magnolia pictures Tagged Articles at Cinematical

With one art house dedicated to showing independent films and the spare multiplex screen occasionally hijacked by them, Orlando -- like most markets -- doesn't always get those that open in NY/LA first, and even when we eventually do, it can take months (for example, we got July releases Thirst and In the Loop in September).

As such, I'm keen on keeping an eye out for whatever's available on-demand. That's how I recently caught up with the very good Flame & Citron, and between Magnolia and IFC, I can hope to see the likes of Red Cliff and Antichrist for myself and in the comfort of my own home. (Well, I hope that the former hits VOD...)

So now I ask you: Do you have access to on-demand programming? Do you take advantage of it out of convenience, or is it because you might not have any other chance to see something before DVD? If you live in New York or Los Angeles, do you make a particular concerted effort to support a film in theaters if you know you can just watch it at home? Or will you guys and girls just wait to watch a movie whenever it comes home from your Queue?

The murder of Adrienne Shelly was obviously not just a devastating loss to her friends and family, but to the people who followed her work eagerly from her early days as a star in Hal Hartley movies like The Unbelievable Truth and Trust. (By the by, Trust is only available on VHS, and I'm sure I wouldn't be the only one rushing to buy it on DVD.) She was also just getting back into writing and directing after taking a break for a few years; Waitress, which she wrote, directed, and also acted in, had just been accepted to Sundance when she was murdered. (Read Jeffrey M. Anderson's take on the movie and her murder.)

Through the efforts of her husband Andy Ostroy and friends and costars like Cheryl Hines and Keri Russell, Waitress was shephered through the festivals, inevitable press days, and release. Ostroy also began the Adrienne Shelly Foundation, which was created to "support the artistic achievements of female actors, writers and directors who are either working on current short and feature film projects, new productions, or are seeking to transition from acting to writing and directing."

Recently, someone and I -- it might've been Weinberg -- were discussing the fact that Magnolia seems to be replacing Lionsgate when it comes to a studio's willingness to put out the seemingly untouchable stuff.

The conversation mostly concerned horror fare, natch, but I suspect that Bobcat Goldthwait's World's Greatest Dad falls particularly well into Magnolia's fold, and they seem to agree, as they're all set to have a video-on-demand premiere before a theatrical run in late August, according to The Wrap.

James Grey's Two Lovers was recently released in a similar manner, and Steven Soderbergh's The Girlfriend Experience looks to be getting a likewise treatment at the end of this month. So far as I can tell, it's a strategy that works to their favor (that is, until everyone inevitably moves to either New York or Los Angeles). As far as the film itself is concerned, it certainly garnered its share of raves out of Sundance, but its subject matter -- Robin Williams capitalizes on his son's suicide -- had put off distributors until now. Here's hoping that Magnolia can tap into the niche audience for blacker-than-black comedy... right in their own living rooms.

In Bigger, Stronger, Faster, a big hit at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, documentarian Christopher Bell takes a hard look at steroid culture and the bad rap it gets from mainstream America, tackling the Western obsession with body image. Clocking in just under two hours, Bell's sprawling overview deals with the impact of 1980's pop culture icons like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone, then dives into the gritty details of steroid usage in sports and the recent congressional hearings where baseball players were reprimanded on national television.

Bell doesn't view the issue in black-and-white terms: His own brothers, featured in the film, continually use steroids to enhance their bodybuilding careers. Contrasting the personal with the political, Bigger, Stronger, Faster diagnoses a distinctly American malady. Cinematical spoke with Bell last week in New York, where Bigger, Stronger, Faster has been screening at the Tribeca Film Festival. The movie opens May 30.

Cinematical: The movie tackles a major issue that many Americans have strong opinions about, but it also has a personal component because of your family's story. What's it been like facing the growing public awareness of the film?

Christopher Bell: It's so rewarding to hear, "Hey, you made a good movie. Thanks for telling the truth." We haven't really been criticized or attacked by anybody. There was one woman at Sundance who really upset about 'roid rage, saying that we glossed over it. I think we actually explained it pretty well.

Our pals from Magnolia Pictures were up at Sundance 2008 in support of their Timecrimes acquisition -- but it looks like someone from the distribution department caught a few of the midnight screenings: According to Variety, Magnolia Pictures has acquired Olly Blackburn's UK thriller Donkey Punch, and they plan to release it through their newly-created Magnet division. (You can check out my DP review right here at FEARnet.)

The story of some sea-bound debauchery that goes horribly wrong (think Very Bad Things, only not as absurdly amusing), Donkey Punch is a handsome and tight-knuckled chiller -- even if it is more than a little beholden to movies like Dead Calm and Shallow Grave. It's about seven young adults who take off on a stunningly massive yacht, but when one partier ends up (accidentally dead), it sets off a series of events that leaves most of other the partiers, well, dead. (It is a horror flick after all.)

Donkey Punch will open in the UK (courtesy of Optimum) some time this summer. No word yet on when Magnolia aims to unleash this one -- but bet on a very limited release pattern before the arrival of a satisfyingly packed DVD. Also on the horizon from Magnolia: Big Man Japan, The Signal, Kiltro, Mirageman, Eden Log and (of course) Timecrimes.

If you catch wind of a cool foreign film / indie horror / bizarre genre flick at a film festival somewhere (and it's any good), odds are the film will eventually end up in one of two places: Either Lionsgate or Magnolia. But by picking up imports like The Host, District B13 and Severance, Magnolia Pictures showed that they were poised to move quickly on the high-end genre fare. So why not do like most of the other distributors and create a whole new branch just for the action, the horror, and the 'weird' stuff?

