Drew Turney
Here’s an interesting point of view to start today’s VOD Views;
Indie film expert and producer Ted Hope makes a great point about what digital can offer the world. With movies occupying an increasingly narrowing remit whose guidelines seldom extend further than ‘tie-ins’, ‘superheroes’ and ‘China’, the likes of Netflix and HBO (which is launching an online-only service in the US soon) are expanding the field for smart, adult entertainment that doesn’t suffer the same homogenisation movies suffer to play to blockbuster crowds.
As long as VOD makes money, we can expect it to be a continuing trend. Luckily we have a couple of years of hindsight into how some high profile VOD projects have performed – even if the Netflixes of the world still refuse to give up their figures.
Speaking of which, Netflix content head Ted Sarandos recently confirmed that the service is in no hurry to release their viewership metrics.
But the big news, again with producer Ted Hope, is that another company is getting into original movie content, and you might have heard of them – Amazon. After huge success with their TV shows (”Transparent” took home so many Golden Globes it almost one-upped ”House of Cards”’ performance at last year’s Emmys), the everything store is now officially a competitor to Fox, Paramount and the other big Hollywood names.
The medium also continues to attract star talent, with Baz Luhrmann lined up to make a 13 part musical drama about the birth of hip-hop, R&B and punk in 1970s America.
New on VOD now, Mad as Hell, the story of The Young Turks, one of the most popular online news shows in the world, and their YouTube network. The film documents the tumultuous, at times hilarious trajectory of The Young Turks’ main host and founder as he goes from public access TV host to Internet sensation.
Said to be a treat for kids and adults alike, The Boxtrolls is also available, telling the story of a race of curious creatures and the mad scientist who wants to do them in.
Keanu Reeves kicks arse and takes names in the surprise action smash John Wick, and Salma Hayek does the same in Everly, which sees the Latina femme fatale’s first return to action after ”Bandidas”.
Finally, if you only watch one movie on your small screen or handheld device this month, make it Zak Hilditch’s quite stunning These Final Hours. Nathan Phillips plays a young man looking for an appropriate send-off after the shockwave from a meteor strike is circling the Earth and heading for Perth, Western Australia, and who unexpectedly finds his humanity when he protects and befriends a little lost girl.
