Forthcoming Lists Discussion and Random Speculation Vol. 5

[onedimension]

Are there good, release-worthy restorations of these films already? Or are these just new prints of what already exists?

[knives]

Are there good, release-worthy restorations of these films already? Or are these just new prints of what already exists?

Yes, most of these were restored by UCLA with Criterion's work primarily being in scanning them for HD.

[duck duck]

Has all "King of The Hill" speculation died?

[The Narrator Returns]

At this point, I'd have to assume it's coming, since it's Universal, has a well-known director at the helm, and I don't think Criterion are that stupid (not to mention it's a great, great film). Hopefully it gets released around the time of Kafka.

[Moe Dickstein]

Yeah it will be good to retire my Soderbergh Laserdiscs lol

[ianungstad]

I emailed Werner Herzog's website asking about the rights to all those Anchor Bay titles that went out of print. They confirmed that these films are with a new distributor but wouldn't comment if it was Janus.

[Buttery Jeb]

I emailed Werner Herzog's website asking about the rights to all those Anchor Bay titles that went out of print. They confirmed that these films are with a new distributor but wouldn't comment if it was Janus.

It's not Janus Films, at least not theatrically. Bleeding Light Film Group (the company that put out Zulawski's "Possession" last year) are releasing "Nosferatu" at Film Forum around Halloween according to their new repertory calendar.

[Matt]

Bleeding Light Film Group

Here's an interesting interview with Bleeding Light's (proprietor and sole employee?) Brian Block. No specific mention of any films other than Possession, but he does hint that, as of last May when the interview was printed, that he was working on other titles for distribution.

[zedz]

Model Shop Blu? It's a pretty weak film, but might be able to work as a lower-tier Blu. You could also stick it onto a Lola set, since it's a sequel of sorts, but that seems very unlikely. My favoured option would be to pair it with Varda's Lions Love and the relevant shorts for a 'Jacques and Agnes Do America' double feature, to make a virtue of the films' time-capsule qualities. Otherwise, just stick it on Hulu for the morbidly curious.

Another possible special feature to make for this one (if they can get the movie from Sony) could be an interview with the surviving members of Spirit, Jay Ferguson & Mark Andes, about their experiences doing the score, appearing in the film, and their take on the late '60s LA milieu as interpreted in the film. Speaking of that, this film would be a good candidate for a "Now & Then" location comparison featurette.

Both of those would probably be more interesting than the film itself!

And they could always pair Model Shop with Skolimowski's Identification Marks: None, the film it's a crypto-remake of, if they weren't worried about having a bonus feature that's about 100 times better than the main one.

[ianungstad]

Sony just discontinued several hundred titles (mostly on dvd) including several that have already been licensed to Criterion. (Jubal, 3:10 to Yuma, Anatomy of a Murder)

There are few titles that have been discontinued on both DVD and Blu that I wouldn't be surprised to see reissued from Criterion : The Adventures of Baron Muchausen; Jason and the Argonauts; Kramer Vs. Kramer; Sex Lies and Videotape; Synedoche New York; Rachel Getting Married.

If you don't have any of these titles and think it's unlikely that they've been licensed out, you might want to buy them now!

[domino harvey]

Link to the titles?

[ianungstad]

http://dvdlist.kazart.com/queryDVDList2 ... ort3by=ASC" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Here's the list of titles discontinued in the last week sorted by studio. Check out both Columbia and Sony for the list of titles made OOP. Some of the titles are just out of print on dvd but are still in print on blu.

[domino harvey]

Jesus Christ, 61 pages of OOP Columbia/Sony titles-- this is the summer of Paramount all over again

[Moe Dickstein]

Those speculations look pretty solid. Lots they could do with Kramer Vs. Kramer, but Munchausen was pretty stacked. The draw on a new release there would be a new 4k transfer, and if they ever broke Kino's stranglehold on older German films, the '43 Munchausen on a second disc would make that a can't miss package.

[cdnchris]

Was finally thinking I should pick up Anderson Tapes but saw there's a Mill Creek Blu-ray. Unfortunately it also comes with Physical Evidence. So $6... but it comes with Physical Evidence... I don't know...

I'm pretty sure most of those titles will be released by some other third party, and I wouldn't be surprised if Criterion got a number of them. Wasn't Sony going to handle From Here to Eternity on Blu-ray? Or is it possibly going to someone else?

[domino harvey]

Wasn't Sony going to handle From Here to Eternity on Blu-ray? Or is it possibly going to someone else?

Already announced. True, some of these titles may be going to Mill Creek, but if there's anything you want, now's the time to strike just in case

[Moe Dickstein]

Chris, if it's 2 discs, send me Physical Evidence, I've been looking for it to complete my Crichton collection

[ianungstad]

I wonder if Sony would let Criterion release Life of Brian on blu. They just discontinued the Sony blu ray. So far they've let Criterion keep their lousy dvd in print.

[domino harvey]

Sony literally just put thousands of titles out of print, speculating on a handful seems foolish

[Harmonov]

Jesus Christ, 61 pages of OOP Columbia/Sony titles-- this is the summer of Paramount all over again

Jesus in a dumptruck. Gilda, sex, lies, and videotape, One False Move, Hable con ella, Cache, All the Pretty Horses (with that supposed 5-hour director's cut, Redbelt, Rachel Getting Married, Synecdoche, NY, White Ribbon- damn, there are some great films available.

[ianungstad]

Well; Moe was kind enough to share that The Big Chill (one of the discontinued titles) and Tootsie are forthcoming. The fact that several of the titles that have been put out of print were former Criterion laserdisc titles might not exactly be a coincidence. Moe also shared that Criterion picked up over 50 titles from Sony. Several of the titles could also be linked to some of the phantom pages that have popped up on the Criterion website... (Gilda, Capra, etc.)

A good share of the list can be traced to Criterion/Twilight Time/Mill Creek so I think to some degree you can read the tea leaves as far as speculating on future titles.

[Bando]

As much as I absolutely adore Rachel Getting Married, what could Criterion possibly do with that release that the now-OOP DVD didn't? Maybe some extra features with the music? Some kind of documentary on recovery and addiction? I have the DVD, and if memory serves, it's not exactly a sparse package or a lackluster transfer. A blu upgrade doesn't seem like incentive enough. It just seems like a bit of a stretch for a CC wish list, IMO.

[Moe Dickstein]

Dont forget Image. between the 4 companies they can probably handle everything.

[domino harvey]

Yeah, all of these titles are going to come back in print. This is where you need that "LOL," right-- that'll be me in a year when you're paying double list price for something you could've bought now half off

[Moe Dickstein]

I looked through that entire list of discontinued and was relieved that I had every single movie I wanted in my collection already xxx