pokémon: Indigo League - Season 1 box set on DVD and Limited Edition Blu-ray on October 30. The set will take fans back to the early days of the franchise, where we see the adventures of protagonist Ash Ketchum and his friends Misty and Brock. Manga Entertainment marketing manager Andrew Hewson said: "We have sold more than 135,000 units of Pokémon since its October release last year. With Nintendo launching the new mobile game PokéLand and the animated Pokémon series available on CiTV, we have forecasted a very decent number for week 1. After releasing the newest Pokémon movies as well as the classics last year, we believe the remastered series will be a huge hit for us – especially the Blu-ray as it has never been out before in the UK! The franchise has had a massive resurgence in popularity since the launch of Pokémon Go and we we're very lucky to have licensed it at exactly the right time.” In addition, also out this week separately on DVD and Blu-ray are the first three classic Pokémon movies - Pokémon: The First Movie, Pokémon: The Movie 2000 and Pokémon 3: The Movie.
Our old pal Alan McQueen, one of the prime movers of the world cinema boom that kicked off in the VHS era, a former Palace staffer who went on to launch Fox’s World Cinema arm, among other things, continues to produce films as well as keeping his fingers in all sorts of pies. Just premiered is the latest feature he’s involved in, the Syrian refugee drama In Another Life, which has just premiered at the Raindance Film Festival for indie filmmakers (it won Best UK Film), before heading off to Dinard for another festival appearance. He and fellow producers are currently seeing interest from a clutch of distributors – if there’s anyone that knows about how to make independent cinema looking at tough subjects such as this, then it’s him, so keep an eye out for this outing. Commenting on the screening, McQueen said: “The Raindance screening was a great success, we’ve had a lot of interest, a lot of social media attention and people have been really complimentary about it. We’ve had interest from a few distributors and the next step is to secure distribution in the UK and other territories.”
Sky Store is helping drive awareness and interest of its Buy & Keep offering after inking a deal with Nestle across its sharing packs of chocolates, sweets and snacks. The on-pack promotion offers consumers the chance to receive a voucher for the Sky Store service worth £5.99 if they collect four promotional packs of the products, which take in Kitkat, Miilkybar, Aero, Smarties, Munchies, Randoms and Fruit Pastilles offerings. What’s more, Nestle is putting a £2 million marketing push behind the promotion, taking in TV, digital video and cinema advertising as well as social media. Ellie Tyler, Marketing spokesperson from Nestlé UK said: “Nestlé Confectionery and Sky Store have teamed up to launch a really motivating brand new promotion. It’s fantastic value-for-money, offering consumers a £5.99 Sky Store Buy & Keep movie voucher in return for codes from four promotional sharing bags. Consumers can instantly download and stream the movie of their choice, and even better, they can settle down to enjoy it with their favourite sharing bag to dip into.”
The ever-eclectic Screenbound Pictures has this week unveiled a big project for 2018, releasing a trailer for a new production Closing Gambit. The film, which will be ready for a late spring debut at next year’s Cannes Film Festival, is directed by Screenbound’s very own Alan Byron and is a feature length documentary looking at the chess grudge match between Korchnoi and Karpov at the height of the 1970s Cold War, the former a defector to the West, the latter backed by the might of the Soviet empire and its shadowy Kremlin operatives. Commenting on the release, Byron said: “This is one of the great sporting and personality driven stories that has never been told until now. Off the chess board, there was a war of espionage and KGB dirty tricks that even John Le Carre would struggle to invent and be taken seriously. Parapsychologists, coded yoghurts, radio wave transmitting chairs, flag wars, a team of 36 KGB agents, corruption, and a sect of Eastern mystics wanted for murder, were just some of the events in this epic world championship event. The film completes early next year for Cannes and is already eagerly awaited.” You can see the trailer here.
Meanwhile, home entertainment releases from Screenbound continue apace – Monday October 9 sees a brace of titles being added to its Maison Rouge and Black House genre imprints, the former in the form of Eugenie De Sade, the latter in Dr Jeckyll’s Mistress, both from the master of sleaze, Jesus Franco. They add to the growing roster from the two sub-labels and, as Alan Byron said: ““Genre driven releases such as Maison Rouge and Black House have been very well received and are also very important to keep film sales at levels similar to a couple of years ago in this challenging marketplace. Franco is a cult director and along with the forthcoming releases of The Demons and Erotic Rites Of Frankenstein from our distributed label, Nucleus Films, we are continuing to see a healthy appetite for his work.”
