|
ANORA HITS TOP SLOT
OCEAN MAKES WAVES FOR ALTITUDE…
…WITH MORE GLAD TIDINGS
THE RECKONING ON FINAL RECKONING
RAN PICKS UP SPEED FOR 409TH ANNIVERSARY
PRESS COVERAGE LIGHTS THE FLAME FOR SLADE
FLOWER BLOOMS FOR BFI…
…WITH MORE TRAFFIC DUE IN JULY
RADIANCE REVEALS AUGUST TITLES
PUTMAN LAUNCHES PUBLISHING VENTURE…
…WITH POP CULTURE NOOKS TO FOLLOW MUSIC LIST
SPOTTED OUT AND ABOUT
SUPPORT THE RAYGUN
TRAILERS OF THE WEEK 
If you can't read this newsletter or see the ads, please click here.
It was a good week for… Anora, sitting pretty at number one…
It was a bad week for… Anyone who doesn’t like Tom Cruise, seeing as he’s been absolutely everywhere this week…
We have bene watching… As well as Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning (see below), we caught up with September 5, one of the best thrillers we’ve seen this year, and the truly marvellous The Ugly Stepsister, just released on digital by Vertigo, an incredible and horrific retelling of Cinderella… And we also saw The Last Showgirl, due on May 26, which is highly recomended – and stay tuned for next week's The Raygun, complete with a rather smart Last Showgirl t-shirt giveaway competition…
Boutique labels and specialist imprints have, as the industry ha changed in recent years, increasingly figured in the upper echelons of Official Charts Com[any’s listings, with the likes of Arrow and Criterion often appearing in the top 10 of Blu-ray and Film On Disc listings. Bit the release of Anora has gone one step further and become that rarity in topping the charts from a boutique label. It is, by our reckoning, the first number one from the esteemed Criterion Collection, certainly the first since its deal with Spirit and its association with the company. Of course, the film was boosted by its Oscar success and the fact that it was the first physical version of the film available here, skipping a standard release and going straight to an extras-laden package under the Criterion banner, but it does warrant plaudits for the achievement. Comment on its success came from Spirit’s Sarah Stanley, who said: “We are thrilled to see Spirit’s first Criterion number one with Anora last week. We have had some magnificent coverage including some great interviews from the man himself, Sean Baker. Fantastic result for a fantastic film!”
Meanwhile, in cinemas Altitude’s release of Ocean WIth David Attenborough, has scored big at the box office. The latest big screen doc from the near-centenarian natural history presenter, took a whopping £573,551 in its opening weekend at UK and Irish cinemas. The huge haul makes it the biggest opening for a documentary this decade, as well as the highest receipts ever for a nature documentary. The film, which had the widest opening for a documentary ever, playing at more than 580 screens, also bested Altitude’s previous best opening for a documentary, Asif Kapadia’s Winehouse doc Amy, as well as earning more in its opening frame than the previous Altitude Attenborough release, A Life On Our Planet, earned in its theatrical run. In a statement, Altitude said: “The team at Altitude are incredibly proud of the UK & Irish box office success of Ocean WIth David Attenborough. The response to the film demonstrates the huge amount of admiration for David’s work across the generations, and the power of cinema to inspire and bring about change. He and his longtime filmmaking collaborators at Silverback Films and Open Planet Studios have made a film that reminds us of his unique ability to share the wonders and beauty of our planet whilst reinforcing our collective responsibility in protecting it for the future.” Alice Aedy, co-founder and CEO of environmental storytelling studio Earthrise, said: “You’ve never seen a film like this before - images of overfishing and trawling that I couldn’t believe they [the filmmakers] were able to capture. It’s a masterpiece.”
