An E-mail Appeal to Mr. Wade Williams (1 Viewer)

[Bryan^H]

I'm out.

Have fun with your movies Mr. Williams.

 

[Mossman-Williams]

I intend to have fun with them.

Bye Brian

 

[Dick]

Mister 3D- Furmanek-

Don't you dare " shame me " Who the hell are you to write this in a
public forum ? You never miss an opportunity to try and make me look bad.

There are professional film restoration people like Bob Harris on this Forum that treat people with respect and courtesy. You are not one of them..

YOU ARE THE REASON I HAVE NOT SEND THESE NEGATIVES TO YOU !

WADE WILLIAMS

PS- I was considering your offer.

Do we need a referee here?

Please understand where Mr. Furmanek is coming from, Wade. There is probably no more passionate person on the planet when it comes to 3D. When he sees a comment such as the one he quoted from you, I am sure his blood boils. Even to me, it seemed egregiously dismissive of everyone on this and other forums who are true believers in the format and would purchase a copy of HANNAH LEE in a NY minute. I do not wish to try to speak for Bob, but your last reply to him feels distinctly vindictive: "YOU'RE THE REASON..."

If you were considering his offer before, then I would suggest you continue to consider it, even if you feel wounded by the truth. It's almost certainly the best offer you will ever see for this film. If your pride is hurt and you refuse to deal with him, it is not only our loss, but yours. You say you're not willing to spend 20k on this film...it's not like you're losing it. There will be serious sales, but your window of opportunity is vanishing as I type.

And can we return to normal discourse on all sides, please?

 

[Kyrsten Brad]

First thank you very much Mr. Williams for your direct response which I found quite informative.

From your recent posting about Rocketship X-M (1950) I guess that means that a digitally restored & colorized HD edition on blu-ray is out of the question.
Don’t get angry, that was just a joke from the Big Film Colorization Heretic (me). I’m well aware of the history & controversies of film colorization (which I believe has its own thread somewhere), I just happen to like well-done colorized films.

My interest in Rocketship X-M has been piqued somewhat as I think this film has educational value in that it offers a look at how people back in 1950 saw the future and space exploration in general, keeping in mind at this time humankind had yet to place a spacecraft into orbit and this was almost two decades before we actually landed a man on the moon (and sadly found that there was no underground lunar civilization of lonely, blue-skinned female beauty contestants vying to reach Earth in search of husbands (Fire Maidens Of Outer Space (1956), Missile To The Moon (1959)). The best we did so far at that time, if I remember my rocketry history correctly, was with a modified V2 rocket which reached a altitude of 137 miles in a suborbital flight.

It would be a interesting film to view nowadays from a 2016 perspective of how far we’ve actually made it in space exploration.

Hang in here Mr. Williams. Oh and you could place a call to Mr. William Levey and encourage him to get Skatetown USA (1979) scanned in UHD and released onto UHD Blu (and Blu), it would be greatly appreciated by most...err...half....err...a certain percentage of the Cinemaniac community here on HTF.
That goes also for Lauren Shuler Donner (since Neil Bogart is no longer with us) for Thank God Its Friday (1978). Twilight Time has already declined interest in this rather funny 70s time capsule.

OK so like the Flock Of Seagulls song, I'm Wishing Here.

 

[Interdimensional]

I thought the Hannah Lee situation was a workable deal, there was even the suggestion to raise the funding among enthusiasts so no one would have to risk a large sum restoring a public domain property, but perhaps hurt feelings and personal animosity were the real obstacles all along.

Some of us thought you were holding out for some sweetheart deal or an unreasonable amount of money, but maybe the stubbornness was borne from a bruised ego rather than pure greed.

Wade, none of us will think any less of you if you reconsider. We can save this film and make it shine again.

 

[Bob Furmanek]

Mike, thank you very much for keeping this thread active. As a wise man once said, the truth will out.

For everyone with inquiries on the sad state of these titles, this is an excellent resource.

 

[FatherDude]

The MST300 version is not the way the film was intended to be introduced to the world and needs to go away.

Mr. Williams,

I beg you to consider the absurdity of this position. Whether you intended the film to get kidded on MST 3000 or not, it happened, and that makes it inescapably part of the broader legacy of a Peabody-winning television show, which will always be preserved as well as can be by the people who care about it. I do not condone bootlegs, but I am also not blind to their reality.

