01/02/2007

April 1 promises to be a big day for Scottish filmmaker and former punk star, Richard Jobson, who has two movies out on DVD that day, plus a release of the back catalogue of his old band, The Skids.

The Purifiers - made three years ago - is out on DVD in the UK, having already sold well in the USA, not least because of the popularity of actor, Dominic Monaghan, who went on from The Purifiers to appear in TV hit, Lost.

And A Woman in Winter makes it on to DVD also that day, with worldwide distribution.

Jobson is currently trying to tie up finance that will allow him to shoot his next film project, The New Town Killers, in Edinburgh - the lure he is trying to resist being London financiers wanting the movie to be made in London.

The renewed interest in the Skids music, of almost thirty years ago, stems partly from last September, when U2 and Green Day together played a cover version of the band’s ‘The Saints are Coming’, at the re-opening of the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans. The stadium, like the city, had been almost destroyed by a hurricane in August two years ago, Hurricane
Katrina. Since its re-opening, the stadium has witnessed a successful and emotional season by incumbent NFL team, the New Orleans Saints - who almost made it to this year’s Superbowl, being played this Sunday, only to bow out at the semi-final stage, against the Chicago Bears.

The back-catalogue release will comprise re-masters.

Next week, Jobson’s work is the subject of a retrospective at the Cameo Cinema in Edinburgh, with Jobson himself hosting, on Thursday, a question-and-answer session.