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Hot early news at the AFM for Live Entertainment was its announcement that five of its titles, including three being sold at the market, will be distributed domestically by Orion Pictures. Then came the mid-market coup of a formal deal signing and announcement by Pioneer LDC that it made a $30 million long-term output deal with Live covering all but two of Live's theatrical films over the next three years. The news made clear Pioneer's commitment to Live, despite Pioneer's own losses from investments in Live's former parent Carolco. Live's focus remains on the production of quality theatrical features with budgets under $5 million and between $15 and $30 million. On the low end at the AFM is the new $3.5 million Australian romantic comedy Hotel de Love, now in production, and written and directed by Craig Rosenberg and starring Saffron Burrows, Aden Young and Ray Barrett. Also on board is the long-awaited directorial debut of indie hero Steve Buscemi in Trees Lounge which he wrote, directs and in which he stars. Orion will release the film this summer. Buscemi's "indie" projects include Parting Glances, Call Me, Heart of Midnight, King of New York, Miller's Crossing, Barton Fink, Reservoir Dogs, In the Soup, Twenty Bucks, Ed and His Dead Mother, Pulp Fiction, Floundering, Living in Oblivion, Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead, and Fargo.
The two pictures excluded from the $30 million Pioneer deal are the two highest budgeted Live projects to date. The Arrival -- sold at MIFED as Shockwave -- is a $26 million thriller to be released by Orion on May 31, which stars Charlie Sheen and Ron Silver and was directed and written by David Twohy who scripted The Fugitive, Waterworld, and the Charlie Sheen action pic Terminal Velocity. In The Arrival, Sheen is a maverick scientist who stumbles on a planned world-wide alien invasion while trying to track the source of deep space radio waves. The Substitute finds Tom Berenger as a soldier of fortune posing as a substitute teacher to trap a corrupt principal with ties to a drug ring. The $15 million feature is being distributed in Japan by Nippon Herald and The Arrival will be taken to Japanese theaters by Gaga. The fact that these two films were devoured by Japanese buyers reportedly led Pioneer to plunk down the loot for Live's remaining titles over the next 36 months.
While buyers may recognize Live as among the top ten suppliers of theatrical titles, few outside the sales corridors of MIFED, AFM and Cannes or the columns of Screen International may be aware of the company's wide footprint. The Internet may soon change all that. Live's Director of Operations Charles Byrd was on hand for most of the AFM but has been busy overseeing the company's launch into cyberspace. President/C.E.O. Roger Burlage is behind establishing a smart Live presence on the Internet and Byrd is tasked with making that a reality. With offices dotting the country, Live has already set up a local area network on the net through powerful modems that may soon implement encrypted e-mail and the highly anticipated "group-ware" from Netscape Communications. "Live has been very deliberate and thorough" in its research into the Internet, according to Byrd. The company is putting the finishing touches on its site and hopes to have it fully functional by the scheduled April 19, 1996, release of The Substitute or at least by the May 31 release of The Arrival.
Byrd is aware of the tediously slow click-and-wait performance of the graphics intense bells and whistles websites employed by some major studios. "Given the variety of end user computer configurations today," Boyd feels that it's "smart to feature more text than graphics, at least until bandwidth increases" and end users can receive more info and data more quickly and clearly. Research has indicated to Live that consumers are very interested in video titles and merchandise available from the company catalog, and from that of affiliated company FHE (Family Home Entertainment) that carries popular titles such as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The Live site may therefore contain direct sales capabilities and will bait consumers to make return visits by continuously revamping the available content and by adding the several thousand titles in Live's library on a roll-out basis over a period of months. Similar to other distributor sites, Live's online home is also likely to highlight new titles and promote upcoming and current releases.
Byrd is aware of the handful of demographic tracking systems available to commercial websites and is considering those offered by Nielsen and others. He says Live is also looking into partitioning the site into both public access and secure trade areas where buyers could find out the latest production and sales information on any of Live's titles. Such an area would put into cyberspace the information currently compiled in database form by companies such as Film Finders and recently put onto the Internet by Virtual Film Market, a new entity launched during the AFM. Impressively, Live Entertainment is one of a handful of exhibitors at the AFM whose resident webhead is a member of management. The company takes the Internet seriously, knowing that cybersavvy visitors will recognize and appreciate a user friendly, responsive and content based site when they see it. "The goal," says Boyd, "is to make sure the visitors return. We think we can make that happen." When construction is complete, you can visit the site at http://www.live-entertainment.com.
