Straightblog

trailer will be exclusive to this blog for a week only...

...so you wonderful people who have put up with my drivelling, rambling remarks, plus a few nice photos, will at last get some proper trailage!!!!

Now, for the people who kindly keep asking me about when the US release date is going to be, and indeed when the UK date is going to be, I embrace you and love your enthusiasm.

I     DON'T     KNOW     WHEN     STRAIGHTHEADS     WILL     BE     RELEASED     IN     THE     USA

Really. Honestly. For the simple reason that Sony Pictures themselves probably still don't know. I'm guessing later this year... Just a guess. Let's keep asking those people at Sony, maybe we'll get a reply one day, who knows.

Also: I don't have a precise date for the UK release. Currently it's somewhere in late April, but Verve really genuinely haven't set a precise date yet, though I imagine it won't be long. But make no mistake they're still planning to release Straightheads in the month of April this year.

Phew, got that off my chest. Peace and love. And may the US release come soon.

well I'm told...

.. the Verve trailer for Straightheads will be delivered at the end of this week, so I'll say (at the risk of being lynched if it doesn't happen) I should have it in my hot hands to post for you on this blog sometime next week. I'm looking forward to reading the comments once you've watched it - let me know whether you think it works for you, and I'll pass it on to Julia.

Now, looking through the unit stills I notice that up to now I've posted mainly images of Gillian and Danny looking fresh and beautiful, before they're kicked out of their safe little world and into the deep, dark forest just over the horizon. So here are some very different ones...

In the meantime Colin, Julia's business-partner at Verve, has already begun negotiations with the exhibitors i.e. the cinema chains here in the UK, to work out precisely which screens Straightheads will be showing on. I have to say talking to him has given me a real insight into the engine-room mechanics of how an independent film like mine gets onto the cinema circuit - a detailed, painstaking and very risky venture for an independent distributor like Verve, because their money is literally on the line if this movie doesn't do as well as expected. Hats off to Colin and Julia for having large, steel-hard sets of cojones. I really hope they reap the rich rewards, notoriety and good fortune that are due to them for their staunch - and uncommonly shrewd - commitment to this little movie.

by the way...

... I should have said, those two draft posters in my last post were versions that were rejected during the last round of poster-brainstorming (see that videoclip from the summer) though we too liked elements of the design, overall it was felt they weren't quite right, for some of the reasons you guys have pointed out in your comments. But who knows, the design guys may adapt that concept again on the next pass.

I'm going to the sound mix on the trailer on Weds, so it should be available for me to post not too long thereafter IF everything were to go smoothly haha.

Is that old promo still doing the rounds on the internet? I haven't seen it pop up anywhere for a while.

draft poster designs... and the ghost-post

Been down with the 'flu, or I would have posted earlier. The mysterious ghost-poster was unmasked after a week-long manhunt which included the prolonged and sadistic interrogation of our wonderful distributor, and I'm glad to say it was our very own and very dear keeper of the bloggish gates, Alistair, the post being the result of a crossed wire in the global system of command and control that is the Straightheads PR machine.

Download str_draft_poster_thumb_on_cheek.pdf

Download str_draft_poster_thumb_in_mouth.pdf

Anyway, here are a couple of draft poster designs for you to look at. Verve are having a rethink over the existing poster, and might want to give it more of a horror feel than it currently has, so that it prepares people for the experience of watching the film. I think the current design is very attractive, but it's true that it doesn't really give you a sense of the kind of er.. experience you're letting yourself in for by going to see this movie. NB the "quote" from Time Out magazine is a dummy quote NOT a real quote. Time Out have not reviewed the film and the dummy line is there just to give the designer something to play with.

Since I last posted there has been another press screening with some good feedback, and Verve's publicists are drawing up plans for Gillian and Danny's interview schedule. April still seems like a long way away though...

what the...?

I didn't post that by the way folks. That shot has already been posted on this blog. Maybe someone got over-enthusiastic. More soon from the real me. Dan

A little picture

Gillian Anderson and Danny Dyer

Happy New Year!

Well I'm back and feeling greatly refreshed and relaxed, and ready to drag this sick puppy of a movie towards the launch-pad. One of the very first steps was the mag screening last Thursday, which produced some bizarrely very positive feedback, notably from one of the top horror / genre critics here in UK. So I'm going to have to sit down and think about that for a while, having prepared myself over the holidays to face a grey tsunami of hostility from the press. Now, I'm sure there will be more than enough press vitriol to keep me afloat, in the weeks to come. BUT if a number of voices in the grown-up mainstream press were to decide that they kind of like of Straightheads, or even that they're anything less than outright appalled, then I would have to ask myself: what sort of a sick country do I live in? And quite probably I would have no option but to apply for residency somewhere more down-to-earth like, oh, Syria. In fact I hear the Syrian film industry is planning a move into low-budget genre horror and thriller productions, mostly with local talent but some foreign participation too. So much so that the USA is thinking of getting involved to stop things getting out of hand and, you know, undermining Hollywood. Plus I love mint tea. So unless something can be done about these sickeningly positive vibes from some really twisted writers in the press here in UK, Damascus here I come. Enough said for now. I suspect I'm worrying uneccessarily...

Meanwhile I'll be keeping you up to date more often now as things start to gear up towards the April release of Straightheads. As soon as Verve give me a definite (as can be) date I'll post it on this blog so you should hear it here first!

Now - the competitions. Firstly, I loved the winning entries, which I only saw when I got back early last week. The animated deer made me roar with laughter and the tone of that clip is spot-on. Less icky but even funnier was the musical, and the posters were great, so well done everyone and I was most impressed that Carlota and Eduardo flew in from Spain to be at the screening. When I went off for a Chinese with the composer and score producer posse the bloggers were huddled in a corner of the pub looking very merry. I hope none of you ended up in a canal. Thanks for coming, it was great to see you, and put some faces to those random names in the comment pages...

Congratulations!

Thanks to everyone who entered our competitions. It was a tough decision but the winners have now been chosen.

Drum roll please...

Best Musical Film Award:  Adrian Ives with 'Coming Soon'

Runner Up: Carlota Fernandez & Eduardo Sanchez with 'Straightheads the Musical'

Best Poster Design:  Sophie Robinson

Runner Up:  Sarah Robinson

Well done again to all the winners and thanks to everyone who took part...

New Way To Win!

Hello All

We've been monitoring the blog whilst Dan is away and it seems a fair few of you are without the means to enter the comp. So we've decided to give more of you fine folk a chance, we're going to add another strand to the comp. Just so we're clear, there are now 2 prizes up for grabs - one from each strand!

So the second comp - we thought we'd still like to test your creative mettle - so, using any or all of the images and logo on the site, create your own STRAIGHTHEADS poster. This can be as crude or polished as you like, so use whatever's at hand. If you really have to, scan a drawing in and upload that - we're looking for spirit and fun, not for some Photoshopped masterpiece (we have our own marvellous poster designers after all, and we wouldn't want to usurp them!)

So any which way you can, cobble something together and get it to our new Flickr channel.

Just email your pics to  higher88sum@photos.flickr.com and we'll post the best on the site!

Good luck and get cracking,

Verve Pictures 

A word from Verve

Ms Julia checking in while Mr Reed is out and about... come on guys a few more entries would be good for the very special chance to see the film before any of your mates… just think you can bore them before it’s in the cinema.  In answer to some of your questions, the film got an 18 cert in the UK doesn’t mean it will get that in other territories so you may be lucky…. Dan will be able to correct me on his return but I am pretty sure that the title doesn’t refer to rice plants failing to develop!

 

Keep on at those Sony guys!

Thanks,