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BODYGUARD LOOKS AFTER BUSINESS
REACTION TO SERIES’ SUCCESS
MIDWEEK CHART UPDATE
AMAZON HOSTS PRESS…
SAYS SVOD IS “NOT GOING AWAY”
STARS LINE UP TO PROMOTE PRIME VIDEO…
…AS GAIMAN INKS LONG TERM DEAL
TRAFFIC FOR ROAD
LIKE A MFKZ
HEREDITARY IS BORN AGAIN
ALL EYEBALLS ON 88
BOOK YOUR PLACE
SECOND RUN MAKES ITS MARC
CLUB ADDS TO APP
GAME GETS MALICIOUS
ROCK DISSECTED
IAN MILES MEMORIAL SERVICE DETAILS
AT THE MOVIES
TWEET OF THE WEEK
TRAILERS OF THE WEEK
If you can't read this newsletter or see the ads, please click here. Apologies for the late-running of this week's newsletter…
Well, don’t say we didn’t warn you… For, after last week’s newsletter taking about Bodyguard, the homegrown TV phenomenon of 2018, and its record viewing figures, ITV’s home entertainment release of the Keeley Hawes starring political thriller, created by Line Of Duty supremo Jed Mercurio, got off to a fine start on its release from ITV Studios’ home entertainment arm via Spirit. It had shifted some 5,300 units in its first few days on sale according to the Official Charts Company’s midweek listing, enough to comfortably put it on target to be the highest new entry of the week. It was sitting pretty at the number five spot in the aforementioned bulletin from the chart organisation. What’s more it kicks off a busy period of activity for ITV. For as well as Bodyguard and a wealth of Steelbook SKUs of its classic titles, the company also releases another autumn biggie on Monday October 8 in the shape of Vanity Fair. This adaptation, which has aired on ITV and is due on the broadcasting giant’s commercial home entertainment arm, has garnered almost as much interest and comment as Bodyguard did.
Comment on the success of Bodyguard and the potential of Vanity Fair to emulate its success came from both ITV and Spirit. For the former, Kevin Morgan said: “We and Spirit are absolutely delighted with the retailer support for the amazing Bodyguard and it's opening week sales. After massive TV ratings Bodyguard is proving equally compelling in both physical and digital ownership. At the same time we are excited to have Vanity Fair riding high on iTunes and releasing on DVD on Monday. It is a privilege to be publishing both the best new crime drama and the best new period adaptation together.” And for Spirit, the company’s Robert Callow said: ”We are very pleased with sales thus far of the Bodyguard and are looking forward to an equally strong week 1 number from the stunning Vanity Fair next week. We are as ever very grateful for the fabulous level of support afforded us by our retail colleagues to ensure that the TV genre continues to enjoy great home entertainment success.”
Also from the midweeks and Solo: A Star Wars Story is set to follow its huge success in its first week by remaining in pole position for a second week. At the halfway mark according to the Official Charts Company’s midweek bulletin, it was ahead of rival Deadpool 2 by some 14,000 units. Other new entries included Show Dogs at number seven and the tenth season of Supernatural at 10. Outside the top 10, there’s new entries for the latest from Marvel’s Agents Of SHIELD at 12, The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy at 19, The Captain at 24 and UFO at number 30.
