Brendan Foley On The Riddle

13.09.07

By Adrian Hennigan

Brendan Foley, the writer-director-producer of The Riddle, on his unusual world first – a premiere via a newspaper.

Despite what some people in the film industry may be thinking, Brendan Foley does not sound like the Great Satan. Speaking from Belfast, where he’s in post-production on the Irish horror/comedy film Bog Bodies, he’s talking to Film Network about the upcoming world premiere of his debut feature, The Riddle. A low-budget thriller starring Vinnie Jones and Sir Derek Jacobi, the unusual casting isn’t the reason UK exhibitors are viewing his film with suspicion; it’s because the film will premiere as a free ‘covermount’ with copies of the Mail On Sunday on 16th September 2007

Inspired by the Mail On Sunday’s 15th July promotion in which it gave away Prince’s new CD Planet Earth – boosting its weekly sales by 600,000 to almost 2.9 million – writer/director/producer Foley contacted MoS managing director Stephen Miron to sound him out on the same approach to a DVD. “From initial conversation to the movie being released will have taken about five weeks,” Foley states. “The Mail On Sunday’s calculation was that the movie, because it fitted so well with the demographics of their readers, would give them publicity value, and the fact that it’s a first was very important to them as well – they like being trailblazers. One month they have the first new CD launch, the next month they have the first new film launch, so they’re on a bit of a roll.”

What the Dickens? Part of the Mail On Sunday’s promotion for The Riddle
Revolving around a modern-day sports journalist (Jones) investigating a spate of murders seemingly connected with the emergence of a long-lost Charles Dickens novel, like most small movies The Riddle didn’t start a bidding war when it first screened to buyers at Cannes in May 2007. That was no deterrent for Foley: “You have to choose whichever combination of distribution channels work for your product,” he believes. “Don’t wait for the audience to come to your movie, bring your movie to the audience.” And it’s some audience he’s bringing to The Riddle. The Mail On Sunday will be producing 2.5 million DVDs of the film, with up to a million of these expected to actually find their way onto DVD players across the UK and Ireland.

We had to make sure that if we never sold another DVD copy, we would end up with a deal that was still worth our while

“From the directing side, if you’re given the chance to have the movie you love and worked hard at being seen by millions of people rather than 25- or 50,000, then that’s a bit of a no-brainer,” Foley argues. As a multi-hyphenate, however, he also has to consider the financial ramifications: “From a producing side we had to make sure that if we never sold another DVD copy, we would end up with a deal that was still worth our while. There’s a confidentiality clause about the numbers but I can say that we got a good six figure deal for the rights, plus primetime TV advertising.

“We have already made more money than most British indie movies,” Foley adds, “and international sales have been given a huge boost by the publicity. Later, UK TV value is largely influenced by how well-known a film is, and putting out more DVDs in a day than Titanic did in its UK launch week is certainly helping.”

Naysayers in the industry believe that once a film has been given away – either as a covermount or a download – it is next to worthless, but Foley isn’t so sure. “There’s more to life for a little movie than just theatrical, and most little movies – if they’re honest about it – use a small theatrical platform release to generate publicity. I thought the Mail On Sunday idea was a damned sight better way of generating publicity than getting on five screens for two weeks.

Julie Cox, Vinnie Jones and Sir Derek Jacobi in The Riddle

“A movie of our size makes most of its money from DVD sales, DVD rentals or from TV,” Foley continues. “We have a DVD release where we have the best financial deal I could ask for already, and we get the rights back after a week, so we’re going to work hard to see if it has an afterlife. Who knows what will happen theatrically? If someone thinks they can make some money out of a small release – given that it will be such a household name – that’s great, but otherwise we’re not depending on it. We also hope it has a second life in DVD. Our initial interest from distributors suggests we have got plenty of DVD scope in the UK, particularly for a director’s cut version crammed with dvd extras, followed by really excellent TV prospects, so the moaners will just have to find something else to moan about.”

They may be sharpening the pitchforks down on Wardour Street, but the London-based Foley opines that “only very rigid thinkers believe that the sky will fall in” if his business model takes root. “A newspaper is simply another potential revenue channel for movies,” he argues. “I think the smart distributors are starting to realise that if the ‘motive factor’ behind sales is actually the extent of publicity as well as a good product, then newspapers have much to recommend them.”

Vanessa Redgrave in The Riddle

Foley previously wrote another low-budget thriller, Johnny Was (the unusual casting juxtaposition here involved Vinnie Jones and Lennox Lewis), which went straight to DVD in the UK after taking a “long time to get off the ground, despite winning Best Feature at six US and Canadian film festivals”. He was heartened by the diametrically opposite experience with The Riddle. “The greatest joy with working with a newspaper is that they make decisions fast and they move fast,” he notes. “A traditional distributor, even a good one, would be looking at their diary and trying to find a slot in the middle of next year; these people were able to look at their diary and say ‘How about three or four weeks’ time?’ In that time we were able to get certification and print 2.5 million copies.

“This isn’t any threat to existing distributors, particularly those who are smart enough to see an opportunity,” Foley concludes, “but at the same time I think every industry should be humble enough to see what it can learn from other industries. A newspaper’s ability to act quickly without breaking a sweat is maybe something the film industry can learn from.”

The Riddle is available on DVD with the Mail On Sunday on Sunday 16th September 2007.