Hey folks, Harry here... This is nice... The goal for any Film Festival out there is to bring films the sort of attention and adoration that a festival director hopes will help that film find distribution. Last year it happened with the amazing TIME CRIMES, this year with Prachya "ONG BAK" Pinkaew's CHOCOLATE! That's the goal! BTW - our screening of ROLE MODELS tonight blew the roof off the Drafthouse, but you'll read more about that later. But this is good news, everybody should have a little CHOCOLATE! It'd rule if Magnet released this film on VALENTINE'S DAY - "This Valentine's Day, Give The Man You Love... CHOCOLATE!"
Magnet Acquires North American Rights to Prachya Pinkaew’s “CHOCOLATE” NEW YORK – Oct. XX, 2007 – Magnet (www.magnetreleasing.com) announced today that it has acquired North American rights to Prachya Pinkaew’s martial arts actioner CHOCOLATE. Fresh from its successful Toronto Midnight Madness world premiere, the film rolled into Austin’s Fantastic Fest this past weekend and nabbed the Audience Award runner-up prize. ONG BAK: THE THAI WARRIOR helmer Prachya Pinkaew’s latest pairs him with newcomer Jeeja Vismistananda, in training for five years to play the lead in CHOCOLATE. Jeeja’s performance as an autistic girl who learns Muay Thai via a marathon screening of Tony Jaa and Bruce Lee films announces the addition of a major new talent to the martial arts canon. Featuring death-defying stunts, and a charming newcomer, CHOCOLATE represents Prachya’s proper follow-up to the smash success of ONG BAK. “Magnet has had a long tradition of debuting action stars like Tony Jaa, Dan Chupong, David Belle, Marko Zaror, and now we’re fortunate enough to launch our first female action star: Jeeja Vismistananda. CHOCOLATE proves Jeeja is as hard hitting as the big boys and fans will be delighted by Prachya’s (ONG BAK’s creator) return to kick ass action,” said Magnolia Senior Vice President Tom Quinn. The deal was negotiated by Magnolia’s Quinn with Gilbert Lim representing Sahamongkolfilm International. Magnet will release the film theatrically in 2009. About Magnet Magnet is the recently launched genre arm of Magnolia Pictures (www.magpictures.com) specializing in films from the vanguard of horror, action, comedy and Asian cinema. Magnolia Pictures is an operating business of the Wagner/Cuban Companies, a vertically integrated group of media properties co-owned by Todd Wagner and Mark Cuban that includes 2929 Productions, HDNet Films, Magnolia Pictures, Landmark Theatres and television stations HDNet and HDNet Movies. Magnolia Pictures is the theatrical and home entertainment distribution arm of the Wagner/Cuban Companies, a vertically integrated group of media properties co-owned by Todd Wagner and Mark Cuban that also include the Landmark Theatres chain, production companies 2929 Productions and HDNet Films, and high-definition cable networks HDNet and HDNet Movies.
