We'll know soon enough if this is a match made in heaven, but Spike and Mike have picked up Rick and Steve: Writer and director Q. Allan Brocka has given the Spike & Mike Festival of Animation non-exclusive theatrical and video distribution rights for Rick & Steve: The Happiest Gay Couple In All the World.
Web distribution rights are still in negotiations, Brocka says, with the deal fueling demand by Web-based distributors and thus hiking the stakes. "There's a lot of competition for the (Web rights)," he says. "There are so many good dot-com companies, it's hard to tell which ones will be around for the long haul. But I'm hoping we work out a deal soon."
Since it won the audience award at L.A. Outfest in 1999 and screened at the Sundance Film Festival, the short film has hit the world festival circuit running. It's slated for over 20 festivals around the world within the next several months, including festival showings in Miami, London, Jerusalem, Tokyo, Seattle, Turin, and Oberhausen. The film premiered in New York April 3 at the Anthology Film Archives. Brocka himself will attend the Los Angeles screening at the American Cinematheque April 20.
Considered colorful, vibrant, but bleakly comic, the short film chronicles a young gay couple approached by a lesbian couple to father their child. Steve's jealousy over their choice of Rick provokes an alternative plan.
Brocka is making a considerable impression with Rick & Steve, his first professional work and a work created during his first year of film study at the California Institute of Arts. The film is set to become part of Spike & Mike's Sick and Twisted Animation program, which the company says has "helped ignite the popularity of cult animation."
You can see the Rick & Steve Website at http://members.tripod.com/poshpictures.
