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RENTAL, VHS: STILL IN THE NEWS
RENTAL ROUND-UP
SKY ANNOUNCES SHOWTIME…
…WITH PARAMOUNT+ DEAL IN THE UK
EARWIGGING OUT
BANK HOLIDAY VIOLENCE
HOWLING AT THIS…
DANTE BACKS STUDIOCANAL RELEASE
WOULD YOU ADAM AND EVE IT?
MUBI’S NEW IDENT…
…FOLLOWS BIG ACQUISITIONS
AT THE MOVIES
TWEET OF THE WEEK
TRAILERS OF THE WEEK
In a week where Censor is one of the best-reviewed theatrical releases – as noted in last week’s newsletter, keep an eye out for Second Sight’s lavish limited edition Blu-ray on the way – and a one of the big silly season news stories was a man who collected 20,000 VHS cassettes for his rental store, it’s clear that the great British public still has an obsession with the concept of both physical video rental and VHS cassettes. Censor, hugely deserving of its four and five-star reviews, features a scene set in a rental store, while much is made of the old big-box rental releases and its protagonist works at a classification organisation, logging the video nasty cassettes and films submitted for certification; while Andy Johnson, owner of VHS rental outlet VideOdyssey, in Liverpool, featured in national newspapers, TV and radio after his latest PR manoeuvre, which saw him heading to Scotland for a 600-mile round trip to pick up the huge haul of tapes. The sheer weight of coverage shows just how much the concept remains in the psyche of consumers. Johnson told the Liverpool Echo: “A lot of amazing movies were never brought out digitally and they're in danger of being lost forever. Not to mention the millions of hours of precious family memories that people only have on VHS tapes. I can see VideOdyssey becoming a national archive for tapes. It's important to protect them for future generations of film fans. "We're on a mission to save film. I hoped there would be a good reaction to opening a video shop, but the response has been phenomenal. I'm absolutely blown away by the love and support we have received. Especially during the various lockdowns, where we offered a Nostalgia SOS pack with a player and 10 tapes. VHS is starting to have a similar comeback seen with vinyl. People want that physical connection to their favourite films, rather than the cold experience of playing something from the cloud."
VideOdyssey may be the last remaining VHS rental store, but there are still shops renting out discs week in week out, with more than a few of those regular readers and contributors to The Raygun. Chief among those is Dave Wain and his Snips outlet on The Wirral in the north west. So, given rental was such aa big deal this week, we thought we’d get a round-up of how post-lockdown business has been for someone who does it regularly and is still a bastion of the concept, not just for novelty value either. He said: “At the coalface of film rental, things are looking up. Since reopening back in April it's been a weary slog to persuade people to break the lockdown habit of getting the majority of their entertainment via the usual streaming platforms. With little in the way of box office movies to entice them from the comfort of their armchair, it's been a case of relying on the spend of the hardcore movie geeks. Alas, man cannot survive on the rental revenue of The Hands of Orlac alone, which is why w/c August 16th presents a perfect opportunity to mount an aggressive social media campaign to lure people back, in the knowledge that the release of Cruella and Spiral should commence a degree of normality in regard to cinema to home entertainment traffic. Add to that it's still the kids' holidays, and we have a stark change in the weather, so the fact that all children's movies are only £1 to rent is a great selling point, and I'm putting a lot of emphasis on price too. £2.50 (for the grown-ups' films) is dwarfed by the big bucks 'cinema rental' of £15.99+, and it's also half the price of Sky Store when these titles are on general release. People love a bargain, and hopefully we can ride this wave of people's current desire to shop a little more locally.”
Talking of Sky, this week has seen the company unveil Sky Showtime, a new streaming service put together by twin content giants Comcast and Viacom, that will appear in scores of European territories. The service, launching next year, will boast more than 10,000 hours of films and TV programming from the joint combined might of Sky, NBCUniversal and ViacomCBS, with content from as many banners as SHOWTIME, Nickelodeon, Paramount Pictures, Paramount+ Originals, Sky Studios, Universal Pictures, and Peacock. It will reach more than 90 million homes in 20-plus countries, including Albania, Andorra, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Hungary, Kosovo, Montenegro, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, and Sweden. “With the launch of SkyShowtime we are well positioned to utilize our global content engine to create a compelling streaming offering, quickly and at scale, with a smart strategic phased investment,” said Raffaele Annecchino, President & Chief Executive Officer of ViacomCBS Networks International. “As a complement to our recently announced Paramount+ partnership with Sky in the UK, Italy, and Germany, SkyShowtime represents a huge opportunity to accelerate our market expansion and build a leadership position in SVOD in Europe.” “Our new streaming service, SkyShowtime, will combine the best of the US and Europe with iconic brands and world-class entertainment for millions of consumers in more than 20 new markets in Europe,” said Dana Strong, Group Chief Executive, Sky. “On the heels of Peacock coming to Sky, this partnership provides an innovative approach to quickly scale internationally and monetise content across Europe. Drawing on the strength of the incredible programming from NBCUniversal, Sky, and ViacomCBS, and powered by Peacock’s platform technology, SkyShowtime will provide a truly compelling lineup for the whole family and strong brand recognition across these regions.” More details, including the subscription price, will be announced ahead of the 2022 launch.
