Ian’s Newsround – 01/02/06 News Posted by John Hoare on 1st February 2006, 13:16 *turns calendar over* Awww, Kryten and Camille. Note the early-1990s UCI popcorn bucket. Most of this is a bit late. Sorry about that. We would have done something earlier, but it… fell off. VIII MENUS: Wow. It’s hard to think of anything to say about them, as the pictures speak for themselves. The amount of detail, the number of different locations and the sheer *hugeness* of the think is incredible, especially considering it’s all been done for the benefit of one release. Although, why they’ve included a monkey entombed in ice I’ll never know. IT2I2: Cheers to Cpt-D for mentioning this in our comments. Robert Llewellyn’s new DVD! Available to pre-order now, and the trailer is now online. It looks great; I was surprised at the scale of the production, expecting something more along the lines of the WomanWizard DVD. But according to the poster on this page, Universal and Working Title are involved. On the other hand, you’d expect such companies to be mentioned in the trailer, so those logos might be placeholders or mock-ups. But still, it looks to be professional quality – I was surprised to see so many performers, most notably Lisa Rogers and Tony Hawks! I’m really looking forward to this, and it’s only £15! REGION 4 RELEASE DATE: This was actually announced last DVD Details article, but we didn’t notice. So: April 6th. Only a week after the Ashes-holders, so that’s not too bad is it, cobber? MEMORABILIA: We’ve already covered the Swindon thing from this article, but don’t miss the bit at the bottom, which states that Mac McDonald and Craig Charles will both be attending the next Memorabilia. It’s the weekend before the VIII is released, though, which will be an interesting dilemna for anyone who orders from Play – go and meet Craig Charles, or watch the DVD? Incidentally, the Memorabilia website carries a nice little VIII advert. Lovely. BTL: According to James Bull on the fan club forums (which I’m not allowed to link to, for some reason, and isn’t even viewable to non-members, for some reason), BTL #50 “is in the proof stage now and will be out in a matter of weeks”. He also promises that they’ll return to a regular time interval from now on, after making us wait nearly a year for #50. I was just surprised that BTL is proof-read… Also, Grant Smith mentions on the forum that according to BTL editor Rory, all the “missing” issues of BTL (the ones that you can’t currently order as back issues) will be reprinted “eventually”. Whether this will be in full or in the annoying Re-Mastered format they started a few years back (whereby each mag was stripped down to eight pages, but still cost four quid), or in full, remains to be seen. Or indeed whether it will happen at all. But a full reprint would be excellent, and I’d buy them. Wah, the Series VIII DVD is still nearly two months away!
Cinemas independent from who? Distributors and Studios? Because all the big 3 in the UK are independent in this way, I believe. If you mean little cinemas – then if they offer what I want, then I would have no problem. But whilst I have an Arthouse cinema nearby, all the other cinemas in the area are part of large groups.
Yeah I suppose while the majority of film imports are big American ones they’re best suited to large multiplex cinemas – they have the sound and video equipment that those films are supposed to be played with. I guess I’m just sick of what Odeon are doing these days – they move out of small cinemas into custom built multiplexes, but they have a special lease on the old building so that the building can never be used as a cinema ever again. Which is why you see so many lovely old cinemas converted into non-arts facilities – bingo halls is the closest you often get.
This is indeed true although I wasn’t aware that the buildings had special leases on them. This isn’t totally the case though – the Odeon in Bury St Edmunds closed when the new Cineworld multiplex opened, and it is now a cinema run by a different firm. It used to be an ABC though, so that could be why the lease was different. The thing is, I assume a lot of the leases on these small town centre cinemas were negotiated when it was important they weren’t cinemas again – I think the Bury point proves that Odeon didn’t renegotiate the contracts more recently. I doubt it would be a major issue today, as it would be very hard for a new player to get into the market that the consumers dictate – ie the big American films. The simple thing is, the little cinemas are generally in need of a lot of refurbishment anyway, and things like the DDA mean that a lot of work would have to be done to make them wheelchair accessible. A big multiplex can be built with top notch sound, large screens, sensibly spaced seats, disabled access and a nice car park to keep everyone quiet. Plus showing 8 films in one building is cheaper than showing 2. :)
Fair points. No point going to the independent greengrocer if you’re wanting to buy multi packs of mars bars which will be on special offer in supermarkets. I’m afraid the leasehold practice occurs very frequently and I’m often encountering information about cinemas that have to have their antiquated equipment ripped out so that the art deco building can be used as a fitness centre or (worse) demolished because they can’t find a company that’s willing to pay money to rebuilt the interior. Thankfully there’s now a kind of hub for independent cinemas to join so that they can be strengthened by their relationship to others. The Little Theatre in Bath remains family run but is now part of the Picturehouse (I believe it’s called) cinema group, where the support is such that they don’t have to supplement their programme with spiderman 2 and the matrix because they’re not trying to compete in that area. Whereas before they’d have to put blockbusters on alongside independent and foreign films to bring the money in. People are more aware of what multinationals are doing these days and they care to support independents when possible. It’s good.
