National Lampoon launching unique distribution model with new film

Red Rock Pictures announced today that it has entered into an agreement with National Lampoon and the founder of Van’s Warped Tour to promote and distribute the upcoming feature film Endless Bummer. The film, starring Matthew Lillard, will be released in June of 2009 commensurate with the 15th anniversary kick-off of Van’s Warped Tour. In addition to production and marketing expertise, Red Rock will facilitate licensing of the National Lampoon brand and distribution services.

“The climate is very challenging for traditional film distribution,” said Red Rock Chief Executive Officer, Reno R. Rolle’. “The titles generating the most meaningful return on investment are those benefiting from costly and risk laden theatrical distribution. It’s this box office exposure that fuels sales and rental revenue of DVDs at the retail level.” Rolle continued, “Van’s Warped Tour will reach close to 800,000 kids across 50 cities in the U.S. this summer. This represents an ideal demographic match for our film and we intend to market very hard to this captive audience. It’s a solid movie with a great soundtrack that features Joan Jett who also appears in the film. We expect to generate significant awareness promoting the film throughout the 50 city tour. This should translate very effectively into sales and rental of the DVD in the various retail outlets. In effect, we’re replacing the theatrical component of traditional film distribution by partnering with a live concert tour.”

Created in 1995 by Kevin Lyman as a music and extreme sports festival, Warped Tour is now the longest running annual tour in North America. Lyman began with a handful of his favorite bands then was joined the following year by Vans shoe company who among others, has sponsored the tour ever since. In addition to being an investor in the film, Lyman also has a “story by” credit and has been very involved creatively in the production and marketing of Endless Bummer.