Sci-Fi adventure, Alita: Battle Angel completes a three week climb to the top of the Official Film Chart, knocking Captain Marvel into second place in the process.
Based on the widely celebrated manga character created by Yukito Kishiro, the Robert Rodriguez directed film tells the tale of a reactivated cyborg on a quest to remember her past life and stars Rosa Salazar in the titular role with a strong supporting cast including Christoph Waltz and Jennifer Connelly. As a result Captain Marvel slips to Number 2; its fourth week on the chart, all spent in either the Number 1 or Number 2 position.
The week’s highest new entry comes from Tim Burton’s live action remake of Disney’s animated classic Dumbo flying in on digital downloads only, at Number 3. Starring Michael Keaton, Danny DeVito, Eva Green and Colin Farrell, the film blends live action with computer generated graphics to bring the story of the elephant with the oversized ears to a whole new generation.
At Numbers 4 to 6 are previous chart toppers, Fisherman’s Friends (4), Mary Poppins Returns (5) and Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse (6). Right behind that, 1994’s The Lion King climbs into the Top 10 for the first time on the Official Film Chart in the wake of the remake hitting cinema screens.
Bohemian Rhapsody and How To Train Your Dragon – The Hidden World trade places with the latter up a place to Number 8 as the former slips to 9. Rounding out the Top 10, last week’s highest new entry, the creepy Us, falls five places to Number 10. Further down the Top 40, Tom Cruise’s eighties classic Top Gun climbs into the Top 20 at Number 18 as the trailer for the highly anticipated sequel continues to build excitement.
This week’s Official Film Chart online show takes a sneak peek at animated adventure Wonder Park available to Download & Keep from August 5th.
Sony Pictures Television will launch the UK’s first free-to-air movie network as it rebrands its existing entertainment networks in the UK to form one cohesive Sony-branded portfolio. Sony Movies, Sony Movies Action, Sony Movies Classic and the seasonal pop-up channel Sony Movies Christmas will form the Sony Movies network. At the same time, the Sony-owned entertainment channel True Entertainment will be relaunched as Sony Channel.
The selection of new channels will be:
Sony Movies – All the best movies from Hollywood’s biggest film studios
Sony Movies Action – The perfect channel for thrill-seekers and adrenaline junkies
Sony Movies Christmas – Delivering festive cheer every day from September
Sony Movies Classic – The best loved films from the golden age of cinema (coming Jan 2020)
Sony Channel – A celebration of iconic television and timeless entertainment
The brand new free-to-air movie network will launch on Tuesday 10th September with flagship channel Sony Movies presenting an ever-changing mix of the best of Hollywood, from rom-coms to blockbusters to critically acclaimed indie flicks. Showing movies such as Hitch, Air Force One, Vanilla Sky andBad Boys, plus exclusive themed Showtime Sundays and Friday Night Film Club, there really is something for everyone.
If all out action is your bag then let Sony Movies Action take you on a wild ride with its mix of espionage, car-chases, western and war films including Breakout, The Missionary Man, The Hunt for Eagle One and Bullet.
Sony Movies Classic, which debuts in January 2020, will draw from Sony Pictures’ storied and extensive Columbia Pictures movie library showcasing important and iconic titles from the history of movie making including Kramer vs Kramer, Gandhi, Oliver! and more.
And if you just can’t wait for Santa this year then you’ll be glad to know the popular seasonal pop-up channel Sony Movies Christmas will be launching in September with plenty of indulgent treats perfect to watch as you start the Christmas shopping and decorate the house. Titles include Christmas With The Kranks, Christmas Eve, Silver Bells and The Christmas Contract. There’s even a Christmas Animals themed weekend!
True Entertainment will be relaunched as Sony Channel celebrating classic drama and great entertainment with a warm and familiar mix of sitcoms, nostalgia and popular gameshows including: Murder She Wrote, Charlie’s Angels, Starsky & Hutch, TJ Hooker and classic Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. Perfect for a cosy binge on all your favourites.
All channels will be available on Freeview, Freesat, Sky and Virgin Media with a new modern and cinematic design alongside this impressive slate of new and exciting content.
Nobody expects…all 45 episodes restored and uncut! But Network have used their chief weapons of surprise, ruthless restoration efficiency and a fanatical devotion to Monty Python to bring you this exclusive Limited Edition 50thAnniversary Blu-ray box set of Monty Python’s Flying Circus available for the first time worldwide – including special and rare content!
