Criterion and Paramount

[MyNameCriterionForum]

Agreed, One-Eyed Jacks is fantastic. It would be especially nice to have some extras on that one, particularly regarding Kubrick's involvement and the "ringing of the gong" haha. Shame most involved are gone, though.

[jaredsap]

The recently released Night Train to Munich is a public domain title.

Not in the US. Owned by Fox. I've confirmed this and Criterion's DVD packaging credits them.

[Bruce]

Do Criterion have the rights to release on Blu-ray any of the Paramount-licensed titles that they have already released on DVD? They have already released 'Days Of Heaven' in both formats for example.

If so, I'm wondering what the chances are of seeing Criterion BDs for titles such as 'Ace In The Hole' and 'If....'.

[cdnchris]

I think it was figured they don't have the BD rights to the Paramount titles, and actually had to fight to get the Blu-ray rights for Days of Heaven. Since they did get Days of Heaven I guess anything is possible, but there's certainly no guarantee.

[Bruce]

OK, thanks for your prompt reply.

[GiovanniR]

Criterion in reply of a request for The Conformist:

Keep your fingers crossed.

[Peacock]

Bearing in mind a couple of comments earlier than Criterion's mentioned hoping for Luna, Before the Revolution (which we know they have) and The Spider's Stratagem as well.

[SpiderBaby]

^Hey Peacock, I asked not too long ago about Before The Revolution and they said they don't have the rights anymore. I don't know if that is a smoke screen, but they could of just left my question unanswered if it was.

[zenosparadox]

About The Conformist, Criterion, on FB, just said, "Keep your fingers crossed." Exciting!

Just go to their page and look for the post by "Daniel McClelland" about The Conformist.

[Cinephrenic]

That would include 1900 too I hope. Bertolucci's Marxist miniseries in HD.

[captveg]

About The Conformist, Criterion, on FB, just said, "Keep your fingers crossed." Exciting!

Just go to their page and look for the post by "Daniel McClelland" about The Conformist.

You know, I was thinking Paramount might have just licensed more titles to Criterion since the Legend and Olive films via Paramount licensing for Blu-ray were just announced. This is exciting news. Hopefully they also secured Blu-ray rights for some of their Paramount DVD only releases, too.

[HistoryProf]

Criterion in reply of a request for The Conformist:

Keep your fingers crossed.

ooooo...goody goody! \:D/

[Jeff]

I wondered if Criterion might be going after The Conformist (and 1900, and others). Paramount took tons of titles out of print last year, and has basically stopped dealing with all but the biggest sellers in their catalog (Centennial Collection), choosing to farm out the deeper catalog titles to third parties. The Conformist DVD has a good transfer and a featurette, but it's certainly worth a Criterion release just to get it in Blu. It's one of my favorite films, and certainly one of the most beautiful. Hopefully, since it's 1.66, Storaro will keep his mitts off of it.

Criterion mentioned in the past that they're big fans of Seconds and would like to release it, but didn't have the rights at that time. Maybe this time they'll also go after Seconds, One-Eyed Jacks, The Mattei Affair, and Don't Look Now, all of which seem like prime Criterion candidates*.

* Along with Nashville, The Parallax View, The Tin Star, Miracle of Morgan's Creek, Wings, Serpico, Atlantic City, Pretty Baby, Rosemary's Baby, The Dead Zone, The Elephant Man, Paper Moon, Targets, The Tenant, Little Big Man, Ragtime, and dozens of others.

If the Republic catalog is in play, that list would double.

[knives]

Criterion mentioned in the past that they're big fans of Seconds and would like to release it, but didn't have the rights at that time. Maybe this time they'll also go after Seconds, One-Eyed Jacks, The Mattei Affair, and Don't Look Now, all of which seem like prime Criterion candidates.

If even just one of those came out (again) it would be worth the stress of Paramount pulling them in the first place. Talking about their big sellers though I'm surprised they haven't reissued the American Polanksi's yet.

