Home Media Magazine - August 19-25, 2007 - (Page 30)

PIPELINE www.homemediamagazine.com strong enough to garner interest from Showtime, which aired the movie. Among its film festival accolades is a nomination for the “Stony Award” from High Times magazine — the film features a healthy dose of drug use, including a scene in which Zac takes hallucinogenic mushrooms and speaks with his father at the beach. “It’s not about drugs at all, it’s just sort of a backdrop, a sign of a time in your life when you don’t have as much going on and you can sort of do those things,” Coppola said. “We went to the awards, and there were a lot of great filmmakers there. I took David Wike in Fresh Cut Grass it as an honor.” In addition to Wike, the film also “I shot the thing in 18 days and stars Bobby Cannavale (“M.O.N.Y.”), didn’t see a lick of footage until three Dylan Bruno (“Numb3rs”), Coppomonths later,” said Coppola, adding la’s sister Alicia Coppola (“Jericho”) that he preferred the look of 16mm and James McCaffrey (“Rescue Me”). to the ease of digital film. “I knew the The DVD won’t include special feaperformances were good, I knew tures, but Coppola said hours of that we had something on film, but bonus footage could make it onto a latyou never know, really.” er release, including riffing between The reception of the film has been Cannavale and Bruno in character. ‘Fresh’ New Filmmaker By Billy Gil he canon of post-coming-ofage stories about after-graduate woes and dealing with the real world has a newcomer: Fresh Cut Grass, the debut film from writerdirector Matthew Coppola. Victory Multimedia will release the film on DVD Sept. 18 at $19.99. Coppola (no relation to Francis Ford) grew up in Long Island, N.Y. (in the town of Montauk), attended the University of Vermont as an English and theater major, and then moved home to eastern Long Island, to cut lawns and decide what to do next with his life. The film’s central character, Zac Peace (David Wike), does just that while writing letters to his recently deceased father to help cope with the loss. “At the time, [writing letters] is what I needed to do,” Coppola said. “But then again, everything’s embellished.” Coppola later moved to Los Angeles, working as a production assistant and writing Grass for three years during that time. His resulting film, made on a small budget with 16mm film and natural light, feels deeply personal. If ramshackle, it’s a likeable and winsome film that will appeal to fans of films covering early 20s ennui, which span from The Graduate to Garden State. Barney Turns 20 T Sept. 7, then hitting Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Pittsburgh, By Chris Tribbey Cleveland, Detroit, Indianapolis and M A R K E T I N G Barney’s celebrating Chicago, the purple bus tour will see his 20th birthday on DVD … Barney visiting Children’s and in a town near you. Miracle Network hospitals. HIT Entertainment and He’ll sing birthday songs, 20th Century Fox Home take pictures, and donate Entertainment are releastoys and DVDs. The tour aling Barney & Friends: Dinoso will hit up area Toys “R” Mite Birthday on DVD Sept. Us stores, where kids can 11 (prebook Aug. 15; SRP present Barney with birth$14.98), in which the dinosaur’s day cards. friends throw him a birthday bash. The bus tour will pick up again in Barney will party in real life too, on March, in cities in the West and a 20-city nationwide tour coinciding South, a HIT Entertainment with the DVD. Starting in Boston spokesman said. GENIUS TO BOW DISCOVERY DVDS By Billy Gil enius Products in October will release titles from The Learning Channel and Animal Planet. The DVDs are the first to arrive since Genius inked the distribution deal in April. Season one of TLC show “Little People, Big World” streets Oct. 2. The $27.95 three-disc set will have the first 20 episodes and two unaired episodes. The first season of Animal Planet show “Meerkat Manor” arrives on a two-disc G MGM RELEASES TWO ‘SPECIES’ TITLES By Billy Gil S C I - F I Fans of sexy ‘B’-movies rejoice. MGM will spawn a collector’s edition of Species, starring Natasha Henstridge, as well as its direct-to-video sequel Species IV: The Awakening, Oct. 2 (prebook Sept. 5). Species IV stars Swedish actress Helena Mattsson as a college professor who awakens from a blackout to find herself the apparent perpetrator of a mass slaughter. She discovers she is a hybrid of human and alien DNA, resulting in hidden deadly instincts. Species: Collector’s Edition features Henstridge as the original alien-human hybrid creature akin to a mythological succubus — one who seduces men to become impregnated, resulting in their imminent deaths. The two-disc set includes commentary from Henstridge, co-star Michael Madsen (Kill Bill Vol. 2) and director Roger Donaldson; another commentary from Donaldson with crew; four featurettes; an alternate ending and a photo gallery. set Oct. 9, at $24.95 with all 13 episodes. Miami Ink: Season One, from TLC, streets Oct. 30 at $34.95, with the 21 episodes of the first season. The second half of the third season will air around the time the five-DVD set is released. The TLC docudrama Diana: Last Days of a Princess streets Aug. 28, at $14.95. Genius announced a deal with Discovery Communications last October, later saying it will release 12 titles annually from TLC and Animal Planet. I SESAME STREET DVDS OFFER Sesame Workshop, the DVDs offer “games SOCIAL EDUCATION and activities to promote play and particiA series of original, educational programs featuring characters from “Sesame Street,” will debut on DVD Oct. 23 (prebook Sept. 11) with Good Night Sesame and Playtime With Grover. According to Genius Products, which is releasing the DVDs with pation that help preschoolers to learn social, cognitive and emotional skills while having fun.” Geared toward preschoolers, the two-DVD sets ($16.95 each) come in a kid-friendly case and feature games, activities, and CD-ROM extras. – Chris Tribbey http://www.homemediamagazine.com http://www.tlareleasing.com http://www.tlareleasing.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Home Media Magazine - August 19-25, 2007

Contents News News/Box Office News TV DVD Q4 Preview Reviews Pipeline Research Top 20 DVD Sellers Top 20 Rentals and Top 10 Charts Just Announced

Home Media Magazine - August 19-25, 2007

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