Park Circus Acquire Rights to Melies' A Trip to the Moon

British distributors Park Circus announced today that they have acquired the rights to George Melies' legendary film Le voyage dans la lune a.k.a A Trip to the Moon (1902), as well as Serge Bromberg's documentary about the film The Extraordinary Voyage. Park Circus now hold the theatrical, non-theatrical, home video, television, and VOD and DTO rights on both films for the UK and Eire.

Unseen for 109 years until its restoration by Lobster Films, Groupama Gan Foundation for Cinema and Technicolor Foundation for Cinema Heritage - the hand-painted colour version of Melies' legendary A Trip to the Moon was first space adventure in the history of cinema. This version of the iconic 16-minute silent film features a new soundtrack by the French band Air.

Directed by Serge Bromberg and Eric Lange and made in 2011, the documentary The Extraordinary Voyage revisits the genius of Georges Melies and charts the film's voyage across the last century and into this one, from the film's original production in 1902 to the rediscovery of the colour version and the premiere of the new restoration on the opening night of the Cannes Film Festival in 2011. Featuring interviews with filmmakers and fans Costa Gavras, Michel Gondry, Marty Scorsese, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, and Michel Hazanavicius, The Extraordinary Voyage is the fascinating and revealing portrait of an eternal classic.

Note: Blu-ray.com has already reviewed the U.S. Blu-ray release of A Trip to the Moon/The Extraordinary Voyage, courtesy of Flicker Alley, here.