Blue Underground

[tenia]

How big is the French market compared to the US though, or even just Germany?

I have no idea how the indie markets compare, not only in size but also in technological MS (in France, catalogue movies BD shares are much higher than more recent/studio stuff), even more so for UHDs, and is one of the reasons I'm wondering how those BU sales.
Also, I used Canal because I have direct figures, but all things considered, a UHD in France, all titles and labels and studios considered, sells in average roughly 1500 copies once you've taken out the Marvel and Fast & Furious juggernauts... which sell rather 15-20k copies.

That's another reason of why I'm curious : in the end, the batch size being 1000 or 2000 copies won't change much the scale in which indies will be battling with UHDs compared to this kind of sales. In France, movies like Dunkirk or Avengers Endgame account alone for almost 10% of the whole UHD market sales (Endgame sold 31k UHDs in a 500k copies total market, The Lion King LE steelbook was 15k alone - and there's the regular UHD release alongside !, Dunkirk was 37k UHDs sold).

I think brand loyalty shouldn't be underestimated, especially for the horror genre labels/titles. I wouldn't consider myself a rabid horror fan by any stretch but I'll gladly pre-order titles like these from an outfit like BU (and have done so), whilst there's not a chance I'd throw money StudioCanal's way until I feel like I'm getting a good deal/bargain. Their work is still shoddy as hell outside of the few times they hire David M.

I understand brand loyalty but when BU releases Maniac and Zombie in pure UHD releases 18 months after their new BD re-releases, brand loyalty won't boost the appeal outside those who are willing to triple-dip and are equipped in UHD, meaning the Venn diagrams are quite smaller than those DF examples I used from Canal. However, as I wrote, some of these Canal releases were limited steelbooks which, in some cases, quickly sold out, so people didn't wait that much for a bargain in these cases.

[dwk]

I wonder however how many 4K restorations can technically be released on UHDs. For instance, Carlotta wanted to release Donnie Darko on UHD, but it turned out the only available files were in 2K SDR.
...
I have no idea how many like these there are, but I wouldn't be surprised to learn that despite lots of 4K restorations being performed, not many of them could actually be properly released on UHD. I'd be quite curious, for instance, to know exactly the workflow for the DV UHD of Oldboy.

On this, I wonder if, like Arrow's An American Werewolf in London work, all of Arrow's 4K scans have had their color and clean up done in 2K? In other words, have they done any true 4K restorations?

[Glowingwabbit]

So with this good news, we've made the decision to release a couple more of our 4K restorations on UHD this year. And going forward, select New Releases will debut as 4K UHD + Blu-ray combos! We've got at least 5 more 4K restorations in the works, so look for some exciting announcements soon!!

Bill Lustig announced on the Shock Waves podcast new restorations in progress for Vigilante (which he directed) and The Final Countdown.

Daughters of Darkness was also mentioned to be forthcoming but I saw dwk posted about that earlier.

[dwk]

I believe that The Final Countdown is one of their best selling titles, so a UHD wouldn't shock me.

[tenia]

On this, I wonder if, like Arrow's An American Werewolf in London work, all of Arrow's 4K scans have had their color and clean up done in 2K? In other words, have they done any true 4K restorations?

From what I gathered, all the restoration work on Donnie Darko has been performed in 4k but then, all this has been pretty much archived/final output in 2k, or at least, there are only 2k files available for DCPs and video releases.

[mrb404]

From an interview on Bloody-disgusting.com:
"Mr. Lustig also noted that The New York Ripper and The House by the Cemetery will be the next 4K releases coming down the pike from Blue Underground."
William Lustig Remembers ‘Maniac’ and Previews the Upcoming 4K Ultra HD Release [Interview]

[dwk]

BU just announced that the UHDs of New York Ripper and House by the Cemetery are coming in August.

[dwk]

Lustig on UHD from that Blood Disgusting piece

So we found the original 16mm camera negative, and all of it was scanned at the highest bit rate possible. That’s how we did that Blu-ray. While we’re were doing the Blu-ray, we always had it in our minds – ‘Do we do a 4K? Do we not do a 4K?’ We really didn’t know where the market was going, and we didn’t see any other genre films with the exception of Suspiria coming out on 4K. Everybody was downplaying it, saying ‘Ah, there’s not enough of a market for it!’ Even our manufacturer was saying ‘Why do you guys wanna do 4K? There’s no business in it. There’s not enough people that want it.’