Next up at cinemas from Altitude is the Al Pacino and Dan Stevens satanic possession tale The Ritual (see trailer here), with BAFTA-nominated, Mumbai-set horror comedy Sister Midnight on the way too. The company is also continuing its relationship with Capelight Pictures, which has brought successful 4K UHD Mediabook and Steelbook releases for the likes of Bloodsport and All Quiet On The Western Front – next to arrive in the deluxe packaging formats is a slice of Sly Stallone action in Over The Top. Altitude is also at the forefront of the increasing trend of bringing classic films back to cinemas and enjoying not only box office success, but then paving the way for successful digital releases, not least on AVOD formats. The most recent beneficiary of this has been Muriel’s Wedding, released at cinemas last month to mark its 40th anniversary.
To the Cineworld in the heart of London, where Leicester Square had seemingly been taken over by Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, the last instalment of the hugely successful franchise. A premiere, the middle of the Square dressed up with Final Reckoning posters and, at the Cineworld, the multimedia screening. The franchise, at 29 years, has been hugely successful at the box office and on formats from VHS through to Blu-ray and 4K as well as, now, streaming – the penultimate film Dead Reckoning appeared on Netflix this weekend to much fanfare. Even its original US release date May 22 1996, is turned into a plot point for this last outing in the series. The film opens at cinemas in the UK next week and is certain to be a box office behemoth and will continue to perform at home entertainment too – the fact this is the final film makes for plenty of box set possibilities too. We had an absolute blast and a slew of five-star reviews highlights its potential. As Empire noted: “There is a sense of an ending here, a much-deserved victory-lap for this most consistently thrilling of franchises.” Over in the Telegraph, Robbie Collin said: "Even by the series’ own now well-established standards, this widely presumed last entry in Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible franchise is an awe-inspiringly bananas piece of work.” And, perhaps best of all, HeyUGuys noted: "With Cruise and [director Christopher] McQuarrie at their best, this is one of the most exciting action thrillers of the year. With series-best stunts and well-earned emotional stakes, this may be the best time you’ll have at the cinema this summer.”
Big announcement from Studiocanal, which has this week added to its growing slate of new restorations and catalogue titles with a biggie from legendary Japanese director Akira Kurosawa. Ran is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year and to mark the event there’s a newly restored version due from the company; it’s released at cinemas on June 27 and in a mammoth box set on July 21. The latter contains the film across 4K UHD and Blu-ray discs, with a bonus disc containing a wealth of extra material. Oh, it also contains the soundtrack too and it comes in a sumptuous package, with two posters and a 100-page book featuring new writing on the film, including a lengthy feature looking at how Kurosawa was introduced to Western audiences from The Raygun’s very own Tim Murray. And as if that wasn’t enough, it’s encased in new artwork from artist Sterling Hundley. Comment came from Studiocanal’s Alison Arber who said: “We are delighted to announce a very special release to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Akira Kurosawa’s masterpiece, RAN. The 1985 epic, Kurosawa’s last film, deserved to be celebrated in a spectacular way – we worked with sensational artist Sterling Hundley to illustrate every single element of a celebratory collector’s edition. The project has been a labour of love and the result, thanks to Sterling’s beautiful work is stunning. In addition, we have included a 100-page booklet with seven brand-new essays and the soundtrack CD of Tōru Takemitsu. This is a release not to be missed.
More from the BFI, as the company has what should prove to be one of its biggest releases of the year due in stores on Monday May 19. We’ve already written extensively about Slade In Flame here in recent weeks, but not only is the film a belter – the BFI has done a marvellous job with it and its had an exemplary PR campaign too. BFI press officer Jill Reading said: “The Slade in Flame press campaign has hugely benefitted from the support of Noddy Holder, director Richard Loncraine and Tom Conti, all of whom were willing to do multiple interviews. Dave Hill was interviewed on BBC Midlands Today TV and went on Channel 5’s 5 News with Noddy, who also did GB News Breakfast. Radio and feature coverage has included The Guardian, Daily Telegraph, BBC Radio 4 Front Row, BBC Radio London Robert Elms, BBC Radio 4 The World Tonight, Uncut and Shindig! Reviews have included The Guardian, The Spectator and Kermode & Mayo’s Take and there’ll be more reviews specifically for the Blu-ray/DVD. We’ve been working with Slade Facebook groups and the guys that look after socials for some of the band, to give the fans all the news on the releases. With the hugely successful sold out BFI Southbank launch, attended by three members of Slade, it’s been a blast.”
