London Riots: The Beyond Replacement Programme & Upcoming Title News

[kissoffboardy]

It was awful to see the huge Sony distributon place on fire live on the news last night. I'm very sorry to hear Arrow are one of the companies whose business has been impacted & also thankful that no-one was hurt.

I'll definitely be sticking some orders in for when things are back up & running, & imagine others will be doing the same.

& well done for listening to customers, of course.

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

There are some fairly big distributors (such as the BFI) whose businesses have been affected by the fire at the Sony warehouse:

UK film distributors left reeling by financial impact of Sony/PIAS warehouse fire | Film | guardian.co.uk

[kissoffboardy]

It's a terrible situation, with a lot of small indies hit, both dvd & music.

I can really see a lot of small companies failing due to cash flow issues, which will hurt livelihoods & in a wider sense hit many people's cultural life. Very sad indeed.

[Bringer Of Funerals]

I suppose at the min everyone is worried and the last thing on people's minds is a b&w opening on a film. Sorry if this came out the wrong way

[kissoffboardy]

I agree the events of the last few days add a sense of perspective to everything, but still, there's never harm in giving positive credit for something.

[Prince_Vajda]

Originally Posted by kissoffboardy

It's a terrible situation, with a lot of small indies hit, both dvd & music.

I can really see a lot of small companies failing due to cash flow issues, which will hurt livelihoods & in a wider sense hit many people's cultural life. Very sad indeed.

It's more than sad. It's a scandal. Those rowdys destroy property and risk lives just because they are good-for-nothings who failed in life because of their own stupidity.

But back to the topic.
Let's all that our beloved companies Arrow and Shameless come through this mess without too many scratches.

Greetings!

[TheKingof1984]

So I just heard about the damages to Arrow's Supply.....what does this mean for the future of the company and future releases??? Also, very glad no one was injured and hope you guys bounce back swiftly!! LONG LIVE ARROW!

[Bringer Of Funerals]

Hopefully they can get more stock and bring horror to the people

[Baseball Fury]

I think Shameless are OK, but the BFI, Artificial Eye and Arrow have lost all their stock, as well as about 50 record labels. Bad times.

EDIT - Just seen that Shameless have also lost their stock. What a country.

[Baseball Fury]

Saw this whilst searching for some info about Eureka -

Up to 30 million DVDs are believed to have been lost in the fire which was started as part of the London riots, including stock belonging to independent distributors Dogwoof, Artificial Eye, Metrodome and the BFI.


UK distributors Dogwoof, Metrodome and Artificial Eye have confirmed that they have lost all their DVD stock in the fire at Sony’s warehouse in Enfield which was started during the riots in London on Monday night. The BFI has also confirmed that it has lost over 120,000 units of DVD and Blu-ray stock.

The building is used as a storage facility for most of the UK’s independent distributors. Up to 30 million discs are believed to have been lost in the fire.

Dogwoof CEO Anna Godas told Screen that the company had lost around 50,000 DVDs in the fire. “All our DVDs were in the warehouse, so any stock we had is gone. Sony have said they will look after [the stock] and insurance. The problem is orders that are happening and will happen in the next month. DVDS are still our biggest revenue. At this point we don’t know, but I anticipate sales will be lost,” said Godas.

Dogwoof is currently releasing Steve James documentary The Interrupters, which is, ironically, about gangs and social unrest. A screening of the film is due to take place at the Genesis Cinema in London’s Whitechapel tonight, followed by a Q&A with Steve James and representatives from gang related groups, despite the threat of further riots.

“We are talking to the Genesis cinema and they are saying so far it is going ahead and that it is under control.” The cinema closed at 8pm last night.

Meanwhile, Artificial Eye has also confirmed that the company’s entire 300-film-strong catalogue stock, which includes Winter’s Bone, Route Irish, The Three Colours Trilogy and Of Gods And Men, has been destroyed in the fire.

Steve Lewis, Artificial Eye’s home entertainment manager, was neverthless remaining upbeat. “Although this may cause supply problems in the short term, we’ve been impressed by the speed at which Sony have put their contingency plans into action, so disruption should be kept to a minimum. Stock is insured,” he said.

A spokesperson for Metrodome also confirmed that all its stock had been in the building.

The BFI also released a statement confirming that it had lost over 120,000 units of stock, although it did not expect the loss to impact on its new releases, scheduled for August 22.

“Fortunately, our stock is held at two different locations so we still have access to copies of all our titles. Efforts to both fulfil customer orders and replace the lost stock will begin straight away,” added the BFI statement.

It is believed that Sony kept mastercopies of the discs at another location and is now working round the clock in a bid to duplicate the DVDs with a view to start shipping them out as soon as possible. Sony confirmed this morning that the warehouse had been damaged by fire and that there had been no injuries to employees, but the company hasn’t yet released any further statements.