Yesterday Magnolia Pictures announced that they were creating Magnet Releasing, a "new label to specialize in films from the vanguard of horror, action, comedy and Asian cinema." Heck, sounds good to me. So what will Magnet have to offer over the upcoming months? Here's just a taste:

Big Man Japan (Dainipponjin) -- "A middle-aged slacker living in a rundown, graffiti-ridden slum, Daisoto's job involves being shocked by bolts of electricity that transform him into a stocky, stick-wielding giant several stories high who is entrusted with defending Japan from a host of bizarre monsters." Fun stuff! Read my Toronto Film Festival review right here.

Boarding Gate -- "Asia Argento plays sexy ex-prostitute Sandra, who is forced to flee London after a steamy S&M encounter with a debt-ridden ex-lover (Michael Madsen) ends in violence." Sounds cool enough. Plus it played Cannes.

Murder Party -- "It's Halloween night in Brooklyn, and Chris, a lonely, square and unremarkable man is returning home from his meter-maid job when he finds a mysterious invitation on the street. Following it to what he believes will be a fun costume party, he discovers that he's stumbled into a lethal trap set by a gang of deranged hipster artists." Another one I liked! Check out my Fantastic Fest review right here.

For more on the Magnetic plans (and flicks!), check out the official press release and/or the brand-new website. But why no mention of The Signal? I could have sworn that Magnolia snatched that one up -- and it's a damn fine horror flick, I don't mind saying. A perfect one to kick-start a new genre division, actually...

Hot off its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival and its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, Magnolia Pictures has nabbed the English-language rights to Johnny To's action thriller, Exiled. As part of a three-way pact (with Optimum Releasing for UK rights and Madman Entertainment for rights in Australia and New Zealand), pic marks the second acquisition for the three companies, after teaming up to snag The Host this past May at Cannes, where Magnolia also picked up the genre title Severance.

Set in Hong Kong's underworld and modeled after To's 1999 hit The Mission, Exiled packed its cast with folks like Roy Cheung, Francis Ng, Anthony Wong and Simon Yam. Says Magnolia's President Eamonn Bowles, "A lot of people thinking that the Hong Kong gangster film ran its course in the nineties are going to be pleasantly surprised by the freshness and innovation of Exiled. Now comes the more (or less) important question: How long before an American filmmaker decides to orchestrate a remake?

As Chris reported last week, Magnolia Pictures acquired Jesus Camp -- a documentary about "three Missouri kids who travel to ... [an] evangelical summer camp" -- for North American distribution, and immediately decided to pull the film from Michael Moore's Traverse City Film Festival. The people at Magnolia were concerned that the film would immediately get a Liberal! label from the association with Moore, and since they hope to market it to both liberals and more conservative Evangelical Pentecostals, the company's president thought it was best to keep their movie out of the festival.

The problem, however, is that Moore doesn't care what Magnolia wants. It turns out that their decision to pull the film was more of a request -- one that Moore denied. In fact, according to The Hollywood Reporter, Jesus Camp is screening twice in Traverse City: Once today, and once tomorrow. Take that, you Magnolia bastards!

That Michael Moore -- he never stops stickin' it to the man, even when the man is an independent distributor with a stable of films that, when political, lean decidedly to the liberal side of the spectrum.

According to director Alex Steyermark, day-and-date releasing (or something close to it) is totally cool -- "just not for his film." Steyermark, whose One Last Thing ... is being theatrically released by Mark Cuban's Magnolia Pictures on May 5, is concerned that his film's television and DVD debuts (on May 19 and 23, respectively) will come too soon for necessary interest in the project to build. Despite the fact that he knew from day one that a day-and-date release was possible, Steyermark spent a lot of time last week complaining to The Hollywood Reporter about the situation, and (in a hilarious way, of course) described it as "day-and-date rape."

One Last Thing ... is Steyermark's second directorial effort (his first, Prey for Rock and Roll, starred Gina Gershon and Lori Petty), and tells the story of "a terminally ill teen who makes a provocative final wish." Starring Will & Grace's Michael Angarano as the kid and Cynthia Nixon as his mom (Gershon and Ethan Hawke also appear, among others), the film played at Toronto last fall where it received mixed reviews, but it has a great rating on the IMDb. Steyermark's bellyaching aside, his film is expect to hit screens in about 25 different markets on May 5.

Magnolia Pictures, the distribution company owned by 2929's Mark Cuban and Todd Wagner, has acquired the rights to a trio of Danish crime films collectively known as The Pusher Trilogy. All three films - Pusher, With Blood on My Hands, and The Angel of Death - were directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, and feature overlapping stories: secondary characters from one film move into the foreground in the others.

While the chance to see these films is more than enough to make the acquisition newsworthy, Magnolia - the distributor behind Bubble's simultaneous, multi-media release - plans to experiment with an unconventional release schedule for The Pusher Trilogy, as well. When the series hits American theaters this summer, different regions will see it in different ways, depending on "the audiences in each market." Among the options being considered are back-to-back screenings of all three films, simultaneous screenings in different theaters, and sequential screenings on three different days. After pissing off theater owners with their approach to Bubble, a Magnolia rep hastened to add that the Pusher "release pattern also will depend on each theater's preferred release strategy." Whew.

Regardless of if you agree with what Cuban and Wagner are doing, it's hard not to respect them for constantly searching for new ways to approach film distribution. Plus, they're giving us the opportunity to see interesting work from abroad, which is something that shouldn't be lost in the inevitable controversy over the release of the films.