Image picks up three films at Cannes
By Susanne Ault -- Video Business, 5/21/2008
MAY 21 | Image Entertainment has finalized three film distribution deals at Cannes, underscoring its drive to acquire high-profile features to turnaround its business.
The supplier has scored various rights, including DVD and digital distribution, to 2008 Sundance Film Festival winner The Last Word, Rob Schneider comedy The Chosen One and 2007 Toronto Film Festival documentary selection Battle for Haditha.
No street dates were specified, but The Chosen One is expected to be released early next year. Acquired from Q Black Media, Chosen One stars Schneider as a down-on-his-luck used car salesman who is suddenly deemed the right person to save the world. Steve Buscemi also is featured.
The Last Word stars Winona Ryder, Wes Bentley and Ray Romano. In the film, American Beauty’s Bentley plays a writer contracted to compose suicide notes for other people who is seduced by Ryder’s character. Image acquired the project from The Last Word LLC.
Battle for Haditha, directed by doc veteran Nick Broomfield (Kurt & Courtney), captures the true story a U.S. Marine convoy’s massacre of Iraqi women and children after being bombed by insurgents. Image gained rights to Haditha from HanWay Films.
Image has snagged these features on the heels of announcing in April that it would ramp up its feature film output to stem earnings losses. At that time, new acquisitions chief Bill Bromiley said such films should deliver an additional $30 million in revenue for fiscal 2009 and increase the company’s business in the DVD rental market.
