Film Buff Friday: Shortcut To Happiness

File this one under things that make you go Hmmmmm....

SHORTCUT TO HAPPINESS: After eighteen long years from production to release Shortcut to Happiness finally makes its debut on Blu-ray and DVD on July 16, 2019. Originally "The Devil and Daniel Webster" (the film's original title when it was in production in 2001) was to be the directorial debut of star Alec Baldwin. According to a 2007 Entertainment Weekly article, "production was vexed by alleged money problems and the FBI's bank-fraud investigation of a reported investor". According to a 2007 article in The Guardian, the movie grinded to a halt "during post-production when the FBI seized the investors' assets, including the film, in the course of a bank fraud investigation." Due to this and other rumored creative differences, Baldwin had his director credit removed from the film and replaced with the pseudonym "Harry Kirkpatrick". Baldwin's producing partner Jon Cornick told Entertainment Weekly in 2003, "We spent a lot of time and effort shooting the movie... It's not the movie that we intended to make." 

Producer Bob Yari rescued the film from bankruptcy court and finished the film without Baldwin's participation which received limited theatrical screenings in 2007. Years later the film aired on Showtime and Starz channels but had never received a proper release on home video. 

"I was presented with opportunity to license Shortcut To Happiness," according to MVD Entertainment Director of Acquisitions Eric D. Wilkinson. "Despite the movie's checkered past, I liked it. It reminded me of the high concept romantic comedies of the 1980's and 90's. It has a great cast and production values and I think fans of the genre will more than enjoy this film. So after eighteen years since the movie first started production, I'm excited to finally give Shortcut To Happiness a proper release on disc and digital".

 

Set in New York's literary world, Shortcut To Happiness is a contemporary re-telling of the classic short story ''The Devil and Daniel Webster'' featuring an all-star cast that includes Academy Award® Nominees Alec Baldwin (The Departed) and Dan Aykroyd (Ghostbusters), Academy Award® Winner Anthony Hopkins (The Silence of the Lambs), Jennifer Love Hewitt (Heartbreakers), Kim Cattrall ("Sex and the City"), Bobby Cannavale (Ant-Man), Amy Poehler ("Parks and Recreation") and Darrell Hammond ("SNL").

 

Jabez Stone (Baldwin), a down on his luck writer, sells his soul to the devil (Love-Hewitt) in exchange for fame and fortune. But when things don't turn out as planned, Stone ultimately decides that he wants his old life again and enlists the help of Daniel Webster (Hopkins) in order to win his soul back from Satan, herself!

ENGLAND IS MINE

When a movie title announces itself in all caps, you know that movie has to be about Morrissey!

ENGLAND IS MINE is a new drama about the early days of Morrissey, the iconic pop star and original front man for the seminal band, The Smiths. Directed by Academy Award® and BAFTA-nominee Mark Gill, the film stars Jack Lowden as the artist formerly known as Steven Patrick Morrissey and Jessica Brown Findlay of "Downton Abbey" fame as his soul mate and muse. 

Set in Thatcher's Britain of the 70's and 80's, a time when working class Manchester was beset by unemployment and riots, the film tells the story of 17 year-old Steven (Lowden), a painfully shy, intellectually precocious loner who lives for, and writes about, the burgeoning local music scene-a surprisingly vibrant subculture in an otherwise drab industrial city. Too intimidated to join that scene, he writes reviews from the sidelines, imagining what he would do if he were on stage. When one of his write-ups is noticed by kindred spirit Linder Sterling (Brown Findlay), an aspiring painter, the two become fast friends, and she pushes him to form a band and take to the stage. Steven finally works up the courage to book a club date, and performs a dazzling cover of an old girl-group standard. This is the first time the world gets to hear the distinctive, emotion-filled voice that would eventually propel him to stardom.

That very night, a manager reaches out with an offer. Unfortunately, it's only for guitarist Billy, not the lead singer, meaning Steven will be left behind. His dreams of a musical career vanish and he's left with nothing but wasted days at a soul-crushing civil servant job, and lonely nights holed up in the same bedroom he's slept in his whole life. Only his mother's unwavering belief in his talent, and Linder's constant reminder-"be yourself, everyone else is taken"-give him the strength to keep trying to become the artist he was always meant to be.

Brian Perera, founder of Cleopatra Entertainment, says "Our company has deep roots in music, so we couldn't more excited to bring this film over here to US audiences and to Morrissey's enormous fan base."

Director Gill, who also wrote the screenplay (with William Thacker), burst onto the international film scene with his 2011 short film, "The Voorman Problem," which earned him an Academy Award-nomination for Best Live Action short, as well as a BAFTA nomination. Lowden's stage work (which has already earned him the UK's highest honor, the Olivier Award) was recently featured in Christopher Nolan's "Dunkirk," and films such as "A United Kingdom" and "'71."

Since capturing, and breaking, hearts as Lady Sybil in the smash success "Downton Abbey," Brown Findlay has also been seen in "Winter's Tale," "The Riot Club" and "Victor Frankenstein."

Baldwin Li, Gill's producer and fellow "Voorman" Oscar-nominee, produced ENGLAND IS MINE along with Orian Williams, producer of Anton Corbijn's "Control," the multi-award-winning biopic of Ian Curtis and the band Joy Division.

Pre-order now at MVDshop.com