SACHA BARON COHEN BANNED FROM OSCARS: EXCLUSIVE 
Cassian Elwes And Mark Burg Start Evolution Independent To … 
Simon Cowell On Search For New ‘X Factor’ Hosts … 
J.J. Abrams And Paramount Extend First-Look Deal Through … 
‘Spartacus’ Alum Jai Courtney Lands Coveted … 
BREAKING: SAG Anti-Merger Members File Lawsuit Against … 
Disney Taps Edgar Wright To Helm Johnny Depp In ‘The … 
IMAX Names Former Paramount Exec Andrew Cripps President Of … 
Conan O’Brien’s TBS Late-Night Talk Show … 
Paramount President Of Animation David Stainton Resigns 
Oscar Countdown: Sherak On Kodak Theatre’s New Name, … 
Costumers Designers Guild Awards: ‘Dragon … 
Oscars Scoop: George Clooney’s & Melissa … 
CAA Signs ‘The Help’s Tate Taylor 
UPDATED: 2012 Oscar Party Roundup 
NBC Brings Back ‘Community’, Schedules … 
Weinstein To Take On MPAA ‘Bully’ Rating 
TOLDJA! Michael Fassbender Commits To Ridley Scott-Directed … 
Charlie Sheen Resumes ‘Two & Half Men’ … 
Comcast Launches Xfinity Streaming Service For Older 
Sarah Palin Doc ‘The Undefeated’ Finds TV Home … 
From Deadline|London editor Tim Adler: Revolver Entertainment, the British distribution company, plans to make 3 low-budget youth or urban movies a year. Each film will be budgeted up to £1 million. The company is high on its first in-house production, Shank, a futuristic gang thriller which sales agent AV Pictures has already sold to Benelux, France, Germany and the Middle East and will be released in the UK on 80 screens on March 26. A tie-in pop video sung by London rap star Bashy, featuring movie clips, has been viewed by 80,000 within a week of it being posted on YouTube, putting it 3rd on the website’s Most Viewed list this week. Revolver is releasing its next urban title about basketball Freestyle this weekend. The distributor helped finance the film. Revolver has already decided on its next project, which its production arm Gunslinger will start filming in June. And a Shank sequel is in the works.
“Ideally, we’re looking to produce films which speak to a British youth audience,” said Revolver’s CEO Justin Marciano. He told me that he and his team have been “reverse engineering” these films by deciding what sort of movies audiences want to see and then making them. “It’s something the studios do all the time, just with several noughts on the end of the budget,” he told me. But Marciano was booed when he talked about reverse engineering at a recent film festival. Still, it’s possible that Gunslinger could become a Roger Corman-like lab for young filmmaking talent. Nothing like that really exists here despite official government schemes aimed at older arthouse filmmakers.
Loading ...
This will be GREAT for up-and-coming actors, as the studio can pay them less, and they get a big break.
However, this needs to be done right – or else those movies will bomb even for their budget.
Revolver have a solid marketing team behind them and have bold ambitions in the sector. Obviously, they’ll need to ensure that the low budget urban pics they distribute are of a high standard and quality and that comes down to film makers and producers, not distributors. So we’ll just have to keep our fingers crossed that they’re working with the right talent. If they are, its a smart move. If they’re not – well…we know who’ll get the blame. Its a ballsy move, but smart…I’ve known the Revolver guys for some time now and they seem like a very savvy bunch.
The reason “know one knows anything” is that living in a Malibu Mansion where your biggest worry is getting on the fad-wagon first (Priuses, Kaballah, support for a Child rapist director) removes you from what ordinary people experience and like.
When the moguls ran Hollywood, oh to be sure it stank, but at least almost all of the films were films most people would want to see, because the Moguls though rich did not crave acceptance and social approval from other rich people. They were Rodney Dangerfield in “Caddyshack,” not the Ted Knight character.
Reverse engineering is one way to go about it, but it won’t “fix” the biggest problem which is lack of executives and producers who understand what ordinary people like (and don’t like). However if Revolver can make enough of these, quickly enough, they might get to a process where people with this knack (i.e. not becoming socially detached from their audience) can be identified and retained.
“Urban movies” – looking at typical “urban” topics such as basketball, gangs, tie ins with rappers. Is this the only way black people can be represented? What about an urban movie involving smart university graduates? Like me. Or would-be lawyers – like my cousin. Or amazing computer experts – like my brother. Or would that not be “urban” enough?
Actively pursuing the youth market is a double edged sword. When you get it right, you make some damn good green. Do it wrong, and not only do you lose money, you end up making yourself look ridiculous.
Kids these days are widely diverse audience, with widely diverse interests, and tastes. Just tossing in hip-hop music, basketball, with a little sex-appeal, and some violence, can be seen by some as trying too hard. Especially when every single “youth” movie is about hip-hop, basketball, with some sex appeal and violence tossed in.
Then there’s the trap of basing a film on a fad, and then having that fad become a pathetic joke by the time the film is released.
The key to success is knowing when to pull what Roger Corman did in the early 1960s and be deliberately un-hip. When everyone else was doing almost nothing but cheesy sci-fi, and teen comedies loaded with pop music, hot rods, and beach parties, he made his “Poe Cycle” of gothic horror films with middle aged and older casts. They shouldn’t have sold, but they did, because they stood out from the others and offered a combination of familiarity (every kid studied Poe in school) with an element of novelty.
It’s a very hard to predict business, even more so than making more mainstream movies, because the audiences are way more fickle than the general public.
I agree, loobyloo2010. I’m white and I always wonder where are the movies that represent my black friends and neighbors and colleagues. And I live in a so-called “urban” neighborhood in Brooklyn.