Clive Barker's struggle with Midnight Meat Train: Will the fans help?

Midnight Meat Train is the first movie from Clive Barker’s production company, Midnight Picture Show, but releasing the movie has been a major struggle for Clive and it is still continuing. Directed by renowned Japanese horror movie director, Ryuhei Kitamura, the movie was supposed to be released by Lions Gate Film. Unfortunately, Lions Gate postponed the release two times; first, on May 15^th and then July. Now, it is set to be released on 1st August. In the August release, the movie is going to face a tough race because it will have to compete with big budget movies like The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, The Rocker, Swing Vote. Defamer.com reports:

Despite the story being a fan favorite, and a satisfying trailer (mmm...yuppie chops!) featuring the U.S. directing debut of Japanese horror maven Ryuhei Kitamura, new studio president Joe Drake bumped the movie from its May 15th date—which allowed The Strangers to clean up as the only R-rated horror option of the weekend. It was a curious strategy shift, to say the least, and not the least bit helped by a significant conflict of interest. Or as Deadline Hollywood Daily puts it, "Guess who was exec producer of The Strangers? Joe Drake."

In June, Clive sent a letter East Coast FANGORIA Weekend of Horrors where he said that Lions Gate Film’s former president, Peter Block, was a good friend of his. As Peter has left the studio, the new president, Joe Drake, threw out all the projects supported by Peter Block. Earlier, Lions Gate was supposed to release Midnight Meat Train in 1500 theatres but now, they are planning to release the Midnight Meat Train in 100 theatres, run it for a week and release it on DVD. Shocktillyoudrop says:

This move fulfills Lionsgate's contractual obligation with production entity Lakeshore to give it some sort of theatrical run. The plan is to subsequently release Meat Train quickly down the line (October?) for a DVD release. That's the word for now, however, we hear there is an effort to beef up the theater count on behalf of Lakeshore. Nothing is solid on that front.

Now, it is all upto the Clive Barker fans I guess. The guy has requested all his fans to sent emails to Joe Drake and not to write anything offensive.

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