Criterion and Warner Bros.

[ianungstad]

Some speculation:

Since New Line has been adsorbed into Warner Brothers and no longer operates independently, I wouldn't be surprised if Criterion grabbed blu rights to some of the existing titles in the collection like My Own Private Idaho.

I wonder if they had already reestablished their relationship with Lynch when they were in talks with Warners. Hasn't he wanted to do a director's cut of Fire Walk With Me for ages? Apparently there's lots of material that had been cut out. Would be a good project for Criterion. Warner Brothers has never shown much interest in the film.

If we are sticking to the "living" directors criteria, it would be a blast if Criterion licensed the early John Waters films like Pink Flamingos, Desperate Living and Female Trouble.

[criterion10]

One New Line title that I'd love to see Criterion release would be Gummo, although it appears that I am in the minority on that one.

Twin Peaks would be awesome! I'm a huge fan of that film, and if Criterion could get Lynch to do a director's cut, that would be even better.

Also, I've never seen the film, but I do know that Crash has a big following, and I believe that is a New Line title, so maybe Criterion could get a hold of that one as well.

[ianungstad]

New Line licensed Crash from Jeremy Thomas and Recorded Picture Company. Criterion has licensed big titles from them in the past like The Last Emperor, etc. I think New Line let the rights go. The dvd has been out of print for years and it seems the film is not avaliable for digital streaming anywhere. Wouldn't be surprised if it showed up on one of Criterion's hulu updates. New Line has been letting the rights to licensed product expire. Hoop Dreams is now a Janus title and the blu of Naked came from film4.

[Peacock]

Twin Peaks would be awesome! I'm a huge fan of that film, and if Criterion could get Lynch to do a director's cut, that would be even better.

The theatrical cut is the director's cut in this case. Lynch was happy with being forced to cut the length down and therefore removing the other strands of the story to focus on Laura Palmer.

[criterion10]

The theatrical cut is the director's cut in this case. Lynch was happy with being forced to cut the length down and therefore removing the other strands of the story to focus on Laura Palmer.

Whoops, I think what I meant to say was the deleted footage, which I believe MK2 has been sitting on for quite sometime now.

[Jeff]

Those Fine Line titles were licensed to Criterion by Ira Deutchman. Several months ago, I asked him about them and he said the original licenses expired long ago. The fact that something like Short Cuts is still in print leads me to believe they've extended contracts for the existing titles (in addition to picking up the stuff that reverted to its independent producers).

[Harmonov]

Dave Neustadter, Senior Executive VP for New Line, is going to be on Indiana University's campus on Friday (he is an alum on campus for homecoming). If I'm able to go to his lecture, I will ask him about their relationship with Criterion.

[bainbridgezu]

Dave Neustadter, Senior Executive VP for New Line, is going to be on Indiana University's campus on Friday (he is an alum on campus for homecoming). If I'm able to go to his lecture, I will ask him about their relationship with Criterion.

If you have the opportunity, would you ask him about the possibility of Short Cuts and (especially) My Own Private Idaho being released on blu-ray? I believe these are the only titles licensed through New Line that the studio owns outright.

Perhaps someone who knows about these kinds of contracts could speculate if the same changes that allowed these titles to stay in-print might also permit them to be re-issued in a new format?

[flyonthewall2983]

Could this new deal with Paramount with Warners positively (or maybe negatively) affect possible titles coming to Criterion?

[Cinephrenic]

Current deals probably not, but future deals.

[ianungstad]

I was browsing Amazon and noticed that Philip Kaufman's The Wanderers has been out of print for awhile. Criterion had a video of him in the closet recently and it was speculated at the time that Criterion may be releasing Henry and June. The Universal dvd of Henry and June still seems to be in print. I haven't actually seen The Wanderers. Would it be a good fit for the collection? I wonder if maybe Criterion will be releasing this instead of Henry and June? (if they are releasing any Kaufman at all?)

