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Optimum Releasing Changes Name to STUDIOCANAL
posted on by Andrew Osmond
The British distributor Optimum Releasing has announced via email that it will be calling itself STUDIOCANAL from September 1. STUDIOCANAL is the name of Optimum's parent company in France, which is renaming Optimum in order to establish STUDIOCANAL as "a single unique" European brand. (Kinowelt, STUDIOCANAL'S subsidiary in Germany, will also be renamed STUDIOCANCAL.)
Optimum Releasing has distributed all the Studio Ghibli feature films in Britain up to Arrietty, which it released in British cinemas with an English-language dub, featuring different actors from those chosen by Disney for its U.S. version.
Most of the other Optimum Ghibli releases featured the Disney-produced dubs. However, Optimum also brought out subtitles-only versions of Only Yesterday, Ocean Waves and Ghibli's precusor The Little Norse Prince, none of which have been released on American DVD to date.
The company also released such non-Ghibli anime as the CGI film version of Appleseed, the live-action Azumi manga adaptations, the two Barefoot Gen films and Jin-Roh - The Wolf Brigade.
According to Chairman Olivier Courson: “We are already working together as one company across the three countries [France, Germany and the U.K.] so this is a very natural evolution for STUDIOCANAL. It will strengthen our status as the only European company in the UK France and Germany. It will also provide clarity to all of our creative and business partners.”
The new moving company logo will be revealed on September 5 at the world premiere of the live-action film Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy at the Venice Film Festival.
