UPDATE: I have reached out to Paramount and confirmed there will not be a collaboration with Criterion for the release of Richard Linklater’s Boyhood on Blu-ray and DVD. I was told, “This will be a Paramount only home release. We will not collaborate with Criterion.” The previous post follows…
Well, those dreams of a Criterion release for Richard Linklater‘s Boyhood may have just been dashed as Variety reports Paramount has acquired U.S. home entertainment rights to the film with IFC Films handling VOD and EST sales to cable, satellite and telcom providers.
It’s a bit of an interesting revelation considering it appeared the film would be going straight to Criterion, though the obvious thought here is that perhaps Paramount will again reteam with the boutique label the same way they did with The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which essentially got the Criterion treatment and spine number, but was still released through Paramount.
One thing we know is there are a lot of extras to be shared as Linklater told me in my interview:
[W]e have a ton of behind the scenes footage. We had an intern with a camera that interviewed a lot of the actors every year so there’s this record of Ellar, Lorelei, Patricia, Ethan and me. It would be like, Patricia is running off to catch her plane to go back to doing whatever and, “Quick five minute interview” or something like that.
Boyhood is still expanding into theaters so I don’t think we’ll have an answer to how it will be all handled very soon, but hopefully we get the best release possible when it’s first issued on DVD and Blu-ray.
