Caffeinated Clint
6 years after it was completed, Jonathan Levine’s deliciously wicked “All the Boys Love Mandy Lane” – the film most of us came eye-to-flesh with the divine Amber Heard for the first time – is set to receive a release in North America.
Though released elsewhere around the world (you’ll find it in bargain bins in most Australian DVD stores), “Mandy Lane” wasn’t released in the states because
Radius-TWC are planning to give the film a limited theatrical release in the late Summer.
Deadline reminds us :
Even though the $600,000 budget film was a sensation in its 2006 Toronto Film Festival debut, sparking an all-night auction that ended with The Weinstein Company besting two suitors by bidding $3.5 million and committing to 800 screens, Mandy Lane was never released theatrically in the U.S.
Radius co-president Quinn tells me he saw the film while he worked in acquisitions at Magnolia, and he never forgot it. What happened? The film got caught in that no man’s land between direct-to-video and wide release. After a disastrous test screening, TWC wavered on whether Mandy Lane could thrive in wide release. So after an appeal by the film’s producers, TWC sold Mandy Lane a year later to Senator Entertainment US, an upstart division of the German-backed film company which planned to make Mandy Lane its first big theatrical release. The company went bust before Mandy Lane reached theaters.Even though all Mandy Lane’s festival momentum was lost, Quinn continued to track the film over the years. Once he and Janego started TWC’s multi-platform division, Quinn was able to work with executive producer Keith Calder to collar the rights.
“It is one of my favorite horror films I’ve seen in the last decade, and if I could have afforded it at Magnolia, I would have bought it then,” Quinn told me. “We were finally able to untangle the film’s rights at a time when a multi-platform release makes perfect sense for a film like this. Jonathan’s film Warm Bodies has grossed over $60 million, and to me this movie surpasses what is available to us on the open market.”
The film will be released in cinemas, but at the same time also receive a video-on-demand release.
Director Levine, who went on to direct such gems as “Warm Bodies” and “50/50”, says “I am thrilled that Mandy Lane has been rescued and is back where it belongs with Harvey and Bob. Hard to believe it’s been seven years, but then again I’ve always perceived myself as a misunderstood artist who was light years ahead of his time, so I am thrilled the world has finally caught up. Seriously, I am incredibly proud of the film and of the hard work that my cast and collaborators put into it, and I am so happy the world will finally get a chance to see it.”
