The “Columbus” movie will be available March 26 on a physical DVD locally and online — with new, added commentary from its leading actors on some selected scenes.
The online package, pre-sale priced at $27.99 online and scheduled to be $34.99 at the Columbus Area Visitors Center, is being marketed on the website of the Brooklyn-based film distributor Oscilloscope Laboratories. It includes deleted scenes available previously in electronic downloads and a brief addition from director Kogonada with background on Columbus architecture.
The company logged orders for more than 50 copies the first day pre-sales were available Jan. 31, according to Yasmina Tawil, Oscilloscope’s office manager.
“That’s a lot for us in such a short amount of time,” Tawil said.
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She added that several customers had ordered multiple copies.
The Columbus Area Visitors Center also received permission Friday from Oscilloscope to sell advance and other copies at the center at 506 Fifth St. once the discs are available. Staff at the center first mentioned the idea of selling copies shortly after the film was released.
The movie, shot over three weeks in August 2016, made its Indiana debut Sept. 1 of 2017 at YES with a string of sold-out shows and a red-carpet visit from stars John Cho and Haley Lu Richardson and its director, Kogonada.
It eventually sold a record 8,953 tickets in a six-week run in September and October of 2017 at YES Cinema. And then it returned Aug. 31, 2018, for another one-week run with added scenes and background — including home-movie footage of the local and influential J. Irwin Miller family — added by director Kogonada.
The film’s story begins when a renowned architecture scholar becomes ill during a speaking tour in Columbus. His book-translator son Jin (played by John Cho), rushes from Seoul, South Korea, to be at his father’s bedside. Then he finds himself stranded in town, where he strikes up a friendship with Casey (Haley Lu Richardson), a young architecture enthusiast. Their friendship develops amid Jin’s strained relationship with his father and Casey’s struggle with her addicted mother, which stalls her dream of a design career.
The movie indirectly serves as an artsy, highlight reel of shots the city’s better-known, world famous architecture such as Columbus City Hall, North Christian Church, the Miller House, the Republic Building, Irwin Conference Center, the Bartholomew County Public Library and other structures.
The movie was selected as among 2017’s best crop of films on nearly half a dozen websites, including slate.com and vox. com. It also won considerable praise on the major movie website rottentomatoes.com, where 97 percent of critics rated it as “fresh.”
Plus, the film earned major publicity for the city, with Cho tweeting about Columbus’ architecture and charm. Plus, he referred to Columbus as an “emerald city” in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.
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- Pre-sale online ordering:oscilloscope.net/products/columbus?variant=18834768658530
Price: Standard DVD $27.99 or Blu-Ray $32.99.
- Or at the Columbus Area Visitors Center. Price: Standard DVD $34.99 and Blu-Ray $39.99. Pre-sale and other copies available at 812-378-2622.
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The film’s story begins when a renowned architecture scholar becomes ill during a speaking tour in Columbus. His book editor son Jin (played by John Cho), rushes from Seoul, South Korea, to be at his father’s bedside. Then he finds himself stranded in town, where he strikes up a friendship with Casey (Haley Lu Richardson), a young architecture enthusiast. Their friendship develops amid Jin’s strained relationship with his father and Casey’s struggle with her addicted mother, which stalls her dream of a design career.
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