And the So-Full-Of-It-They’re-Choking Award Goes to: Miramax.

Just thought I’d point out that Boxofficemojo.com has quoted Amanda Lundberg, Head of Miramax’s Worldwide Relations giving the official reason why they handled the “Hero” release the way they did. Ready? Here it is:

“We wanted to get some distance from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. We didn’t want to go when Asia went.”
Ummm .. Ahem…. Crouching Tiger was released in December 2000. How much distance do you need? Nearly half-a-decade ain’t enough for ya?

If the so-called “distance” thing was true, they would have made “distance” from using Quentin Tarantino’s name so close to Kill Bill’s release. But of course, no one pays me to think of these earth shattering conclusions. Dummies.

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3 thoughts on “And the So-Full-Of-It-They’re-Choking Award Goes to: Miramax.

  1. This is so obviously, patently false that it just staggers the mind. If they wanted to distance themselves from Crouching Tiger then why do they play up the shared producer, composer and star in their ads? Why do they give Zhang Ziyi marquee billing for a small support role? If they were aiming for distance why not just set the initial release date far enough down the road to give that distance and then stick to the date rather than announcing / cancelling / announcing / cancelling ad nauseam?

    Miramax’s theatrical releases of Iron Monkey and Drunken Master were based purely on Crouching Tiger’s success and Monkey played up the shared talent, as well. That they could have figured a pair of such unashamed b-films were equivalent to Crouching Tiger totally boggles the mind, and demonstrates their complete lack of understanding when it comes to Asian films, but they did it.

    Is it really so hard for them to be honest and just say “We didn’t really know how to handle it, we weren’t sure how to market it and now we’re pleasantly surprised by its performance”?

    PlutoNick: there really wasn’t any reason for the delay. Miramax has a long and well documented history of buying and burying Asian films for no particular reason. It’s like part of them acknowledges that there are people who enjoy these things, which gets them to the buying phase, but they completely lack any appreciation for or understanding of the films so every time the look at the films they’ve just bought they decide that they’re “too Asian” and either westernize them to the point of complete and utter ruin – i.e. altering Shaolin Soccer to the point of digitally removing all chinese text for in-shot signage and replacing it with english – or simply bury them in the vault.

  2. So, what was the real reason for the delay in the release [sorry if this is common knowledge, but I live in Greece and have seen this movie in cinemas almost two years ago, so I wasn’t following any news regarding the US release]

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