Tartan Film Closed Down

[JP]

Some sad news for the film buffs as originally told here but I really thought this deserved it's own thread.

LONDON — U.K. distrib Tartan Films has finally shuttered.Sources told Variety that Tartan employees found the London office doors closed Thursday June 26 and were then informed later in the day by Tartan topper Hamish McAlpine the company was closed for business.

Speculation over the future of Tartan has been rife for several months. The distrib was believed to be in takeover talks with David Bergstein of the Capco Group, the firm that owns ThinkFilm, a stake in I.M. Global as well as the U.K.'s Capitol Film and has itself been plagued by rumors of financial troubles, for much of last year before negotiations broke down following disagreements over Tartan's financial worth.

Last October Tartan announced it had received a cash injection of £3 million ($6.2 million) in the form of a convertible loan from a private investor and also had restructured its Brit operation, with managing director Laura De Casto ankling. The company's theatrical and home entertainment departments, previously run out of separate London offices, were also merged into one entity based at Tartan's head office.

Tartan USA, the company's U.S. arm, announced at this year's Cannes that it was being foreclosed. Film print and advertising financing company Palisades Media Corp. has since bought the U.S. rights to its library.

Those moves now appear to have only offered temporary respite from a downward turn of fortune for McAlpine, who founded Tartan in 1982. The company subsequently expanded by launching sub-labels such as Tartan Terror and Tartan Asia Extreme. Distrib arguably became the home for genre fare and edgy, foreign-language pics, especially from Asia.

No official comment has been made yet by Tartan execs as to what the future holds for the company although it seems likely that a team of liquidators and accountants will be brought in to assess the company's assets and sell them off.

www.variety.com (27/06/08)

[dvdmike]

This is not good news

[MattyD]

I guess we can kiss the World Cinema section at the local HMV / Blockbuster / etc good bye

[prinnysquad]

Poor show, I hope some other company picks up their current and future releases. It would be a sad state of affairs if Asian film fans couldn't get the movies without importing. I wonder why they've struggled so much? Lack of sales? Whenever I enter a shop like HMV the Tartan dvds are largely overpriced.

[GMass]

The Tartan dvds in my local HMV tend to be at RRP and are never discounted, unlike almost every other dvd in the store.

[Dogg Thang]

That's a real shame. I did notice that their dvds were always very expensive. But they put out some great editions of some fantastic films. A real shame to see them go.

[MattyD]

I think the price is down to their niche appeal. Cynical old me tends to think they assume edumacated types with plenty of dosh like to watch foreign movies so they don't price flex on them like with mainstream movies.

[Salsa Party Animal]

I don't think I ever own a DVD from Tartan and I got about 600 ish.

[JP]

I've probably got about 40 or 50 DVDs from them now. I used to have loads but started selling them when buying blu-ray. With blu-ray I don't own any of theirs yet but had 6 (I think) on order before this happened.

It really is a shame to see them go like this as there are few companies out there who are willing to pick up the better films and do a good job of distributing them.

There stuff was usually a little more expensive but due to the films they released but I usually felt I got more for my money than from the majority of other distributors.

I was disappointed to see them seemingly move away from their original mandate of good quality international films into what seemed to end up being little more than Asian horror flicks. I liked those films too but I really missed the other stuff.

[12-51-00]

I think this is the just the way the industry is going. To be honest I think most distributors of Art House/International stuff will go under in the next few years because:

A) The availability of this stuff through torrents, coupled with the fact most people have high speed internet access these days, means more people seeing this stuff through illegal downloads than DVDs.

B) International Cinema is getting more popular so studios are demanding more money for films which reduces the profit margin on DVD sales.

C) DVD collector's are going abroad more and more these days anyway, look at Tartan. For stuff like Ozu and Bergman they were up against Criterion, and on the other side most their Asia Extreme stuff can be found in glorious Korean Special Edition form for half the price.