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WINKLEMAN RETURNS FOR BASE
SINGING OUT LOUD
BLOOD RUNS DEEP
MIDWEEK CHART UPDATE
POKEMON STILL CATCHING FANS
MANGA UNVEILS Q3 AND MORE
CANNES UPDATE
ARROW AIMS FOR IMMORTALITY
GHOSTS TO LAND IN UK
THUNDERBIRD IS GO…
…AS TONI ARRIVES
BEST FOOT FORWARD
EUREKA “GOES FROM STRENGTH TO STRENGTH”
NAPOLEON PICKS UP GONG FACT WELCOMES KODI FACEBOOK BAN
MORE PIRACY NEWS…
FCPA UPDATE
AMAZON WIDENS PRIME SCOPE
BBC STORE SET TO CLOSE
NETFLIX GETS MORE PRESS
AT THE MOVIES
TWEET OF THE WEEK
TRAILERS OF THE WEEK
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It Was A Good Week For... Sing replacing the music La La Land at number one…
It Was A Bad Week For… The student banned from using the wifi at Bristol University for illegally downloading Chicken Run…
Less than two weeks to go until the annual event that is the BASE Awards, now firmly ensconced in its new home of Tobacco Dock, over Wapping way, take place. And this week the organisation has unveiled its host for the event on June 8 – the same day as the General Election, as reported here previously. For the second year running, TV personality Claudia Winkleman, who made such a good job of last year’s presentation ceremony during the evening, is returning to the stage. BASE is following a similar strategy to last year for the get together of more than 1,000 people from around and across the entire breadth of the home entertainment business, with a dress code of “black (tie) and bright”. There will also be “a celebration of 4K UHD. There are a limited amount of tickets left, email kate@baseorg.uk And we’ll see you down the front or at the bar…
Universal has been out and about on the road this week, as the major took its big animated title out on physical formats this week, Sing, out on the road to mark the release. Singer and TV personality Stacey Solomon helped kick off the national karaoke bus tour at London’s Westfield on Sunday May 21, with further venues visited as part of the event. As well as helping promote the release, the tour also helped raise cash for the Chickenshed charity. The tour obviously helped, as, according to the Official Charts Company’s midweek bulletin, the film had managed to shift some 90,000 units in its first few days on sale. Commenting on its week one, Universal’s Emma Sihra said: “We launched the release of Sing on Blu-ray and DVD this week with a fantastic response. We have had great support from retail with our bright and colourful POS and a really fun media campaign, featuring lots of Piggy Power! We also launched a Sing Karaoke Bus Tour, kicking off in London last Sunday with Stacey Solomon singing karaoke with lots of fans. Parents and kids have loved the opportunity to sing along with their favourite songs from Sing!” Also performing well out of the blocks on its first week of release is the Platform release of Bonded By Blood 2, the second hit from the Jonathan Sothcott production line in almost as many weeks, following hot on the heels of another sequel hit in the shape of We Still Steal The Old Way. And what’s more, as Sothcott himself noted when we spoke to him about its performance, it shows that, with the right support, the right product can still work as a DTV release. He said: “We are delighted that in a truly horrible week Bonded By Blood has performed well both on DVD and digital. I enjoyed working with Kaleidoscope on the release particularly Eve and Adam who were very supportive. The success of this and We Still Steal The Old Way last month has proved that quality product still works on DVD and we are developing further entries in both franchises. I particularly enjoyed working with Terry Stone on Bonded By Blood 2 - we share a mindset about making commercial genre films and hopefully BBB2 will be the first of many together.”
Sing arrived at number one in the Official Charts Company’s midweek listing, ahead of the number two, another new entry, in the shape of a title we featured here already, Hacksaw Ridge, which sold more than 50,000 in its fist few days on sale. It’s ahead of another newbie, Lion. There are other new titles in the midweeks too, namely Live By Night at number 10, Teen Titans: The Judas Contract at number 16, the aforementioned Bonded By Blood at number 21, two separate Mythica titles, the Complete Film Collection and The Dragon Slayer at numbers 26 and 36 respectively and, elsewhere, Scooby Doo: Shaggy’s Showdown at 31, Digimon Adventure Tri: The Movie at number 33 and the complete Twin Peaks at number 38.
One company enjoying notable success recently is the thriving Manga operation – for the past two weeks alone, the company has seen its titles score significant successes in the charts with new releases. Chief among these was its latest Pokemon release, which, as the company’s Jerome Mazandarani noted, had outperformed some more illustrious rivals. And it too is showing that the Pokemon phenomenon is showing little sign of waning. He said: “We are really thrilled with how well our latest Pokemon release, Pokemon The Movie: Volcanion And The Mechanical Marvel has performed at retail. It was the highest charting DTV release last week. Pokémon International don't seem able to set a foot wrong at the moment. There's a good on shelf presence in grocery for Pokemon pocket money items like cards and toys and the DVD release compliments that. I expect strong sales into the mid-term break.”