The new Sky Showtime service will not appear in the UK, but Sky, as mentioned above, has already previously announced that it is set to offer Paramount+, the studio’s streaming service, through its Sky Q service on these shores and other European territories. It will launch next year. “We are thrilled to expand our long-standing partnership with Sky to continue delivering ViacomCBS’ leading portfolio of premium entertainment brands to Sky customers and importantly bring Paramount+ to new audiences in all Sky markets, including the UK, Ireland, Italy, and GSA,” said Raffaele Annecchino, President and Chief Executive Officer, ViacomCBS Networks International. “This transformative distribution deal is key to accelerating our global ambitions in streaming while also supporting Sky’s strategic objectives to better serve audiences with greater flexibility in how they consume our content across all platforms.” Stephen van Rooyen, Executive VP & Chief Executive, UK & Europe at Sky said: “This is another example of how we are innovating for our customers and further aggregating all the best apps and content together in one place on Sky Q, giving them more great TV to watch than ever before. Paramount+ is an excellent service with a huge range of fantastic films and TV series, and our new, broader agreement with ViacomCBS will benefit both businesses.”
Elysian Film Group Distribution – the new distributor on the block which is part of the wider Elysian Film Group launched by Danny Perkins, who helped turn Optimum into a UK powerhouse and then headed up the company after its sale to Studiocanal – has announced its first home entertainment release, and boy is it something to get the trade excited. For its first title out of the blocks is the latest animated feature from legendary Japanese company Studio Ghibli, in the shape of Earwig And The Witch. The title, which was also the company’s first theatrical outing, is due on September 27 and the company’s head of distribution Nick McKay said: “We are absolutely delighted that our first home entertainment release is Studio Ghibli’s EARWIG AND THE WITCH and we have endeavoured to do the revered studio’s latest film justice with a range of DVD and BLU RAY options for the devoted Ghibli audience. In addition to the DVD and Blu-ray which comes in a Scanavo case and limited O-ring slipcase there is also a limited edition Blu-ray Steelbook and limited DVD and Blu-ray Collectors Edition with exclusive artwork and art-cards. For purists all releases will feature the Japanese language version of the film as well as a host of special features to dig into.” Elysian Film Group was formed by Perkins alongside producer Kate Solomon, with assorted features and TV shows in development, with the company also releasing acquired titles such as Earwig under its distribution banner.
More from Arrow Video FrightFest as the leading date on the horror and genre fans’ calendars, and another company is lining up a home entertainment bow for a film that is making its debut at the event. This time it’s Dazzler Media, which sees its Sound Of Violence airing at the festival in the heart of London over the August Bank Holiday weekend, before being released on Blu-ray, DVD and digital on Monday August 30. Commenting on the release, the company’s Paul Holland said: “Signs we are getting back to normal is that Horror fans can gorge and devour on some of the greatest horror films of 2021 at FrightFest. At Dazzler we are thrilled of the inclusion of Alex Noyer's Sound Of Violence, which is showing next Sunday at Cineworld in Leicester Square. It was a stand out title for us and following its debut at SXSW, we were thrilled to snap up UK rights and give the film its UK premiere at Fright Fest. DVD/Blu-Ray/EST follows on August 30.”
