Boorman Offers Free Videocassette Rental to Promote ‘Emerald Forest’

According to many film critics, John Boorman’s “The Emerald Forest” was one of 1985’s best movies. So, why aren’t members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences being reminded of screenings in the current crush of Oscar campaign ads in the trade papers Daily Variety and the Hollywood Reporter?

Because, says Boorman, nobody cares.

“We have run out of distributors,” Boorman said, in a telephone conversation Tuesday from Ireland. “We started with Goldcrest, then went through a series of convolutions with Embassy. The only people who care about it are the ones who sold the video.”

Boorman is a victim of the double-sale of Embassy Pictures, first by Norman Lear and Jerry Parenchio to the Coca-Cola Co., then by Coca-Cola to Dino De Laurentiis.

“The Emerald Forest,” released last summer, grossed $25 million despite the shuffling, and has been a huge hit overseas and in the American videocassette market.

But Boorman isn’t giving up. Monday, in both trades, he will announce one of the oddest offers in the annals of Oscar campaigning.

In ads paid for by Embassy Home Entertainment, the remaining beneficiary of “The Emerald Forest’s” commercial life, Boorman will humorously recall for academy members what happened to his distributor (it went from Embassy to New Embassy to Classic Embassy to Diet Embassy) and urge them to accept free rental of the videocassette at Wherehouse tape outlets.

“It’s my only shot,” Boorman said, of his free rental offer. “I would hope most academy members saw it during its 14 weeks at the Plitt (in Century City). But the important thing is that they see it.”