While we’re on Manga, we decided to get an update on where the label currently is, with a peek at its Q3 slate and also an update on its ongoing widening of its scope and also its further move into the theatrical world as part of its ongoing ambitious growth plans. Here’s Jerome Mazandarani on what it’s been up to: “The biggest specialist anime home ent release of Q3 will undoubtedly be One Punch Man Season 1 in July on Blu-ray and DVD. It's a fantastic show adapted from the bestselling Shonen Jump manga series. It's a uniquely Japanese take on the costumed superhero genre and its action-packed and hilarious. We expect it to perform as well as Dragon Ball Z and Attack On Titan. June 28 is our nationwide theatrical roll-out of the award-winning anime feature film, In This Corner Of The World. Manga marketing manager Andrew Hewson and I will be very busy between now until mid-July travelling with the producers and directors to the various international festivals it is screening at in competition including Annecy, LA Film Festival, Anime Expo Los Angeles and the Edinburgh International Film Festival.”
Manga executives have returned from Cannes, where much of the industry has been over the past week or so, picking up a couple of titles it is set to unveil shortly, and reporting back to us on the mood at the film festival and market in the south of France (“the weather was great for once”). We’ve again been speaking to a few people this week about the feelings and mood down on the market floor (one interesting comment we received was that the mood was a touch “lukewarm”). More to come with more announcements and a fuller report due soon…
Meanwhile, one of the busiest companies from UK perspective down at Cannes was Arrow, which was signing titles across the board for its imprints, including growing its roster of new titles for the Arrow Video genre imprint. Four have been announced throughout the week, with a further quartet due to be unveiled in the coming days and weeks. Among those revealed this far are the opening film fro the festival this year are the opening film from the festival side of Cannes, Arnaud Desplechin’s Ismael’s Ghosts, featuring the French acting dream team line-up of Mathieu Amalric, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Marion Cotillard and Louis Garrel. It’s also got the rights to sci-fi horror The Endless, about a pair of brothers who return to a cult they left 10 years previously (Bloody Disgusting said not only will it mess with your head, but is also “strange, bizarre, twisted, manipulative and completely original”); the latest from prolific director Takashi Miike, Blade Of The Immortal (see below for a trailer), which is said to be everything the title promises; and South Korean film The Villainess, which comes from the same sales agent, and Cannes Midnight Screening programme as the recent hit Train To Busan. Commenting on its acquisitions, Arrow’s Tom Stewart said: “Cannes has been extremely strong for the Arrow team this year, probably in fact the most successful and with a further four announcements on the way it's clearly demonstrating just how Arrow Films are forging ahead with plans on some major significant UK releases.”
More Cannes news, and US production and distribution company A24 is heralding a further move into the UK after inking a deal with Picturehouse Entertainment that will see it collaborating on the theatrical release of A Ghost Story. A24 said it will be “directly involved” with the theatrical release, due in August. No news yet on the home entertainment release yet, Picturehouse titles have been released through Spirit in the past, although the last A24 and Picturehouse collaborative release, Swiss Army Man, was released through Lionsgate. A spokesperson for A24 said: “We are extremely excited to be getting directly involved in UK distribution. The UK is a vibrant and sophisticated market for cinema, and our films have consistently resonated with audiences there. We are thrilled as well to be working again with our friends at Picturehouse, who are wonderful and collaborative partners.” Clare Binns, Picturehouse deputy md said: "I am absolutely delighted to be working with A24 once more in bringing this utterly distinctive, wonderful film to the UK. David's films have captivated me over the past few years and A Ghost Story was one of the most memorable and haunting films I saw at Sundance. This is the kind of unique movie I love to champion and I can't wait to bring it to the widest audience possible in the UK, launching as the closing film at Sundance London this June.”
The company formerly known as Soda Pictures, now Thunderbird Releasing, has picked up UK rights to another of the festival’s most talked about films, Michel Hazanavicius’s Redoubtable, the film that looks at key moments in the life of French director Jean Luc Godard. The deal was struck between Thunderbird acquisitions manager Kevin Chan and Emilie Serres of Wild Bunch. Chan said: “Michel Hazanavicius turns the story of Jean-Luc Godard into a playful and honest film about politics, creativity and love, with extraordinary performances from Louis Garrel and Stacy Martin. All of us at Thunderbird are thrilled to be working with Wild Bunch on such a delightful, visually stunning film and we can’t wait to bring it to a UK audience.” Serres added: “I’m delighted to be working with Thunderbird Releasing on Redoubtable as I know we share the same love for the film – which I think is essential for its UK release. And so goes life for the redoubtable!”
