7 Years After Debut, ‘All The Boys Love Mandy Lane’ To Get Release
#1
Moderator
Thread Starter
7 Years After Debut, ‘All The Boys Love Mandy Lane’ To Get Release
EXCLUSIVE: Warm Bodies helmer Jonathan Levine has learned that zombies aren’t the only things that rise from the dead. His 2006 directorial debut, All The Boys Love Mandy Lane, is finally getting a North American release through Radius-TWC, whose co-presidents Tom Quinn and Jason Janego just closed the rights deal and plans a late-summer multi-platform launch. 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.
The film stars Amber Heard and Anson Mount, and is about a group of high-schoolers who invite Mandy Lane, “a good girl” who becomes the object of everyone’s affection after returning from summer break, to a weekend party on a secluded ranch. While the festivities rage on, the number of revelers begins to mysteriously drop one at a time. 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.”
It will certainly be tricky to take a 7-year old film and pump up excitement, but Quinn said the thriller is good enough to be embraced by a genre audience. It will be released theatrically at least in the top 50 markets and simultaneously be released on VOD.
In a statement, Harvey and Bob Weinstein said they were glad the film was finally getting its due. “We’ve always loved Mandy Lane,” they said in a statement. “Radius shares our passion for the film and will get in front of the widest possible audience.”
As for Levine (who also helmed 50/50), he joked that he’d broken a mirror during the production of his first film and the seven years of bad luck has finally subsided.
“I am thrilled that Mandy Lane has been rescued and is back where it belongs with Harvey and Bob,” Levine said. “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.”
The film stars Amber Heard and Anson Mount, and is about a group of high-schoolers who invite Mandy Lane, “a good girl” who becomes the object of everyone’s affection after returning from summer break, to a weekend party on a secluded ranch. While the festivities rage on, the number of revelers begins to mysteriously drop one at a time. 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.”
It will certainly be tricky to take a 7-year old film and pump up excitement, but Quinn said the thriller is good enough to be embraced by a genre audience. It will be released theatrically at least in the top 50 markets and simultaneously be released on VOD.
In a statement, Harvey and Bob Weinstein said they were glad the film was finally getting its due. “We’ve always loved Mandy Lane,” they said in a statement. “Radius shares our passion for the film and will get in front of the widest possible audience.”
As for Levine (who also helmed 50/50), he joked that he’d broken a mirror during the production of his first film and the seven years of bad luck has finally subsided.
“I am thrilled that Mandy Lane has been rescued and is back where it belongs with Harvey and Bob,” Levine said. “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.”
Last edited by dex14; 03-08-13 at 02:52 PM.
#2
Senior Member
Re: 7 Years After Debut, ‘All The Boys Love Mandy Lane’ To Get Release
It's about time. This is a really good movie.
Maybe being connected to the director of Warm Bodies will be the shot in the arm Heard needs to get her career moving forward.
Maybe being connected to the director of Warm Bodies will be the shot in the arm Heard needs to get her career moving forward.
#3
DVD Talk Legend
Re: 7 Years After Debut, ‘All The Boys Love Mandy Lane’ To Get Release
I gave up and bought the region-free BD last year.
#4
DVD Talk Hall of Fame
Re: 7 Years After Debut, ‘All The Boys Love Mandy Lane’ To Get Release
i imported the dvd back when it was first released...haven't got around to upgrading to the blu-ray yet but i've been meaning too. love the film. made me fall in love with amber heard and keep an eye on levine.
#9
DVD Talk Legend
Re: 7 Years After Debut, ‘All The Boys Love Mandy Lane’ To Get Release
I'm sort of interested in seeing this. I didn't get to see Warm Bodies yet but thought it looked pretty good. I did however really love Levine's other major theatrical release 50/50 and would say it's one of my favorite films of the past couple years or so.
#12
Moderator
Thread Starter
Re: 7 Years After Debut, ‘All The Boys Love Mandy Lane’ To Get Release
Three months after rescuing Jonathan Levine‘s horror thriller All The Boys Love Mandy Lane from distribution purgatory and seven years after the Amber Heard-starrer was filmed, Radius-TWC has set fall theatrical and VOD dates for the film. The Texas-set slasher will hit VOD September 6 followed by an October 11 theatrical release, the company announced today.
#13
DVD Talk Hero
Re: 7 Years After Debut, ‘All The Boys Love Mandy Lane’ To Get Release
Cool, I'll watch it on my phone.
#14
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Thread Starter
#15
DVD Talk Hero
Re: 7 Years After Debut, ‘All The Boys Love Mandy Lane’ To Get Release
Based on that trailer, it should've stayed another 7 years on the shelf.
#16
DVD Talk Hero
Re: 7 Years After Debut, ‘All The Boys Love Mandy Lane’ To Get Release
I saw this flick a long ass time ago. It's aight. It reminds me of that other flick, which I can't remember, that stars Gemma Atherton as a kidnap victim of some kind.
#18
DVD Talk Legend
Re: 7 Years After Debut, ‘All The Boys Love Mandy Lane’ To Get Release
If this is your motivation for seeing the film, expect major disappointment. From all I've read, the delay in releasing the film was strictly beaurocratic/financial in nature, not that anything in the film is so shocking that they couldn't dare to put it out there. It was just an independent horror film that they didn't know how to/weren't interested in marketing it, so it got shelved.
But if you just base it on its merits, it's quite an enjoyable little slasher film. Some of the conventions of the genre get played around with, enough for it to stand out from most horror films you see today. More importantly, it's extremely striking in the visual sense.
Highly recommended, but don't take the long delay in (US) release to be a positive nor negative factor. I listened to the audio commentary, hoping there'd be insight into the delay, and it wasn't really discussed. And props for not trying to use it as a promotional tool like Rob Zombie did with House of 1K Corpses.
But if you just base it on its merits, it's quite an enjoyable little slasher film. Some of the conventions of the genre get played around with, enough for it to stand out from most horror films you see today. More importantly, it's extremely striking in the visual sense.
Highly recommended, but don't take the long delay in (US) release to be a positive nor negative factor. I listened to the audio commentary, hoping there'd be insight into the delay, and it wasn't really discussed. And props for not trying to use it as a promotional tool like Rob Zombie did with House of 1K Corpses.
#19
DVD Talk Hall of Fame
She's purty. And she like to read sci-fi. So maybe I could actually have a coherent conversation with her. Doubtful, but hey, dream on.
It doesn't sound like it's a particularly complicated story, just that it got bounced between distributors. Did it have a trouble production?
It doesn't sound like it's a particularly complicated story, just that it got bounced between distributors. Did it have a trouble production?
Last edited by hanshotfirst1138; 12-10-13 at 11:01 AM.