Professional Motion Picture Production and Distribution NEWS

Warner Bros. Digital Distribution Expands its Digital Film Library with Critically Acclaimed Independent Films

By Staff
posted Aug 24, 2009, 16:58

  • WBDD Adds Dozens of Titles Monthly to Enhance Digital Offerings Including "Management," Starring Jennifer Aniston, Academy Award� Nominee "The Garden," "Crips and Bloods: Made in America" and "Wendy & Lucy" Starring Michelle Williams

  • Includes Films from Oscilloscope Laboratories, Gravitas Ventures, Wolfe Video, First Look Studios, Full Moon Features, MarVista Entertainment, Image Entertainment and Lantern Lane Entertainment, LTD.
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    (Burbank, CA) Warner Bros. Digital Distribution (WBDD) today announced it has expanded its digital film offerings through new and existing agreements with Oscilloscope Laboratories, Gravitas Ventures, Wolfe Video, First Look Studios, Full Moon Features, MarVista Entertainment, Image Entertainment and Lantern Lane Entertainment, Ltd. Critically acclaimed titles including "Management" starring Jennifer Aniston, "Crips and Bloods: Made in America," "Wendy & Lucy" starring Michelle Williams and the Academy Award� nominated documentary "The Garden" are among dozens of sought after indie films that will debut on Video on Demand (VOD) in the coming months.

    By working with Warner Bros. Digital Distribution, independent filmmakers now have access to one of the world's largest digital distribution networks. Through pay-per-view, video on demand and for selected titles, electronic sell through / download to own, these independent films will be made available to an audience upwards of 90 million households in North America and up to 195 million worldwide.

    "The global market for digital rental and ownership of feature films is growing rapidly, driving accelerated demand for quality content both in mainstream and targeted genres," said Thomas Gewecke, president of Warner Bros. Digital Distribution. "As a leader in digital distribution, we're excited to deepen and broaden the digital offerings we deliver to our customers and to help bring strong independent titles to a larger worldwide audience."

    Warner Bros. Digital Distribution is distributing a number of independent films this year including:

  • "Crips and Bloods: Made in America" (Gravitas Ventures) - Narrated by Academy Award �-winning actor Forest Whitaker and directed by Stacy Peralta (Dogtown and Z-Boys and Riding Giants), this unflinching Sundance 2008 documentary chronicles one of the longest-running civil wars in the history of America though a deeply humanistic lens. The Crips and Bloods are two of South Los Angeles' most notorious African-American gangs. While many outsiders simply cannot understand the decades-long cycle of despair and destruction that has come to define their daily lives, the individuals who comprise each gang are not simply mindless, gun-toting thugs, but real people with real families who have become caught up in a struggle from which the only escape is often death.


  • "The Garden" (Oscilloscope Laboratories) - An Academy Award� Nominated film, "The Garden" shows how the politics of power and greed (backroom deals, land developing, green politics, money) tragically intersect with working class families who rely on this communal garden for their livelihood. Equal parts "The Wire" and "Harlan County, USA," "The Garden" exposes the fault lines in American society and raises crucial and challenging questions about liberty, equality, and justice for the poorest and most vulnerable among us.


  • "Valentino: The Last Emperor" (Lantern Lane Entertainment) - A critically acclaimed look into the life and times of legendary fashion designer Valentino. The film documents the colorful and dramatic closing act of the fashion icons celebrated career, tells the story of his extraordinary life and work, and also explores the larger themes affecting the fashion business today. But at the heart of the film is the unique relationship between Valentino and his business partner and companion of 50 years, Giancarlo Giammetti.


  • "Hidden Camera" (MarVista Entertainment) - Dean Cain (Out of Time, Las Vegas, Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman) stars as maverick reporter, Dan Kovacs, who launches an investigation into the mysterious death of his Pulitzer Prize-winning brother. Hunted by his killers, including corrupt Interpol agent, Natas (Arnold Vosloo: Blood Diamond, The Mummy), and a vast network of government agents on both sides of a military conflict, Kovacs must uncover just who's working for whom and who can be trusted as he fights to stay alive and unravel the mystery of a super-secret item dubbed the Mega-Bill.

