Serenity Rocks Edinburgh Film Festival! by rklenseth

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Serenity Rocks Edinburgh Film Festival!

POSTED BY: RKLENSETH
UPDATED: Tuesday, July 19, 2005 05:57
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Tuesday, July 19, 2005 3:47 AM

http://news.scotsman.com/edinburgh.cfm?id=1645842005

Festival fans dash for flicks tickets

GARETH EDWARDS

MORE than 40,000 people tried to buy tickets online for the Edinburgh Film Festival in their first hour on sale, in what was one of the busiest opening days for sales the event has ever seen.

Hundreds more joined queues at the official box office in the Filmhouse,

while thousands jammed phone lines as staff struggled to cope with the rush.

Online buyers were greeted with a tongue-in-cheek message saying "Huston, we have a problem" as the unprecedented number of hits clogged up the site.

However, after a few hours it was able to process booking and festival organisers said they were delighted with the public response.

The line-up for the event is seen as one of the strongest for a long time, with stars such as Richard E Grant, Paul Schrader, Peter Mullen, Elijah Wood, Julie Walters and Jason Biggs all attending.

The organisers have also managed to scoop a number of world and UK premieres. Among the films to be screened for the first time is Wah Wah, Grant's directorial debut, which is about the actor's childhood in 1960s Swaziland and will open the festival.

The most controversial movie is likely to be British director Thomas Clay's debut feature, The Great Ecstasy of Robert Carmichael, whose main protagonist's fall from grace climaxes with an act of horrific and shocking violence.

Another highlight is expected to be the appearance of Lord of the Rings star Elijah Wood at the premiere of his new film Green Street, about English football hooligans.

However, the biggest draw on the opening day for ticket sales was the sci-fi film Serenity, the first feature by Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon.

Most of the tickets to the world premiere of the film, about an intrepid band of space mercenaries, including its world premiere, were sold after just a few hours.

Whedon will also talk live at the festival in one of a series of interviews with industry players, and tickets for that event are expected to go almost as quickly.

A festival spokesman said: "There were queues winding out of the doors at Filmhouse when we opened the box office, and there was a real buzz of excitement.

"The world premiere of Joss Whedon's Serenity attracted much of the attention, particularly with online sales.

"The website was hit very hard by an enormous number of people trying to buy tickets as soon as it opened with a staggering total of 40,000 page views in the first hour.

"Unfortunately, this did cause some problems and some people will have had difficulty trying to book early on, but we have managed to get it up and running again fairly quickly."

Oh, and play Cantr II at www.cantr.net.

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Tuesday, July 19, 2005 4:08 AM

EMMA

It is very cool that that was put in a general article about the festival - many more people are likely to read it. EIFF is a fantastic publicity stunt, well done UIP.

extremely dimensionally transcendental

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Tuesday, July 19, 2005 4:18 AM

SIMONWHO

Absolutely, I think every country should have a Universal World Premiere, get the media's attention.

Although it's a bit of a late night, isn't it? We won't be done until 11 at the earliest.

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Tuesday, July 19, 2005 5:04 AM

BECSTHEBEAST

Quote:
Originally posted by SimonWho:

Although it's a bit of a late night, isn't it? We won't be done until 11 at the earliest.

does anyone know of a good late night watering hole in edinburgh to keep the partyn going ?

'forgive my rudeness. i cannot abide useless people'

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Tuesday, July 19, 2005 5:14 AM

SIMONWHO

Any residents of Edinburgh care to give us an easy guide? Bear in mind that it will be Festival time (duh) so everywhere will be heaving, even on a Monday.

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Tuesday, July 19, 2005 5:57 AM

EMMA

well done on getting tickets!

hopefully us unfortunate souls without will get some for other screenings!

extremely dimensionally transcendental

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