MPI Media Group has secured North American home-entertainment rights to the Severin Films catalog.

As many as a dozen releases are expected a year under the deal, which targets DVD and digital distribution. The 1972 zombie-bikers romp Psychomania is scheduled to hit stores Tuesday as an initial release under the agreement.

Subsequent releases include the 1989 horror pic Santa Sangre, which never has been released on DVD in North America.

"Severin Films has demonstrated remarkable taste and tenacity in finding unreleased gems," MPI senior vp Greg Newman said.

Added Severin COO Carl Daft, "MPI has proved over many years to be a skilled and innovative producer and distributor."

Founded in 1976 and based in New York, MPI Media brands its releases under the labels MPI Home Video and Dark Sky Films.

Four-year-old Severin is based in Los Angeles.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/new...ink-home-32444

So, does this mean the end of the Severin imprint?

Isn't Severin doing a lot with planning new releases for BD and such? I'd doubt this is the end of Severin

Agreed. Hopefully this will mean that their releases see more distribution at various B&M's.

I know I'm starting to see a lot more Dark Sky Films stuff at places like Best Buy lately.

Yeah I don't think it is the end of them at all...I imagine their deal is a lot like Blue Undergrounds with E1. Just straight distributorship to a (hopefully larger) customer base.

I think it has to help at least a little...should put them on the radar of people who might not have seen them otherwise, or people who weren't going to start an account/relationship for such a small studio but already deal with MPI.

I believe Media Blasters recently got picked up for distributorship as well (not by MPI).

Severin's label isn't going anywhere. I'm working closely with them right now and they have big plans for 2011, including Santa Sangre.

Any other tidbits you can give us?

not yet, you can follow my column over at twitch. all i've gotten out of them is that they have "several" Jess Franco films on the way. I'm trying to pry some more out of them, we'll see how successful I am...

Great news. Thanks!

My contact with Severin is at AFM this week, so I may take a short break with the columns until I can get back to him for more info.

slated for 01/25/2011

DVD $29.98 -- Blu-ray $34.98

I just posted a column at Twitch on their EuroSleaze stuff, if anyone is interested. I hope to get some inside info on upcoming stuff this week, we'll see...