Forthcoming Lists Discussion and Random Speculation Vol. 5

[willoneill]

Won't Gravity be released in October?

Yes, but it was supposed to come out last year, and then this March. The delays in finishing Gravity meant that Cuaron hasn't been able to contribute to the Y Tu Mama Tambien disc (I'm assuming).

[bainbridgezu]

October Predictions
Scanners
The Brood
Léon: The Professional
Frances Ha
Au hasard Balthazar
Eyes without a Face

[criterion10]

Léon: The Professional

...The Professional? Was there a hint or something that I missed out on, because I know that this already has a Blu-Ray release from Sony...

[bainbridgezu]

The Professional? Was there a hint or something that I missed out on, because I know that this already has a Blu-Ray release from Sony

There may have been a hint in the New Year's drawing, which is the only time they give multi-film clues (such as Babette's Feast and Naked Lunch or Gate of Hell, Devil's Backbone and Lord of the Flies). Chaplin's Kid (an orphan) is paired with Melville's samouraï (a hitman), whereas all of the other figures appear in their own spaces. This interpretation was first proposed by Ryan Gallagher at Criterion Cast.

[flyonthewall2983]

Much as I'd like to see it, I doubt Sony would give it since their Blu and DVD's are still in print, AFAIK.

[Moe Dickstein]

Universal does concurrent releases of their Blu and Criterions.

I doubt Sony cares about that stuff anymore

[fdm]

Likely the guessed at Leon clue is for something else. Similar to how it turned out the consensus guess Bitter Rice clue from a while back was for Summer with Monika. Also still more likely that Criterion cares about Bitter Rice than Leon.

[captveg]

Not that I think Leon is forthcoming, but Sony did release Easy Rider themselves before Criterion got it.

[Jeff]

The Leon interpretation of that clue seems like a bit of a stretch. I don't even think that's Jef from Le Samouraï. I think it's Barton Fink as Zatoichi.

[dwk]

Yuko Shimizu posted her Zatoichi drawing on Instagram and Caitlin Kuhwald (riverwater) replied

I'm doing one too!

So, either Caitlin Kuhwald is doing a Zatoichi cover too or these Zatoichi drawings are for something else.

[Minkin]

Yuko Shimizu posted her Zatoichi drawing on Instagram and Caitlin Kuhwald (riverwater) replied

I'm doing one too!

So, either Caitlin Kuhwald is doing a Zatoichi cover too or these Zatoichi drawings are for something else.

Hmm, I might assume that the project is quite large, thus requiring a number of designers/illustrators.

How in the world might Criterion release the Zatoichi series though? We are assuming that they picked up the rights to the remainder of the series (since they are OOP, and the gaps in films are completely random). I doubt anyone but the most hardcore fans would buy a 20+ disc set (I can't imagine how expensive a boxset would be). The first film would undoubtedly sell, but I don't think Criterion could do individual releases for all of the 26 films. Perhaps smaller boxsets - like "films 2-6" etc (similar to Samurai Trilogy)? I don't doubt that samurai films are probably amongst Criterion's most successful sellers, but the Zatoichi series seems too unwieldy.

I hope it isn't just a 26 disc set similar to the AK100 set (which was essentially an overstuffed Eclipse set with a fancy book).

[dwk]

Assuming they now have the rights to all 26. The Zatoichi films tend to be pretty short (I think #20, Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo, and #26, Zatoichi, are the longest ones at 116 minutes each with the rest being around 80 to 90 minutes each), so they should be able to fit two films on a Blu-ray with no problem.

They could break them up into sets based on the year they were released. Either big sets:

• Set 1: 1962-1964, films 1-9
  Set 2: 1965-1968, films 10-19
  Set 3: 1970-1989, films 20-26

or, if they want to go smaller:

• 1962: films 1 & 2
  1963: films 3, 4, & 5,
  1964: films 6, 7, 8, & 9
  1965: films 10, 11, & 12
  1966: films 13, & 14
  1967: films 15, 16, & 17
  1968: films 18 & 19
  1970: films 20 & 21
  1971: film 22
  1972: films 23 & 24
  1973: film 25
  1989: film 26

[MongooseCmr]

How essential is continuity in the series? I think they would release the first few films together, then maybe pick the "essential" titles and box them together. Doing all the films in any form seems like overkill, though. I know they're popular but is there really a demand for all those later entries in the series?