To the Curzon cinema in Mayfair, London, where Amazon Prime Video was hosting a whole day’s worth of press activity to push its key wares for the coming months to journalists from the UK and beyond, across Europe and other key territories for the company. It was a hugely impressive logistical feat, with talent aplenty as well as senior executives talking about the streaming giant’s new programmes due to air. Jay Marine, vp for the European arm of Prime Video, outlined some of the company’s thinking and history, as well as its thoughts about the overall market. The svod sector, he said, “is not a winner takes all” market. There would be multiple winners, multiple services, with consumers using them in different ways. “It’s not one large company versus another,” he continued, without naming the svod service he was referring to. “Over the top streaming is not going away. It’s working from a customer perspective, [everything] tells us customers love it. [It’s] giving us tremendous growth.” He said customers using Prime Video were more enthusiastic about product, and talked about its “large block of investment”. He talked about its recent involvement with the sports market, it screens American football in the US, recently streamed the US Open to customers in the UK and other territories, as well as forthcoming Premier League games. “We’re really excited. I’m a sports fan. It’s really early, but we like what we see.” Marine also noted its investment in London two, one of of its main tech hubs, with three floors devoted to tech in its HQ in the capital. Jennifer Salke, head of Amazon Studios, talked about how the landscape was changing, how svod services had patience to allow shows to develop and find their audience, at the same time as “delivering shows to people when they want to watch them”. It was also aiming to be as talent-friendly as possible. “It’s so important to us to create a global home for talent. We want to create big, global content.” But as well as huge projects such as its planned Lord Of The Rings series, she said it was also working in different territories. “We’re moving in an exciting direction. It’s a really competitive marketplace, we have local boots on the ground, teams who speak the language, we have a nimbleness, speed to market.”
And to show its talent and Amazon highlighted just how it had wooed big names on both sides of the camera, rolling out cast and crew such as John Krasinski, starring as Jack Ryan in the blockbuster series; Cara Delevingne and Orlando Bloom for Carnival Row (Bloom: “When I got to Prague and saw the set, I was blown away, it was a real indicator of the epic story they were trying to achieve”); Bear Grylls and Apprentice creator Mark Burnett unveiling their Eco Challenge programme (“it eats Iron Man for breakfast," said Burnett); Deutschland 86 and its team (Amazon has rescued it and will be offering the second series, Deutschland 89); mainstay Grand Tour (“there’s press here, so there’s dialogue [in the clip showed], not just primary colours and music,” joked producer Andy Wilman, as its trio of stars were still filming series three); German and French comedy collaboration Deutsch-les-Landes. There was more too – The Romanoffs, which was celebrated with a premiere in the evening; Marvellous Mrs Maisel (“Steven Spielberg said it was the best Jewish musical since Fiddler On The Roof”); and, starring in her first major TV role in Mr Robot creator Sam Esmail’s new series Homecoming Julia Roberts (she said: “I’ve never called myself a film actor, I’m just an actor, so I think for me I go where the parts compel me”).
Perhaps the highlight of the event, however, was the ambitious new take on Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman’s Good Omens, with Gaiman himself joined by key cast and crew from the series, with a line-up that included Jon Hamm, Michael Sheen and David Tennant. The series looks amazing and drew gasps and laughs from the amassed journalists. Sheen said: “I first read Good Omens as a teenager and it’s been one of my favourite stories ever since. To be part of the team entrusted with bringing it alive on screen is a bit of a dream come true to be honest. To work alongside Neil, who I think is one of the greatest storytellers of all time, is incredibly exciting. And, just like the rest of the world, I’m a huge fan of David’s so I relish trying to save it with him.” David Tennant added: “Michael Sheen, Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett and directed by Douglas Mackinnon, it’s a dream team and a dream gig. I am very excited that I’ve been asked to be part of this amazing project. Bring on the Apocalypse!”
Meanwhile, Amazon also took the opportunity to announce that it had inked a further deal with Neil Gaiman, which will see the writer and novelist working exclusively on forthcoming series for Prime Video. It follows on the heels of not just Good Omens, but his success with American Gods too. “Neil Gaiman is a phenomenally talented writer, who creates worlds that are compelling, multi-dimensional and narratively unique,” said Jennifer Salke, Head of Amazon Studios. “His fans are ardent, vocal and passionate and we are fortunate to bring his gifted vision to the Prime Video audience.” Gaiman added: “What decided me was how much I enjoyed working with the Amazon team on Good Omens. They are smart, gloriously enthusiastic people, who weren't afraid of Good Omens being different but who were as determined as I was to make something as unique and exciting as it is. I'm thrilled to know that I'll have a home at Amazon in the future where I can make television that nobody's seen before, that's quite unlike Good Omens, but just as unusual and just as much fun.”
