Press Release - The People’s Premiere







‘The People’s Premiere’ launches Pete Postlethwaite’s
new climate movie on March 15 from solar cinema tent in Leicester Square and across the UK via satellite link-up


The People’s Premiere. “The Age of Stupid” will be launched on March 15th in a solar cinema
tent in the park in Leicester Square, and simultaneously at more than 60 other venues, including
The Eden Project and a kids-only event in Fulham. As an INclusive, rather than EXclusive,
premiere, the public can buy tickets (£10, from today) to their local cinema and watch the
green carpet arrivals and post-film Q&A live by satellite link-up from London. The whole event -
but not the complete film, obviously - will also stream live on the internet and in Second Life.

Eco-Premiere. The star of the film, Pete Postlethwaite, will arrive by solar car before posing
for the papparazzi on the green carpet. Other celebs will come on foot, bicycle, bike rickshaw,
public transport or biodiesel cars (chip fat from local Leicester Square chippies will be
collected in wheelbarrows by youth volunteers on the Friday). Every part of the event - from
power sources, to food, to transport, to ink, to clothing - is genuinely green, as opposed to
greenwashed. Full eco-audit available soon: www.ageofstupid.net/ecoaudit

From Land’s End to John O’Groats (nearly). The participating cinemas are in Aberdeen, Bath, Birmingham, Blackburn, Braehead, Bristol, Bury, Cambridge, Cardiff, Carlisle, Cheshire, Clones, Cornwall (Eden Project), Croydon, Edinburgh, Enniskillen, Exeter, Glasgow, Guilford, Harrow, Hartlepool, Hatfield, Hull, Inverness, Kingston, Leeds, Leicester, Lincoln, Liverpool, Livingston, London (8 locations), Maidenhead, Manchester, Milford Haven, Naul, Newcastle, Newcastle West, Norwich, Oxford, Plymouth, Portlaoise, Portsmouth, Preston, Reading, Romford, Scunthorpe, Southport, Staines, Swindon, Tinahely, Tunbridge Wells, Watford, Wigan and York. List of venues & booking info: www.ageofstupid.net/premiere.

Largest Ever Premiere? With a capacity of over 16,000, the Guinness Book of Records will
hopefully soon confirm The Age of Stupid as the largest ever film premiere. The event is
supported by the UK FIlm Council.

Eden Project Premiere. Transition Towns founder Rob Hopkins will introduce the Eden event and host the Q&A afterwards. Tickets £10 from Eden box office or www.ageofstupid.net/premiere

Youth Premiere. The Fulham Vue cinema will host an event for under 18s, organised by WeCAN, with young speakers and action packs to take away. The film has a 12A rating, so any children under 12 must be accompanied by an adult. Equally, any adult without a child will not be admitted. Enquiries: info@wecan.uk.com. Press: 07970 870 026

Running Order (all cinemas, inc Eden and Youth)
5.00pm Green carpet arrivals (London only)
5.15pm Doors open at cinemas
5.40pm Intro from local host in each venue
5.45pm LIVE satellite link-up from green carpet & solar tent
6.00pm The Age of Stupid (90 mins)
7.30pm LIVE satellite link-up from solar tent:
Q&A with filmmakers & special guests.
Pete Postlethwaite launches Not Stupid
8.00pm Local speakers in each venue
8.15pm ENDS

PRESS RELEASE: 24 Feb 2009

Live on the Internet. Free, live webstream at www.ageofstupid.net/premiere_webstream
or in Second Life at www.oneclimate.net/stupid_premiere

Not Stupid and Copenhagen. All profits from the premiere will go to the new Not Stupid
climate action campaign, which Pete Postlethwaite will launch by starting a giant countdown
marking the remaining days, hours & minutes till the Copenhagen Climate Summit in December.
Copenhagen is being called “The most important meeting in human history” as it is where the
successor to the Kyoto Treaty will be finalised. Not Stupid is supported by all the key climate
NGOs, including Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace and Stop Climate Chaos. The ambitious aim
is to turn 250 million viewers of the film into climate activists, all focused on Copenhagen.
Donations are most welcome and can be made at www.ageofstupid.net/donate

Win Tickets. Anyone donating £50 or more to the Not Stupid campaign will be entered into a
prize draw to win two tickets to the solar tent. www.ageofstupid.net/donate

The Age of Stupid stars Oscar-nominated Pete Postlethwaite (In The Name of the Father,
Usual Suspects) as a man living alone in the devastated world of 2055, looking back at old
footage from 2008 and asking: why didn’t we save ourselves when we had the chance?
It was written and directed by Franny Armstrong (McLibel, Drowned Out) and exec-produced
by John Battsek (Oscar-winning One Day in September).

Crowd-Funding. The £450,000 budget for the 90 minute film was raised by the filmmaker’s
innovative “crowd-funding” model. 228 ordinary people invested between £500 and £35,000
and each own a percentage of profits. As do the crew, who worked at drastically reduced fees
to keep costs down and deliver a big-budget film on the (relatively speaking) tiny budget.

Cinema Release, 20 March. The Age of Stupid is released on March 20 in ten UK cinemas: Bristol Watershed, Belfast Queen’s Theatre, Sheffield Showroom, Edinborough Film House, Glasgow Film Theatre, Inverness Eden Court Theatre, Cardiff Chapter Cinema, Kilburn (London) Tricycle, Bethnal Green (London) Rich Mix and Panton Street (London) Odeon. Box office sales from the opening weekend determine whether it will expand to more cinemas or be dumped in the bin, so please, please bring ten friends to either the premiere or the opening week. Depending on the UK success, worldwide releases will follow later in 2009. (Sales agent: Celluloid Dreams, Paris.)

Awards & Prestigious Screenings. The film has already won the documentary world’s most
prestigious prize: a Grierson. It was screened at the UN Climate Summit in Poznan in Dec ‘08
(the precursor to Copenhagen), as well as at the British, EU and Dutch parliaments. Upcoming
screenings include the Welsh, Scottish and Swedish parliaments. Obama’s thinktank, The Center
for American Progress, is hoping to host the Washington premiere in May and Kofi Annan has
asked to host a screening at the Global Humanitarian Forum in June.

CONTACTS & LINKS
Press. Alex Sayer at Rogers and Cowan. asayer@rogersandcowan.com +44 (0)20 3048 0485
NGO Liason. Daniel Vockins. daniel@ageofstupid.net +44 (0)20 7267 1532
Speaker Liason. Katie Roberts. katier@ageofstupid.net +44 (0)20 7267 1532

Tickets & Booking Info: www.ageofstupid.net/premiere
PR Resources (press releases, high-res pics, facts). www.ageofstupid.net/pr_resources
NGO Resources (posters, pics, supporter info). www.ageofstupid.net/ngo_resources
Eco-Audit. www.ageofstupid.net/ecoaudit

Comments

Popular Posts