What's Next For Grind House?
There's been a lot to-ing and fro-ing in the Weinstein camp over Grind House the last week or so. As everybody knows by now, the film was a massive flop - now playing to virtually empty houses less than two weeks before it went onto release. Pretty much straight off of the bat, word got around that the film was going to be split into two seperate features and rereleased. Geeks were not pleased.
And then, small voices started piping up. At various cinemas across the US, the film was either already being screened as two films, or as a double feature where an intermission replaced the fake trailers. Jo Blo reported on this, and did some investigating, coming to the unsurprising conclusion that these were test engagements, being used by the Weinsteins to plan a rerelease.
These tests flopped every bit as much as the initial plan, so it then broke that, actually, the split-release relaunch was nixed.
So what will be next for Grind House? I've been asking around, and this is what I've been told...
This Thursday, Death Proof is to be announced as part of this year's Cannes line-up. Some people are talking about the film's chances for awards, but there's not yet any indication it will be screening in competition. This version of the film will be the 'restored' version, with no missing reel and various other snips reinstated - expect it to run around eighteen minutes longer than the double-feature edit. And expect it to look gorgeous. And expect it to be received rapturously. A Grind House backlash backlash, maybe?
The Weinsteins know that Death Proof would have - and should have - done much better box office if released as a standalone 'New Tarantino Film' so (surprise, surprise) they're going to give that strategy a shot.
Riding on Cannes hype just a little, and with completely un-Grind House marketing, it seems that a scratch-free Death Proof will be arriving in the American multiplexes later this year. Not on a big scale, mind, but targeted carefully and, if everything goes to plan, in a very profitable fashion.
Planet Terror will next be seen on DVD. Despite a number of critics definitely preferring the run-and-gun fun of Rodriguez' installment to the typical Tarantino post-modern games, apparently the film just isn't being seen as worth the expense and effort to resuscitate.
I would suppose - and I'm just making an informed guess here - the big heap of DVD releases are likely to move out of the seasonal peak times, to avoid being lost amidst the more 'mainstream' releases. The Easter Weekend release can't be what killed the film stone dead in cinemas, not alone at least, but it has been blamed and that was probably enough.
(It dropped 70% in grosses from last Friday yesterday.)
