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October 25, 2006
PAPRIKA CATCHES A BREAK
I loved Satoshi Kon's PAPRIKA but I would say it's got a snowball's chance in hell of doing well theatrically in the US.
But that's not stopping the intrepid team at Sony Pictures Classic. They're the people behind the American release, which means that PAPRIKA is going to get a high profile shake at the box office and a good marketing campaign to boot.
Go Sony! Go Sony!
(Thanks to the sharp-eyed reader who sent this in)
October 25, 2006 at 09:49 AM in News | Permalink
Comments
Are you sure it's Sony Classics, rather than another division of Sony? The press contact list I received from the New York Film Festival listed Triumph/Destination Films as the distributor.
Posted by: Steve | Oct 25, 2006 10:53:30 AM
Well, accoding to COMINGSOON.NET it's Sony Pictures Classics. But that could be a mistake, given the numerous divisions at Sony. Anyone have any clarification?
Posted by: Grady Hendrix | Oct 25, 2006 11:14:50 AM
It'd be the first Sony Classics release of a Japanese animated film that I know of. Japanese animation always seems to end up in the hands of the "didn't they go out of business?" Sony divisions like Tristar Pictures, Destination Films, and Triumph Films, which has fallen far from its origins as a joint venture with French giant Gaumont and is currently the only Sony Pictures division operated entirely out of the back of a conversion van.
Sony desperately needs to roll those three half-assed divisions into one unit, since they all serve more or less the same purpose now - a dumping ground for Japanese animation and other stuff that can't be forced to fit at either Dimension clone Screen Gems or their "upscale" Sony Classics, and isn't considered "big" enough for Columbia Pictures. Combining the resources of these three would make one still-fairly-small division that might be just big enough to actually accomplish something, and more importantly might have enough money to actually manage to decently promote their releases.
Posted by: Rhythm-X | Oct 25, 2006 4:09:55 PM
Isn't this old news? I thought they announced this way back.
Posted by: Simon Abrams | Oct 25, 2006 8:29:27 PM
Sony had already announced that they will release this movie in March, but they hadn't announced that which Sony's division will release this movie.
Posted by: no name | Oct 26, 2006 1:53:08 AM
A sharp-eyed reader just spoke to Sony and we have confirmation: Sony Pictures Classics will release PAPRIKA in the US.
Posted by: Grady Hendrix | Oct 26, 2006 4:15:15 AM
I wonder why they are releasing it through Sony Classics when Sony established the anime stuff for Destination films.
And I agree that Sony really needs to get things in order. Destination films was launched as like a division for harder edged, "cooler", and "hipper" title and now has become a dumping ground for direct DVD flicks (and still, that's just every now and then).
I also hope they give this an English version and not go cheap like they did on Memories and Tokyo Godfathers.
Posted by: the running man | Oct 26, 2006 7:38:33 AM
I think if it IS Sony Classics, that might be good news. Hopefully the ad campaign is more like TRIPLETS OF BELLEVILLE, less like KUNG FU HUSTLE. I'm not convinced they'll know what to do with this thing, but they at least have the resources to tr and do something.
Posted by: Rhythm-X | Oct 26, 2006 7:48:47 AM
I'm not sure Destination entirely exists any more. Last year I spent a week talking with various Sony switchboard operators and publicity people and could never ever get to 'Destination Films'. At that point all their posted numbers were dead. And that was a year ago.
Anyway, psyched about the release. I heart Satoshi Kon.
Posted by: Alison | Oct 26, 2006 11:39:15 AM
Destination Films is the division of Sony Home Video. If Destination Films want to release a movie in theaters, they wouldn't release the movie in theaters themselves; they would ask another Sony's division or even other distributor to release the movie in theaters.
(For example, Samuel Goldwyn Films released TAE GUK GI, Sony Pictures Classics released SAVING FACE and Triumph Films released STEAMBOY ; all of those movies are from Destination Films)
In next week, Triumph Films will release another movie for Destination Films:
http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/shottas/index.html
Posted by: no | Oct 26, 2006 1:25:45 PM
I don't want to burst anybody's bubble, but there's already an american homepage for Paprika. What worries me is the address:
http://www.sonypictures.com/homevideo/paprika/index.html
Can you see it? "Home video"?
Hopefully they had a change of heart.
Posted by: krivochein | Oct 26, 2006 7:39:33 PM
The "Home video" site has already been online for a while....
On the other hand, Sony just announced that Sony Pictures Classics will release PAPRIKA; therefore, Sony may not has enough time to update the site.
Posted by: no name | Oct 26, 2006 7:48:36 PM
I thought that when I saw "Paprika" at NYFF it started with a "Sony Pictures Classics" banner. I could be wrong though; it might've just been the SOny Pictures logo but for whatever reason in my mind's eye I see Classics when I rememeber the logo at the beginning.
Posted by: Simon Abrams | Oct 27, 2006 10:38:57 AM
It's definitely Sony Pictures Classics. I booked the film for the Hawaii Int'l Film Festival and it was moved over to Sony Classics only a couple of weeks ago. Incredible film!
Posted by: anderson | Oct 30, 2006 5:59:59 PM
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