ITV Global Racks Up DVD Deals on Classic Film

LONDON: ITV Global Entertainment, home to the U.K.’s largest library of British films, has notched up a host of DVD and Blu-ray deals on Michael Powell’s acclaimed 1948 film The Red Shoes.

The digitally restored version of the film premiered at the Cannes Classics Film Festival last week, hosted by ITV Global Entertainment and the Film Foundation together with film editor Thelma Schoonmaker (the widow of Michael Powell) and director Martin Scorsese. The Red Shoes was restored in partnership with UCLA Film & Television Archive in association with The BFI, The Film Foundation, Janus Films and ITV Global Entertainment. Restoration funding was provided by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, The Film Foundation and the Louis B. Mayer Foundation.

ITV Global has secured 20 new international home-entertainment licenses, including Atlantic Films AB (Scandinavia), Magna Pacific (Australia), Filmax (Spain) and ITV DVD (U.K.). The Red Shoes stars Moira Shearer as talented young dancer Victoria Page, who finds herself torn between Julian Craster (Marius Goring) and Boris Lermontov (Anton Walbrook). 

Steve Gallant, the director of home entertainment and digital at ITV Global Entertainment, said “We’re delighted to be announcing these new international deals for Michael Powell’s brilliant and lovingly restored The Red Shoes. This is part of our ongoing film restoration commitment, preserving our critically acclaimed and hugely popular library of landmark British film titles for a new generation of film lovers."