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Don't they have Kieslowski's colors trilogy, too?

They used to have it. They may have lost it though.

Deadline posted an article on Miramax and mentioned Lionsgate as their new home video distributor. Lionsgate is apparently handling theatrical for the three remaining (shelved) Miramax titles as well. Should put Criterion's chances of licensing any Miramax titles fairy close to 0% if this bit of gossip is true.

Let's hope they don't flood the market with new releases like did when they acquired the Republic and Canal catalogs!

ianungstad wrote:Deadline posted an article on Miramax and mentioned Lionsgate as their new home video distributor. Lionsgate is apparently handling theatrical for the three remaining (shelved) Miramax titles as well. Should put Criterion's chances of licensing any Miramax titles fairy close to 0% if this bit of gossip is true.

Let's hope they don't flood the market with new releases like did when they acquired the Republic and Canal catalogs!

Weinstein, not Lionsgate.

If you actually read the article:

Miramax isn't done making deals, though. It inherited hundreds of development projects and will be looking for partners on those projects. It also has three finished films--the John Madden-directed The Debt, the Guillermo del Toro-produced Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, and the Massy Tadjedin-directed Last Night with Keira Knightley and Sam Worthington. I'm told that Lionsgate is a likely landing place for those films, as well as Miramax's home video output deal.

ianungstad wrote:If you actually read the article:

Miramax isn't done making deals, though. It inherited hundreds of development projects and will be looking for partners on those projects. It also has three finished films--the John Madden-directed The Debt, the Guillermo del Toro-produced Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, and the Massy Tadjedin-directed Last Night with Keira Knightley and Sam Worthington. I'm told that Lionsgate is a likely landing place for those films, as well as Miramax's home video output deal.

That seems more likely. TheDigitalBits posted that Weinstein was also going to do the distribution but I guess they were wrong.

That's too bad. Lionsgate has had some good releases, but they tend to be a very lazy company.

Perhaps we should change the title to just Miramax. I don't really think there really is a connection between Criterion and Miramax. What you guys think?

Cinephrenic wrote:Perhaps we should change the title to just Miramax. I don't really think there really is a connection between Criterion and Miramax. What you guys think?

Well, it may turn out to not be much of a connection, but both Chungking Express and The Double Life of Veronique are currently under license from Miramax, so there is some relationship. It remains to be seen how that will play out under new ownership, but we may as well leave it for now.

I would presume that the primary purpose of Miramax in its persent incarnation is to maximise the commercial exploitation of the back catalogue, whether a Criterion linkup on certain titles would serve this interest best, is a decision the new management will no doubt make in the light of their overall strategy...

From thedigitalbits:

Starz has sold a 25% equity stake in Starz Media to The Weinstein Company, in exchange for which Weinstein and Starz' Anchor Bay have entered into a multi-year agreement to for DVD, Blu-ray and digital distribution of Weinstein catalog films. This will include up to 20 Weinstein and Dimension titles per year, including new films like The King's Speech, Blue Valentine and Company Men. Other films to be released include Sarah's Key, the Scream, Spy Kids and Scary Movie franchises, and new installments of the Halloween, Hellraiser and Children of the Corn series, among other titles

The current incarnation of Miramax has no connection with The Weinstein Company.

The Weinstein company also pulled this stunt before, buying equity into Genius Products, the end result leaving Genius pretty much bankrupt.

Didn't occur to me until after I posted.

Miramax Blu-ray to Be Distributed by Lionsgate in the US, Studiocanal in Europe

Does not sound good for Criterion.

Sad news.

I presume this means that a good chunk of the Miramax catalog will never see the light of day again on home video. Lionsgate's track record with the Studio Canal and Republic catalogs is nothing short of embarrassing. I'm sure they'll treat Miramax the same way, focusing on the 50-75 most lucrative titles in the catalog and let the rest collect dust.

Interesting. The deal with Lionsgate was only for the top tier Miramax titles. Miramax just announced today a distribution agreement with a company called Echo Bridge for a bunch of the lower profile genre titles. Maybe they inked a deal with Criterion for the lower profile arthouse titles?

I didn't think they were going to use multiple distributors. Good news I guess. I didn't expect much from Lionsgate.

This deal supposedly involves 251 titles. Is there a way to find out what's on the list?

A list of what Miramax still has the rights to would be nice. The Hollywood Reporter blurb about the Miramax/Echo Bridge deal says the Miramax catalog is 700 films, but I swear I've seen it listed at around 550 from some other source.

Not a list of all the titles in the Miramax/Echo Bridge deal, but The Hollywood Reporter blurb mentions the Echo Bridge will be releasing the following "...Music of the Heart, Marvin’s Room and selected titles from such franchises as Halloween, Hellraiser and Children Of The Corn."

Just looked up Echo Bridge and they seem to be a lower profile The Asylum sort of outfit. There's even a few that seem iffy on the legal sides of things(releasing Satanic Rites in a four pack).

The "From Dusk to Dawn" trilogy, the Pokemon library, Becoming Jane, Tsotsi have also been named as part of the Echo Bridge deal.

Really hope they licensed a small batch to Criterion. The Lionsgate press release doesn't stipulate how many titles were licensed to Lionsgate.

I think the 700 number in the Hollywood Reporter article probably includes tv shows etc. (like Pokemon)

ianungstad wrote:The "From Dusk to Dawn" trilogy

Damn it, there goes any chance of a good Blu-ray release of the first From Dusk 'till Dawn. Lionsgate has got to be pretty stupid to not license From Dusk 'till Dawn.

God Damn it, I just read on DVDTalk that Echo Bridge has the Mimic trilogy, so there goes any chance of seeing Del Toro's director's cut of the first film.

Editing this fucking post for the third time to include this nugget that Cliff Mac from Shout Factory! posted at DVDTalk

Shout Factory put in a nice bid for these films... but Echo Bridge came up with more cash.
So, as you can tell by that, they wanted money more than they wanted their product given quality releases. I can understand them wanting to make money, but we would have done a much better job with the films.
Oh well... get ready for some real low budget, no extra releases!

Apparently Echo Bridge used to be Platinum Disc Corp....

How did a PD bandit/Mega Python vs Gateroid company land a bulk of the Miramax catalog? Was Image asleep at the wheel?

Here's a Beaver review of what will probably be a continuing trend with their releases.

The following quote regarding the Miramax bid from Cliff Mac from Shout Factory is really depressing

Yeah, it was very disappointing. We went to them with all these ideas and the concern that the library be given it's due... like putting out the "producer's cut" of HALLOWEEN 6.... or releasing the rest of their Hong Kong film library with extras and complete transfers.... but they just wanted the money.

So, the Miramax catalog is the hands of some real winners

Tremendous shame for the Hong Kong films. In the nineties, they picked up so many fantastic films and almost always released a hackneyed version with bad transfers, bad nineties rock and terrible dubs (Supercop, The Heroic Trio and City of Fire come into mind).

The biggest tell that things weren't going to work out was when Disney, a multi-billion dollar company, didn't even want to deal with these films themselves. I would've killed for Shout Factory to have touched those films but sadly it will never happen.

By the way, I love Devo, but because of Miramax, we got the worst Devo song of all time. And let's not forget the obscene amount of Asian action films released that threw "Kung-Fu Fighting" in the end.

Those Hong Kong films have the worst luck.
1.Miramax buys them and either sits on them or butchers them.
2.BCI licenses a number of them from Miramax. It seems they will finally get the releases they deserve, but BCI get shut down by their owners before they do any work on them.
3.Shout tries to get them, but the new owners sell them to a shit label for 30 pieces of silver.