VOD Overdose is Movie Buzzers’ coverage of video-on-demand developments and upcoming films premiering on video-on-demand. With an increasing number of studios embracing VOD as a way to premiere and distribute films, this column covers movies that might be worth a look even though they aren’t playing at your local multiplex.
Latest VOD News
Good news for VOD fans: there were a lot of quality acquisitions over the last two weeks. I’ll start by listing them:
Magnet Releasing has acquired Nature Calls, a comedy starring some pretty big names: Patton Oswalt, Johnny Knoxville, Rob Riggle, Patrice O’Neal (RIP), Maura Tierney and Darrell Hammond. Knoxville and Oswalt play competitive brothers who try to one-up each other during a scout trip. It’s set for an October 4 VOD release, followed by a limited theatrical release on November 9 (Graham reviewed it at SXSW). A few days earlier, Magnet also acquired John Dies at the End, a sci-fi/horror film from writer/director Don Coscarelli (Bubba Ho-Tep, The Beastmaster, the Phantasm movies). It stars Paul Giamatti (who also produced the film) and Rob Mayes as John, who we can assume dies at the end of the movie (oh crap, spoiler alert!) It’s set to screen at the Toronto International Film Festival and will hit VOD in December.
There was a bit of a buzz with Kino Lorber’s announcement that it has acquired All Together (Et si on vivait tous ensemble?), a French film starring Jane Fonda in her first French-speaking role since 1972. It is about five elderly friends who decide to give up their life at the retirement home in order to live all together in a house by themselves, which of course doesn’t go well. I mean, if the people on MTV’s Real World haven’t been able to do it for the last three decades, who can? It’s set for an October 19 VOD release simultaneously with a New York theatrical run.
SnagFilms has also been busy on the acquisition front, grabbing the rights to two big-name documentaries: first, The House I Live In, which won the Grand Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, which was directed by Eugene Jarecki (Why We Fight, Freakenomics) and is about the side effects of America’s War on Drugs in the criminal justice system. The second documentary is Beware of Mr. Baker, which is about the drummer of Cream and Blind Faith Ginger Baker. The documentary won the top award at the SXSW Festival this year. No word on release dates for either yet.
To round up the acquisitions, IndieWire reports that Wolfe Video has picked up White Frog, which premiered at the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival. Starring Booboo Stewart, Joan Chen, and BD Wong, White Frog is about a young man with Asperger’s syndrome who has trouble coping after the death of his older brother. It was directed by Quentin Lee (Drift). Keep an eye out for it in 2013.
As for other big, non-acquisition news, The Weinstein Company’s VOD division, RADiUS-TWC, has made a deal with NetFlix to get its content on the popular streaming service. This includes Nicolas Winding Refn’s Only God Forgives, which reunites Refn with his Drive star Ryan Gosling, and Lay the Favorite, starring Bruce Willis, Rebecca Hall, Vince Vaughn, and Catherine Zeta-Jones. These films will still probably hit VOD first, but NetFlix subscribers now know that they can wait a bit to get them as part of their service.
Now on VOD… And We Reviewed It!
Here’s a sampling of recent VOD movies that Movie Buzzers has viewed and reviewed. Check your cable provider or the below online retailers:
The Ambassador (Review 6.7/10), available on cable VOD platforms.
Juan of the Dead (Review 6/10), available at Vudu.
Klown (Review 4/10), available at iTunes.
Get the Gringo (Review 7.5/10), available at Amazon, iTunes, and Vudu
Upcoming VOD Releases
(For films premiering on VOD platforms, or hitting VOD after limited theatrical runs. Check out trailers for these and other VOD titles at the Independent Movie on Demand YouTube channel here!)
August 31
V/H/S
Graham gave this horror film low marks when he saw it at SXSW saying that he couldn’t get into it while admitting it has become the talk of the town. Honestly I’m surprised it is getting a VOD release because it’s gotten a lot of buzz. This could end up being a huge release for Magnet.
September 1
Crawl
Look, you’ve probably seen movies before: you never hire a Croatian hitman to do your dirty work, because somehow it’ll end up with someone you care about being kidnapped. A bar owner in this thriller makes that very mistake.
The Hopeful
Anyone who pays any attention to big-time college athletics know that the recruiting system has a lot of flaws. This documentary follows Cody Keith, a high school football player hoping to get recruited as a quarterback by a Division I school. Cody’s family, under a lot of media scrutiny, actually moved Cody to three different high schools in three years in order to make that goal a reality, but that raises plenty of ethical questions.
September 4
You, Me & The Circus
Getting a ton of positive buzz, this drama combines dramatic storylines with circus routines that contextualize the characters’ emotional states. That’s a unique story device that will surely be popular with anyone into elaborate and artistic choreography
September 7
Eye of the Storm
Gravitas Ventures is releasing this 2011 Toronto International Film Festival selection, which stars stars Geoffrey Rush, Judy Davis and Charlotte Rampling and is an adaptation of the novel by Patrick White. I haven’t received any updated information about the release so it may have been pushed back, and if that’s the case I’ll update you.
September 14
Arbitrage
There’s some huge names in this financial drama: Richard Gere, Tim Roth, and Susan Sarandon, and it’s gotten some very positive early reviews. It also gets a rather big, but still limited theatrical release on the same day (over 125 screens), so you can always VOD it if it’s not in your area (or if you prefer your couch). I imagine the distributors are trying to position the film like the very successful VOD/theatrical release Margin Call, which also had to do with Wall Street shennigans.
Have news about an upcoming VOD movie? Want to have Movie Buzzers check out your upcoming VOD release? Contact me here!
Recent Comments