Out on DVD July 12th!!
Some information about the DVD that is coming out on July 12th! :)
MGM is releasing Manna from Heaven on DVD on July 12th.
The extras are: Q&A with Filmmakers, Directors/Producers/Writer Audio Commentary, Featurette - "Manna >From Heaven: Traveling the Indie Road", Deleted and Extended Scenes, Bloopers, Photo Gallery, Trailers, and TV Spots.
__________________________________SYNOPSIS: _____________________________________
What if a “gift from God”…was just a loan? The all-star cast of Oscar winners Shirley Jones (“The Partridge Family”), Cloris Leachman (Spanglish), Louise Fletcher (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest), Oscar nominee Seymour Cassel (Rushmore), Ursula Burton (Temps), Shelley Duvall (The Shining), Jill Eikenberry (“LA Law”), Faye Grant ("V"), Harry Groener ("Buffy the Vampire Slayer"), Frank Gorshin ("Batman"), Wendie Malick (“Just Shoot Me”), and Austin Pendleton (What's Up, Doc?) shine in this feel-good comedy about finding hope at any age directed by Maria Burton and Gabrielle Burton.
When a blizzard of cash falls mysteriously from the sky into a neighborhood in Buffalo, NY, young Theresa declares it a miracle. Years later, Theresa (Ursula Burton), now a nun, calls her eccentric and bickering "family" back home... announcing that they must pay it back! With a motley group including con artists, a card shark, washed-up ballroom dancers, and a car dealer, anything is possible.
__________________________________PRESS RELEASE: ________________________________
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
MGM RELEASES MANNA FROM HEAVEN THIS SUMMER
Feel-good movie made by a family hearkens back to old Hollywood
MANNA FROM HEAVEN, an old-style ensemble comedy from the five real-life Burton sisters who helm Five Sisters Productions, will be released by MGM on dvd July 12. Five Sisters Productions, a boutique company that makes quality independent films, may not have graced the cover of Vanity Fair yet, but they have quietly been influencing the face of film releasing. With a grass roots release campaign, MANNA FROM HEAVEN opened new doors for truly independent films in mainstream theaters.
And the little energizer bunny of movies just keeps on going. The intelligent, feel-good comedy has had a unique independent theatrical release and is still, two years after its premiere, opening theatrically in cities across the US (including Cleveland, Youngstown, Chautauqua, Oklahoma City, Philadelphia, and San Francisco).
Now, it's a Cinderella story -- a small indie film that was picked up by a studio. This has been the story of MANNA FROM HEAVEN from it’s beginning -- from the filmmakers handing out fliers for 12 hours a day at theaters, to being invited to screen the film for the US Congress by Congressmembers Schumer, McCarthy, and Reynolds and Jack Valenti at the MPAA as an example of high quality, home-grown American film.
MANNA FROM HEAVEN is literally a family film: MANNA was produced by Jennifer, Ursula, Gabrielle, Maria, and Charity Burton and directed by Maria and Gabrielle. Award-winning screenwriter Gabrielle B. Burton is their mother, and their father (former jazz musician Roger Burton) joined to coproduce.
Bypassing the Hollywood system, the five sisters and their parents, partnered with a booking company, and embarked on a grass-roots marketing campaign traversing the country in their painted “Manna Van” to promote their Capra-esque comedic fable. Even the film’s stellar cast (Academy Award winners Louise Fletcher, Shirley Jones, & Cloris Leachman, Academy Award nominee Seymour Cassel, Ursula Burton, Shelley Duvall, Jill Eikenberry, Faye Grant, three time Tony nominee Harry Groener, Frank Gorshin, Wendie Malick, and Austin Pendleton) got involved in the campaign in cities across the country.
For their third film, the sibling filmmakers felt that one of the biggest creative challenges today would be to make a feel-good independent film. With audiences often skeptical and cynical of "feel-good films,” the company decided to tell a witty story of a small neighborhood with real problems, but to find a happy ending. And the gamble seems to have paid off: THE WASHINGTON POST called MANNA "a much-needed reprieve from the angst, irony and mean-spiritedness that is endemic to modern cinema." MANNA FROM HEAVEN was also chosen by the Toronto Film Festival Group for the Canadian "Circuit" release, where it played theatrically across Canada, starting with a special screening at the festival.
Followers of Box Office Charts know that it is once in a blue moon that a "true Outsider film" (to quote NY TIMES Dave Kehr's description of MANNA) is able to thrive in US movie theaters. MANNA FROM HEAVEN defied the odds, making the box office charts and getting renewed in theaters, despite the virtually nonexistent marketing budget for its domestic release (the average advertising budget for a film now is 37 million dollars).
Tying in with the film’s theme of a community coming together to improve itself, Five Sisters hosted a benefit screening for HABITAT FOR HUMANITY in each town to which they traveled with MANNA.
MANNA is rated PG. More information is available on http://www.fivesistersproductions.com or http://www.mannathemovie.com. For booking information, contact JARED EARLEY: [email protected]. For interviews, contact Cara White PR at 843-881-1480.
MANNA FROM HEAVEN =
"Capra-esque -- charming, charming, charming!" - NPR
"Refreshingly sincere, gentle and good-natured." - Dave Kehr, NY TIMES
"Two feel-good hours of old-timey family entertainment." - Natalie Hopkinson, WASHINGTON POST
"A great little movie." - Liz Smith, NY POST
"An unexpected treat!" - LA Daily New