Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Memorable film(s) released on Nov. 20th

This is topic Memorable film(s) released on Nov. 20th in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Michael Coate (Member # 757) on 11-20-2011, 11:46 AM:

Released on this day in 1987...

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 11-20-2011, 02:53 PM:

Vittorio Storaro won one of his Best Cinematography Oscars with this movie. Too bad there isn't a good version of it on video. The Blu-ray currently available has some image problems and it is cropped to that 2:1 ratio, despite the Technovision OAR being 2.35:1.

Posted by Jonathan M. Crist (Member # 413) on 11-20-2011, 03:40 PM:

Last Emperor was the picture that resulted in Garth Drabinsky declaring war on Columbia Pictures at the time when Columbia was owned by Coca-Cola. Drabinsky at that time was head of Lowes/Cineplex-Odeon chain. Most of the LCE theatres in the major markets (including many large single screens) were to open "The Last Emperor" for Christmas 1987. At the last second Columbia bumped Emporer back to February 1988 (for the academy awards) leaving many LCE theatres without a major picture to play for that Christmas (most other releases had already been contracted for by competing theatres and that was back in the days of product splitting before ultra wide releases).

So what did Drabinsky do? Well besides refusing to play further Columbia pics, he ordered that all of the LCE theatres in the entire nation and Canada would also stop serving Coke.

It wasnt too much longer that Coca Cola sold Columbia to Sony.

PPS.... On September 13, 2011 the Ontario (Canada) Court of Appeals upheld Drabinsky's securities and fraud conviction for cooking the books of Livent which was his broadway and live theatre production company. A theatre owner cooking his books... can you imagine that?

Posted by Chris Slycord (Member # 4239) on 11-20-2011, 06:46 PM:

quote: Jonathan M. Crist
Drabinsky at that time was head of Lowes/Cineplex-Odeon chain. Most of the LCE theatres in the major markets (including many large single screens) were to open "The Last Emperor" for Christmas 1987.

1) It's Loews (Lowes is the chain of hardware stores)
2) Cineplex Odeon merged with Loews to form LCE in 1998.

Posted by Jonathan M. Crist (Member # 413) on 11-21-2011, 09:06 AM:

Chris - you are correct on the dates.

Cineplex Odeon had not yet merged with Loews (I spelled in correctly this time) when Drabinsky went to war with Coca Cola in 1987. I do remember that after the merger between Cineplex Odeon and Loews the resulting LCE entity went bankrupt in 2001.

I understand that Drabinsky is soon to begin serving his five year fraud sentence (if he hasnt already). Come to think of it ... what happened with Drabinsky and Livent might make a good movie or maybe even a broadway play (The Producers Redux?)

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 11-21-2011, 03:45 PM:

I remember that 'war' very well.

The two CO theatres in the Boise market were ticked that the MANN Theatres 4plex (that I was working at this time) got this film that early February...and knew one was scheduled "Emperor" for the holidays.

But, I knew that we had to play a bunch of junk stuff from Columbia in order to get "Emperor"..