Latest TV phenomenon making waves among those in the know is Mystery Road, a six part Australian TV series that is wowing audiences on BBC4 and picking up a strong cult following. It’s due via Acorn on October 8. Commenting on the release, the company’s md Stuart Shaw said: ““Mystery Road presented a great opportunity for us as a company both for home entertainment distribution through the Acorn label on DVD and digitally, but also as a co-production investment for our production arm Acorn Media Enterprises. This spin-off from the hit Australian movie featured not only one of the original stars in Aaron Pedersen, but also the addition of the globally acclaimed Judy Davis. There’s great potential for a second series and with ratings and potential home ent. sales delivering on all fronts, it’s no mystery why there should be a long life ahead for Mystery Road.”
Another big Monday release, in this oh-so friendly month of horror films and spooky goings on, is one of the year’s most successful genre films, Hereditary. The film, featuring a star turn by Toni Collette, won plaudits and big box office takings on its theatrical bow, further prompting a rash of broadsheet features about horror becoming increasingly mainstream. Its release is timed around the key Halloween season, further boosting its commercial potential. Commenting on the release, EV’s Paul O’Hare said: “We are supporting the home media release with a TV, Press and outdoor campaign focusing on the 16 five star reviews the title received at theatrical release. Retail support is very strong and we are hoping for sustained success given Halloween at the end of the month. We are also very proud of our Steelbook reviewed here https://www.steelbookbluray.com/review-we-take-a-look-at-the-awesome-hereditary-uk-steelbook/. The design is superb on both front and rear, with great use of embossing and colour, making this a really striking presentation, and one of the best looking releases of the year.”
A world away from Hereditary and aimed at another market entirely is Book Club, a comedy targeted at a more mature audience, following the exploits of a quartet of women, Diane Keaton, Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen, and Mary Steenburgen, who read Fifty Shades of Grey with surprising results. It’s supported by a campaign using print and radio, with PR elements including interviews with Steenburgen in the Guardian and Daily Star and life coach Nina Grunfield in BBC Radio Suffolk, BBC Radio Nottingham, BBC Radio Leicester and Press Association. A survey was also conducted to research the sex lives of British over 50s with interesting (and optimistic!) results. Universal’s Alicia Cho said: “It was great to work on a film that had such prestigious star power behind it while also being so light-hearted and fun. To those who have read Fifty Shades of Grey, they will find the concept familiar and hilarious. I think female viewers will easily relate and love the sassy humour and emotion that this film delivers. The perfect girls’ night in film!”
Also on Monday comes a new release from Second Run DVD, focusing on documentary filmmaker and his work. As ever, and as you’d expect from the award-winning label, it’s another labour of love, with a comprehensive booklet among other elements. Commenting on the release, Second Run’s Chris Barwick said: ““We have long championed the work of documentary filmmaker Marc Isaacs and this week sees the release of From The Lift to The Road: The Films of Marc Isaacs Blu-ray box set, a comprehensive collection of his works which also includes an 80-page book written by Marc about his approach to making documentary. Also out in October is a new Blu-ray upgrade of one of our most perennial popular titles – Vera Chytilova’s glorious Daisies. The film has continued win new audiences since we launched it on DVD way back in 2009, and we hope this new Blu-ray edition will engage even more. November will see us follow our immensely popular release of the great Czech animator Karel Zeman’s The Fabulous Baron Munchausen, with his most famous, successful and beloved work Invention for Destruction. Packed Blu-ray and DVD editions of that will be released on November 22.”
Due at cinemas on October 11 is a title we’ve covered here previously after its acquisition for UK release. MFKZ, Released by Manga, which has made waves with its previous theatrical platform releases for home entertainment titles, the film is a blend of French comic book cool and Japanese anime, a sci-fi film with film noir overtones all set in a world that “makes Blade Runner’s LA seem like The Brady Bunch”. Commenting on the release, Manga’s Andrew Hewson said: “MFKZ has so far been incredibly well received by fans and critics, garnering great reviews – a favourite quote being “LSD-spiked stew of Grand Theft Auto and Akira” from Time Out. Our fantastic above the line marketing campaign has perfectly complimented the PR activity with a focus on unique and engaging digital ads across Facebook, Instagram and Youtube - targeting gamers, anime and hip hop fans. The film opens on October 11 in select cinemas across the UK and Ireland with hopes of hold overs if ticket sales are strong enough! This will platform the home video and digital release, which we have planned for early 2019 and the team here have some great ideas for a potential special edition Blu-ray.”
