Grindhouse Couldn't Get 'Grindhouse'; Grindhouse Festival Couldn't Get Either

Maybe Grindhouse strayed too far from its base. (See below for UPDATE.) I received some very interesting info this weekend from the owner & programmer of the Clinton Street Theater, detailing how he tried in vain to convince The Weinstein Co. to allow his venue to play the pic. The Clinton is a unique single-screen indie art house considered a true Grindhouse in Portland, Oregon. (It just ran a film series that included original 35MM prints of Switchblade Sisters, Crazies, and Spook Who Sat By The Door.) Looking at the email exchange, I can see that TWC’s branch sales manager Keir Gotcher kept giving The Clinton the run-around. “I wanted to give you some insight into Grindhouse being a flop,” Seth Sonstein (photo right) emails me. “We begged The Weinstein Company for a print of this film. In the end they would not give us a print. Also, Dan Halsted runs the Grindhouse Film Festival out of The Hollywood Theater in Portland, and Weinstein would also not release a print to him. (Dan knows more about Grindhouse films then anyone in the country.) So I attest that the distribution was botched on this film. When your local Grindhouse isn’t allowed to screen the Grindhouse, then you KNOW that there is trouble.” (more…)