“This is indeed true although I wasn’t aware that the buildings had special leases on them. This isn’t totally the case though – the Odeon in Bury St Edmunds closed when the new Cineworld multiplex opened, and it is now a cinema run by a different firm. It used to be an ABC though, so that could be why the lease was different.” Oh, I’ve just re-read this and I’ve a feeling this is different to the normal scenario. The Odeon moved elsewhere because the Cineworld was taking all the trade. In the examples I’m talking about, the Odeon itself is setting up a multiplex building and relocates. For some reason then it has control over the building it has vacated, and perhaps it’s due to proximity to the multiplex but I don’t know. Out of interest I think ABCs were bought up by Odeon but some of them kept their old signage. I remember growing up calling one of the main cinemas “the Cannon” and then “the ABC” and finally “Odeon” at various stages of its life. So the leasehold wouldn’t have been different because of that, anyway. An Odeon is an Odeon like a Safeway is a Morrisons. Or something.
The problem I usually have with Odeons is that, in order to cram a load of screens into what is often a small space (this is less true of retail park multiplexes, obviously – I’m thinking more of city centre ones), the screens are absolutely tiny. And I’m sorry, if I pay to see a film at the cinema – especially at current prices – I want to see it on a big screen, not one that’s barely bigger than a top-of-the-range flatscreen telly. Custom-built multiplexes I have less of a problem with – I do think it’s possible for them to coexist with smaller cinemas that have a more esoteric range of films. But when you cram six Odeon screens into a city centre, it just feels faintly ridiculous that you’re sitting in such a small auditorium.
I think Mr. Ellard already explained the chimp on the toilet thing (don’t know where the hell people are getting the ‘entombed in ice’ thing from when it’s clearly a poster of a chimp on a toilet)
> Whether this will be in full or in the annoying Re-Mastered format they started a few years back (…), or in full, remains to be seen. Nope, can’t see anything wrong here. Nope.
Well, I currently can’t view the trailer, because it uses Quicktime 7 – which you can’t run on Windows ME. (And yes, I *know* ME is crap – but I need to get Linux set up properly over here…) Rob’s said on his site that he’ll get the trailer up in some other formats though. And yeah, I know I’m predictable but I’d hate myself for the rest of my life if I didn’t at least suggest it: The order form is in Flash. That’s not very sensible.
> I think Mr. Ellard already explained the chimp on the toilet thing (don’t know where the hell people are getting the ‘entombed in ice’ thing from when it’s clearly a poster of a chimp on a toilet) I was taking the piss. > Nope, can’t see anything wrong here. Nope. I knew that having a pop at BTL’s mistakes would come back and haunt me.
In the examples I’m talking about, the Odeon itself is setting up a multiplex building and relocates. For some reason then it has control over the building it has vacated, and perhaps it’s due to proximity to the multiplex but I don’t know. Hmm, don’t know. I assume there’s some reason for it. It seems odd for a company to have control over a building after it has terminated the leasehold. An Odeon is an Odeon like a Safeway is a Morrisons. How about the Odeons which are UCIs?
> So: April 6th. Only a week after the Ashes-holders, so that’s not too bad is it, cobber? Fuck off. Go away and eat black pudding. And fish and chips with peas. One thing I’d like to know re. VIII DVD: how exactly are the episodes organised across discs 1 and 2?
> Fuck off. Go away and eat black pudding. And fish and chips with peas. Shall I throw another shrimp on the barbie as well?
> Shall I throw another shrimp on the barbie as well? Maybe you’d prefer tea. And crumpets. That’s another thing that really annoys me (apart from stupid “Australian slang” like cobber – who the fuck says “cobber” any more?) We don’t call them shrimp! We call them prawns! PRAWNS! And you don’t cook them on a barbecue either.
Hang on a tension-popping minute… > Ian’s Newsround – 01/02/06 > Posted by John Hoare on February 1, 2006 01:16 PM *very confused*
John started to write it, then started shitting and puking everywhere, so I wrote the majority of the article off. I hadn’t noticed the name thing, though!
Disc one houses BITR in both its episode and feature forms. The rest of the eps are on disc two. Disc one also contains Comedy Connections. It’s the only space we had!
I’m rather alarmed that TORDFC has become so slack. When I was a member (94ish – 2000ish), issues of BTL appeared on a pretty reliable basis of every 3 months and were (usually) worth waiting for. How much is the club now?
My BTL came today. Does anybody know what The Norman Lamont Project is? It’s in the listings at the back and has been in the last few BTLs, I think, but whenever I email ‘for more info’, it’s unable to deliver, and Googling ‘norman lamont project’ gets you nowhere.