An update from our chums at 88 Films, who we haven’t featured here for a while, but given the looming Halloween, we’ve been speaking to them about the current state of play. And it sees its Italian sub-label is performing as strongly as ever, prompting it to hunt down more giallo and rarely seen gems. As the company’s Richard Elliott said: “We recently released the 70’s giallo Eyeball as a limited to 3000 unit collectors edition and that basically sold out in the first week! As a result of that we have many more Collectors Italian releases in the pipeline that we hope will do equally well.” What’s more it’s also starting to work with studios and dig out genre classics from the vaults, as Elliott explained: “Our first licence from Paramount, Student Bodies is being prepped and we hope to release on 26th November which is exciting starting a new collaboration with a major studio.” Finally, the label has also furthered the current vogue for classic martial arts biffers and Jackie Chan titles with the announcement this week of two new titles from the master, Dragon Fist and To Kill With Intrigue. Elliott added: “Both will be on collectors’ Blu-rays from new 2K remasters.”
Industry related app My Film Club has added new functionality and developments to its service. From now on, consumers will be able to receive push notifications alerting them to release dates for home entertainment and theatrical release. They will also be able to add reminders, which will tell them on the days of release of films and TV titles across cinema and home entertainment. And iPhone users will be able to access deep film pages via links, these will include screening schedules form the fire closest cinemas and order links through the likes of Amazon, iTunes, Google Play, Zavvi and HMV. Creator Wez Merchant said: “It became apparent during the development of the app that whilst we had a great looking and capable app, it needed to appeal to the industry as well. We can now monitor the number of notification adds and calendar click throughs. In turn, we can provide accurate feedback to advertisers and distributors about what titles are generating interest. Now, users will receive a notification on the day of release to really accentuate the ‘buy now’ message and encourage the desire to get there first. Plus, if people are like me and don’t decide what they want to do until the day due to busy schedules and life getting in the way, this new addition provides a timely reminder. Similarly, it's cinema chain neutral so brings up your nearest five cinemas."
It’s w well-known fact that Game Of Thrones, currently the biggest television show in the world and also sone of its biggest home entertainment franchises too, is almost the most popular TV programme when it comes to illegal downloading too. And consumers thinking about going the dodgy route when it comes to watching the HBO show have been further warned this week too. For, according to research from Brit-based website bestvpn.com and Kaspersky Lab, it’s also the most dangerous. Hackers are using Torrents of the series to bury malware and malicious code that targets users’ computers. Their research showed more than 170,000 infection attempts were hidden in Game Of Thrones over the past year, targeting 50,000 plus computers. The Walking Dead was next most popular with 100,000 attempts. "Other TV shows, such as Stranger Things, WestWorld and Orange is the New Black are not as popular as Game of Thrones," noted Mariya Fedorova, security researcher at Kaspersky Lab. "Nevertheless, they are being used in malware distribution schemes." "These are exciting times for television fans," commented Sean McGrath, editor of BestVPN.com. "Streaming services have shaken things up and we are living through a new golden age of TV programming. But our love of television and desire to get things instantly makes us easy targets for those who wish to do us harm. Malicious executable files can easily be binded to video files, which means all a user needs to do is start watching a video and their computer could be infected. That's why it's vital to run quality antivirus software, regardless of platform or operating system."
