The Chaostar
09-10-2003, 02:20 PM
Here is a statement that Roger Waitkins, director of Last House On Dead End Street, sent by fax ane e-mail to various DVD amd horror related magazines in North America and Europe.
"Since the age of 25, my life has depended upon my word. This might seem intimidating to some, but since I have been a man of my word since my father beat the concept of the importance of such into me at the age of eight, the reality of such has always been atmost in my mind.
I did not sign up with Barrel for the money. The amount I received from them wouldn't pay my bar tab at the Old Village In for any given three-month period. I went along with them since I had been assured that they would produce a quality release, something they have done (with a few glaring imperfections) remarkably well.
However, Barrel's contract clearly states that they are only allowed to sell the DVD in North America. And I have been assured in writing that this would be the case.
By now, we all know how untrue this is. But let me back up a moment.
The Only reason Barrel on anybody else is making money off of LHODES is due to one person and that person is Suzanne Rowe. Period. The one extra I insisted on was the inclusion of an "egg" of Suzanne... I even went to the trouble of sending videos of her to Barrel to cull footage from. This "egg" meant more to me personally than the rest of the goddamn thing collectively.
When Barrel presented me with the first copy of the DVD my very first question was, "Is Suzanne in there?". When Barrel informed me that she wasn't, my first reaction was to leave the Cinema Wasteland convention, go to my room, and stay high for three days while I wated for the airplane back to New York. But I had a deal with Ken to appear at his convention, so I did.
(Of course, Barrel had included at no small expence I would think, the video THEY DWELL BENEATH amd although I am an admirer of Jim Van Bebber, I'll never know what the hell it's doing on there. Perhaps Barrel thought it would appeal to Necrophagia's multitude of fans).
Currently, Barrel is distributing DVD's of LHODES all over Europe (even a casual search on the internet will bear this out) effectively killing any deals I may have been pending. Since they are only permited to sell the picture to US and Canada this is clearly a violation of our contract.
I offered them what both myself and my people considered an honourable way out but they chose to call their lawyers instead. They, of course, are too stupid or too greedy to realise that it was the Suzanne thing that fucked them from the beginning"
So this is it. I guess that Roger understands that you cannot police the internet (I bought my copy from Amazon) but he is pissed off about the other thing...
However, he is wrong about one thing. I mean, the DVD is coded Region 1, unplayable to European DVD players. Of course, I had mine fixed and why shouldn't I? What can I do? Sit and wait until a greek distibutor buys the rights for a film like LHODES that appeals to, what, 1000 greeks?
Barrel has not responded yet to any of this, but if Roger is true in what he says, they should have tried to include the egg he required, if the director of the film had demanded it.
Who knows...
"Since the age of 25, my life has depended upon my word. This might seem intimidating to some, but since I have been a man of my word since my father beat the concept of the importance of such into me at the age of eight, the reality of such has always been atmost in my mind.
I did not sign up with Barrel for the money. The amount I received from them wouldn't pay my bar tab at the Old Village In for any given three-month period. I went along with them since I had been assured that they would produce a quality release, something they have done (with a few glaring imperfections) remarkably well.
However, Barrel's contract clearly states that they are only allowed to sell the DVD in North America. And I have been assured in writing that this would be the case.
By now, we all know how untrue this is. But let me back up a moment.
The Only reason Barrel on anybody else is making money off of LHODES is due to one person and that person is Suzanne Rowe. Period. The one extra I insisted on was the inclusion of an "egg" of Suzanne... I even went to the trouble of sending videos of her to Barrel to cull footage from. This "egg" meant more to me personally than the rest of the goddamn thing collectively.
When Barrel presented me with the first copy of the DVD my very first question was, "Is Suzanne in there?". When Barrel informed me that she wasn't, my first reaction was to leave the Cinema Wasteland convention, go to my room, and stay high for three days while I wated for the airplane back to New York. But I had a deal with Ken to appear at his convention, so I did.
(Of course, Barrel had included at no small expence I would think, the video THEY DWELL BENEATH amd although I am an admirer of Jim Van Bebber, I'll never know what the hell it's doing on there. Perhaps Barrel thought it would appeal to Necrophagia's multitude of fans).
Currently, Barrel is distributing DVD's of LHODES all over Europe (even a casual search on the internet will bear this out) effectively killing any deals I may have been pending. Since they are only permited to sell the picture to US and Canada this is clearly a violation of our contract.
I offered them what both myself and my people considered an honourable way out but they chose to call their lawyers instead. They, of course, are too stupid or too greedy to realise that it was the Suzanne thing that fucked them from the beginning"
So this is it. I guess that Roger understands that you cannot police the internet (I bought my copy from Amazon) but he is pissed off about the other thing...
However, he is wrong about one thing. I mean, the DVD is coded Region 1, unplayable to European DVD players. Of course, I had mine fixed and why shouldn't I? What can I do? Sit and wait until a greek distibutor buys the rights for a film like LHODES that appeals to, what, 1000 greeks?
Barrel has not responded yet to any of this, but if Roger is true in what he says, they should have tried to include the egg he required, if the director of the film had demanded it.
Who knows...