Is Blockbuster coming back from the dead?

 

Blockbuster Video has sprung back to life online with a sole page website featuring the brand’s iconic logo and the text, “We are working on rewinding your movie,” giving hope to many fans.

The chain of video stores had 9,000 locations worldwide at its peak but filed for bankruptcy in 2010. It has seen a resurgence in pop culture relevance in recent years after Netflix produced and released one season of a sitcom based on its last remaining location in Oregon a year after it streamed the popular documentary. The Last Blockbuster. The last store also released a Super Bowl commercial last month.

Blockbuster’s owner, Dish Network, has not commented on the sudden revival of Blockbuster.com. It has previously said it was not franchising new locations but would continue pursuing merchandising opportunities related to clothing, board games, and the like.

It's fun up North!

The BFI has announced the complete programme for Northern Voices, a season dedicated to exploring the northern talent and creativity that has driven distinctive storytelling across both film and television, as well as the major contribution the North has made to our national culture. Working closely with partners HOME in Manchester and Film Hub North (part of the BFI Film Audience Network), this BFI season will be presented in London at BFI Southbank, at HOME Manchester and in Leeds. Further screenings are expected to follow in the spring at cinemas across the North.

The season will interrogate the myths about northern culture and look towards current representations of its many distinct districts. Above all, Northern Voices will celebrate the richness and quality of the work, past and present, from Colin Welland, Keith Waterhouse and Andrea Dunbar to Elaine Constantine, Jimmy McGovern, Terence Davies and many more.

Few writers have mined northern culture and specific northern speech patterns as successfully as Alan Bennett, who will appear onstage during Northern Voices at BFI Southbank on 17 April. Growing up in Leeds, he listened in on the chatter of his relatives, absorbing the patter of domestic conversation, which would emerge across a glittering and much-loved range of plays, particularly those written for television.

Following Alan Bennett In Conversation, where audiences will have a rare chance to hear from the celebrated writer, there will be screenings of Bennett’s first television monologue A Woman Of No Importance (BBC, 1982) starring Yorkshire native Patricia Routledge, who powerfully conveys the quiet desperation behind a life of loneliness; and Waiting For The Telegram (BBC, 1998), Bennett’s sixth and final collaboration with Thora Hird, whose BAFTA-winning performance as a resident of a nursing home who reminisces over lost loves and a largely unhappy life, reportedly reduced the film crew to tears.

You can find details of all the screenings and events at https://whatson.bfi.org.uk/Online/default.asp?BOparam::WScontent::loadArticle::permalink=northernvoices

90th birthday tribute to Sir Michael Caine

In a tribute to Michael Caine on the occasion of his 90th birthday, Pathé has released a new image from his forthcoming film The Great Escaper.

The film reunites two-time Oscar winner and six-time nominee Caine (The Quiet American, The Cider House Rules, Hannah and Her Sisters, Educating Rita, Sleuth and Alfie) and two-time Oscar winner and four-time nominee, Glenda Jackson (Hedda, A Touch of Class, Sunday Bloody Sunday and Women in Love). It will open in UK cinemas later this year.

Inspired by true events, the film tells the story of octogenarian Bernard Jordan’s escape from his care home to attend the 70^th Anniversary of the D-Day Landings in France:

In the summer of 2014 Bernard Jordan (Michael Caine) made global headlines. He had staged a “great escape” from his care home to join fellow war veterans on a beach in Normandy, commemorating their fallen comrades.

It was a story that captured the imagination of the world - Bernie seemed to embody the defiant, “can-do” spirit of a generation that was fast disappearing.  But of course, it wasn’t the whole story.  It was the story we all tell ourselves to make war and old age bearable. The bitter-sweet script explores the reality with wit and a very big heart.

Bernie’s adventure, spanning a mere 48 hours, also marked the culmination of his 60-year marriage to Rene (Glenda Jackson) - the story celebrates their love without sentimentality and with an eye to the lessons we might all learn from the Greatest Generation.