FYI: WOW on DVD

Enough acronymns. Time for some actual words. The DVD of Roadside Attractions' and Samuel Goldwyn Films' Walk on Water hits store shelves, online retailers, Netflix queues and Christmas wishlishts (just kidding) today! Earlier this year, Walk on Water became the highest-grossing Israeli film in U.S. box office history and comes to DVD today via the good folks over at Columbia TriStar Home Video. You can pick it up wherever fine (and not-so-fine) films are sold. Of course, the easiest/laziest way is, as always, via Amazon.com. So what are you waiting for?? Get clickin'!

Opening Night Jitters

Well, the big day has finally arrived!!! Nearly seven months after we first saw it at Sundance, today Roadside Attractions and Samuel Goldwyn Films open Pretty Persuasion for business in New York and Los Angeles. We're opening on five screens in LA and three in NYC. In the New York area the film is playing at Lincoln Square, the Sunshine and the Chelsea 9. And in SoCal we are in the Sunset 5, the Nuwilshire, the University Town Center, the Colorado and the Sherman Oaks Galleria. So what are you waiting for?? Get thee to the cinema!


So, just a quick recap of the premiere after party on Tuesday: Following all the excitement/musical chairs of the screening, everybody was ready to kick back and drink free vodka at Montmartre. Myself included. The cast, crew and quite a large chunk of our screening guests came to schmooze and drink and dance to an awesome DJ who even spun some Dizzee Rascal, which made me waaay too happy. Then again, maybe it was just the vodka. Either way, hit these links to check out some pics from the party: Getty

A Fez-tastic Premiere

Last night Pretty Persuasion had its Los Angeles premiere at the Arclight's Cinerama Dome (go to Amoeba, turn left) and it was definitely a...um, well...popular event. To say the least. The great news about last night was that we were able to fill every single one of the Dome's 800+ seats for a really challenging, edgy, independent movie. The not-so-great news was that we had to turn some people away at the door. Which sucks. And we sincerely apologize for the inconvenience. But once James Woods used his heretofore untapped abilities as an usher to get everyone seated (true story), the screening got underway and the audience got to see Pretty Persuasion on the largest (and curviest) screen on which it will probably ever play.


But before the show comes pre-show, where all the real work (i.e. publicity) goes down. Thanks to some helpful production guys and large quantities of double-sided tape, we lined the red carpet with PP posters just in time for the celebrity arrivals. In addition to our awesome cast and crew, other famous folk such as Amy Smart, Sarah Silverman and Wilmer Valderrama (Fez!) came out to represent. You can take a peek at some photos from last night's red carpet here: Getty, Wire and Wire Again.


But the weirdest celebrity entrance of the night actually had nothing to do with our premiere. Right in the middle of our red carpet entrances, Keanu Reeves, looking haggard and scruffy and seriously not happy that about 50 photographers were outside, came to the Arclight to see The Aristocrats. He was wearing an old-school, turtle-shell motorcycle helmet and rushed through the mass of people quickly enough that he only had to endure minimal plebe-to-Neo contact. Whoa, indeed.

I'll report back shortly with news and pics from the overflow-free after-party.

Qs & As

It's been a crazy couple days around here as we hurtle towards the Friday opening of Pretty Persuasion. Monday was "Press Day" in Beverly Hills. If you've never been to one of these things, here's how it goes: The cast and director get to a hotel at like 6:00 am for hair and make-up. Then they're placed (imprisoned?) in a hotel room where, for no less than four but no more than ten hours, they are interviewed about the movie. Most of the reporters get about five minutes with each cast member, which translates to about three questions. And here's the weird thing: They're the same three questions! And now here is your highly-exclusive look at said questions:

1) This movie is a very dark comedy. What did you think when you read the script?
2) What was it like to work with [insert name of cast and/or crew member here]?
3) Do you think you're anything like your character in the film?

Amazingly Evan, James, Ron, Elisabeth, Adi, Marcos and Skander (yes, we're all on a first-name basis. well, not really) were all total pros and not only kept themselves from strangling anyone, but actually answered all the questions very eloquently and with superhumanly good manners. And all they got in return were some weird sandwiches that had orange mango-things where the meat should be. What troopers!

