As I understand it this followed the podcast on The Projection Booth which was posted to start this thread by one of the site owners. They had approached Alan NIcholls as director of the movie, and asked for the interview with him with particular reference to this film that never got distribution. He sent them a copy of the film. Whether this was a copy of the original version which was shown at two Canadian film festivals, or a copy of the version Sonnenberg and Dellentash re-edited I have no idea.
CBS (now Sony/BMG) own the movie, and one assumes the world wide distribution rights in any media. Whether or not one likes their motives for not releasing it, it is their property and their right to not release it. Nicholls said in the interview that he had engaged in many legal attempts to secure its release, all of which had failed. I doubt Sony would see much revenue to be gained for its release now. It's a movie on the back of a runaway album success not untypical of its time, but wouldn't stand up well for release in 2011 imo, and selectively releasing it for the benefit of Meat's fans wouldn't generate the revenue which would interest them. So I dismiss any notion that Sony would have engineered this leak. I don't know whether Nicholls either engineered or approved the leak. It would seem to me a rather foolhardy strategy given his personal knowledge/experience of Sony's position, and the fallout which could ensue. I imagine their lawyers are reasonably exercised with that currently.
One thing I'm sure of is that Meat is far too astute to be involved in such a leak, particularly as the version Sony own is one he hated so much. As to suggestions as to why he hated this version, he made it clear that it was due to the re-editing which was done .. "widly disjointed and jumpy" were his words I think, had scenes inserted which made no sense, and that it was a huge exercise in self-indulgence by Sonnenberg and Dellentash. The original version got good reviews at the Toronto Film Festival, and despite Meat's concerns for the way the pair spent to excess and tried to manipulate him and Leslie, he thought some good videos came from it.
Caryl
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