Every week, it seems, in our At The Movies section, there's a new film announced involving wrestler turned hardest working man in showbusiness, The Rock, aka Dwayne Johnson. And now the experts at Nahuru have looked at his power not just in box office or home entertainment terms, but across the BitTorrent network too. And it appears as if he’s cooking just as well on illegal downloads too – if you factor out superheroes and franchises he is currently the biggest star across BitTorrent too. What’s more, Nahuru’s figures show how great his power is too, highlighting how singing from previous outing Moana while supporting the cinema release of Rampage boosted the animated outing as well. Its report said: 'When on the promotional tour earlier this year in April for the recently released Rampage, an impromptu performance of the rap from the film Moana (in which he voiced Maui, one of the main characters) on the Graham Norton show on 18th April, 2018, resulted in a increase in the amount of times it was downloaded via the BitTorrent Network. It’s reasonable to assume that The Rock’s legions of fans may have had something to do with this and amplified the impact. The producers of Moana must have been rubbing their hands in glee, free publicity resulting in an upswing in interest in the film. Not bad for a film that was actually released at the end of 2016.That’s not to say that Moana wasn’t a popular title before The Rock started promoting it. The UK Official Video Chart 2017 (including all digital retail, Blu-ray and DVD) placed it as the third highest grossing title of 2017 after Beauty And The Beast (2017) in second place and Rogue One - A Star Wars Story taking the top spot. In the US it proved to be even more popular where it was the top-selling disc in 2017 with more than $114 million in revenue from combined disc sales of more than 4.3 million units. Nonetheless for just one promotional effort to have had the impact that it did is astonishing. Not only did it boost the number of downloads, but by actively promoting the film it he gave more prominence to the title and helped to ensure the continuation of the film’s popularity and its re-entry in the top 20 of the biggest DVDs and Blu-Rays of 2018. Given The Rock’s continued promotion of Moana, it should come as no surprise that data from BitTorrent network shows that its his second most downloaded film after Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017).” You can see the full report here…
We’ll end with news from Abbey Home Media, which has announced that the memorial service for founder Ian Miles will be held on October 31. The service will take place at the Church of the Immaculate Conception, Farm Street London W1K 3AH. The service will be followed by refreshments at The Lansdowne Club, 9 Fitzmaurice Place, London W1J 5JD, from 3:30pm to 5:30pm. Those attending the Lansdowne Club must email emma.evans@abbeyhomemedia.com to confirm attendance. A tribute to Ian Miles with assorted contributions from friends and colleagues is on our website.
AT THE MOVIES
Much of this week’s news has centred on the Star Wars universe and, more specifically, Disney’s plans for a new TV series for its much-talked about streaming service. First the name was unveiled – The Mandalorian – and its subject too, as the series will feature a character cast from the same mould as Boba Fett and Jango Fett. That news alone was warmly welcomed by the cognoscenti, who got even more excited when they found out some of the talent involved. It will be overseen by Jon Favreau and big names such as Taika Waititi and Bryce Dallas Howard are on board to direct some of the episodes…
Netflix’s big news of the week concerns the much-vaunted The Chronicles Of Narnia series. Keen to develop its own rival to other big fantasy series, the svod service has acquired rights to CS Lewis’ series. The titles have been the subject of both TV and film adaptations, the latter didn’t complete the franchise. Netflix will be turning it into a mixture of both TV-style series as well as feature length films. “C.S. Lewis’ beloved Chronicles of Narnia stories have resonated with generations of readers around the world,” said Netflix’s chief content officer Ted Sarandos. “Families have fallen in love with characters like Aslan and the entire world of Narnia, and we’re thrilled to be their home for years to come.”
Whither Captain America? The superhero may or may not be hanging up his shield, for Chris Evans this week tweeted a message that suggests that the actor may have finished his last outing as Steve Rogers, aka Cap. As ever, Marvel and comic book fans went into overdrive in terms of speculating as to the tweet’s meaning. Evans wrote: “Officially wrapped on Avengers 4. It was an emotional day to say the least. Playing this role over the last eight years has been an honour. To everyone in front of the camera, behind the camera, and in the audience, thank you for the memories! Eternally grateful.”
Disney’s plans to plunder its entire catalogue for live action adaptations of animated properties continues apace. Latest to be rumoured for a real version is Milo and Stitch…
TWEET OF THE WEEK
Follow us on www.twitter.com/theraygun
TRAILERS OF THE WEEK
Hot damn!
Christmas is coming…
Walter’s out of jail…
More Aqua business…
THE OBLIGATORY GDPR BIT
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