As well as seeing the start of Q4, October 1 also ushered in new sentencing from the government to counteract illegal downloading and, specifically, copyright infringement. As the government guidelines state: “The maximum sentence for online copyright infringement has changed from two years to ten years. This change brings the law in line with what is already available for physical copyright infringement.” It further notes that it must be proved that it must be proved that the person charged knew it could lead to loss of income or revenue. It further notes that while illegal downloading isn’t an offence, that’s down to civil action, but it often involves uploading too…
And we'll end with our old pals at the curated subscription video on demand service Mubi, which has this week unveiled a new ident. And, better still, it hasn’t just got any common or garden creative agency to do its work, rather it has recruited Nicolas Winding Refn, the director behind the likes of Drive and The Neon Demon to create the ident, which will appear before its increasing slate of theatrical releases (it has two in this year’s London Film Festival) and streaming releases. The music is provided by his composer and nephew, Julian Winding. Nicolas Winding Refn has said: "Collaborating with my friends at All City Media in creating MUBI's new ident has been a tremendously satisfying process, knowing that we are making a small step in helping Efe shape his movie platform for the next generation.” Efe Çakarel, Founder and ceo of Mubi commented: “We are beyond excited to once again be working with the cinematic force that is Nicolas Winding Refn. From our initial discussions, we wanted this new MUBI ident to be iconic, timeless and unexpected. Nicolas has delivered the perfect distillation of these themes, and of how we see MUBI, in several short moments. We look forward to audiences experiencing it on the big and small screen very soon. Turn it up loud!” You can see it here…
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“I personally believe that we need to shorten windows and give people the ability to enjoy the films wherever they want to enjoy them. There’s an awareness for it. Three months later, there won’t be because there is so much content. [I believe] we should have day-and-date with dynamic pricing. If the consumer wants to watch it at home, let them watch it home. “[I’d say] even more than that and let the consumer decide where they want to watch the movies. Everything else is day-and-date — music is day-and-date, television is day-and- date, etc… Everything is instant, so the concept of waiting for something is a little outdated. It’s important for the industry. We need to keep in step of what the consumers want. The consumer always decides.”
eOne US chief Darren Throop on day and date windows talking at US trade magazine The Wrap\s annual media conference
AT THE MOVIES
No new entries at the top of the UK cinema charts, where Kingsman’s newest outing, The Golden Circle, has broken the £15 million barrier. Lower down, there were a trio of newbies side by side, with, from number four in the UK box office top 10 downwards, Goodbye Christopher Robin (£781,110), Flatliners (£486,721) and Home Again (£484,124).
More Avatar news, with the saga surrounding the sequels continuing, and more names being added to the cast for James Cameron’s much-delayed and long-gestating follow-ups to the most successful film of all-tome even as filming has begun on the first of many due in the coming years (and decades, to be honest). Now the director has confirmed that he is retiming with his old mucker Kate Winslet, who starred in Cameron’s previous most successful film of all-time, Titanic… We reckon this one will run and run…
It was an early morning tweet that started the ball rolling when it came to a new TV series based on Noel Clarke’s hugely popular Hood trilogy of films (Kidulthood and its sequels have sold 1.3 million units on DVD and grossed £7.5 million at UK cinemas). For after the actor, writer and director showed off the front cover of a new script on social media, teasing that it’s what he was working on, executives at Lionsgate sprung into action – and within hours it was announced that the studio’s UK arm was partnering with Clarke and his cohorts on the new series of eight to 10 hour-long episodes. Lionsgate ceo Zygi Kamasa commented, “When we saw Noel’s post over the weekend, it confirmed our belief that this was something we had to be involved in. Noel has a reputation for always being socially relevant, knowing how to deliver authentic entertainment to audiences and his newly drafted script proves that this reputation will continue in TV format. We are also thrilled to re partner with Noel whilst enthusiastically building the Lionsgate television brand in the UK. Nurturing and continuing Filmmaker relationships is incredibly important to us and we’re keen to develop more and more with our partners either for the cinema or the home.”
More too on Good Omens, the eagerly awaited TV adaptation of Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s classic tale of good versus evil at the end of the world, and the ever-expanding line-up of stars, headed by the likes of David Tennant and Michael Sheen, has been further boosted this week by the announcement that Jon Hamm, formerly of Mad Men, latterly of Baby Driver, is joining the team to play an angel. The series is a collaboration between Amazon Prime and BBC Worldwide, premiering on the former before heading to the latter for TV and other formats.
TWEET OF THE WEEK
Some #earlyman action from Aardman, those Warner Filmbooks, the HMV dinner and a load of scurrilous gossip on our Twitter feed now, follow us on www.twitter.com/theraygun
TRAILERS OF THE WEEK
Trailer of the week…
One of those special interest titles Universal mentioned…
Specifically Pacific…
Absolutely nuts from Netflix…
Denzel’s in the house!
Not, it must be noted, about our trade organisation…
What a great title…
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