DOMESTIC RELEASE
The cinema-run is now complete in Australia, after 8 weeks in the top ten at the box office.
Avalon Cinema (above) on Sydney's northern beaches was one of the last cinemas in Australia to still hold the film after weeks, which is a long run for a local film. They have to make way for the AVATAR's and the ROBIN HOOD's.
INTERNATIONAL
INTANDEM our International Sales agent, based in London, has been working the film very well. They started at the Berlin film festival in Feb with a short promo from the still unfinished film. In May they took the finished film to Cannes where it was seen in two main cinema screenings by their main buyers (those able to make it to Cannes through the smoke of the Iceland Volcano).
Since Cannes INTANDEM have been back in London following up the contacts made in the those markets.
Bill Leimbach at Cannes Film Festival, 2010
Segi Segilola, Development Executive at INTANDEM shows off their add in VARIETY magazine for the Premiere Screening.
Bill meets producer Judith Hunt of THE KID, from another INTANDEM hit, called THE KID
EP Ross Thomas, Australian Ambassador to France, David Ritchie and EP Greg Rains share some laughs with Producer Bill Leimbach at Cannes.
Jeremy Sims and David Roach also had a great reception for the film in Hollywood, in June, as they presented it to many American buyers in attendance at an invited event called AUSTRALIANS IN FILM.
In attendance in Hollywood, Brendan, Jeremy, David, Bill Leimbach's sister Barabara, living in California and David Roach.
The result of all these contacts have created the following sales:
UK MOMENTUM
GERMANY ASCOT
ELITE SCANDINAVIA (Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland) CCV
POLAND VISION
CZECH AQS
MIDDLE EAST FALCON
FRANCE CTV
JAPAN NIKKATSU
America and Canada are still pending and of course are very big markets. Stephen Spielberg saw a 35 mm print of the movie in the privacy of his own theatre and has been helpful to spread the word there. We have learned that Americans aren't as interested in WW1 as they are in WW2 so the hope of a theatrical presentation there is thin. But a good strong DVD run there could sell many thousands of units. We are working on attracting the best company for that exercise.
AIRLINES
We have sold it to QANTAS and VIRGIN and another company in California is dealing with other global airlines
TV
DVD sales have a window of opportunity of at least a year before it can go to TV. It remains to be seen which of the TV networks in Australia will buy the film. That is the realm of Transmission and Paramount our domestic distributors. The International TV rights belong to those companies mentioned above who have licensed the film in that territory.
DVD Release
Beneath Hill 60 will be out on Blu Ray and DVD in all entertainment stores nationwide from August 19th. International DVD is the domain of each country who has licensed the film in that territory, so watch out for it in your country. If you want more info about its availability in your country, you can email any of the above named companies.
The DVD will include bonus footage such as a talk with Director Jeremy Hartley Sims and a 40 minute 'making of' feature with footage throughout the production of the film when it was shot in Townsville, North Queenslands.
There will also be Special DVD, a two disc set to include the 90 minute Television Special made for HISTORY CHANNEL by Bill Leimbach and Jonathan King, in 2005 to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the end of World War I on November 11th 1918. This film is called WINNING WORLD WAR 1: LETTERS FROM THE WESTERN FRONT and will fill in many of the gaps in our knowledge of Australia's participation in WW1.
The IF Awards
Voting for the Australian IF Magazine Awards has begun and you can go onto the website (link below) to vote for Beneath Hill 60, for nomination in five different categories, for their Awards Ceremony, held later this year.
ARTICLES
Here are just two of the dozens of great articles written during the course of our film run.
Hopefully we will see a few more now that the DVD run is soon upon us.
(David Roach - Writer/Producer) had a great one in his local Wollongong Press and Gyton Grantley (Actor) had many appear in the Townsville papers.
