Ever since word broke at Toronto that IFC had picked up Steven Soderbergh’s Che for US distribution, there have been conflicting rumors as to how the company, known for its day-and-date theatrical and VOD releases, would handle a film of this length, scope, and potential Oscar cachet. At yesterday’s NYFF press conference, Soderbergh talked a bit about the “roadshow” concept, through which the entire two-part film will first hit theaters.
He confirmed that in each market the film enters, it’ll screen for just one week, on one screen, with ticket buyers paying a premium (probably $25 each, including full-color printed program) for the experience. “I think that’s the ideal way to see it,” the director said, although he acknowledged that “it’s a lot to ask of an audience, to throw away an entire day.”
A source told me last night that IFC is banking that a lot of people are going to want to throw away their days on Che.
After the film completes its initial one-week run at the Zeigfeld theater in Midtown Manhattan in early December, it will move on to other cities (and premiere on VOD), but then the roadshow print will come back to New York in January to take up residence at the IFC Center downtown. The theater will then screen the full 4-something hour extravaganza daily, until demand runs out. The person I talked to said the theater’s operators are confident that there will be enough curious cinephiles and Che obsessives to keep the movie playing there for “a loooong time.” Certainly, if Benicio Del Toro gets the expected Best Actor nomination, you’d think there’d be at least one or two people in the tri state area who’d want to come out and see the film on a big screen.
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SpoutBlog » Karina Longworth