Sticking with Thunderbird and Monday May 29 sees the release of one of its biggest releases of the year, the acclaimed German film Toni Erdmann. The company’s Ed Frost said: “After becoming one of the highest-grossing foreign language titles of the year so far - a success that far exceeded expectations for a close-to-three-hour German comedy, we were confident that sustaining the overwhelmingly positive word of mouth generated by the theatrical release for the film’s home entertainment bow wasn’t going to be much of a challenge. That said, there still remained the issue of how to build upon said acclaim whilst appealing to an audience who may not have seen let alone heard of this otherwise very distinctive film. Securing key retailers such as HMV and Fopp, as well as on demand sites like Amazon and Curzon Home Cinema, was crucial in that respect in order to reach both a cinephile and mainstream audience. We also felt the release date timed nicely with its unforgettable debut at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, where it was one of the hot favourites to win the coveted Palme d’Or. Keeping the theatrical artwork for the release was a decision we felt best served the film, maintaining an enigmatic quality that let the abundance of review quotes and stars from key publications highlight the film’s prestige. However, both DVD and Blu-ray formats come with an exclusive reversible sleeve featuring an alternative design that we hope will generate a humorous reminder for those who have seen the film, as well as an evocative non-sequitur tease at what’s in store for those who are yet to experience the film’s engagingly madcap brilliance.”
Also out on Monday May 29 is another release from a company enjoying a strong 2017, as Best, the latest from documentary specialist Dogwoof lands on shelves. It’s the definitive documentary on the Manchester United and Northern Ireland footballing legend, George Best, and is co-produced by the BBC and ESPN. Directed by Dan Gordon, the film recounts the tale of this beloved but bedevilled superstar with riveting, evocative footage and testimony by those who knew him at his best – and worst. Commenting on the release, Dogwoof's head of home entertainment Daniel Green said: "Hot on the heels of our successful O.J.: Made in America launch a few weeks back, we're delighted to bring yet another high quality sports documentary to DVD, Blu-ray and Digital HD. Dan Gordon has an extremely impressive resume and the positive critical reaction to Best following its February cinema release has translated into stellar trade support: it's our first film to go into Tesco, Morrison's and Asda, as well as pleasing backing from Amazon, Fopp, HMV and Sainsbury's. Everything points to this being our biggest ever week one physical result, topping Blackfish and Restrepo.” 
We’ve recently been talking to some of the independents, particularly those dealing in special editions and dual format releases, notable names such as Criterion and the BFI, as well as Arrow Video, currently going through a purple patch, and newer entrants such as Indicator. So it was only fair to ask Eureka’s innovative and ground-breaking Masters Of Cinema imprint for an update on how it’s performing. The company’s Ruth Schofield talked about some of its forthcoming releases for Q3, as well as going an overview of where it’s at, saying: “Out in July we have Fritz Lang’s visually ambitious Der müde Tod (aka Destiny) as well as a double film set from master director G.W. Pabst, the two anti-war titles Westfront 1918 & Kameradschaft. We will also be reissuing our 2016 release of Man With A Movie Camera and other Works by Dziga Vertov in a standard Blu-ray only edition. Following on from that in August we have The Saga of Anatahan – Josef von Sternberg’s haunting tale of survival, plus, a yet-to-be announced title from melancholic auteur, Naomi Kawase. Our Masters of Cinema Series goes from strength to strength in a very competitive market. We are striving to release the definitive versions of all our titles, and to give our ever expanding fan base a reason to maintain a complete collection of our releases as well as attracting newer audiences. Following on from our release of Fright Night, which exceeded all expectations, we also have some fantastic and diverse titles lined up for our core Eureka range.”