The big catalogue announcement of the week came from Studiocanal, which has unveiled a 40th anniversary edition of werewolf classic The Howling due on stores ahead of Halloween, on October 25. The film, hailed at the time for its groundbreaking special effects and part of an early 80s lycanthropic revival alongside American Werewolf In London, spawned a whole franchise, was originally released in 1981, before becoming a bona fide VHS classic. It boasts an impeccable pedigree, including director Joe Dante honing his satirical horror craft ahead of Gremlins, John Sayles penned the script, while special effects whizz kid Rob Bottin was responsible for the superlative effects and former Avenger (the British ones, not the comic book heroes) Patrick MacNee stars. Studiocanal is given the title its special edition treatment, with a brand new 4K restoration. As the warmly received announcement this week noted: “THE HOWLING was restored in 2021 by STUDIOCANAL with the VDM lab, under the supervision of Joe Dante.This restoration project was conducted from start to finish in 4K with a 16-bit colour depth bringing all the details from the original negative to life. The 4K 16-bit scan was made from the original 35mm negative. The image from the 1.20 negative was then cropped to 1.85 in order to respect the original format of the film projection. The film was calibrated in the P3-D65-ST2084 color space, with a 1000 nits screen. The calibration was based on the reference of 35mm positive copies of the period as well as, for the video part, on the basis of existing reference masters. The restoration took a few hundred hours of meticulously filtering in order to correct the defects related to the age of the film and to the wear of time. STUDIOCANAL is proud to present THE HOWLING in DCP 4K, and a DOLBY VISION UHD HDR & SDR video master, through a brand-new Prestige 4K edition.” Phew…
As ever, the 4K restoration of The Howling comes in a number of SKUs, including the requisite gorgeous looking 4K UHD collector’s edition, with three discs and a poster, booklet and art cards, as well as a 4K UHD Steelbook and standard Blu-ray and DVD editions. The trailer can be viewed here https://youtu.be/tdxbCBLsLfA – it really does look wonderful and as Joe Dante himself noted: ““I can honestly say this 4K restoration is the best The Howling has looked since it came out of the lab in 1980 - maybe better. I'm happy to have it back in circulation at last.” More on this title, including as part of our Q4 coverage from Studiocanal, in the coming weeks…
Just released by Studiocanal is a jazz era classic, A Man Called Adam, and it’s worth noting its potential, for, as the company’s Tara Hutton said: “A Man Called Adam is a Jazz film from the 1960s with an incredible African American cast including Sammy Davis Jnr, Louis Armstrong, Cicely Tyson, Ossie Davis and Lola Falana. Loosely based on the troubled life of Miles Davis this 1966 musical is also notable as the first major Hollywood film produced by an African American. Featuring an incredible soundtrack including songs such as All That Jazz, Back O’Town Blues and Whisper To One this little known film in Britain deserved to be seen. The film has had a 4K restoration and been screened at both Cinema Rediscovered and Edinburgh festivals. It is available on Blu-ray and DVD now.”
Curated subscription video on demand service – and now theatrical to home entertainment operator – MUBI has capped off a busy summer by unveiling a new ident that will appear at the start of its films from next theatrical release Annette. It’s been put together by the experts at Spin and Pentagram, the former looking after the animation, inspired by 60s unreleased French film L’Enfer, the latter the music. Spin has long worked with MUBI, helping develop its original logo. Tony Brook at Spin said: “We loved the idea of making an atmospheric journey that gives a sense of travelling through time, from the beginnings of film in black and white, evolving into glorious colour, from complexity to clarity that ends on MUBI’s identity. The colour palette was also very much inspired by Wong Kar-wai’s films - deep, rich, evocative and very beautiful.” Pentagram’s Yuri Suzuki added: “As the ident needed to be of different durations, we had to create a sonic DNA that could work equally well across three lengths. We created a DNA that could be contracted or subtracted from, whilst still retaining one overall mood. This approach is something we call modular sound branding, and through the use of creative arrangements, we are able to tailor the identity to any length. The ident also needed to be mixed and mastered for playback on small mobile devices all the way to 5.1 Dolby surround sound.” You can see it here.
The new ident comes as MUBI has made a number of big acquisitions, notably titles such as Annette, the latest from visionary Leos Carax, working with band du jour Sparks, bought after Cannes. It’s the first to feature the new ident and arrives at cinemas on September 3, before arriving on the service later in November. Next biggie to arrive on the service is recently released at cinemas New Order, with the Mexican political thriller turning up on September 10. Also on the way is another major league acquisition in the shape of Petite Maman (cinemas November, on MUBI in February 2022) and the Noomi Rapace Icelandic starrer Lamb (cinemas in December, on MUBI on a date tbc). It’s continuing with its physical home entertainment releases too – First Cow has just come out on physical formats.
AT THE MOVIES
The dust kicked up by the numerous vehicles running all over the globe in the most recent Fast and Furious film – the ninth – has barely settled but Universal is already gearing up for the release of the 10th instalment. The film is due on home entertainment formats verily as we pen this, but the studio is moving on to the next one, with news filtering through that it is earmarking April 2023 for the 10th. The plan is to film the next two films alongside each other, with `Justin Lin again at the helm…
Marvel and one of the key planks of its line-up for the coming months and years, Anthony Mackie, have confirmed that the star will be appearing in the next Captain America film. Mackie of course took on the red, white and blue suit at the end of his last outing, but he has now confirmed he will be returning… Malcolm Spellman and Dalon Musson, whose CVs included The Falcon and The Winter Soldier for Disney+, are penning the script.
TWEET OF THE WEEK
Follow us on www.twitter.com/theraygun…
TRAILERS OF THE WEEK
Due from Picturehouse…
Due via Disney+’s Star offering…
And this is the Marvel biggie for this week…
Altitude gets its Mandibles out…
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