Forthcoming Lists Discussion and Random Speculation Vol. 4

[Minkin]

I know that the original is by far the best and probably the only part of the series that is among Criterion's caliper, but:

Might we ever see any other Godzilla films?

Most all of the films from Sony are OOP and many of them I feel are interesting or bizarre enough to warrant a C release (plus they'll all be moneymakers). At the very least, they should do either Godzilla vs the Smog Monster (which is Hausu territory in terms of crazy) or King Kong vs Godzilla (from Universal) (they can dig up the German dub/version which apparently includes Frankenstein in the film).

[matrixschmatrix]

I would love a Crit King Kong vs Godzilla, as it's a major film in the subgenre, the extant release is a piece of shit, and if anything was going to lure Kalat out of commentary retirement, it'd be that. Even without him, the potential for extras boggle the mind- and beyond all that, it's fun as hell.

Most of the other Honda-era Godzillas already have pretty solid releases- though Godzilla itself had that, and Criterion bettered it easily, so I'm guessing they're out of the running.

[movielocke]

Since next Monday will bring the first announcements for 2013, what are we expecting for the new year?

Restoration-wise, I know 'The Tin Drum' & Col. Blimp are likely to come on disc next year; the two Monte Hellman films have been mentioned; 'On The Waterfront' and 'Badlands' have been clued;

I hope this is the year of Rublev, at least 1 Rivette, and blus of Antonioni's semi-trilogy..

2011 and 2012 both had half a dozen new editions, respectively. If we assume that Tin Drum and Blimp both get new editions, that leaves about four-five other titles to get entirely new editions (different from a straight upgrade). It's possible Blimp will simply be an upgrade with the picture based on the new restoration, probably more likely that Tin Drum, with an entirely new cut will be more of a new edition.

I would guess the leans are on deck for new editions in 2013 (Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, Summertime), and of the rest of the in print pre-50 spine numbers that are probably in play for new editions are Picnic at Hanging Rock, Nanook of the North & Henry V (Lord of the Flies, Taste of Cherry and the rest are probably less likely). The forum assumption is that there will be lots of press and a theatrical tour before they rerelease Andrei Rublev, so it may be not be in the cards for 2013

from the next 50 spines, Autumn Sonata, The Blob, Passion of Joan of Arc, Kwaidan, Good Morning, & L'Avventura are all presumed/rumored to be in the works. and there's a good chance that titles like the Sirks, or I Know Where I'm Going are also possible.

So I would guess we'll get new editions of:

Great Expectations
Oliver Twist
Picnic at Hanging Rock
Autumn Sonata
The Blob
Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
Tin Drum

And bluray upgrades of:
L'Avventura
Spartacus
Wild Strawberries
Throne of Blood
Richard III
Tokyo Story
La Strada
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
Le Samourai
Bicycle Thieves

That's a lot of wishful thinking.

In terms of the rest of the slate, there is the wenders road set still in the cards, Y Tu Mama Tambien is still rumored, as is Bitter Rice, and an etaix eclipse release has not yet appeared.

[matrixschmatrix]

Hopefully if they do Great Expectations and Oliver Twist, they'll rerelease Summertime and finish off the early Leans- God knows it could use it.

[movielocke]

Hopefully when they do Summertime they'll get it in the correct widescreen aspect ratio, rather than continuing with open matte.

[What A Disgrace]

I'd really like a Blu of Hobson's Choice. Its only fair.

[HistoryProf]

Moonrise Kingdom will be in the Fantastic Mr. Fox category, yes? seems silly for Criterion to do it after the loaded disc that's coming next week.

As for January, I'll go:

Emigrants/New Land
Badlands
On The Waterfront
Etaix Eclipse

Upgrades:
Wild Strawberries
Picnic at Hanging Rock
The Last Wave

[Jeff]

Moonrise Kingdom will be in the Fantastic Mr. Fox category, yes? seems silly for Criterion to do it after the loaded disc that's coming next week.

The Moonrise Kingdom release next week is not loaded. It contains only three three-minute marketing featurettes which were part of the film's website.

I think it's a near-certainty that Criterion will be doing Moonrise Kingdom, possibly up to a year after the Focus release (as with Fox's Darjeeling Limited). Focus has a strong relationship with Criterion, and I'd guess that licensing the title to Criterion after an exclusivity window was part of Anderson's contract. The usual commentary, the short animated films he had commissioned of Suzy's books, and his Funny or Die short Cousin Ben Troop Screening all seem like sure bets.

[Gregory]

...
Upgrades:
The Last Wave

Have there been rumors to this effect? Hard to believe they'd do this before upgrading the old non-anamorphic Picnic at Hanging Rock. They'd also need to have come up with some more extra features for Last Wave before before putting it out on blu, I'd think, as the DVD just has a ten-minute director interview.