One of those other labels we’ve been looking at recently, the BFI, was celebrating this week after picking up a gong at the prestigious Focal International Awards. The organisation earned the Best Archive Restoration trophy for its work on Napoleon. The classic black and white film was finally fully restored at the end of 2017, the 50-year project culminating in a theatrical release and DVD and Blu-ray dual format release. The awards recognise excellence in archive ad restoration work and is a sign of the efforts put into the release. The BFI’s creative director Heather Stewart said: “This Award is testament to the generations of staff at the BFI who have been involved in the restoration of this landmark film; to Kevin Brownlow who has championed it indefatigably and to Carl Davis who provided the amazing score. We are delighted to see all the hard work that went into this achievement being recognised by Focal.” Meanwhile, Paul Wright, technical director at Dragon, which collaborated o the project with the BFI, added: “"To have worked on the restoration of a project as prestigious as Napoleon was already such an honour but to now have the accolade of having won the Focal International Award for Best Archive Restoration on top really is a career highlight and such a thrill for us all at Dragon.” Next stop for Napoleon – the BASE Awards, where it has a chance of picking up another gong… Piracy news and more on the recent clampdown on fully loaded Kodi boxes and the likes, as Facebook has joined Amazon and ebay in outlawing sales of any devices that aid viewing of illegally uploaded content online. Its policy guidelines on sale of goods has seen the following sentence added to those covering illegal drugs and other dodgy gear: “Products or items that facilitate or encourage unauthorised access to digital media.” Commenting on the latest victory in the ongoing battle, FACT ceo Kieron Sharp said: “It is great to see Facebook follow the likes of Amazon and Ebay in making changes to their policies to prohibit the sale of illicit streaming devices on their platforms. These days social media sites are more than just a place to share photos and comments with friends and family. Unfortunately, the fast-paced development of these sites are being exploited by opportunists for criminal activity which needs to be disrupted. One of FACT’s priorities is combatting the sale of these illegal devices which affects not only all of our members and clients but the creative industries as a whole. Recent rulings have clarified that selling a device pre-configured to access copyrighted material is illegal and that consumers watching content via these devices without a legitimate subscription are also breaking the law.” 
Talking of Kodi boxes, we hear that some of the powers that be have fired off a letter to one publishing house over its Kodi-friendly publication that effectively acts as a “How To…” for Kodi, enabling consumers to find out how to use it. The carefully-worded publication may not explicitly encourage illegal viewing of films and stops short of such behaviour, but it can’t be helpful to our industry. Strange too, to see supermarkets stocking it. More on this next week…
Meanwhile, one potential upside of ransom ware and hacker activity has seen warnings issued this week about hackers including viruses hidden in subtitles from illegally viewed and streamed films. Embedding the viruses in the subtitles enables hackers to bypass security and experts at CheckPoint have warned: “We estimate there are approximately 200 million video players and streamers that currently run the vulnerable software, making this one of the most widespread, easily accessed and zero-resistance vulnerabilities reported in recent years," they said. Given this week’s burst of piracy news, we thought we’d get an update from the Film Content Protection Agency. Mark Batey from the Film Distributors’ Association, where the FCPA is based, said: “It’s been a busy month for the FCPA, with presentations made in Las Vegas (at the CinemaCon trade event) as well as around the UK. A ‘six weeks of spring’ initiative, encouraging cinema staff members to visit and use the FCPA website resources, finished on Friday (May 26) – there have been weekly prizes of amazon.com vouchers in a series of draws among staff who participate, and individual presentations of the vouchers have been made in their cinemas. The greater overall outcome is that the FCPA’s new website, a dedicated area of launchingfilms.com, is attracting record thousands of visitors, a level we’re determined to go on developing. Lots more initiatives are planned for the coming months – all intended to keep FCPA’s messages front of mind and, most importantly, to keep source piracy out of the UK." 
Big news from Amazon this week as the online giant has enhanced its vod service by adding scores of TV and other channels. For extra charges, consumers can now subscribe to more than 40 different channels, with prices starting at £1.49. The offering includes an Arrow Video channel (£4.99 a month), BFI Player+, the ad-free ITV Hub. Universal’s reality channel hayu, MGM, Mubi, Shudder, a Universal channel offering studio classics and more. "For the first time, Prime members in the UK and Germany will be able to choose to watch premium TV channels without having to sign up to a bundle or a contract, giving them the freedom to pay for only what they want to watch," said Alex Green, MD, Europe, Amazon Channels. "From live sport to Bollywood, arthouse cinema to reality TV, and award-winning TV shows from popular channels like Discovery and ITV, Amazon Channels gives power back to customers to choose exactly what they want to watch.”