  • Puppet Master: The Legacy" (Full Moon Features) - First released in 1990 and with eight films released to date, the "Puppet Master" series has been the most successful independent, direct-to-video horror film series of all time. "Puppet Master: Axis of Evil" will be the 9th release in the series and will premiere in January 2010.


  • "The New Twenty" (Wolfe Video) - Chris Mason Johnson's award-winning first feature charts the lives of five New Yorkers, a mix of gay and straight best friends about to turn thirty. With emotionally vivid performances and nuanced characters, "The New Twenty" paints the portrait of a generation living the highs and lows of a Wall Street world destined to disappear overnight.


  • "Powder Blue" (Image Entertainment) - On the gritty streets of LA, the destinies of four people desperate for connection and redemption are about to collide. Jessica Biel, Ray Liotta, Forest Whitaker and Eddie Redmayne lead a top-notch cast in this powerful thriller about an overwhelmed erotic dancer, a grieving husband who has lost his will to live, a terminally ill ex-con and a pathologically shy mortician. With Kris Kristofferson, Lisa Kudrow and Patrick Swayze in unforgettable supporting roles, this film movingly chronicles the imperfect lives of people teetering on the edge of despair and the miracles that bring them back.


  • "The Code" (First Look Studios) - From acclaimed director Mimi Leder, with an all-star action cast led by Morgan Freeman, Antonio Banderas and Rahda Mitchell, "The Code" is full of deceit, thievery and twists at every turn. While pulling a down-and-dirty jewelry heist on a subway train, Jack (Banderas) encounters Ripley (Freeman), a legendary thief who was casing the same job. In spite of Jack s initial reluctance, Ripley manages to rope him into an impossible job: the theft of two priceless Faberge Imperial Eggs from the heavily guarded vault of a New York diamond wholesaler. The stakes rise for Jack and Ripley when Ripley s goddaughter (Mitchell) is kidnapped by the KGB. Staying one step ahead of the NYPD, the FBI, the diamond merchants and the vicious Russian KGB crime boss determined to have the priceless eggs for himself, Jack and Ripley must find a way to pull off the heist and make it out alive.

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    About First Look Studios

    First Look Studios, a leading independent supplier in the entertainment marketplace, acquires, markets and distributes feature films, television series and specialty programming. First Look owns a vast home entertainment library consisting of over 1000 titles, including War, Inc., Transsiberian, The Contract, The Proposition and King of California. First Look also distributes a variety of product lines from world-class, category-leading partners including Carsey-Werner ("The Cosby Show") and VideoAsia (Battle Warrior starring Tony Jaa).

    About Gravitas Ventures

    Gravitas specializes in the aggregation of entertainment content for worldwide distribution via established and evolving platforms in the Video On Demand (VOD), broadband, mobile and airline/hospitality viewing windows. The company offers thousands of hours of quality entertainment content including feature films, documentaries, animation, alternative sports, wrestling/mixed martial arts, comedy, and music concert programming. Gravitas’ acquisitions include: Lance Hammer’s BALLAST (Sundance), Sacy Peralta’s CRIPS AND BLOODS MADE IN AMERICA (Sundance), Jay Jonroy’s DAVID AND LAYLA (Cannes), Ryan Little’s FOREVER STRONG, Marianna Palka’sGOOD DICK (Sundance), Kevin Rafferty’s HARVARD BEATS YALE: 29-29, Deborah Kampmeier’s HOUNDDOG (Sundance), Georgina Riedel’s HOW THE GARCIA GIRLS SPENT THEIR SUMMER (Sundance), Benson Lee’s PLANET B-BOY (Tribeca), Philippe Martinez’s THE CHAOS EXPERIMENT, Robert VanAlkemade’s WHAT WOULD JESUS BUY (SXSW), and Richard Waterhouse’s YOUNG SINGLE & ANGRY. Gravitas Ventures’ mission is to deliver your ideas to the digital market; bridging the gap between independent producers and cable, satellite, and telco and online opportunities.

