Cleopatra Entertainment, with sales and distribution
expertise provided by MVD Entertainment Group, announced this past week that
writer/director Jared Cohn’s Street Survivors: The True Story of
the Lynyrd Skynyrd Plane Crash will
be available on both DVD and Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack on June 30.
On October 20, 1977, the plane carrying the rock
band Lynyrd Skynyrd ran out of fuel and crashed … Ronnie Van Zant, both Steve
and Cassie Gaines were killed, along with the pilot and co-pilot. Among the survivors was drummer Artimus Pyle. This is his story … and it had a hellish
trip from inception to its final completion.
Filmmaker Jared Cohn, in addition to working with
Pyle (played by Ian Shultis — Save Me from Love), did
extensive research on the band and crash and has delivered a dramatic retelling
of the fateful events of that day, which also focuses on Pyle’s personal
relationship with the front man Ronnie Van Zant (played by Taylor Clift — Clinger,
A Nice Quiet Life).
You could call Street
Survivors a docu-drama, part documentary
with a blend of dramatic retelling (or reconstruction) of the events leading up
to the crash. Pyle was there, he
survived it … but that didn’t sit well with others involved. It was tragic and avoidable and surviving
members of Lynyrd Skynyrd in the aftermath of the “accident” made an agreement
that, and we quote, “No such exploitation of life-story rights is authorized
which purports to be a history of the Lynyrd Skynyrd.”
In other words, Artimus Pyle, based on the 1988
agreement, could tell his story, but could not refer to Lynyrd Skynyrd, which
if you think about it makes no sense.
Sort of like, “I, Artimus Pyle, was in this plane crash, where “certain”
people died and ah, ah, well, they were band member, but I can’t you much more
than that.”
Street Survivors is
basically a bio-pic, based on actual events.
But in 2017, after it was completed, filmmaker Jared Cohn found himself
in court. In August of that year, U.S.
District Court judge Robert Sweet issued a ruling barring the distribution of
the film. He was eventually over-turned
on appeal — his misguided ruling was basically an assault on the First
Amendment and Cohn had plenty of allies in his appeal.
Finally, Street
Survivors: The True Story of the Lynyrd Skynyrd Plane Crash will
be available for viewing. You can be
the judge … Pyle’s story, from his audition as a drummer, life with a rock band
on the road, the events of that fateful day … but most of all the music.
Included as a bonus is CD of the movie’s soundtrack.
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