Lightyear Acquires A-HA: THE MOVIE & WE WERE ONCE KIDS

Lightyear Entertainment CEO Arnie Holland has announced the acquisition of A-ha: The Movie and We Were Once Kids, two films that debuted to great acclaim earlier this year at the Tribeca Film Festival.

Both films are about established, legacy brands - A-ha: The Movie celebrates the 40th anniversary of the irresistible pop song and music video Take on Me - still one of the most played songs of the last millennium - and reveals the band's ability to overcome personal differences while continuing to tour and make music together, remaining popular throughout the world; while We Were Once Kids delves into the lives of the kids who were featured in the 1995 Larry Clark Miramax classic Kids. Each title will receive theatrical releases in the U.S. and Canada, beginning April 8th with A-ha: The Movie in New York, Los Angeles and other Top 10 markets; We Were Once Kids will open in May.

"The subject matter of both these documentaries are legend," said Holland. "I'm sure there isn't a person alive who doesn't immediately know the song Take on Me but the band's meteoric success and creative clashes are equally fascinating. Released 24 years before the creation of Spotify, Take On Me has nevertheless recently passed a billion streams just on that platform. The Kids, meanwhile, the survivors of which are now adults, helped revolutionize the gritty, in-your-face guerilla-style filmmaking that is now so taken for granted, but their rise to both fame and infamy offer harrowing life experiences and reflection. They are excellent, thought-provoking films, both of which have substantial, already-in-place fan bases at the ready. We are going to have some fun with these two."

From a small town in Norway, the synth-pop trio featuring keyboardist Magne Furuholmen, vocalist Morten Harket and guitarist Pål Waktaar-Savoy became global sensations and heartthrobs overnight when they released Take On Me with its groundbreaking pencil-sketch animation video. Their newfound fame overshadowed their original dream to make music and each of them has taken separate roads to get back to what they loved most.

The film features candid, sometimes strained, interviews with the band along with previously unreleased behind-the-scenes footage that reveal the depth of their musical talent, skill and ambitions often hidden away behind their popstar image. Since 1985, A-ha has continued to fill arenas around the globe, released 15 albums that have sold more than 55 million copies, won eight MTV Awards, earned both a Grammy and an American Music Award nomination, held a Guinness World Record - for the largest paying audience at a pop concert with 198,000 people - and were granted knighthoods. A-ha: The Movie is directed by Thomas Robsahm. The producers are Yngvie Saether, Tore Buvarp, Thomas Robsahm, Esther van Messel

In support of A-ha: The Movie, the band will be performing live, also in April, at Radio City Music Hall in New York - their first return to the venue in 35 years - and at three already-sold-out concerts at the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles.

We Were Once Kids is a strikingly personal documentary about the real-life individuals who inspired Larry Clark's cult classic film Kids, distributed by Miramax Films.

In the early 1990's, before New York City's mass gentrification, a group of disparate youth ventured outside their broken homes into the city's brutal streets. United by skateboarding, they cultivated a family and built a unique lifestyle that ultimately inspired Clark's film. The crew became overnight commodities, thrust into the mainstream spotlight. Left adrift under the bright lights, some discovered transcendent lives and careers -- while others, abandoned and unequipped to handle fame, suffered fatal consequences.

As Rolling Stone's Eric Hynes describes, "It might be hard to remember just how notorious Larry Clark's indie-skater odyssey was. The movie grossed over 20 million at the box office - a WILD success when you account for the fact that it seemed no one would be able to sell a single ticket without going to jail. There were threats of child obscenity and accusations of pornography. There was a crippling MPAA rating of NC-17. It was fodder for outraged reports on CNN. Kids felt dangerous. Two decades later, it still does." In 1995 when the film released, the cultural impact of Kids transcended its urban landscape and was felt around the world. Newsweek called it "astonishing"; Janet Maslin of The New York Times said it was "a wake-up call to the modern world."

The success of Kids catapulted the group into the mainstream, including writer Harmony Korine and actors Chloë Sevigny, Rosario Dawson, Leo Fitzpatrick and Justin Pierce. However, it wasn't only these now-known names that were thrust into the spotlight. Under the bright lights, some discovered transcendent lives and careers, while others, unequipped to handle the hyperbolic fame, suffered fatal consequences.

This story has powerful themes and complex layering. The fine lines between opportunity and exploitation are at play. Youth, friendship, temptation and loss are all tangible elements for a broad international audience that will connect beyond its core fan base. Clark captured the spirit of youth at its most primal and the real characters whose youth he immortalized are now ready to share their story and the impact the film had on their lives. We Were Once Kids is a unique insight into unsolicited fame, told from the inside out.

We Were Once Kids is directed by Eddie Martin and produced by Shannon Swan. It's written by Eddie Martin and Hamilton Chango Harris. It won the Best Editing Award at the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival, where the film was called "The Kids." We Were Once Kids also won Best Documentary Feature at Sideway Film Festival in Birmingham, AL, and a Special Jury Prize at Calgary Underground.

Lightyear Entertainment is a distribution company that previously theatrically released Tanna, which was Academy Award nominated for Best Foreign Film. Additionally, Holland and his team theatrically released The Etruscan Smile, which starred Brian Cox (HBO's Succession), Maze, Jirga and Goldstone.

Lightyear Entertainment negotiated directly with First Hand Films for the A-ha: The Movie rights and with Dogwoof Sales for We Were Once Kids.

To post a comment, you must register and login.