The Directors Label DVD Series

[Jake]

SPIKE JONZE, CHRIS CUNNINGHAM, MICHEL GONDRY & PALM PICTURES PRESENT
THE DIRECTORS LABEL
Director-compiled DVD series to debut October 28


Palm Pictures in collaboration with Spike Jonze, Michel Gondry and Chris Cunningham unveil The Directors Label, a unique director-created and compiled DVD series featuring music videos, shorts and commercials, and special features including interviews, alternate versions, unseen short films & documentaries, behind the scenes footage and commentaries from various featured artists and collaborators. Each release will be specially packaged and include a deluxe book full of never before seen photographs, storyboards, drawings and interviews. The Directors Label will debut on October 28 with the simultaneous release of The Work of Director Spike Jonze, The Work of Director Chris Cunningham and The Work of Director Michel Gondry.

"Michel and I have been talking about this forever," says Directors Label co-founder Spike Jonze. "A couple of years ago we talked to Chris, which got us motivated. I'm so excited we're finally getting it together. I can't wait to see what Chris and Michel put on their DVDs."

"I have long admired the work of Spike, Chris and Michel and feel this DVD series is the perfect way to release all of the best work from a new generation of talented and influential filmmakers," adds Palm founder Chris Blackwell.

Spike Jonze's feature films (Adaptation & Being John Malkovich) have demonstrated a unique sense of comedy and originality that can also be seen in his music videos: the Grammy Award Winning Fatboy Slim clip "Weapon of Choice" (Christopher Walken dancing through a hotel with wild abandon); Björk's "It's Oh So Quiet" (a Busby Berkeley-inspired song and dance); Beastie Boys' "Sabotage" (the band portraying multiple characters in a fictional '70s cop show);and Weezer's "Buddy Holly" (Weezer performing at Al's Drive-In on the set of Happy Days). The Work of Director Spike Jonze also includes three 30-minute-plus documentaries: Torrance Rises, the story of Richard Koufay and the Torrance Dance Community's preparation and eventual performance at the 1999 MTV Music Video Awards with Fatboy Slim; Amarillo By Morning, documentary about young rodeo riders in Houston, Texas; and What's Up Fatlip, a film about former Pharcyde member Fatlip.

French-born Michel Gondry is known for his visually groundbreaking imagery and re-interpretations of reality. A former drummer, his first collaboration with Björk for "Human Behaviour" (featuring Björk as a hunter who eventually winds up inside a bear's stomach), helped revive what was then a dwindling music video industry, and went on to win nearly every music video award. The project sparked a creative relationship between Gondry and Bjork, which led to five more videos. Gondry has also directed the Rolling Stones' "Like A Rolling Stone," Beck's "Deadweight" (set in a world in which everything is reversed); and Radiohead's "Knives Out" (featuring a life-size version of the Operation board game where Thom Yorke and his "girlfriend" play out the demise of their relationship), as well as videos for the Chemical Brothers, the White Stripes, Daft Punk, and the Foo Fighters amongst others.

London-based Chris Cunningham has created some of the most provocative and visually disturbing subject matter in the history of the music video or film. His unnerving, award-winning works have included Aphex Twin's "Come To Daddy" (an elderly woman is chased through an English council housing complex by pint-sized Richard James mutants); Björk's "All is Full of Love" (Two robots fall in love as one creates the other piece by piece); and Portishead's "Only You" (Beth Gibbons and a young lad buoy eerily in a shaded alleyway, her movements as bewitching as her singing). The Work of Director Chris Cunningham will also include new unseen versions of his art films "Flex" and "Monkey Drummer."

The series will be produced by Palm Pictures' Richard Brown and Jonze's longtime producing partner Vincent Landay, with Julie Fong and John Payne acting as producers for Gondry and Cunningham respectively. Executive Producer for Palm Pictures will be Paul DeGooyer.

The series will be released in Japan in late 2003 through a licensing arrangement between Palm and Japanese film company Asmik Ace. Plans for additional international releases are currently being completed, and the series will be released worldwide by early 2004.

Additional Directors Label volumes in the ongoing DVD series are slated for release in spring 2004.


Check out the trailers below:

Directors’ Label: Spike Jonze
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QT 60k: http://showcase.sputnik7.com/palmmedia/jont_q60.mov
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Directors’ Label: Chris Cunningham
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Real 56k: http://www.sputnik7.com/servlet/rpmplay ... t/file.ram
Real Broadband: http://www.sputnik7.com/servlet/rpmplay ... t/file.ram
QT 60k: http://showcase.sputnik7.com/palmmedia/chrt_q60.mov
QT Broadband: http://showcase.sputnik7.com/palmmedia/chrt_q300.mov

Directors' Label: Michel Gondry
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Real 56k: http://www.sputnik7.com/servlet/rpmplay ... t/file.ram
Real Broadband: http://www.sputnik7.com/servlet/rpmplay ... t/file.ram
QT 60k: http://showcase.sputnik7.com/palmmedia/gont_q60.mov
QT Broadband: http://showcase.sputnik7.com/palmmedia/gont_q300.mov