Days of Heaven Days of Heaven
Jun
27
2008

Tartan.  Dead.

Posted by Todd Brown at 10:24am.

Posted in DVD News .

When news broke that the US arm of Tartan Films was closing back in May the company line was that this was only a US problem, that the UK branch was being restructured and business would continue as usual there.  Uh, wrong.  Employess showed up at work yesterday to find the offices locked up and were told later in the day that Tartan UK has followed the US branch into an ignoble death.  It’s gone, it’s not coming back, assets will be sold.  Here’s hoping someone who will treat the films right picks up the good stuff left sitting in the Tartan vaults.

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Reader Comments

  1. zombeaner 06/27/2008 @ 10:46am

    Saw this on Kaiju Shakedown this morning.  Tartan has done great things for awareness of Asian cinema, “extreme” and otherwise.  This is really a bummer and I hope, like you said, that someone treats these films with the respect they deserve.  We have to wait even longer for A Bittersweet Life on R1 DVD now, and I guess this means that their planned UK Director’s Cut DVD is a goner, too.

  2. AHTB 06/27/2008 @ 11:30am

    Some background information:
    http://www.screendaily.com/ScreenDailyArticle.aspx?intStoryID=39611

    :(

  3. Saltoner 06/27/2008 @ 12:30pm

    Tartan Films did put out some amazing stuff, however, showing up for work to find you’re locked out is pretty miserable.  Companies that do that deserve to be out of business.

  4. Zwanster03 06/27/2008 @ 12:42pm

    So I guess this means the uk blu-ray release of Lady Vengeance wont be surfacing any time soon, thats a damn shame.

  5. curious_greg 06/27/2008 @ 2:32pm

    A damn shame, indeed.
    Not to mention no ‘a Tale of Two Sisters’ blu-ray either.
    [curse word]

  6. BtoFu 06/27/2008 @ 3:39pm

    Holy fuck. They got me started...what a shame.

  7. Rhythm-X 06/27/2008 @ 5:32pm

    Tartan has done great things for awareness of Asian cinema, “extreme” and otherwise.

    Just “extreme”, really.  If they’d tried harder to bring out more “otherwise”, more titles that had more than niche appeal, maybe we’d be talking about the awesome R1 A BITTERSWEET LIFE release instead of mourning the company.

    And also, what Saltoner said.  Treating your employees like that is not excusable.  My sympathies really do go out to those folks who showed up to work at a company that no longer existed.  The people who knew this was coming down and kept it a secret from their own staff can go straight to hell.

  8. Sjekster 06/27/2008 @ 10:42pm

    Agreed. That’s no way to treat your employees.

    I’m like totally bummed out, I was even planning on buying a PS3 just so I could see A Tale of Two Sisters in HD :(

  9. M@rc 06/28/2008 @ 2:49am

    I haven’t bought one of their releases in years. Getting these movies from Hong Kong is cheaper and they are released much sooner.

  10. Gunde 06/29/2008 @ 5:28am

    A Tale of Two Sisters (my favorite movie) was gonna be my very first Bluray. Dammit!!

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