30/07/2007

The UK Film Council and BBC Two have joined hands to re-release seven classic British films as new digital presentations. Titled The Summer of British Film, the season will unfold across 136 British screens from July 31-September 11.

The season will kick off with Guy Hamilton’s Bond film Goldfinger, representing the thriller genre. David Lean’s much-loved Brief Encounter will represent romance while John Schlesinger’s Billy Liar will be the social realism entry.

Laurence Olivier’s Shakespeare adaptation Henry V will represent costume drama and Robin Hardy’s The Wicker Man will represent the horror/fantasy genre.

War is a perennial favourite in the British Isles and Michael Anderson’s The Dam Busters will be seen in all its glory on the big screen. Aptly, the season finale will be comedy with Bruce Robinson’s paean to alcohol abuse Withnail and I rounding off proceedings.

BBC Two will support the season on television with a seven-part primetime series titled British Film Forever. The series will look at a film genre each week, which will be followed by a film belonging to the genre releasing in cinemas.

Pete Buckingham, head of Distribution and Exhibition for the UK FC, said, “British cinema history has much to offer today’s audiences as this unique film and television partnership with the BBC proves. For cinema audiences, digital is the key to making these great British films available across the UK. If it wasn’t for digital, audiences wouldn’t be able to see these films on release at the cinema and the new high quality digital prints of the films means that movie lovers are in for a real treat”.

The seven digitally restored films will be released via the FC’s recently launched Digital Screen Network in association with distributors Optimum Releasing and Park Circus. This will mark the widest UK-wide showing of the films since their original release.