In 1969, Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin created Monty Python which unleashed their unbridled silliness on an unsuspecting world…and took it over! Now, years in the making, Network is proud to present the entire original television series of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, fully rejuvenated for the first time. Sketches, some cut after initial broadcast, some excised completely, others edited to make more palatable have been carefully restored to their intended length. The majority of Terry Gilliam’s animations have been newly scanned in high-definition and restored to a specification way beyond their original format. Hitherto unseen outtakes, film inserts, and studio recordings have been retrieved, adding yet another dimension to this exclusive release. This is the ultimate television restoration and a must for every generation of Python fans.
Tim Beddows, MD of Network Distributing, is “thrilled that we’ve been given the opportunity to restore Monty Python’s Flying Circus. It’s long overdue and the results our award-winning team have yielded from the original materials are just staggering. One of the best restorations I’ve ever seen.”
From the funniest, most deadly joke in the world to an ex-parrot, Hell’s Grannies to singing lumberjacks – this is television lunacy at its most silly!
So don your Silly Walk and head over to reserve your copy now…or you’ll be voted Twit of the Year!
All four series will be available to purchase separately at a later date beginning with a special Blu-ray DigiPack of Series One (also on DVD) on 7th October.
In addition to the Network’s limited edition release, and subsequent individual series releases, further 50th anniversary happenings will include a season at the BFI Southbank with screenings of films and series from and influenced by the troupe, a takeover at the BBC, Michael Palin’s exec. produced programmes for BBC Radio 4, and a Guinness World Record attempt for the ‘Largest Gathering of People Dressed as Gumbys.’
THE RESTORATION
After nearly a decade of research and planning, this is a ground up restoration by Network’s award-winning in-house team working from the best available materials – from first generation 2-inch videotape masters to surviving negative and print film material, scanned in 2K. The wildly varying picture sources have been graded scene-by-scene and intensively cleaned up.
Original Image | Restored Image
State of the art upscaling of SD videotape has been deployed with careful use of noise reduction for both video and film grain, resulting in a vastly improved viewing experience all round on Blu-ray HD format, far exceeding anything previously available.
Network’s Archive Colourist Jonathan Wood has said “The Monty Python series restoration is a huge jigsaw puzzle but one that is slotting together as well as the original sketches did. Hard work but satisfying for all the team.”
After being thrown out of his home by his wife for being promiscuous, Mark finds himself back at Dumpling Farm, a place of youthful memories and parties, but things aren’t quite right. His old buddy Ian, who has never left the place, is possessed by a group demonic, flesh eating Witches. Using Ian and his farm, these beautiful Witches honey trap Mark and his friends to consume their souls. Great trailer.
Epic Pictures today announces the acquisition of worldwide sales rights for the upcoming Christmas horror anthology DEATHCEMBER, which features rising and celebrated directors and talent from around the world in an impressive advent calendar of terror. The anthology was created by Dominic Saxl, who produced alongside Ivo Scheloske, production manager with Anolis Entertainment, and Frank Vogt, COO of Magna Mana Production and made in part thanks to the German HessenFilm fund.
Described as a ‘Finnish version of This Is Spinal Tap’ (LA Times) Heavy Tripis one hell of a ride and about to take the UK by storm as it arrives on digital platforms on 5August 2019, following appearances at Belfast Film Festival, Dead By Dawn and a headline showing at this year’s Download Festival. Sparky Pictures brings the noise as they present Finnish metal band Impaled Rektum who are about to get their big break in this hilarious comedy.
A new clip has been released for Simon Bird’s feature directorial debut DAYS OF THE BAGNOLD SUMMER following the announcement that the film’s World Premiere will take place at this year’s Locarno Film Festival. DAYS OF THE BAGNOLD SUMMER will be seen by audiences for the first time when it will play in the Piazza Grande at the 72nd edition of the Festival which runs from 7 August – 17 August. The coming-of-age film stars Monica Dolan(Appropriate Adult, Pride, Eye in the Sky), Earl Cave(Born to Kill, The End of the F***ing World), Rob Brydon(Gavin and Stacey, The Trip, Marion & Geoff), Tamsin Greig (Black Book, Green Wing, Friday Night Dinner), Alice Lowe (Sightseers, Horrible Histories, Prevenge) and Elliot Speller-Gillot
THE LAST TREE is the semi-autobiographical story of Femi (as a child played by newcomer Tai Golding), a British boy of Nigerian heritage who, after being fostered in rural Lincolnshire, moves to inner-city London to live with his birth mother. In his teens, Femi (Sam Adewunmi) is struggling with the culture and values of his new environment. Femi must decide which path to adulthood he wants to take, and what it means to be a young black man in London during the early 00s. Lush trailer.