It kind of makes sense. (out of print barebones warner dvd, new warner deal, director recently at the Criterion offices. The film is about a greaser gang and we just had a greaser clue. Kim pretty much confirmed the clue was for Badlands but who knows....double clue? I kind of thought it was odd that both "bad lambs" in the clue were male. If it was Badlands you would think it would be a boy and a girl. Maybe one is Martin Sheen and the other is a a character in The Wanderers. Just an idea?

[HistoryProf]

Any idea on the chances Criterion (or anyone for that matter) would finagle McCabe & Mrs. Miller from Warner's for blu treatment? I'm sure idiots over there think it's too "blurry" for hi-def because of Vilmos Zsigmond's filtered cinematography - yet it was in cinemeascope so surely good elements must survive. It's Beatty's best film, Leonard Cohen's soundtrack is hauntingly beautiful, and the film is simply a masterpiece. I'd hate to think it would be relegated to the archives collection they are doing now, as it deserves a full-fledged edition that explores it's place among the giants of the Western canon.

[JMULL222]

I'm hoping upgrades like that are what this Archive-Blu project is going to be aimed at. If Warners suddenly dropped BREWSTER and MCCABE on BD the same week? They'd have my $40.

[Noiradelic]

Any idea on the chances Criterion (or anyone for that matter) would finagle McCabe & Mrs. Miller from Warner's for blu treatment?

Depends on whether Criterion is really able to license dead directors' films from Warner. I'd think that Nashville and/or The Long Goodbye would be coming along sooner given Criterion's relationship with MGM, assuming of course they're coming at all.

[HistoryProf]

I'm hoping upgrades like that are what this Archive-Blu project is going to be aimed at. If Warners suddenly dropped BREWSTER and MCCABE on BD the same week? They'd have my $40.

And life and times of judge roy bean...which they let go OOP a few years ago as well.

[Matt]

So, 4 years from the first word that Criterion had made a deal with Warners to the release of the first disc from that deal.

[criterion10]

So, 4 years from the first word that Criterion had made a deal with Warners to the release of the first disc from that deal.

Was it that long ago that they made a deal with WB? I always thought that was mere speculation at the time, and that it wasn't until rather recently that they did indeed finally make a deal...

[Matt]

So, 4 years from the first word that Criterion had made a deal with Warners to the release of the first disc from that deal.

Was it that long ago that they made a deal with WB? I always thought that was mere speculation at the time, and that it wasn't until rather recently that they did indeed finally make a deal...

Maybe my saying "made a deal" was overstating it. I don't know the specifics, I was just going off of what the original poster said.

[eerik]

Press sheets for Badlands posted on HomeTheaterForum.com don't have any Warner Bros. logos on them. Interesting?!

[rrenault]

Maybe they'll get Blow-Up, as well.

[Rsdio]

Great news!

McCabe and Mrs Miller

Man, I would love to see this happen. If anything I would've thought there'd be more cash for Warners in a Badlands release so fingers crossed.

[beamish13]

Is it possible that BADLANDS was licensed directly from Edward Pressman, a la HOMICIDE?

[Cronenfly]

Is it possible that BADLANDS was licensed directly from Edward Pressman, a la HOMICIDE?

This seems very likely, given the precedent of Mishima, another former Warner property, which was credited to American Zoetrope (and which has left me hopeful for Barfly somewhere down the line).

Sad news for those Warner properties which have no viable production company/person to revert back to, if this is indeed the same case here...

[ianungstad]

Just looking at IMDB, Warner is listed as the distributor but the film itself was independently produced by Presmman-Williams, which also produced De Palma's Sisters. Kim certainly indicated at the Wexner talk that they had a deal with Warner Bros and then teased Badlands, so it's weird not to see Warner listed on the sell sheets.

[cdnchris]

The lack of a logo doesn't necessarily mean it's not coming from Warner as there have been a few instances for MGM/Fox and Universal titles where the logos were missing from the sell sheets. My understanding has been this is a Warner title but I'm working on confirming that.