Meanwhile, its not all fun and games in the world of video on demand. BBC Worldwide has this week announced the closure of the BBC Store service, effectively admitting that its buy and keep offering can’t compete with the subscription model favoured by the likes of Netflix and Amazon. A statement said: “Since the appetite for BBC shows on SVOD [streaming video on demand] and other third party platforms is growing in the UK and abroad, it doesn’t make sense for us to invest further in BBC Store where demand has not been as strong as we’d hoped in a rapidly changing market”. Titles bought will be available until the store closes in November 2017. The site itself added: “The BBC will continue to find new ways of making BBC archive content available. And do remember that programmes on BBC iPlayer are now available to watch for up to 30 days after broadcast, alongside a range of complete series and fascinating collections.” Netflix, meanwhile, not to be outdone, has illustrated again how it can cough and get coverage from the press in the UK and beyond. This week it used its own figures to reveal what different kind of programming people watch at different times of the day – comedy for breakfast, drama at lunchtime and so on – and earned acres of column inches in doing so. “For years our lives had to fit around television, now it’s the other way around,” said Cindy Holland, Vice President of Original Content. “We’ve given consumers control and it’s interesting to see the behaviours that emerge when viewers aren’t tied to a schedule. And even more so to see that these routines are replicated by millions the world over.” 
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“Guaranteeing sustainable financing and development of European filmmaking must be our priority. More than ever, the territoriality of copyright needs to be maintained: this principle ensures high level support for artistic creation in Europe, helping the most fragile filmmakers and European co-productions. Enshrining this principle underwrites the exclusivity of rights and the financing of works. It is territoriality that has provided audiences with the great variety of films that are being financed all over Europe. While the dream of an EU single market can be enticing, such a project would undermine Europe’s cultural diversity. The right for authors to be able to live from their art must be reinforced, so that they can keep on creating.
“The European Parliament and Council are currently debating a draft Directive on Copyright. For all filmmakers, the European Union must ensure an equal level of protection across the continent, and acknowledge an inalienable right to remuneration when works are exploited online. It must also encourage transparency and proportional remuneration linked to the success of films. Bringing Internet giants into the economics of European creation is essential to the future of cinema. Europe’s ambition must be to guarantee conditions for fair and sustainable competition between all those who make works available to European audiences. It must also defend the principle of fiscal equity and quickly implement measures on the financing and broadcasting of European works, that cannot be evaded. Finally, the place of taxation and place of broadcast of the works must be better aligned, as is already the case with VAT. “Europe is not a modern-day lawless wild west; it has to ensure the equal application of the rules to all broadcasters, platforms, sharing websites and social networks. While piracy is still a scourge and lawful services struggle for viewers, it is necessary to promote a better visibility for films, on all formats. We must speed up the development of film finding tools that cover all lawful services and also encourage cooperation between EU Members as well as existing initiatives. All authors hope that their works will be accessible by as many people as possible; their works must be widely available on cinema screens, TV and its digital variants, and on all on-demand services. Professionals will have to make an effort for this to happen. In addition, the European institutions, by creating quotas for the presence and promotion of European works for on-demand services, can establish a virtuous link between digital platforms and creators, without dismissing cultural diversity.” A letter from European filmmakers to EU chiefs issued this week, objecting to wide-ranging digital single market plans… AT THE MOVIES Warner’s King Arthur pulled the proverbial sword from the stone in its opening weekend, toppling Alien Covenant from the top of the UK box office charts, earning £2,5 million in its first weekend. Other new entries included Snatched, with more than £800,000, Colossal, with a touch over £150,000 and Half Girlfriend with £115,183. In a week in which its UK home entertainment release was announced (digital on July 25, physical on July 31), DreamWorks Animation has announced a sequel for current theatrical hit The Boss Baby… Angry Birds, meanwhile, also has a sequel due, with the second film featuring the gam to film franchise due in 2019… Saddest superhero news of the week saw Zack Snyder announce he was stepping bac from the forthcoming Justice League, with Avengers director Joss Whedon taking over the reins. The reason was not the normal DC or comic book related shenanigans, however, as Snyder was morning the loss of his daughter some months ago… Universal this week outlined more of its plans for its revitalised horror films, which will now be called the Dark Universe (enough with the universes already…). As well as the forthcoming The Mummy, with Tom Cruise, with the star joining Johnny Depp and Javier Bardem for a photo shoot to reveal more details. The Bride Of Frankenstein, as well as a Jekyll and Hyde (with Bardem) and Invisible Man (with Depp) are all on the way… TWEET OF THE WEEK Follow us on www.twitter.com/theraygun… TRAILERS OF THE WEEK Set a world record this week for trailer views… https://youtu.be/N28zf8sWc7Y The minions ae back… https://youtu.be/oagwBHoh6Rs And here’s the final one for the next Marvel flick… https://youtu.be/5QARmhQPJPM And another final trailer… https://youtu.be/K8oVfkZM3pA Here’s a tearjerker… https://youtu.be/1zxrpNbjwBc One of those Arrow acquisitions…
https://youtu.be/-M2F4-oTNF4 And another… https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FBtRFLKa5Q4 See you in the Championship next season (Wembley shenanigans delayed us this week)…
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