Tuesday, March 17, 2020

Cleopatra Entertainment Targets June 30 For The Release Of DVD And Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack Editions Of Writer/Director Jared Cohn's Street Survivors: The True Story of the Lynyrd Skynyrd Plane Crash


DVD & Blu-ray Release Report, Ralph Tribbey
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).

DVD & Blu-ray Release Report, Ralph Tribbey
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.”

DVD & Blu-ray Release Report, Ralph TribbeyStreet 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. 

DVD & Blu-ray Release Report, Ralph Tribbey




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