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LONDON – U.K. indie exhibition and distribution operator Curzon has inked a deal with BT TV, the U.K. telecom giant’s digital TV platform, to offer its curated video-on-demand service.
Curzon Home Cinema launches on BT TV on Oct. 4 as part of an exclusive new deal to bring Curzon movie content to BT viewers.
The VOD service will offer independent and world cinema the opportunity to watch certain releases date and date on TV and on theatrical release.
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The first film released simultaneously on Curzon Home Cinema and in cinemas to appear on BT TV will be The Selfish Giant on Oct. 25. Directed by Clio Barnard, the film is a contemporary fable about two teenage boys who get caught up in the world of copper theft.
The move to put it on BT TV as part of Curzon Home Cinema follows Curzon’s deal earlier this week with the British Film Institute to put the title day-and-date on its VOD service BFI Player.
As well as the opportunity to see a film on the same day as its cinema release, the partnership with Curzon will offer BT TV viewers new releases on the same day as the DVD goes on sale, with exclusive curated seasons and filmmaker retrospectives from Curzon Home Cinema.
Curzon COO Mel Alcock said the deal with BT is a “wonderful way to bring Curzon’s respected content to a bigger audience, and we look forward to watching our relationship with BT grow in the coming months.”
Alex Green, director of TV, BT Consumer, described movie content as being “fantastically popular with BT TV customers” noting they watch well over two million movies on demand every month.
Said Green: “This exciting deal will give our customers the opportunity to see some of the very best films from Britain and around the world– many on the same day they go on release in the cinema.”
Films available to BT TV customers on Curzon Home Cinema will include What Maisie Knew, the contemporary adaptation of the Henry James novel set in New York, starring Julianne Moore, Steve Coogan and Alexander Skarsgard, and Mister John, a Singapore-set Irish psycho-thriller, starring Aidan Gillen (Game of Thrones).
The Pervert’s Guide To Ideology from philosopher and cultural critic Slavoj Zizek will be also be made available alongside classics such as Full Metal Jacket, A Clockwork Orange and Taxi Driver.
Other films scheduled for release simultaneously on Curzon Home Cinema on BT TV and in cinemas are Scatter My Ashes at Bergdorf’s, a documentary about New York’s iconic department store featuring Karl Lagerfeld, Giorgio Armani, Stefano Gabbana, Nicole Richie, Joan Rivers and Mary–Kate Olsen and Fill The Void, a drama from first-time director Rama Burshtein about a young Hasidic Jewish woman pressured into an arranged levirate marriage with a widower.
The prices range from $4 (£2.50) for catalog titles up to $16 (£10) for new releases.
Curzon Home Cinema is also available online.
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