“But my gut told me that if we start doing it, other people will start doing it. So, I made the decision to go out and take a gamble, and put that and Zombie out on 4K. I know I own the company and it’s my movie, lets put that out there, but I gotta tell you – Maniac looks spectacular on 4K disc. It really does. I’m looking at it, I’m going ‘My god, it looks like I shot the movie yesterday!’ It still looks filmic. It’s not like it looks like it was shot on video or anything. But it was just amazing to me. I was really quite surprised at how good it turned out. So I’m excited about the release of Maniac on 4K. We’ll have a separate Blu-ray disc in there, which has all the special features [from the previous release], plus there are some that are on the feature disc itself. It’s got everything, except it doesn’t have the CD soundtrack. And we upgraded the audio on it and Zombie to Dolby Atmos!

“It was enormously expensive to do! But, I took the position that I own the film in perpetuity, the same with Zombie. So if I was gonna take a gamble, I’ll take a gamble on these two titles. Because if they don’t go out the door strong, I have an unlimited amount of years to recoup my money.

“Funny enough, they have [done well]. The early indications are that the sales are surprisingly strong. They’re probably about the same as what we did on that Blu-ray release so far.”

[EddieLarkin]

Assuming I'm reading them right, that the UHDs have already done in pre-order what the new BDs have done so far total, I take Lustig's comments to indicate that if a label is going to re-release one of their evergreen titles with a new 4K scan, they'll do better business if they actually release it on the new format instead of relegating it to the old.

Which maybe shows just how wrong Criterion and Arrow have been about UHD.

BU just announced that the UHDs of New York Ripper and House by the Cemetery are coming in August.

Daughters of Darkness confirmed for UHD too, along with The Final Countdown next year.

[knives]

Different market in that BU has one outside of collectors and libraries.

[Glowingwabbit]

BU just announced that the UHDs of New York Ripper and House by the Cemetery are coming in August.

Hopefully this means someone will sell off there blu of House by the Cemetery for cheap as I haven't picked that one up yet and I don't really care about UHD to pay more for it.

[nitin]

Lustig does say it is 3-4x cost of producing a regular blu, presumably why he is only doing titles BU owns rather than sub-licenses?

[captveg]

Assuming I'm reading them right, that the UHDs have already done in pre-order what the new BDs have done so far total, I take Lustig's comments to indicate that if a label is going to re-release one of their evergreen titles with a new 4K scan, they'll do better business if they actually release it on the new format instead of relegating it to the old.

Which maybe shows just how wrong Criterion and Arrow have been about UHD.

Criterion and Arrow rarely re-issue titles they already released on Blu-ray on a new Blu-ray, though. In those circumstances this approach by BU makes sense. How many times has Criterion released a second Blu-ray version of a film from a new master (not counting the large Bergman set which would never have been UHD)? I can only think of Playtime and Monterey Pop.

[dwk]

Arrow has double dipped quite a bit: Bird with the Crystal Plumage, Cat o'nine Tails, Deep Red, City of the Living Dead, Lifeforce, Phenomena.

Criterion is going to double dip on Chungking Express, In the Mood For Love, and some Fellini titles. They also have a new 4K master of Walkabout.

[dwk]

BU tweeted the cover for Daughters of Darkness

[Glowingwabbit]

There is a thread for posting covers like that.

[black&huge]

Hahaha. Yeah.

[M Sanderson]

Great news. But the cover suggests some kind of mannequin movie, or Barbie doll animation.

[CSM126]

Sharon Tate?

[L.A.]

Restored film trailer for Vigilante.

[L.A.]

So pretty much EVERYBODY knew "Welcome to Potters Bluff" was from DEAD & BURIED. We're happy to report our 4K restoration is now well underway and, if all goes smoothly, this should be our first 4K UHD release of 2021!