[HistoryProf]

simply a left field guess and something from Oz to go with Picnic at Hanging Rock since they seem to like to pair upgrades at times. in other words, pulled straight from my arse.

As for Moonrise Kingdom, I was told by a friend it was a multi disc set so I just assumed it was getting the Fantastic Mr. Fox treatment (which is a glorious release that need not be repeated just to have a spine #) - but I'm sort of glad to hear i'm wrong. I can rent it for now and wait for the inevitable Criterion that will surely be better than whatever half-assed release Universal is putting out.

[stroszeck]

...
Upgrades:
The Last Wave

Have there been rumors to this effect? Hard to believe they'd do this before upgrading the old non-anamorphic Picnic at Hanging Rock. They'd also need to have come up with some more extra features for Last Wave before before putting it out on blu, I'd think, as the DVD just has a ten-minute director interview.

Would love to see a nice, long in-depth featurette about Richard Chamberlain. How he's become basically forgotten is such a travesty, the man was (and still is!) incredible.

[Cinephrenic]

Can't agree more. He is very underrated as a actor.

[movielocke]

predictions

Wenders set
Badlands
etaix eclipse

Grey Gardens/Beales upgrade
or
Great Expectations, Oliver Twist upgrade

[captveg]

January '13 predictions:

Jour de fête (w/ Parade as bonus) (BD & DVD)
Mon oncle (BD upgrade)
M. Hulot's Holiday (BD upgrade - maybe DVD upgrade too?)
On the Waterfront (BD & DVD)
Red River (BD & DVD)
Y tu mamá también (BD & DVD)

[krnash]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-77-oAw ... re=g-all-u" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Just posted on Criterion's Youtube channel. Based on the chunky title, it almost seems like an accident. Seems like a dead giveaway for an Etaix set January.

[ryannichols7]

will they be releasing it so soon before Janus tours it? i feel like it's simply a trailer for that.

Badlands
On the Waterfront
Jour de Fete + Parade
The Soft Skin
Jules and Jim (upgrade)
Ikiru (upgrade)
Czech New Wave volume 2

[AfterTheRain]

Predictions for January:

On the Waterfront
Red River
The Uninvited (hopefully)
Ministry of Fear (also wishful thinking)
Wild Strawberries (upgrade)
And the Ship Sails On (upgrade)

[Perkins Cobb]

Film scholar on my Facebook feed was taping extras for Ministry of Fear yesterday. Sez it's probably scheduled for spring.

[ryannichols7]

i probably wasn't supposed to say this but since i don't actually know who the guy was and i ran into him in Union Square toting a Janus Films bag around...he recorded materials for Latin American movies. I asked him specifically about Limite (quite honestly, the only Latin movie I know besides Black Orpheus, which doesn't count) and his response was "it's up to them!"

take that for what it's worth.

[CSM126]

i probably wasn't supposed to say this but since i don't actually know who the guy was and i ran into him in Union Square toting a Janus Films bag around...he recorded materials for Latin American movies. I asked him specifically about Limite (quite honestly, the only Latin movie I know besides Black Orpheus, which doesn't count) and his response was "it's up to them!"

take that for what it's worth.

That could easily mean "It's up to them to decide if they want to pursue the rights".

[ryannichols7]

pretty sure they can't really make extras about movies they don't have the rights to (nor would they waste their time doing so)...and it's also a well known fact they essentially do have the rights to Limite.

they commission people to do stuff all the time for a range of filmmakers or films and significantly edit it. so they pretty much could have the rights to four Latin movies (I can't name any so I won't give an example) including Limite. this guy might've recorded three hours of video interviews, talking about each movie. Criterion will edit it into a nice 20-30 minute piece per each movie, and it's their decision which one they put out first. that's what i think the deal is.

again, I don't know shit about Latin movies, but Limite seems like a really obvious first choice from what I know about it.

[andyli]

And does this mean that LIMITE won't be dumped to a World Cinema Foundation Eclipse set? Good.

[knives]

They did make extras for Robert Downey so anything is possible.

[SpiderBaby]

i probably wasn't supposed to say this but since i don't actually know who the guy was and i ran into him in Union Square toting a Janus Films bag around...he recorded materials for Latin American movies. I asked him specifically about Limite (quite honestly, the only Latin movie I know besides Black Orpheus, which doesn't count) and his response was "it's up to them!"

take that for what it's worth.

Thank you. Hope this means more than just Limite, maybe some Glauber Rocha and Joaquim Pedro de Andrade.

It wasn't Robert Stam was it?

[Cinephrenic]

I talked to Robert Stam couple years ago and he just said that he had made suggestions, but no word on any films. This was like 4-5 years ago.