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July 25, 2008

Ciao Goes Theatrical!

IndieWire's got the official press release on the news that we've all been bursting at the seams to talk about:

North American rights to Ciao by Yen Tan have been acquired by here! Films for a planned autumn theatrical release through sister entity, Regent Releasing, the company announced Thursday. The film, which won the jury prize for best feature at the Philadelphia International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, is described as an "emotionally astute film about the incidental friendship between two strangers living in two different parts of the world. Their connection is linked by the unexpected loss of a mutual friend. One has been with him for many years and the other has never even met him, but may have gotten to know him on a more intimate level through the e-mails exchanged." here! Films' Quinn Coleman negotiated the deal with Jim McMahon from Unauthorized Films. [Brian Brooks]

It's not my place to go into the nature of the deal, but in these days of falling skies and digital distribution, this sort of thing feels pretty unprecedented. If the current plans stay on track, the film will have a five city theatrical roll-out this fall, two years to the date that we wrapped production. Deliverables are due next month, so I'd better polish up the blooper reel I put together way back when. It's been a long road for this movie, but Yen's conviction is finally paying off. I couldn't be prouder of him. And to think that when he first started pitching the idea of the movie around four years ago, it figured it would be a quickie straight-to-DVD project...

Posted by David Lowery at July 25, 2008 2:16 AM