[Nw_jahrles]

Blue Underground is really going all-in on UHD. We’ll see if the aggressive approach pays off for them. I’m sure other cult labels are watching to see how the market is for titles that don’t have a big name attached to them like Fulci.

[L.A.]

The time has come to announce our 6th(!) 4K UHD release... VIGILANTE hits the streets on December 15th!

There’s Only One Way To Stop Them…

New York City factory worker Eddie Marino (Robert Forster, Oscar® nominee for JACKIE BROWN) is a solid citizen and regular guy, until the day a sadistic street gang brutally assaults his wife and murders his child. But when a corrupt judge sets the thugs free, Eddie goes berserk and vows revenge. Now there’s a new breed of marauder loose on the city streets, enforcing his own kind of law. His justice is swift. His methods are violent. He is the VIGILANTE.

Fred Williamson (FROM DUSK TILL DAWN), Richard Bright (THE GODFATHER), Rutanya Alda (AMITYVILLE II: THE POSSESSION), Carol Lynley (THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE), Woody Strode (SPARTACUS), Joe Spinell (MANIAC) and Salsa legend Willie Colón co-star in this hard-hitting exploitation classic from director William Lustig (MANIAC COP 2) that many critics consider to be better – and more shocking – than the original DEATH WISH. Now Blue Underground is thrilled to present VIGILANTE in a pristine new restoration, scanned in 4K 16-bit from the original 35mm camera negative, with Dolby Vision HDR and Dolby Atmos audio, fully loaded with exclusive new and archival Extras!

Extras:
• Audio Commentary #1 with Co-Producer/Director William Lustig and Co-Producer Andrew Garroni
• Audio Commentary #2 with Co-Producer/Director William Lustig and Stars Robert Forster, Fred Williamson and Frank Pesce
• NEW! Audio Commentary #3 with Film Historians Troy Howarth and Nathaniel Thompson
• NEW! Blue Collar DEATH WISH – Interviews with Writer Richard Vetere, Star Rutanya Alda, Associate Producer/First A.D./Actor Randy Jurgensen, and others
• NEW! Urban Western - Interview with Composer Jay Chattaway
• Theatrical Trailers
• TV Spots
• Radio Spot
• Promotional Reel
• Poster & Still Galleries
• BONUS! Collectible Booklet with new essay by Michael Gingold

• Audio: English (Dolby Atmos, 5.1 DTS-HD, 2.0 DTS-HD); French (Dolby Digital 2.0); Italian (Dolby Digital 2.0); German (Dolby Digital 2.0)
• Subtitles: English SDH, Français, Español, Português
• Region Free
• Limited Collector’s Edition includes 4K UHD, Remastered Blu-ray, collectible booklet, reversible sleeve, and 3D lenticular slipcover (First Pressing Only)!

Pre-Orders coming soon...

*Unfortunately there's no soundtrack available for VIGILANTE. Jay Chattaway explains why in his new interview on the disc.

[Cash Flagg]

From Facebook:

We're preparing to launch our biggest 4K UHD yet: THE FINAL COUNTDOWN arrives Spring 2021!

DEAD & BURIED has turned out to be one of our most challenging projects, but we're on track for release next year in time for its 40th Anniversary!

[dwk]

The Final Countdown UHD is coming on April 27. New extras appear to be the soundtrack on CD and a booklet:

BRAND NEW 4K RESTORATION OF THE FILM FROM THE ORIGINAL 35MM CAMERA NEGATIVE
DOLBY VISION/HDR PRESENTATION OF THE FILM
NEW DOLBY ATMOS AUDIO TRACK
ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK PLACED ON A SEPARATE CD DISC
Audio Commentary with Director of Photography Victor J. Kemper
Lloyd Kaufman Goes Hollywood - Interview with Associate Producer Lloyd Kaufman
Starring The Jolly Rogers - Interviews with The Jolly Rogers F-14 Fighter Squadron
Theatrical Trailers
TV Spots
Poster & Still Galleries
Fully illustrated collectible booklet featuring The Zero Pilot Journal
Reversible sleeve
Moving lenticular slipcover (First Pressing only)
Optional English SDH, Spanish, and French subtitles for the main feature
REGION-FREE