Sticking with the BFI and keep an eye out for The Extraordinary Miss Flower, released at cinemas last week to great acclaim by the organisation. It’s a genre hopping tale of a woman’s rediscovered letters, part music film, part documentary, part scripted drama, headed by songstress Emiliana Torrini and featuring everyone and anyone ranging from Alice Lowe to Richard Ayoade by way of Nick Cave. The BFI’s Jill Reading said: “The Extraordinary Miss Flower is unusual but captivating and it’s been charming cinema audiences since last week. Essentially it’s a music/performance film so we had to find a variety of ways to promote it. Its star, the Icelandic singer/songwriter Emilíana Torrini came over to do lots of press, including an interview and live performance on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour. She and the directors, the artists/filmmakers Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard (who made the Nick Cave film, 20,000 Days on Earth), have been on a cinema Q&A tour over the last 10 days with great attendances. We’re still taking new bookings theatrically and we’ll be releasing the film on DTO and on BFI Player on July 21.”
Interestingly, it’s also worth noting that the film, which received a wealth of cracking reviews and coverage in everywhere fromThe Guardian to The Sun, (“The Extraordinary Miss Flower is a real pleasure: luxuriant like a good glass of red wine,” said the former) is about Geraldine Flower, the mother of industry PR maven Zoe Flower, who told The Raygun: “We feel so lucky to have the BFI on board as our distributor, it’s crazy to think that our little film, made in just a few days, is now out in cinemas. Hopefully people can miss 73 minutes of sun and seek it out on the big screen!” Her message was echoed by Mark Kermode, whose review urged people to “go and see it”. The trailer is here.
And before we leave the BFI, the organisation has shown the breadth of its offering by announcing a trio of British films slated for release in July. The BFI’s Ben Stoddart talked us through the three, saying: “July sees the BFI release three quite different gems of British cinema; Ken Russell's Women in Love, Gurinder Chadha's Bhaji on the Beach and Justin Kerrigan's Human Traffic. The bfi have long championed the work of Ken Russell and having released the Oscar-winning Women in Love on Blu-ray back in 2016, we felt it was the right time to upgrade the film to 4K UHD. The release will include all the extras from the Blu-ray plus new material that will make it the definitive release of the film to date. Gurinder Chadha's debut feature is long overdue a Blu-ray release so it's great to be able to rectify that. Known by many for her hit films Bend it Like Beckham and Blinded by the Light, Chadha's much-loved and Bafta nominated debut feature is another excellent addition to the BFI's Blu-ray catalogue. The release will include early short films by the director and a selection of archive extras. Human Traffic has long been a favourite of many people, with its great cast including John Simm, Nicola Reynolds and the now Bafta-winner Danny Dyer, and its top-drawer soundtrack featuring Fatboy Slim, Public Enemy, and Armand Van Helden. To celebrate it's 25th anniversary the BFI are excited to be releasing the film on 4K UHD and Blu-ray featuring new and archive extras.
Also announcing forthcoming titles has been the prolific Radiance Films operation, which has revealed its titles due in August, Here’s the company’s Bruno Savill de Jong, who said: “We are delighted by the response to our August announcements. We're particularly pleased by the enthusiastic response to our second volume of SHINOBI, a continuation of the popular Japanese Ninja series whose release also includes new interviews with Japanese period film historian Taichi Kasuga, ninja film scholar Mance Thompson and audio-commentary by Tom Mes (as well as six postcards featuring promotional images from the films). We're also glad of the curiosity towards Grzegorz Królikiewicz's THROUGH AND THROUGH, an obscure and unsettling Polish drama about a couple struggling with poverty and ending up committing a desperate crime. Presented on Blu-ray for the first time in the world, our release comes with a new interview by critic Michael Oleszczyk and three shorts by director Królikiewicz. Plus we continue our release of master filmmaking Visconti with SENSO, his gorgeous and opulent colour-feature debut that presents three versions of the film (across two discs) with a new colour regrading. And of course our double-disc of films by Claude Miller - THE INQUISITOR and DEADLY CIRCUIT - presents the underrated French crime filmmaker in fine form, offering two intense and twisty Polars (police-noirs) with a host of archival extras, new audio commentary by Rachael Nisbet and with THE INQUISITOR also available as a UHD disc.
