ianungstad wrote:Too bad that Palm is discontinuing those director sets. They were a great idea. Maybe Criterion or another label like Shout could work out a deal for the rights. I wouldn't mind seeing updated versions on blu with added commercials, short films, music videos, etc.
Absolutely. These are treasures of my collection. Don't ask me how it happened but I've somehow got into an annual tradition of playing these while I wrap my Christmas presents up, so I'll be pulling them off the shelf again in the next couple of months!
I also agree totally with the idea of a Blu update. Not just with material produced since the discs were released but maybe Palm could also work on Chris Cunningham to release some of his earlier works too this time around.
Agree with everything everybody's already written about those Palm music video sets. They are great and would look great on Blu-ray. I'd love to see some more of them too, as I know there are at least as many worthy music video directors whose work hasn't been released in this fashion. Much of it is streaming on the Internet from their personal websites, but it would be nice to see it in 1080p all in one spot. Of newer directors who warrant their own collection, I'm thinking of Keith Scholfield for starters for things like "The Big Bad Wolf," "Toe Jam" and "Let Love Rule."
And if anybody ever ends up redoing the Spike Jonze set, I'd love to see his longish short for Arcade Fire included, which for me is more important than any of his features films.
It would be great if Criterion rescued Demonlover from Palm too.
ianungstad wrote:I suspect that the film might just be transitioning from Miramax to Janus. Miramax has been letting the rights to the foreign language films expire. Hence; Purple Noon, Belle Du Jour, 3 Colors Trilogy and Sonatine as recent examples of former Miramax titles now under the Janus banner. It would be odd for Criterion to lose Chungking Express considering they just announced a Qatsi film licensed from Miramax in the last week. It would be nice if Criterion would comment either way about the future of Chungking Express in the collection.
Regarding Sonatine, other than it showing up on a list on their Hulu page, is there any proof that Criterion/Janus actual have it now? I just figured that it showing up on the Hulu page was a mistake because the icon still has the Miramax logo and if you search for Miramax it shows up as one of their titles.
warren oates wrote:Agree with everything everybody's already written about those Palm music video sets. They are great and would look great on Blu-ray. I'd love to see some more of them too, as I know there are at least as many worthy music video directors whose work hasn't been released in this fashion. Much of it is streaming on the Internet from their personal websites, but it would be nice to see it in 1080p all in one spot. Of newer directors who warrant their own collection, I'm thinking of Keith Scholfield for starters for things like "The Big Bad Wolf," "Toe Jam" and "Let Love Rule."
And if anybody ever ends up redoing the Spike Jonze set, I'd love to see his longish short for Arcade Fire included, which for me is more important than any of his features films.
I hope all you fans of these sets are aware that Michel Gondry self-released the sequel to his collection: over here.
For me the Directors series discs were the wonderful extension of the 1999/2000 Channel 4 series Mirrorball, that tackled most of the directors (the interviews with Chris Cunningham on his disc come from his episode), along with Dawn Shadforth, Jonas Åkerlund, Mike Mills, Roman Coppola and Shynola, all of whom could merit similar 'Directors Label' discs.
I remember thinking that the one slight disappointment with the Jonathan Glazer set was the missing "Follow The Yellow Brick Road" soundtrack to the Wrangler commercial, with the commercial instead playing silently on the disc (although there is only this problem on the US region 1 set - the otherwise exactly the same UK set has the song included)
That's probably my fave commercial of the last 20 years (I used to enjoy it coming on! --- Which is really saying a lot, because I hate commercials intensely.)
Body Double
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (blu)
There's been some chatter on the forums that Body Double is rumored to be reissued by Twilight Time. Has anyone heard if Sony plans to rerelease Close Encounters of the Third Kind? Strange that it went out of print. Amazon already ran out of stock on the 2 disc blu but still have a few of the barebones 1 disc left in stock.
Dawn of the Dead: Ultimate Edition
Dawn of the Dead (blu)
There's been rumors for awhile that Anchor Bay has lost the rights to their Romero films along with other properties including Argento's Phenomena and Tenebrae. The Anchor Bay editions of Dawn of the Dead went out of print this week. The film is not currently available for streaming either, which supports the rumor that they may have lost the rights. If so, I wonder who outbid Anchor Bay? The sales company is New Amsterdam Entertainment. Their library only consists of three films : Dawn of the Dead/Martin/The Night Flier. All of which are currently out of print. Scream Factory seems the most likely label but I wouldn't rule out Image Entertainment or Criterion.
Personally, I enjoy Martin just as much as the zombie films. I've never seen Night Flier. Criterion has never went after the big genre titles, so these films seem more like something Scream/Shout! would go after. (assuming Anchor Bay has lost the rights). I only mentioned Criterion as I remember Romero did an interview for the Tales of Hoffman disc, so thought that they may have some sort of relationship.
Day of the Dead is still listed as in print on MMM but I imagine it's status will change soon. It's already been taken off the Anchor Bay website, it's been changed to "currently unavailable" on Amazon streaming and the blu already looks like it's out of stock at Amazon and is only available from third party retailers.
Someone on the blu-ray.com forums asked Shout's Cliff Mac if he knew if Anchor Bay lost the rights to Day of the Dead and the two Argento titles and he said he knew they lost Day of the Dead, leading me to think Shout picked it up. It wouldn't surprise me if Scream Factory's big announcement tomorrow night included Day, Dawn, Martin, and Night Flier.
We'll see tomorrow if Scream hints that they've picked up the Romero films. I guess it doesn't matter as long as the new company puts out a quality release but I kind of hope Criterion landed them. If there's no hint from Scream tomorrow, maybe we can move these posts about the Dead films to the Forthcoming and Random Speculation thread.
There is a pretty good argument to be made that Criterion nabbed Scanners/The Brood and Shout got stuck with the Scanner sequels. Maybe Criterion went shopping recently for some of the high profile genre films that have become available.
It would be great if Criterion picked up the Romero films (and the Argento films.) I think that, some time ago, when they were really responding to questions on Facebook, Criterion expressed some interest in releasing Martin.
I'm pretty sure the Argento films reverted to Bill Lustig/Blue Underground just like all the others did. Which means we'll probably be seeing Blu-rays soon.
It wouldn't surprise me if Blue Underground got the other Argentos, but they were renewed by Anchor Bay after Lustig left, so I don't think he owned them. In any event, I hope whoever has Tenebrae is able to use the French master for their release, because the one used by Arrow is awful.
While it's likely that whomever wanted the rights went after both titles since they seem to be going out of print at the same time, Dawn/Day are actually owned by different companies, so there is a slight chance they went to different labels.
As far as Romero goes, I've been pining for Criterion to do the blu of Night of The Living Dead for a while now....which is probably the ultimate American indie film. Public domain releases be damned, I'd shell out for it.
I've had the director series since they've been released & have quite liked them, though I've also wished Criterion would pick them up, include more material (especially the missing commercials). But, most of all, I'd like to see lossless audio & getting rid of that letterboxing on all the non full-frame videos, I think the Aphex Twin Windowlicker video only takes up less than 1/2 of my screen.
