Woody Allen's Anything Else has at last found a home with a UK theatrical distributor, it was announced yesterday.

The comedy is to be released on 40 prints in late July by Optimum Releasing, who acquired the film from Capitol Films in a joint acquisition deal with MGM Home Entertainment. Anything Else, which stars Jason Biggs and Christina Ricci, received its world premiere at last year's Venice Festival.


In recent years, British distributors seem to have fallen out of love with Allen. His previous feature Hollywood Ending (which premiered in Cannes two years ago) is yet to surface in the UK and Curse Of The Jade Scorpion took many months to reach British shores. The hope now is that a young independent like Optimum will be able to convince the British public that Allen is as funny as ever.

Meanwhile, confirming its appetite for an ever wider range of fare, Optimum has also confirmed that it will be releasing Deep Blue, the feature film spin-off from the BBC's acclaimed Blue Planet series.