More From Raw

An executive producer from 24, another from The X-Files and one of the Blair Witch chaps. These are the three guys who make up Raw Feed, the straight-to-video label at Warner that specialises in sci-fi/horror/thriller titles.

While all three produce every title, each directed one of their first three releases: 24 man John Krantz directed Sublime; Blair Witch man Dan Myrick directed Believers; X-Files man John Shiban directed Rest Stop - reportedly the best-selling straight-to-disc title in Warner's catalogue.

The next three titles announced are Alice's Apartment (she didn't actually live in that restaurant, you know), Supermarket and Otis. Only Myrick seems likely to direct one of these, as Krantz is now directing American Voodoo for theatrical release and Shiban is likely to turn to Rest Stop 2. The scripts still need to be written, too - and writers are yet to be announced. All the same, it is expected that the three films could be in production this summer.

And that's what I love about the straight-to-video world. It's like the quota quickie days of the studio system.

Sometimes we get a real gem, though not so often to explain the optimism and hopefulness I can feel while looking along the bottom shelf in Blockbuster. I think it's a hang over from my youth, when I was naive enough to neither know nor care how highly budgeted, widely released or well marketed a film was - they were all posters on the cinema wall or plastic cases on the newsagent's shelf, and I'd give any of them (literally any of them) a shot.