[rwaits]

Isn't Medium Cool Paramount? Hasn't Criterion expressed some interest in that film in the past?

[flyonthewall2983]

Doubtful it's been mentioned yet, but I think 48 Hours would make for a good release. It might be my favorite 80's buddy-cop movie because the chemistry between Murphy and Nolte plays up the comedy, not the story (not unlike the first Lethal Weapon). Paramount has only released bare bones editions of it, up to the recent Blu-Ray release.

[Cold Bishop]

I'd rather they get The Warriors, and correct the "Director's Cut" blunder.

[Forrest Taft]

I would buy 48 hrs in a heartbeat, but if they are to release an early Walter Hill movie, I'd prefer Hard Times, The Driver or Southern Comfort. Or Hickey and Boggs, which I've heard great things about, but have never managed to track down...

[Cold Bishop]

Paramount owns none of those. MGM owns a few, but unless Criterion can get a shot at an Optimum style boxset, I'd doubt they'd touch them.

And Hickey and Boggs is floating around in a very watchable TV Rip, sourced from the MGM-HD broadcast. A big favorite of mine. It was also available once on iTunes, might still be.

[Bruce]

Do Criterion have the rights to release on Blu-ray any of the Paramount-licensed titles that they have already released on DVD? They have already released 'Days Of Heaven' in both formats for example.

If so, I'm wondering what the chances are of seeing Criterion BDs for titles such as 'Ace In The Hole' and 'If....'.

OK so we're now going to get 'If....'. What's the likelihood we will get 'Ace In The Hole' on Blu within the next 12 months?

[HistoryProf]

I would imagine that's somewhere in the realm of "definitely possible"

[flyonthewall2983]

Would The Friends Of Eddie Coyle fall into that category as well?

[Noiradelic]

I think Ace in the Hole is a significantly better candidate for a Blu than Friends Of Eddie Coyle. Ace is a fully loaded 2 disc set with a canonical director, while FoEC is lower-tier and somewhat more obscure. That being said, we don't know what the licensing issues are. I bet against FoEC when I nabbed it last fall -- we'll see how that works out for me.

[captveg]

Friends of Eddie Coyle is also one of the titles post spine #450, which has yet to see a DVD-only release get a Blu-ray upgrade. That barrier will be broken someday, but I wouldn't bet on FoEC to be the one to do it.

[ianungstad]

Anyone want to speculate what's going to be included in this second batch of Paramount titles?

So far there is strong evidence that Harold and Maude, Rosemary's Baby, The Conformist, Miracle of Morgan's Creek are all forthcoming.

Other strong possibilities:

Margot at the Wedding (Noah Baumbach)
Virgin Suicides (Sophia Coppola)
Election (Alexander Payne)
Sydney/Hard Eight (Paul Thomas Anderson)
Bringing out the Dead (Martin Scorsese)
Witness (Peter Weir)
Gallipoli (Peter Weir)
American Gigolo (Paul Schrader)
Atlantic City (Louis Malle)
Pretty Baby (Louis Malle)
The Parallax View (Alan J. Paluka)
The Tenant (Roman Polanski)
Don't Look Now (Nicholas Roeg)
Paper Moon (Peter Bogdanovich)
Targets (Peter Bogdanovich)
Serpico (Sidney Lumet)
Nashville (Robert Altman)
Hud (Martin Ritt)
The Tin Star (Anthony Mann)
Seconds (John Frankenheimer)
Elephant Man (David Lynch)
Stalog 17 (Billy Wilder)
Play it Again, Sam (Herbert Ross)
Medium Cool (Haskell Wexler)
The Tin Star (Anthony Mann)

Unreleased titles that Criterion may want: The Keep, Handle with Care/Citizen's Band, Looking for Mr.Goodbar, One Eyed Jacks, The Man Who Knew too Much

I still think titles like Sunset Boulevard, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, etc are too big for Paramount to license out. (That goes for anything they released as a "Centennial" edition, really). Ditto, There Will be Blood. (which is too bad since the special edition had lousy extras)