Hello Hubski community,
I've teased this project before, so some of you are already probably a bit familiar with it. This movie, Welcome to Happiness, is a movie that mk and I helped to fund (and it thus features a Hubski product placement, which you can see in the trailer if you have a good eye), and which we're both proud to be a part of.
The movie was written, directed, produced, edited and scored by a man named Oliver Thompson (full disclosure: my best friend), and this is his first feature. It will be released in theaters a week from Friday, May 20, in a nine city limited release (NY, LA, Atlanta, Seattle, San Francisco, Dallas, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, and Columbus), and it will also be available that same day on some VOD services, although I don't yet know which ones (probably the pay services to begin, e.g. VuDu, Comcast, Amazon, moving to the Netflixes of the world thereafter).
Oliver is an eminently talented dude, and I expect that this won't be his last movie. However, that of course depends on the reception it gets. It's done well on the festival circuit, but now that it's getting a proper public release, the pressure will be on. Although I have an interest in this movie, I can tell you that it's worth watching without much bias getting in the way.
If you live in one of the aforementioned cities (looking at you, kleinbl00, insomniasexx, _refugee_, alpha0, am_Unition--you're in Dallas, right?, and probably lots of people I missed), please go see it. I'm disappointed that it didn't get a Detroit release, but I can live vicariously through you all. For the rest of us, there's always VOD. If you must pirate it, tell your friends to watch it at least :)
Apologies for the shameless plugging (actually prideful plugging); please don't mark me as a spammer! The theater listings can be found here.
OOOOoooooookay.... this is weird... what secret-hubski-app-backend-functionality did you tap into to get this to show up in my notifications? Shoot... thenewgreen can't even get posts where he tags me in to my notifications... WHAT WITCHCRAFT IS THIS? That being said.. mk already hit me up via email about a Denver screening which I plan to attend. Go Film! Hmmm.. also... Denver seems to be absent: http://welcometohappinessfilm.com/theaters/ THEATERS Los Angeles, CA – Laemmle NoHo 7 New York, NY – Cinema Village Atlanta, GA – Plaza Theater Seattle-Tacoma, WA – Dragonfly Cinema San Francisco, CA – Roxie Dallas-Ft. Worth, TX – The Texas Theater Milwaukee, WI – The Times Cinema Philadelphia, PA – Roxy Columbus, OH – Gateway Film Center
Yeah I included you, because I had in my mind that Denver would be on the list, as it was originally supposed to be. But then it didn't make the final cut. I didn't edit you out of my brain until too late, but I did edit you out of the post right after submitting.
Dragonfly Cinema isn't really near Seattle or Tacoma, but, I mean, if kleinbl00 is feeling a trip...
holy shit it has nick offerman and josh brener let's go see this!
As I was telling BFX, wifey goes on call tomorrow. And the short in Francesca's wiring harness that led to her not turning off turns out not to be a short, but a partially-failed ECM, which is only a thousand euros or so. HOWEVER when the guru tells you that yes, you can in fact put a momentary switch on Pin 19 of the clocks because a failed ECU is a failed ECU and no point in buying one before you need it, you start looking for momentary switches. So mmmmmmmmaybe.
I'm definitely going to tell my friends about this. The theater is in the NYU area, so I know a few people there. I will have completely graduated at that point, so I should be able to make it like Saturday. Congratulations on the project to everyone involved. Excited to see it.
I'm not sure there are any cool theatres left in NYC. We lost so many in 80s and 90s, but it is certainly a film buff outlet. Anthology Film Archives and Film Forum are for the die hards.
Also, I'm told that this trailer has been in iTunes' top 5 for the past few days, so maybe it just came up somewhere else. One of the actors, Josh Brener (Big Head on Silicon Valley), is going to be on Marc Maron's podcast this week or next to do some promoting of it, so hopefully that will increase the indi crowd's awareness too.
Hey b_b, I am seeing on this page and the website that your movie should be playing at the Roxy in Philly starting Friday. However the Roxy has released their showtimes for the next weeks and Welcome to Happiness isn't listed. Can you help me figure out: what's the deal?
LAME. Trying to get to the bottom of this. I'll update when I find out. am_Unition
So far as I can tell, it's currently impossible to find a schedule for the Roxy for this weekend at the moment. Google, Fandango, Movie Tickets, all seem to stop at tomorrow for some reason. Their own website is sparse, but definitely doesn't have WtH listed. Check back tomorrow. I was assured by our producer that it's still on. am_Unition, the Texas Theater schedule has been updated, and we're in. The times are shitty unfortunately, almost all afternoon or early evening shows. Hope you can make it anyway!
I took ref's route and googled my way to success, just printed out a .pdf for two adult tickets. The Texas Theatre webpage is nothing short of terrible - there is still no mention of Welcome to Happiness. I'll report back. Shoot, I might even try to rope my parents into this if someone who's seen it already can verify that it won't irritate a couple of Southern Baptists.
https://imgur.com/a/yB6KB I'm there. See the TEXAS sign (vertical in background). The theater is closed! No one around, nothin'. An older man came and tried to get in, but all the doors are locked. Sucks. I'll be calling the theater for a refund and an explanation.
I was a little peeved, but it only lasted about five minutes, ain't no thang. I got to eat some excellent texmex down the street for lunch! Major score. Turns out the theater is located dead center of Dallas's little Mexico. So here's what happened: I bought tickets from dealflicks.com, which apparently only sends the theatre a report at the end of the month, so they had no idea anyone had bought tickets. Which means... I was the only person to order tickets in advance for today's showing (at 2:15 pm). Like I said, there was an older man who tried to enter the building around 2:10, but it was all locked up. This above info was communicated to me by a theater rep on the phone. I should have used movietickets.com, but google served up dealflicks when I searched the other day. This all made me pretty sad, so I think I can spare the money to support the film, even if I didn't get to see it. The world of indie flicks must be pretty rough. I'll email the guy I talked to on the phone and let him know it's all good. Cheers dude, I still had a great weekend, and it's not even over. Sorry to spam you, this is the last time, I swear. Hopefully the movie gains some traction. If there's one thing I've learned in my short time on Earth, it's that marketing/promotion almost entirely dictates success, and content quality is only tangentially related. Do you know if the movie will ever be released on DVD or on other media?
Naw, they don't owe me anything, it's all good. You guys already gave me Hubski! Reportedly, the theater would have opened if the ticketing service I used would have informed them that someone was expecting a showing. My girlfriend and I would have had the entire complex to ourselves.
Wow, I didn't know the tickets came with such an incentive :)))! That theater has quite the history, I intend to arrive early and prod around a bit. Expect at least one piece of photographic evidence. I'll see if I can get the 'rents to attend, but they'll probably want to get on the road pretty early in the day. We'll see.
For me, reply notifications always work unless it's many responses down a thread, but when I'm tagged, I hardly ever get notified. So... paging _refugee_!
I watched it with Oliver sitting between b_b and I at the Oklahoma City Film Fest. It was such a relief to be genuinely impressed. I really just put my faith in b_b. Oliver pulled off an ambitious film, and I am looking forward to seeing what he does next. He is a hard-working, talented guy. It's been very cool to be a small part of it.
Houston :(. Going to a wedding on May 20th in Dallas. You say it will be released on the 27th, yeah? That's just bad luck.
Then I'm totally dragging my girlfriend to this. Will report back.
Hahah, it's not like that. She knows about this place, I'm always on her back telling her to get on here and read some damn articles. Plus, with Key in the cast, it's an easy sell.