Most cinemas to miss gay cowboy hit

ONE of the most talked about films in recent years won’t make it into cinemas in many parts of the country.

This had prompted fears from some cinema fans of a return to the darker days of censorship in Ireland - but it emerges a distribution row is to blame.

Brokeback Mountain, dubbed the ‘gay cowboy’ film, earned enormous advance publicity due to its subject matter. Rave reviews, four Golden Globes and nine Bafta nominations have further heightened interest in the film.

But the film won’t make it to the local cinema in many towns because of a row between the distributors and Ward Anderson, owners of Ireland’s largest cinema chain.

London-based Entertainment Film Distributors (EFD) have refused to give prints of this and other films to Ward Anderson, who own the Omniplex chain throughout the country, but have so far refused to give a reason why, despite repeated enquiries.

The film is gradually opening in independent cinemas around the country which means cinephiles in the main population centres will be able to see it somewhere in their locality.

However, there are many towns in Ireland - such as Athlone, Ballina, Carlow, Clonmel, Tralee, Killarney, Kilkenny, Longford, Mullingar, Tullamore, Wexford and Waterford - where Ward Anderson are the sole cinema owners.

When asked about the cause of the dispute yesterday, a Ward Anderson spokesman said: “You will have to ask EFD. We can’t make a statement because only they can explain the reason why but I think the whole thing is futile. We have the cinemas and we play everything.

“I don’t think I can ever recall so many five-star reviews for a single film so we would love to have it as it makes great business sense.”

The spokesman went on to confirm that the dispute had been ongoing for some time and that the last EFD film shown in Ward Anderson Omniplexes was The Wedding Crashers, released last summer. Other recent films unavailable to the Irish cinema chain included Lassie, A History of Violence and Underworld: Evolution.

Numerous attempts to obtain a statement from EFD proved futile.

In recent weeks, there had been much speculation that censorship had been responsible for its non-appearance in many cinemas due to the film’s subject matter - a love story featuring two cowboys.

Despite repeated calls and emails, EFD has failed to offer any explanation for the current state of affairs but Ward Anderson are believed to be in contact with New York-based Focus Features, overall distributors for the film around the world, in an attempt to secure rights to show Brokeback Mountain.

Stephanie Kelly, from Cork, was just one of the disappointed film fans: “I just thought it was being censored. I go to a cinema once or twice a week, I love it and was very disappointed when I thought I wasn’t going to get to see Brokeback Mountain.”

However, Stephanie is one of the lucky ones: the film opens today in some of Cork’s independent cinemas, but more than a few disappointed Irish film fans are going to have to wait for the DVD release.