Producers cast their Lot as solo distribs
'Hooligans' is first planned release
But Odd Lot partners Gigi Pretzker and Deborah Del Prete are using smaller confabs such as South by Southwest and the Malibu Film Fest to launch their nascent distribution shingle and prime the market for its buzz-generating first wide release, the Elijah Wood soccer drama "Green Street Hooligans."
Centering on a Harvard student who becomes a hero in the nihilistic world of English soccer hooligans, the pic is an anomaly: a violent, male-dominated story, written, directed and produced by women.
After nabbing top prizes at SXSW and Malibu, the pic screened at the just-wrapped Edinburgh Fest. It was a hot ticket with U.K. auds, and some could even be heard humming the anthem of the West Ham football club. Some attendees flew from the U.S. expressly for the screening.
Pritzker and Del Prete say they turned down a distribution deal at Tribeca and decided to go their own way when the distrib wasn't up for the kind of grassroots promo campaign that the duo had in mind.
Stateside, Odd Lot has launched a text-message campaign for "Green Street" with a mobile phone marketing firm. The film is being launched simultaneously in the U.K. by Universal Independent.
Pritzker and Del Prete say Odd Lot's goal is produce 16 pics in the $5 million to $40 million range in the next two years, and to distribute some of them to mainstream theaters.
It's an ambitious plan. But the partners -- who also own West Hollywood's Coronet Theater -- waive aside concerns that they might find it difficult, in a cluttered market, to secure screens.
"There are all these multiplexes built to show 'Star Wars' on five screens, and then when there's no 'Star Wars' they have to show 'XXX' on five screens," Del Prete says. "And they don't want to show 'XXX' on five screens."
