#stephen woolley

[davidhudson]

Happy 68th, Stephen Woolley.

With (from left to right) general manager Alan Gregory and programmer Jayne Pilling at the Scala in London in 1981. Photo by David Babsky.

[brody75]

Stoned (2005)

[itsalwaystomcruise]

Tom Cruise and producer Stephen Woolley on the set of Interview with the Vampire.

[filmso2]

The Crying Game

1992

[theshortnews]

🔥Susie Figgis Passes Away: Renowned Casting Director Of ‘Gandhi’, ‘The Full Monty’, ‘Harry Potter’, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ & Numerous Other Hits Was 77

Susie Figgis, the renowned British casting director who worked on a veritable roll call of movie classics from Gandhi to The Killing Fields, and The Full... read full news

[thepeoplesmovies]

Punk Icon Viv Albertine’s Memoirs To Be Adapted For TV

Punk Icon Viv Albertine’s Memoirs To Be Adapted For TV

If you know your punk music, you’ll know Viv Albertine was a pivotal park of the British punk movement. If you don’t, the critically acclaimed memoirs of legendary punk musician will soon come to a television near you.

A deal was struck with Elizabeth Karlsen and Stephen Woolley’s Number 9 Films and Rachael Horovitz’ West Fourth Films have acquired the much sought-after television rights.

Alberti…

View On WordPress

[sillymovietrailer]

Palace Video - Evil Dead Opening

So, yesterday I posted about my first encounter with Palace Video, today I’ll have a bit about the actual history of the company, and some of the other things they released.  Founded by Nik Powell (one half of Virgin Records when it started) & Stephen Woolley (who ran the now legendary Scala Cinema in London), Palace were a huge force to be reckoned with in the early days of VHS, with a lot of big names in world and cult cinema getting UK releases through them.  One of their biggest early moments was, as you can see from the video above, distributing the original Evil Dead in the UK, which of course meant that they got swept up in the whole Video Nasties debacle.  The DVD of the Evil Dead has a good little bonus feature about this, and how they were later exonerated by the courts.  Palace Video later spun off Palace Pictures, producing titles like The Company of Wolves, High Spirits, Absolute Beginners, Hardware, and much more.  Sadly, some box office disappointments, the changing nature of the video market, and the closing of the Scala following a court case related to the screening of A Clockwork Orange, Palace quietly died out in the early nineties, but they did leave a mark on the whole industry.  Powell and Wooley are still producing, with the latter making one of my favourites of recent years Their Finest, the Scala is still the gold standard for repertory cinemas, and a whole generation has that terrifying video logo burned forever into their memories.

This reel shows the sort of collection that made the Palace name.  Of course it leads into the Evil Dead, one of the most significant horror releases in UK history, not least because it was first to have a simultaneous cinema and video release.  Also in here are little promos for grindhouse favourite Basket Case, French thriller Diva, and David Lynch’s classic Eraserhead. That was Palace, championing lessor known indie titles, alongside schlock horror, European cinema, and true arthouse pieces.  I think the best modern answer to Palace would be Arrow Films, they definitely seemed to have inherited the same sort of spirit, even down to getting on board one of the classic cover artists from the time, Graham Humphreys.  God bless you Palace Video; you shaped my childhood viewing, and made a permanent mark on the world of cult cinema I would later come into.

[thepeoplesmovies]

Stephen Woolley: A Life In Film

For the best part of 35 years, Stephen Woolley has been a driving force in British film, responsible for bringing a dizzying array of films to the silver screen. His formative years were spent tearing tickets at the Screen On The Green in London before going on to own the celebrated Scala cinema. He subsequently formed Palace Video with Nik Powell, a partnership that delivered films as diverse as

View On WordPress