[movielocke]

A mainline release of the first film or two, and an AK100 esque box of the complete series?

[duck duck]

I really don't know how a Zatoichi film would go over because everyone who loves them have bought them all 10 years ago. I could see a small set with extras of the non-anamorphic ones, but that would probably be about it unless they went Eclipse over a really long period of time.

We still haven't gotten Rossellini Histories Part 2, so I think every Zatoichi film is a stretch. They would have to be BLU discs marketed at the people who already own the films and I'm guessing the market just got real small.

[knives]

I have to disagree with your first point if just because of the the fact that not all people who are fans now were fans ten years ago. I only discovered the series when a sister bought a Mifune set for me featuring his entry in the series two years ago.

[matrixschmatrix]

I think that Criterion has said that, genre-wise, their biggest sellers are samurai movies and noir- I don't doubt that with proper marketing, they could sell a giant load of fun samurai movies without too much trouble, even if their normal base was only vaguely interested.

[duck duck]

I am well aware that there will be new fans of everything but to really get to the market and make money, I think they would have to do BLU sets of films. The HVE releases are perfectly fine and came with books and posters and trading cards. I just meant that if they did Eclipse sets it would be of little interest to long time fans.

[Rupert Pupkin]

sorry this is has been discussed before, but I'm in love with Abbas Kiarostami's last movie "someone like in love". Is there any chance, hint that Criterion could release it ??? after having checked blu-ray.com it's licenced by IFC Films [-o<
it has been released only on DVD in France by Mk2. They "skipped" the blu-ray release. Too bad.

So far, my only hope for a blu-ray release is the English upcoming blu-ray... (the UK Blu-Ray "editor" is not familar too me)

[knives]

In all likelihood it will probably get a Crit release probably similar to what Certified Copy got, but given the length of time it took to release that it will probably be a good wait until such a release arises.

[The Elegant Dandy Fop]

I hope they don't release a set of just the first two. I'd like to see them all steadily released over time or separate line just for the Zatoichi films,. But as expected as anything with that many films, the quality of each feature is inconsistent with the first one being weak in comparison with what was to come. Zatoichi 6, 7, 8, 13 and 20 are my personal favorites from the series. Each one does show off the talent of each director and screenwriter featuring talents like Kenji Misumi, Kihachi Okamoto, Kazuo Ikehiro and Kaneto Shindo.

If Criterion decides to release a giant set, I'll be more than happy to trade in the old Home Vision Entertainment releases for a Blu-Ray set.

[Minkin]

I am well aware that there will be new fans of everything but to really get to the market and make money, I think they would have to do BLU sets of films. The HVE releases are perfectly fine and came with books and posters and trading cards. I just meant that if they did Eclipse sets it would be of little interest to long time fans.

That there are now two confirmed illustrators working on some sort of Zatoichi project basically confirms that this won't be an Eclipse set.

I think I like the idea of small boxsets best. I'd certainly be more likely to buy several smaller sets rather than one giant set (how expensive would that even be? If all bluray) - though the later films would probably be more difficult to market. Its an interesting challenge, and I think Criterion has finally found some solution that they think will work.

[EddieLarkin]

If the average run time for the sequels is around 90 minutes, then 3 films could fit per disc, whilst retaining a bit rate of around 22mbps (they've stuffed discs beyond this before, see Fanny & Alexander and Shoah). This is assuming no supplements for most of the sequels, but I think that's a given. So I'd say 10 Blu-rays could do it. Maybe a single disc edition of the first film, and then 3 3-disc box sets of the sequels released at a rate of one per year?

[dwk]

According to the imdb, here are the run times for all the Zatoichi films:
1. 96
2. 72
3. 91
4. 86
5. 85
6. 83
7. 90
8. 87
9. 86
10. 84
11. 88
12. 87
13. 83
14. 82
15. 93
16. 96
17. 87
18. 82
19. 84
20. 116
21. 96
22. 94
23. 90
24. 95
25. 88
26. 116

They could get those on 10 Blu-rays by putting 3 films on a disc for the first 18 films and then 2 film per disc for the remaining 8 films. (Of course all this speculation assumes they not only have the rights to all 26 films but they have HD masters for all 26 films.)

[The Elegant Dandy Fop]

Most importantly, let's hope for a Hanzo the Razor set in the future. I'd love to see Shintaro Katsu beat his giant penis with a stick in HD. Plus it would finally mean Yasuzo Masamura would get a spine number in the collection.