22/01/2003

Veteran producer Jeremy Thomas’ decision to return to the distribution sector after a fifteen-year absence is good news for one of the UK’s industry leaders, Optimum Releasing.
According to “Screendaily”, Thomas, who famously produced Bernardo Bertolucci’s Oscar-winning The Last Emperor, is to acquire a 20 per cent stake in Optimum, owned by Will Clarke. Optimum has been trying to raise USDollars3m (Euros3m) since the summer.
Thomas, who worked in film distribution in the 1980s with the now defunct Recorded Releasing, has a long-standing ambition to control every stage of the filmmaking process, from production to distribution and international sales. He owns Hanway Films who handle the sales of all Thomas’s films as well as those by other people like Bertolucci’s forthcoming The Dreamers.
On average, Optimum releases 10 titles a year; a mix of British mainstream titles like Born Romantic, European films like He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not and world films like Mexico’s Amores Perros as well as children’s films like Pippi Longstocking and documentaries like Lost in La Mancha.
Optimum’s most successful title of 2002 was France’s The Closet. The line up for 2003 includes independent titles like Real Women Have Curves, Personal Velocity and Germany’s Oscar candidate, Nowhere in Africa [+see also:
trailer
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