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Yesterday's News

10 Aug, 2009 By: Billy Gil

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IndieFile took a much-needed vacation last week (hello, Puerto Rico!). So it’s time to play catch up. Here are some bits and pieces from past week in indie film:

•    The late John Hughes will have one of his cultier classics re-released on DVD Oct. 20 (prebook Sept. 8) with Planes, Trains and Automobiles: Those Aren’t Pillows Edition, from Paramount. The $14.99 DVD includes a special feature on Hughes and how he graduated from teen films to make a film that focused on adults.

•    Gay/arthouse film purveyors TLA Releasing kicks off its 2009/2001 production slate with BearCity, which began principal photography in New York Aug. 10. The film is described as kind of a “Sex & the City” with gay men, and it will be released in 2010. More information can be found at www.bearcitythemovie.com.

•    2009 Sundance Film Festival Official Selection Shrink streets Sept. 29 (prebook Sept. 2) from Lionsgate. The film stars Kevin Spacey as a disillusioned celebrity psychiatrist and co-stars Saffron Burrows, Mark Webber, Dallas Roberts and Keke Palmer. The $27.98 DVD includes deleted scenes, a commentary and interviews with director Jonas Pate and producer Braxton Pope, as well as a the music video for “Here,” a new original song by Jackson Browne.

•    Lionsgate also announced The Dead, John Huston’s final film, starring his daughter, Anjelica Huston, adapted from a James Joyce story about a woman who confesses of a past love to her husband, who then questions the lack of passion in his own life. The $14.98 DVD streets Nov. 3 (prebook Oct. 7).

•    Film Movement announced New York Times Critic’s Pick The Country Teacher would hit DVD Sept. 8 at $24.95. The film is about a teacher who tutors a young man in the countryside and comes to find no one in the town realizes he is gay, or that he has a secret affection for his student. The Country Teacher is in Czech with English subtitles and includes the short film Peter and Ben, from British director Pinny Grylls.

•    First Run Features Sept. 15 releases the awesomely titled Old Jews Telling Jokes at $19.95. I shouldn’t have to tell you why this is going to be awesome and hilarious. Sept. 15 the distributor also releases Full Battle Rattle (DVD $24.95), The Adventures of Werner Holt (DVD $24.95), The Axe of Wandsbek (DVD $24.95) and The Modern Con Man Collection (three-DVD set $29.95).

•    Oscilloscope Laboratories signed a three-year distribution agreement with Milestone Films to give Oscilloscope rights to Milestone’s library of independent features, documentaries, and foreign and silent films (read the story here). Oscilloscope president and Beastie Boy Adam Yauch also said Aug. 6 that he is quickly recovering from cancer surgery. We wish him well.

•    Palisades Tartan will release P, its first Asia Extreme release since acquiring the Tartan Films library last May, Oct. 20 (prebook Sept. 22) at $19.95. The film is about a young exotic dancer in Bankok trained in dark magic who gradually loses control over her abilities. P is directed by Paul Spurrier, who was a child actor in such shows as “Max Headroom.”

•    SXSW 2010 is coming. Press applications will be accepted beginning Sept. 8, and the site has been redesigned (http://www.sxsw.com).

•    Lionsgate/Barnholtz Entertainment Sept. 1 release Drifter: Henry Lee Lucas at $26.98, starring Antonio Sabato, Jr. as the true-life serial killer. Should be interesting to see how a former underwear model takes on this infamous murderer.

•    Deadgirl, a screwed up horror film about teens who find a captive girl in an abandoned mental hospital and decide to keep her there, will be released by MPI’s Dark Sky Films Sept. 15 at $24.98. Bloody Disgusting loves it, so that tells you what you’re in for. The film from executive producer Christopher Webster (“Hellraiser” and “Heathers”) and co-directors Marcel Sarmiento (Heavy Petting) and Gadi Harel comes in an unrated director’s cut with a making-of featurette, a commentary and a make-up effects still gallery.

•    Cinevolve Studios this week is screening two of its first theatrical offerings, 12 in a Box and El Tinte de la Fama, at the Laemmle Music Hall in Los Angeles. Both films scored nice reviews from the LA Times.

 

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