In the Cannes Marketplace, Gore Sells - Friday May 18, 2007
Cannes is not all glitz and glamour. For many film buyers and sellers, the guts of the festival is blood and guts. In Cannes' frenetic film market, industry players wheel and deal over movies with titles like "Motor Home Massacre" and "Cadaverella," feeding an insatiable global appetite for shock and schlock. It's not just the niche distributors almost everyone seems to have a horror movie or two to offer, with titles ranging from "Loch Ness Terror" ("She's Back ... and She's Hungry") to "Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead." "There's been a revolution in horror," Richard Walker of Los Angeles-based horror and sci-fi producer Night Light Films said Friday. This once-disreputable genre has gone mainstream, even highbrow. Quentin Tarantino's stalker-on-wheels saga "Death Proof" an homage to 1970s B-movie kitsch is in the running for Cannes' top prize, the Palme d'Or, competing against arthouse films and socially conscious dramas. Independent studio Lionsgate Films has had huge box-office success in the past few years with low-budget horror films such as "Saw" which spawned two sequels and "Hostel." Lionsgate's Cannes catalog continues the trend with titles including "Midnight Meat Train," "The Burrowers" and the inevitable "Saw IV."
Other studios have followed suit hardly surprising given the potential rewards. The relentlessly graphic "Hostel" cost less than $5 million to make but took in more than $80 million at the global box office. "Years ago, you couldn't sell horror movies. Nobody was interested," said Scott J. Jones, president of Los Angeles-based sales agent Artist View Entertainment. "Now it's a very strong genre." Horror's new popularity is no surprise to Darrin Ramage, president of producer-distributor Brain Damage Films. His Cannes market stall is festooned with posters for "Swamp Zombies," "Death Factory" and other blood-drenched features. "All genres are cyclical," Ramage said. "Four years ago, action was huge. You'd walk through the aisles of the (festival palace) and all you saw was posters for action movies. I've been in the business so long I've seen the up and down of horror three times."
There are questions about whether tragic real-life events might lessen the public's appetite for gore. Debate about the effects of violent movies was reopened by pictures of student gunman Seung-Hui Cho, who killed 33 people, including himself, at Virginia Tech university last month, adopting poses reminiscent of the violent and Cannes prize-winning South Korean film "Oldboy." Lionsgate attracted some criticism with a series of graphic ads for "Hostel: Part II," whose plot metes out gruesome fates to college students, but still plans to release the film next month.
There are signs, however, that the horror market may be saturated. Some distributors say they are finding it hard going at Cannes this year. A digital era that has transformed the way people view entertainment increasingly, and often illegally, over the Internet and a glut of content mean buyers are becoming choosier. Horror die-hards like Ramage are confident that whatever the whims of the market, the genre will endure. Horror fans, he said, are looking for two things: "B and B: blood and boobs."
"To fill the appetite of the horror fan, you need a whole lot more than what Hollywood can deliver."
PRESS RELEASE LONDON - MARCH 15, 2007
ZONEMEDIA SIGNS LICENSING AGREEMENT WITH MAXIM MEDIA INTERNATIONAL FOR ITS ZONE HORROR CHANNELS IN THE UK, IRELAND AND THE NETHERLANDS Zonemedia has signed its second licensing agreement with Maxim Media International which will bring 20 new film titles to its Zone Horror channels in the UK, Ireland and the Netherlands. Under the terms of the agreement, Zonemedia will gain the non-exclusive rights to the films for two years. The announcement was made by Adam Robinson, Zone Horror’s Head of Programming and Acquisition. “It has been a pleasure working with the team of Maxim Media over the past year. From contract negotiations to the delivery of final product, it’s been a seamless process.” Robinson continues, “Horror is a booming genre around the world and with great independent horror films coming from companies such as Maxim Media International & Brain Damage Films, we have been able to expand our channel offering by addressing the needs of our growing audience”. Among the films acquired for the UK, Ireland and the Netherlands are Richard Griffin’s, Raving Maniacs, Steve Charles Castle’s, Predator Island and Benjamin Cooper’s The Brink. The films will be premiering on Zone Horror this Spring as part of the ‘Grindhouse 2000’ season. “This is a great stepping stone for us,” Darrin Ramage, President of Maxim Media International said, “we have been focusing our attention on the broadcast market for quite some time now and to be able to work with Zonemedia and Zone Horror shows us that we are doing something right.”
