To anyone who thinks that the film industry isn’t looking at new ways of reaching their audiences – and, really, you’d need to overlook everything that the likes of Netflix, Amazon, and Kickstarter have been working on recently – let Ben Wheatley’s A Field in England be the persuading force to change your mind.
Wheatley’s anticipated follow-up to last year’s acclaimed Sightseers has long been a film we’ve been really looking forward to seeing. We’ve been curious as to when exactly we’d be seeing it this year. And now the official press release has revealed that the film will be the first ever movie in the UK to be released on the same day in cinemas, on television, on DVD, and on Video On Demand.
Amazing.
The Film4 co-production will be released into cinemas through Picturehouse Entertainment, the distribution arm of Picturehouse Cinemas, on 5th July. And on that same Friday, it will also be shown on Film4, released on DVD, and made available on VOD.
A radical release strategy has never been undertaken on a scale like this on our shores, and we’re excited to see how it’s received – both the strategy and the film. I have a feeling that it’s going to go down incredibly well on all fronts, and be a huge success.
Whilst it’s pretty much a given that this kind of strategy will never be seen for major blockbusters – Iron Man 3’s massive haul at the US box office over the weekend and successes like it are too influential for the film’s financial success to make it available for a day-and-date multi-platform release – it’s brilliant to see release strategies like this beginning to surface.
Audiences have been seeking out alternative avenues for their movie-watching experiences for years. And whilst I am a huge fan of going to the cinema myself, I am of course aware that many people would prefer to watch a film from the comfort of their own home, or even on a particularly long train journey. And a strategy like this will hopefully ensure the widest possible audience for Wheatley’s A Field in England.
And the benefit for cinemagoers is of course obvious as well: Once you’ve seen the movie in the cinema and want to watch it again, you won’t have the six-month wait before it arrives on DVD or VOD, or the two(-plus)-year wait before it’s played on a free television channel like Film4.
England during the Civil War.
A small group of deserters flee from a raging battle through an overgrown field. They are captured by two men: O’Neil and Cutler.
O’Neil (Michael Smiley), an alchemist, forces the group to aid him in his search to find a hidden treasure that he believes is buried in the field.
Crossing a vast mushroom circle, which provides their first meal, the group quickly descend into a chaos of arguments, fighting and paranoia, and, as it becomes clear that the treasure might be something other than gold, they slowly become victim to the terrifying energies trapped inside the field.
Michael Smiley (Kill List) takes the lead, alongside Peter Ferdinando (Tony), Reece Shearsmith (The League of Gentlemen), Julian Barratt (The Mighty Boosh), Richard Glover (Sightseers), and Ryan Pope (Ideal).
And Wheatley is returning to direct from a script he co-wrote with Amy Jump (Kill List), with past collaborators Claire Jones and Andrew Starke (Kill List, Sightseers) producing.
A Field in England will be released in cinemas, on DVD, on VOD, and played on Film4 on 5th July. Mark your calendars, because this is going to be awesome. With so many different ways to choose from, there’s no excuse but to watch it the day it comes out, in whichever way you wish.
