Image Entertainment Acquires Film Slate from Jeremy Thomas' Recorded Picture Company, Including ``The Last Emperor,'' Winner of 9 Academy Awards

MERRY CHRISTMAS MR. LAWRENCE, THE HIT and INSIGNIFICANCE also Acquired through Agreement

CHATSWORTH, Calif., Apr 11, 2007 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Image Entertainment, Inc. (Nasdaq:DISK), a leading independent licensee, producer and distributor of home entertainment programming in North America, today announced the acquisition of The Last Emperor, Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, The Hit and Insignificance, four Jeremy Thomas-produced films, through an exclusive North America license agreement with Recorded Picture Company's sales agent, UK-based dreamachine.

The agreement grants Image home video, digital and broadcast rights to each of the four titles. For home video, Image will release movie-only versions while Criterion, also distributed through Image, will release definitive special editions of the films as part of the renowned Criterion Collection. Criterion and dreamachine will work together to create new high-definition masters assuring film aficionados the highest quality possible. Broadcast availability, home video and digital distribution plans will be announced later in the year.

Director Bernardo Bertolucci's The Last Emperor won each of the nine Academy Awards for which it was nominated. Along with Best Picture, it won Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Director, Best Film Editing, Best Music, Original Score, Best Sound and Best Adapted Screenplay.

The 1987 film chronicles the life of Puyi, the last Emperor of China, played by John Lone, with Joan Chen, Peter O'Toole, Ruocheng Ying, Victor Wong, Dennis Dun, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Maggie Han, Ric Young, Vivian Wu, and Chen Kaige. It was the first motion picture filmed inside the walls of China's Forbidden City. The Last Emperor premiered theatrically on December 18, 1987, thus celebrating its 20th Anniversary at the end of this year.

Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, starring David Bowie, deals with the bonds between four men in a Japanese prisoner of war camp during the Second World War. The Hit, directed by Stephen Frears, features Terrence Stamp as a former gangster living under an alias in Spain. Insignificance, a drama/comedy directed by Nicolas Roeg, is a fictional account of the interactions of four iconic figures; Marilyn Monroe, Joseph McCarthy, Joe di Maggio and Albert Einstein.

"We are thrilled with this acquisition and look forward to developing and expanding this relationship. These films certainly enhance our library and heighten the profile of films Image will acquire and distribute in the future," stated David Borshell, Image's Chief Operating Officer.

London-based Wendy Rutland brokered the agreement on behalf of Image Entertainment.

The idea of dual releases from both Image and Criterion seems odd. It would temporarily quiet all those price complainers who say they only want the movie, but I could see it cutting into Criterion's sales quite a bit.

They've done it before, with 8 1/2 and possibly 1 or 2 other titles.

Yeah, that's true. The Image releases of I Vitelloni and 8 1/2 both came out a year after the Criterion versions, according to Amazon's release dates. I wonder whether the releases will be spread out with this new deal also.

I'm just really happy they got "Insignificance." Call me a completist fool, but more Roegs in the Criterion Collection is a good thing.

Am I the only one here who only knows "Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence" by the song written by Ryuichi Sakamoto (available on one of the "Pure Moods" CDs)?

Am I the only one here who only knows "Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence" by the song written by Ryuichi Sakamoto (available on one of the "Pure Moods" CDs)?

and, frankly, I didn't think Eddie Murphy was very funny in the Last Emperor.

Was Eddie Murphy really in the "Last Emperor"?

The Hit is easily one of Wahlberg's weaker movies.