“I was inspired by the show Kolchak: The Night Stalker. It had really scared me as a kid and I wanted to do something as dark and mysterious as I remembered it to be.”
Chris Carter - X-Files producer
Before the X-Files, there was one extraordinary, supernatural, down-right eerie TV series that had viewers glued to their TV screens. That series was Kolchak. Playback is delighted to announce the release of chilling cult favourite Kolchak: The Night Stalker, for the first time ever on DVD. Chicago news reporter Karl Kolchak is a trouble magnet for situations involving the supernatural. His investigations involve delving into the most horrifying and gruesome of subjects – vampires, werewolves, zombies and much more.
Based on The Night Stalker, the highest rated TV movie of its time, each episode sees Kolchak deal with a supernatural (whether mystical, scientific, or alien) threat, which is usually the cause a series of grisly murders, involving blood draining, marrow loss, old age, spine snapping, or use of medieval weaponry. Inevitably, the local authorities are intent on ignoring or covering up the nature of the murders, while Kolchak's boss Tony Vincenzo refuses to believe his rebellious employee.
Kolchak is, as Chris Carter (creator of The X-Files) has stated, one of the main inspirations for his show, and from the beginning he sought to create something with a similar “spirit” to that of Kolchak.
Released on 21 August 2006, the box-set includes five discs featuring all 20 episodes from the original series, all digitally restored, providing hours of entertainment.
Title: Kolchak : The Night Stalker
Release Date: 21 August 2006
Recommended Retail Price: £34.99
Monday, June 26, 2006
Ireland On Screen
Compare and contrast
Fictionalised accounts of Britain in Ireland on the big screen.
Britain’s troubled history in Ireland since the War of Independence has been explored in many fiction films. Upon the release of Ken Loach’s Cannes-winner THE WIND THAT SHAKES THE BARLEY, the Cornerhouse cinema (Manchester, UK) presents a brief overview of such films, from the first ever fictionalised account of the War of Independence to Hollywood blockbuster MICHAEL COLLINS.
One of the season highlights includes a rare screenings of 1926 Irish film IRISH DESTINY. Made just 10 years after the events it depicts, the film was a box office record breaker in Dublin but was banned by the BBFC upon its attempted release. The film was eventually released in 1928 under the title of MOTHER IRELAND having been cut and minus scenes from the Black and Tans. Believed lost and recently re-discovered and restored, IRISH DESTINY charts a love story involving a middle-class IRA fighter and his fiancée set against the background of the fight for independence. The love affair is interwoven with incidents from the war, shown through actuality material (including footage of the Black and Tans and the burning of Cork) as well as a reconstruction of the mass escape from the Curragh internment camp and the burning of the Customs House.
On Saturday 1 July there will be a screening of the multiple Oscar winning John Ford film The Informer. Adapted from Liam O’Flaherty’s novel THE INFORMER is set in 1917 and tells the story of drunken IRA man Gypo Nolan who informs on his leader to the Black & Tans for £20 then struggles to undue his treachery.
The season will also enable audience to contrast Ken Loach’s THE WIND THAT SHAKES THE BARLEY with HIDDEN AGENDA, his previous exploration of Britain's stormy relationship with Ireland, but also with a film he vehemently rejects, Neil Jordan’s MICHAEL COLLINS.
The season comes to a climax with controversial and critically acclaimed BLOODY SUNDAY. Originally made for TV, UNITED 93 director Paul Greengrass' powerful docudrama follows the events of the infamous Bloody Sunday in January 30, 1972 when British soldiers in Derry opened fire on a peaceful protest march, killing 13 demonstrators and wounding a further 14.
Fictionalised accounts of Britain in Ireland on the big screen.
Britain’s troubled history in Ireland since the War of Independence has been explored in many fiction films. Upon the release of Ken Loach’s Cannes-winner THE WIND THAT SHAKES THE BARLEY, the Cornerhouse cinema (Manchester, UK) presents a brief overview of such films, from the first ever fictionalised account of the War of Independence to Hollywood blockbuster MICHAEL COLLINS.
One of the season highlights includes a rare screenings of 1926 Irish film IRISH DESTINY. Made just 10 years after the events it depicts, the film was a box office record breaker in Dublin but was banned by the BBFC upon its attempted release. The film was eventually released in 1928 under the title of MOTHER IRELAND having been cut and minus scenes from the Black and Tans. Believed lost and recently re-discovered and restored, IRISH DESTINY charts a love story involving a middle-class IRA fighter and his fiancée set against the background of the fight for independence. The love affair is interwoven with incidents from the war, shown through actuality material (including footage of the Black and Tans and the burning of Cork) as well as a reconstruction of the mass escape from the Curragh internment camp and the burning of the Customs House.
On Saturday 1 July there will be a screening of the multiple Oscar winning John Ford film The Informer. Adapted from Liam O’Flaherty’s novel THE INFORMER is set in 1917 and tells the story of drunken IRA man Gypo Nolan who informs on his leader to the Black & Tans for £20 then struggles to undue his treachery.
The season will also enable audience to contrast Ken Loach’s THE WIND THAT SHAKES THE BARLEY with HIDDEN AGENDA, his previous exploration of Britain's stormy relationship with Ireland, but also with a film he vehemently rejects, Neil Jordan’s MICHAEL COLLINS.
The season comes to a climax with controversial and critically acclaimed BLOODY SUNDAY. Originally made for TV, UNITED 93 director Paul Greengrass' powerful docudrama follows the events of the infamous Bloody Sunday in January 30, 1972 when British soldiers in Derry opened fire on a peaceful protest march, killing 13 demonstrators and wounding a further 14.
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