Bugeater Films has confirmed that due to popular demand, next week, Wellspring Media is releasing a special “One Week Anniversary” DVD edition of Dan Mirvish’s real estate musical film, OPEN HOUSE, starring Anthony Rapp. Rapp also stars in Sony’s big screen version of RENT that opens one day later on November 23rd. In a massive promotional blitz this weekend, there will be over half a million “Open House” signs planted on streetcorners and front yards throughout North America. “It’s the ultimate grassroots promotion,” said Mirvish. “People will not be able to avoid seeing a sign with our film’s name on it.”
“The response to this past week’s version of the film was simply overwhelming,” said OPEN HOUSE director Dan Mirvish. “I was getting calls from all over the country from fans who said the disc was sold-out or unavailable. Thankfully, the folks over at Wellspring sprung into action to get this new One Week Anniversary issue out to the stores and to the public.”
“With the successful anniversary releases last week of such classic movie musicals as STATE FAIR, OKLAHOMA and SOUND OF MUSIC which are a combined 150 years old, it became clear to us that to generate even more interest in OPEN HOUSE we, too, needed to issue an anniversary release of the DVD,” said Mirvish. “And unlike those other films, why not do it while the cast and crew are still breathing?” As movie musicals go, OPEN HOUSE is a rarity in that it was not based on a stageplay, and all the actors sang live on set, with no lip-syncing. The Academy Awards rewrote their rules last year after Mirvish spearheaded a campaign to reignite the dormant Oscar for Best Original Musical.
While it is simply coincidental that OPEN HOUSE will now be coming out just a day before the RENT theatrical release, Rapp compares working on both films on the OPEN HOUSE commentary, “It was one of those times when I was really grateful to sing live in person rather than lipsyncing, although doing RENT, I got used to the lipsyncing thing.” OPEN HOUSE was made for about $20,000, which is several million less than what Sony spent on RENT. “We’re hoping all the RENT fans watch copies of OPEN HOUSE on their portable DVD players while they’re waiting in line for RENT,” said Mirvish. “It’ll be a good way to tune up with Anthony before seeing him on the big screen!”
In addition to Rapp, OPEN HOUSE also stars Oscar-nominee Sally Kellerman (MASH), Kellie Martin (ER), Jerry Doyle (Babylon5), James Duval (Donnie Darko) and Ann Magnuson in a madcap musical that follows a group of real-estate hungry homebuyers and agents as they search for stolen jewels, lost love and the perfect 2-story Spanish colonial in the film that we, Film Threat, called, “A funny, fast-paced and above all very unique film.” Truth in entertainment!
Unique highlights of the OPEN HOUSE DVD are the first ever “Musical Commentary” featuring the new song, “This is the DVD Commentary!” as well as an audio option to watch the film along with the Park City festival audience (patent-pending “Slamdance-arama” audio). Numerous more extras include step-by-step guide to creating your own Oscar category, and sing-a-long lyrics.
For more info, visit the “Open House” website.