hmv owner Doug Putman’s plans for world domination continue apace as the owner of Putman Investments, which owns the UK’s entertainment retailer, as well as Canada’s Toys R Us and plenty more besides, has unveiled a new book publishing project. Putman Publishing is, as the name suggests, a new publishing arm of his empire and its first imprint is New Modern, which will specialise in books about music and pop culture. New Modern is run by Pete Selby, whose name might be familiar to some in the industry, given that he has worked in books and music at retailers such as Our Price, WHS, MVC, Sainsbury’s and more. Selby had run Nine Eight Books, which despite an ever-growing reputation and clutch of awards, was closed by parent Bonnier Books. AMong the award-winners was the excellent Street Level Superstar about Lawrence (ex-Felt and Denim singer and the pop star who never was) and Miki Berenyi’s Fingers Crossed. The first book under the New Modern banner will be The Tremolo Diaries by Del Amitri frontman Justin Currie, with a further half dozen or so more this year, and then some 12 to 15 a year. It’s separate from hmv, but obviously the retailer stocks music books and more, meaning plenty of promotional opportunities.
New Modern’s Pete Selby said: “It’s a real thrill to bring New Modern and Putman Publishing to the market, working with someone as visionary and passionate about books as Doug. New Modern will be a home for writers with heart, integrity and a dash of irreverence and a welcoming community for likeminded readers. We will shine a light on great music and pop culture writing, delivering quality reads, new voices and definitive narratives. We want to celebrate and chronicle artistry and creativity, pastimes and pursuits in all their glorious eclectic forms. I’m incredibly excited by the books and authors who have already joined New Modern and cannot wait to launch them into the world.” Putman said: “I’ve always had a personal passion for books, reading and bookselling so setting up Putman Publishing and backing New Modern seemed a natural next step. We’ll initially specialise in music-related publishing where I think there’s huge appetite from fans for the as-yet untold stories and tall tales from the entertainment world. Pete has an incredible ability to find great writers who bring those stories to life and having read our first title – a deeply emotional narrative about how it feels for a working musician to be told they have Parkinsons – I think we can bring new and unique voices to readers with this venture.”
 Tom Cruise in Leicester Square. He was also spotted on top of the BFI IMAX, in Cannes, all over London and pretty much everywhere…
 The Raygun, is 15 years old and continues to report on the home entertainment industry and its ever-changing face. To ensure we can continue to bring you the latest news, opinion and analysis from a business we love and care passionately about, you can support our independent journalism by donating to us via Ko-fi… Thank you.
TRAILERS OF THE WEEK
This time they’re on holiday…
You’ll believe a man can fly…
Here’s Kurosawa’s Ran…
And yet more classic Studiocanal fare…
THE OBLIGATORY GDPR BIT
You're on The Raygun newsletter mailing list, which has been running for eight years, because you requested it, have been recommended to us or sent us emails. You can unsubscribe at any time, if you're daft, using the link elsewhere or by emailing as below. But of course, you don't want to do that, do you? We don't share your information with anyone else, we don't like cookies and we're the good guys. We care because you do… To subscribe to The Raygun newsletter, please email info@theraygun.co.uk
with subscribe in the subject matter
To unsubscribe, email info@theraygun.co.uk with unsubscribe in the subject
line
For editorial or advertising queries, contact tim@theraygun.co.uk
The Raygun,
31 Corrib Court,
49 Crothall Close,
London N13 4BG
|
 | Powered by YMLP.com | |
| | ||