The fascinating documentary-drama is the first ever re-enactment of the meteoric rise and fall of high-flying automotive executive, John DeLorean. Unlike a regular feature documentary, FRAMING JOHN DELOREANis a unique documentary/feature hybrid, including traditional talking heads and archival footage woven in with reconstructed scenes of key moments in John DeLorean’s life, played by Alec Baldwin(The Cooler, The Departed, Mission: Impossible – Fallout).
Netflix presents an exclusive sneak peek at the highly-anticipated fantasy series, THE DARK CRYSTAL: AGE OF RESISTANCE, based on Jim Henson’s groundbreaking 1982 feature film, THE DARK CRYSTAL. In this stunning new prequel, three Gelfling discover the horrifying secret behind the Skeksis’ power, and set out on an epic journey to ignite the fires of rebellion and save their world. Realized using classic puppetry with cutting edge visual effects, the cast and creators discuss all of your burning questions about bringing Thra to life. Here’s a sneak peek.
Are We Dead Yetis lead by British Actress Jessica Jane-Stafford (The Real Hustle, Black Site, Cannibals and carpet fitters) and supported by a cast including Tim Faraday (Snatch, The Ghost), Khali Best (Endeavour, Eastenders), Charles Venn (Casualty, The Dark Knight) and Winston Ellis (The Dark Knight, Rise of the Footsoldier) and with a whole host of cameos from well-known celebrity faces such as Marcel Somerville, Paul Danan and comedians Hakan Hassan, Kojo, Chunkz, Jahanah James, Stevo the Mad Man, A Dot Comedian and musicians Professor Green, Lisa Maffia, Cadet and Angel. Awesome trailer.
“Such a Funny Life” is about the Guiterrez family who moves to New York from “nowhere”. Our main character, David grew up in a challenging household with an abusive and plotting father Ralph, and mentally challenged mother Mariah. David is a complete pariah in school and in the street but he is destined to be a comic and entertainer. Through his childhood we follow him as he loses his sister Gabriella, to a tragic death, and then in his teens he falls in love with a complicated and troubled girl named Mariah. Great trailer.
Often cited as one of the best films of the 2000s and possibly the definitive example of extreme Asian cinema, Oldboy is a brutal, lyrical modern classic of the revenge genre. Directed with immense flair by Park Chan-wook (The Handmaiden) as the second instalment of his Vengeance Trilogy, Oldboyblazed a trail at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival where it was lauded by the President of the Jury, director Quentin Tarantino.
GARNERING CRITICAL acclaim on its theatrical release, one of Britain’s greatest actors of today Toby Jones ‘glows’ (The Guardian) as the lead in Kaleidoscope, a bleak, nightmarish psychological thriller written and directed by brother Rupert Jones in his feature film debut. This intense thriller ‘adds a decidedly 21st century bent to Hitchcockian suspense’(Spectrum Culture) and is set to arrive on UK digital platforms on 12 August 2019, followed by its DVD release on 23 September 2019. The cast includes Sinead Matthews (Jellyfish), Cecilia Noble (Danny and the Human Zoo) and a stand out turn from national treasure Anna Reid, MBE (Last Tango in Halifax).
Brie Larson’s strongest Avenger, Captain Marvel, returns to the summit of the Official Film Chart this week thanks to its release on DVD and Blu-ray, after shooting into the top spot two weeks ago on digital sales alone. The superhero epic shifted over 231,000 copies and outsold the rest of the Top 10 combined this week as its fellow Marvel Universe title, Avengers Endgame was announced as the highest grossing film of all time at cinemas.
Last week’s Number 1, Fisherman’s Friends is forced to third position as Alita: Battle Angelfights its way up the chart at Number 2 on digital downloads only; the most downloaded movie of the week.
There’s more superhero action at Number 4 as Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse crawls up a place. This week’s highest new entry goes to creepy horror-thriller Us which enters at Number 5 on digital downloads only. Written and directed by Jordan Peele, who also wrote and directed the Oscar-winning Get Out, the film sees one family’s summer holiday turned on its head when they are confronted by their doppelgängers.
At 6, Mary Poppins Returns floats back into the Top 10 as Emily Blunt takes on the task of portraying the famous nanny. Based on a true story, wrestling biopic Fighting With My Family tumbles down to 7; Bohemian Rhapsody stands firm at 8 and How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World floats down to 9.
Making a grand re-entrance at Number 10, is 2018 biggest film, The Greatest Showman which has spent 37 weeks on the Official Film Chart to date.
Further down the Top 40, Disney’s animated classic The Lion King enters at Number 12 as the new adaptation of the film gets its theatrical release.
This week’s Official Film Chart online show has a thrilling featurette on the remake of Stephen King’s Pet Sematary, available to Download & Keep from July 29th.
