Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Altman's Streamers on DVD, Acquisitions, Foreign Oscar Submission Updates

Music Box Films acquired the first installment of the Millennium trilogy, based on the posthumously released novels of Stieg Larsson, entitled The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo [Män som hatar kvinnor] directed by Niels Arden Oplev (Worlds Apart). Part 2, The Girl Who Played with Fire [Flickan som lekte med elden], was released in Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway on 18 September, and Part 3, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest [Luftslottet som sprängdes], is scheduled for 27 November in Scandinavia. The second and third installments are directed by Daniel Alfredson.

Film Movement picked up the Erik Poppe's Norwegian thriller Troubled Water for a 2010 release. Film Movement previously released Poppe's Hawaii, Oslo a couple years ago. Lorber Films have added two new documentaries to their slate in Niko von Glasow's Nobody's Perfect, about individuals with birth defects as a result of the drug Thalidomide, and N.C. Heikin's Kimjongilia, which interviews North Korean refugees about their experiences. Strand has also picked up Florian Gallenberger's biopic John Rabe, which stars Ulrich Tukur in the title role as well as Daniel Brühl, Steve Buscemi and Anne Consigny. The film premiered at Berlin earlier this year.

Two more titles have been added to the Foreign Oscar race. Columbia chose Ciro Guerra's Los viajes del viento [The Wind Journeys], and Havana Marking's documentary Afghan Star will represent the UK.

Shout! Factory announced a 19 January street date for Robert Altman's Streamers, which stars Matthew Modine, Michael Wright, Mitchell Lichtenstein and David Alan Grier and is based on the play by David Rabe. It's pretty minor Altman, in my opinion, but a noteworthy release nonetheless. Fox will release (500) Days of Summer on DVD and Blu-ray on 22 December. Gini Reticker's doc Pray the Devil Back to Hell will be released by Passion River on 10 November. And finally, Warner has announced Blu-ray released of Clint Eastwood's Mystic River and Morton DaCosta's The Music Man for 2 February 2010.

And some more date changes: Kino has pushed Loren Cass to 5 January. Paramount moved the first season of The United States of Tara to 29 December.