Hopefully "Press Day" will lead to several stories on Access Hollywood, Extra, The Insider and The McLaughlin Group. But we'd be happy with just three of the four. Here are two early pieces posted by reporters who are seriously on the ball: TeenHollywood, Zap2It. Give these fine journalists a raise. Or at least some meat in their sandwiches.

I Want My MTV

In my neverending quest for the latest info on Young Jeezy, I headed over to MTV News today and stumbled upon several very cool Pretty Persuasion-related pieces. First up is this nifty profile of Evan Rachel Wood in which she talks about the movie, her 'bad girl' image' and the new Green Day video she recently shot with Jamie Bell. That story also has some links to video interviews with Evan as well as pics from the movie and the NYC premiere.

But it's not all about Evan over MTV. In addition to their extremely detailed (some may say Pulitzer-worthy) coverage of 50 Cent's many beefs, they also have a couple pieces about Pretty Persuasion director Marcos Siega. This one was written at Sundance this past January and talks about Marcos's transition from music videos to feature films. And then there's also this story about the new All-American Rejects video Marcos directed in which people tell their deepest, darkest secrets via decorated index cards. The idea is based on the site PostSecret.com which anonymously posts secrets people send to them in the mail. Here's mine: "I saw A Walk to Remember in a theater. And I liked it." You can watch the video here.



T-minus one week and counting until Pretty Persuasion opens in New York and Los Angeles.

...the spice of life

Variety ran a piece today about Pretty Persuasion's New York premiere in their "V" section (which is in no way affiliated with V for Vendetta, Rocky V nor that awesome 80's mini-series V with the freaky lizard-alien-people. At least not as far as I know.) For those of you not fortunate enough to have Variety registration, here are the text and pictures from the article:
---------------
Preem's 'Pretty' packed
'Persuasion' cast wins over Chelsea aud
By Willa Paskin

NEW YORK -- With "Pretty Persuasion" set for a big bow next week in Los Angeles, the Gen Art-sponsored Gotham preem on Tuesday was fairly low-key, with only helmer Marcos Siega and thesps Evan Rachel Wood and Elisabeth Harnois on hand to rep the film.

Siega told the packed house in Chelsea: "I don't know why I'm nervous, but I am. Your validation means something to me."

Wood, who plays ultramanipulative high schooler Kimberly Joyce, explained the downside of the part: "It's not fun when you have to be so mean to people. I always feel like I have to go apologize after every take." As for how she managed to play such a hellion, she said, "Everybody has a dark side, but I tried to channel Kimberly again and I can't do it. I think it's the wig.

"...hot waitresses dressed as private school girls..."

How did I miss this??? The east coast premiere of Pretty Persuasion was held last night at the Chelsea 9 in New York and by all accounts it went off sans hitch. Sadly, I was not there, but some other cool people were including the film's stars Evan Rachel Wood and Elizabeth Harnois and director Marcos Siega, not to mention Vinnie Chase himself, Adrian Grenier. But I'm not (that) bitter. I'll report back next week with a first-hand account of our left coast premiere out here in L.A. But until then, here are a couple reports from indiewire bloggers who were lucky enough to be all up in the NYC last evening:

The Insider

The Reeler

And I'll even steal one of their pictures for good measure. I think I deserve it!

Welcome to Roadside!!

Hey, this is Dusty from Roadside Attractions. We are starting this blog in conjunction with the redesign/relaunch of our official website. Hopefully this will soon be filled with press releases, festival updates and all kinds of indie film goodness. But at this point I can't even make the jpeg of our logo the right size. So we'll see how all that goes. Here's what it's supposed to look like in all it's full-size glory:


So, if anyone knows how to make a photo bigger under the profile heading, feel free to leave me a comment.

In the meantime, you can amuse yourselves with the very slick site for our latest flick, Pretty Persuasion. A slight warning though, the site does contain offensive language, sexual situations and a myriad of naughty, naughty behavior, all involving teenage schoolgirls. Yeah, like that was going to dissuade any of you. The movie opens in New York and Los Angeles next Friday, August 12th.