    About Image Entertainment, Inc.

    Image Entertainment, Inc. is a leading independent licensee and distributor of entertainment programming in North America, with approximately 3,200 exclusive DVD titles and approximately 340 exclusive CD titles in domestic release and approximately 400 programs internationally via sublicense agreements. For many of its titles, the Company has exclusive audio and broadcast rights and, through its subsidiary Egami Media, Inc., has digital download rights to approximately 2,000 video programs and over 300 audio programs containing more than 5,100 tracks. The Company is headquartered in Chatsworth, California. For more information about Image Entertainment, Inc., please go to www.image-entertainment.com.

    About MarVista Entertainment

    MarVista Entertainment (www.marvista.net), a leading Los Angeles-based independent producer-distributor of features, children’s and family programming, globally licenses television series, movies, documentaries and special programming to multiple platforms throughout the world. Founded in September 2003 by Joseph Szew, now COO and CFO; CEO Fernando Szew; Production and Distribution President Michael D. Jacobs; and Executive VP George Port, MarVista’s library features more than 2,000 hours of programming, including its flagship series, Beyond the Break, a co-production with MTV Networks and Brookwell McNamara Entertainment (Even Stevens, That’s So Raven). The company has become a well-established television movie provider to leading cable networks in the U.S., including 30 telefilms for Lifetime, Hallmark Channel, NBC Universal and ABC Family that generated extensive global terrestrial and pay television sales.

    About Oscilloscope Laboratories

    Oscilloscope Laboratories is a film production and theatrical distribution entity launched in 2008 by Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys. Yauch modeled the company after the indie record labels he grew up around, choosing films and then marketing them with the same artistic integrity with which they were made. The company, an extension of Yauch’s recording studio of the same name, has an in-house DVD distribution and production arm, and the paper packaging is reminiscent of the heyday of LP record jackets. All of the company's DVD packaging is printed on FSC-certified uncoated paper with an 80% post-consumer waste content that is produced in a carbon-neutral, hydroelectric powered plant. Some recent Oscilloscope theatrical releases include Kelly Reichardt's WENDY AND LUCY starring Michelle Williams, So Yong Kim's TREELESS MOUNTAIN, the Academy-Award nominated THE GARDEN from Scott Hamilton Kennedy, Anders Østergaard’s multi-award-winning BURMA VJ, and Nati Baratz's spiritual masterpiece UNMISTAKEN CHILD. Upcoming releases include Laura Gabbert and Justin Schein’s enormously entertaining NO IMPACT MAN, which is an amusing and absorbing look at one family’s efforts to be green, Oren Moverman’s THE MESSENGER, a powerful and tender story about a returned war hero making his first steps towards a normal life, featuring Woody Harrelson, Ben Foster and Samantha Morton and Michel Gondry’s personal and poignant family documentary THE THORN IN THE HEART.

    About Wolfe Video

    Since 1985, Wolfe has been the premiere company providing feature films about, and to, gays and lesbians. As the industry forerunner, Wolfe has had tremendous success representing both studios and independent producers in this growing and profitable niche market through targeted consumer programs and mainstream distribution.

    About Warner Bros. Digital Distribution

    Warner Bros. Digital Distribution (WBDD) manages Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group’s electronic distribution over existing, new and emerging digital platforms, including pay-per-view, electronic sell-through, video-on-demand, wireless and more. WBDD also oversees the WBHEG’s worldwide digital strategy, partnerships in digital services and emerging new clients and business activities in the digital space.

    About Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group

    Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group brings together Warner Bros. Entertainment's home video, digital distribution, interactive entertainment/videogames, direct-to-DVD production, technical operations and anti-piracy businesses in order to maximize current and next-generation distribution scenarios. WBHEG is responsible for the global distribution of content through DVD, electronic sell-through and VOD, and delivery of theatrical content to wireless and online channels, and is also a significant worldwide publisher for both internal and third party videogame titles.