Wednesday, May 27, 2009

A Look At A Couple Of Indie Horror Distributors: Cinema Epoch and Pathfinder

Yup, it's true, my fear came to fruition - "Night at the Museum II" beat out "Terminator Salvation" at the weekend box office to the tune of $70Million to $52Million. I'm not sure if that's just the weekend numbers and they're not counting what T4 did on Wednesday night and Thursday, but that doesn't really matter. Actually, it wasn't really a fear, so to speak... "Terminator Salvation" is something that I would look forward to and something that you, I'm assuming, would look forward to. However, we all know that "Night at the Museum II" had (or has) a bigger potential audience. It's something that will be playing on planes, on network TV and everywhere for years - pablum for the masses. Brainless, watered down entertainment that would entertain a five year old and an eighty five year old equally. Shit like that is always going to win, what can you do? Having said that, I'm sure both studio's are happy with their respected films performances. However, T4 had a budget of around $200Million and Museum 2 had a budget of around $125Million. So, if you're a studio looking to make money, what's your next movie going to be? Now, are you ready for next week, when the PG-13 Sam Raimi horror "Drag Me To Hell" goes head to head with Disney's "Up"?

Anyhow, I do have a post about some internet stuff ready to go and I'm waiting on getting a few interviews back. However, it's been a while since we've looked at indie horror distributors. So, I've come across two new ones that I want to take a closer look at. Well, I shouldn't say new, they're just new to me.

Cinema Epoch is a Los Angeles-based international sales, production and distribution company formed by distribution veteran Gregory Hatanaka. Hatanaka has been affiliated with distributing some pretty cool films, including John Woo's "The Killer" (which you better have seen), The Coen Brothers' "Blood Simple" and Abel Ferrara's "'R Xmas"... (I haven't seen 'R Xmas, but Ferrar's a bit of a legend, having made "The Driller Killer", "Bad Lieutenant" and "King of New York", but anyhow... "Driller Killer" rules, by the way) They lean towards internationally acclaimed arthouse films, contemporary American films and edgy cult & midnight works. It's safe to say that our readers would be looking to supply films in the 'edgy cult & midnight works' section. Now, they won't accept unsolicited submissions, but they will take an email with a brief synopsis and other pertinent information, such as cast, crew, festivals and awards, etc... you can send that email to acquisitions@cinemaepoch.com. Otherwise, click on the link at the top and go to their 'about us' page, it's all there. Recently, they've distributed the "Amateur Porn Star Killer" series, "Growing Out" and loads of other good schlock.

Pathfinder Home Entertainment, the guys who recently distributed "Beneath The Flesh", "A Bell From Hell" and "The Asylum", were established in 1998 to focus on bringing the works of emerging and established filmmakers to the mainstream and they distribute around 20-30 films annually into the U.S. theatrical, home video and television markets. In 2002, they expanded into the DVD/video distribution market and have already released over 140 titles. Further, in 2005, they formed the Circle Post Productions division, extending their services to indie filmmakers. Pathfinder welcomes films of all genres, but a film must be completed or in the final stages of post in order to be considered... send them an email at acquisitions@pathfinderpictures.com.

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