Put another way, you are making a pointless stand, because you do not (nor do any of us) have the power to wave a magic wand and eliminate the parts of TV history you disapprove of, at least not past the generation where people were taping the broadcasts they wanted to cherish. And so the episode will not go away, whether it "needs to" or not. Make no mistake, the only practical result you are accomplishing here is denying people the option to pay for something they ought be paying for. That feels like spite or some other emotional indulgence, because it certainly has no convincing positive impact on the legacy of the film.

There's also opportunity here - you could offer to do a DVD feature on the MST3K release in which you make your case for Rocketship X-M's significance and enlighten viewers of its history, which you are clearly steeped in. You can advertise the upcoming 4K release and air your grievances about MST3K while you're at it. You can turn something that annoys you into creative marketing for the actual movie. But suppressing a proper transfer of the episode - which includes host segments unrelated to the film - is in its own way an attempt to airbrush history, even if you believe you are doing so for noble reasons (as I've no doubt Bob Iger does with regard to Song of the South).

Respectfully,
Jason

 

[Mark McSherry]

On FORBIDDEN PLANET-

I saw it first run in a downtown 2000 seat theater in Kansas City in grade school. I thought the film was
juvenile and the robot sort of lumbering, nothing like Gort. The film,like TIME MACHINE looked like it was
made for kids with the robot. Thank god they did not have some kid in the film like they had in
INVISIBLE BOY as Robbie's pal. Or in TOBOR THE GREAT. Don't get me wrong. I saw the film in various
theaters here a dozen times in 1956. I saw all science fiction films that play here in Kansas City in the 50's. We had over 60
stand alone theaters in the metro-plex and a lot of Drive-In theaters to choose from. I liked RIDERS TO THE STARS better.
nifty little film in Cinecolor.

I admire FORBIDDEN PLANET, it was ahead of it's time but was no WAR OF THE WORLDS, WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE , DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL..or INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS. It did however mark the end of the "Golden Age science fiction films
that were made from 1950-1956.

WADE WILLIAMS

Mr Williams---

Your initial response to Forbidden Planet is similiar to many from the Science Fiction community at the time.

Here is the complete Forrest J. Ackerman "Scientifilm Previews" column that appeared in the British NEBULA SCIENCE FICTION #17 (published July 1956)---

------------------------------------------------------------------------

"FORBIDDEN PLANET: I have to pan it. Sorry as can be, because for the same amount of money M.G.M. could have filmed SLAN or ONE IN 300. Instead they squandered more than a million dollars on a spectacle that I greatly fear will prove to be a spectacular flop. In that event the Studio will probably recoil from science fiction like a snail with salt sprinkled on its eyestalks, and the great scientifilm potentials will be lost in the Limbo of Unmade Things. The alternative is perhaps more depressing: that by some fluke of fate the film will not be a dud but a hit, and then M.G.M. will be convinced that it has the formula for successful sci-filmaking, and go on making more monstrosities like FORBIDDEN PLANET.

"Not since the sneak" of Bradbury's IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE has a preview been shrouded in such secrecy. As red herrings to throw scientifilm sniffers off the trail, M.G.M even previewed a couple of other pictures the same evening as FORBIDDEN PLANET. But I tracked it down and saw all 100 minutes of it. About 10 days later, when I was officially invited to the Studio to see the version edited as it will be shown to the public, perhaps 5 minutes had been deleted from it--- but they still could have incinerated half the celluloid and had too slowly paced a picture.

"As Ray Bradbury, who sat directly behind me, said: "Plot, plot, who's got the plot?"

"As H. G. Wells might have said: "The Shape of Things: Too calm."

"The sorrowful fact is, the damn thing is just DULL. And I know that it's not just that I'm getting old and blase about science fiction and scientifilms after 30 years of reading and seeing the same, because a few weeks later I participated in a dinner-and-theater party with A. E. van Vogt, Evelyn Gold, Ib (son of Lauritz) Melchoir, E. Mayne Hull, Frank Quattrocchi, Ed. M. Clinton, Jr., and about 20 other s.f. enthusiasts, for the local opening of THE INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS, and I was just about as pleased with the picture as I had been 6 months before when I reported to you on the preview of it. A somewhat unnecessary prolog and epilog has now been tacked on, but not tackily, smoothly enough that it didn't ruin the story. Concensus of opinion was that the extra ending didn't add anything to the picture, but it didn't spoil it.

"FORBIDDEN PLANET, besides being boring, has too much about it that's ridiculous. We open up about 250 years in the future on a faster-than-light ship that's doing about 7LY's (light years per second), and the sci-fi mind can well imagine the fantastic technology implicit in such a feat. Yet when the deep-spacers who man this Pegasus of the void set down on Altair-4 and are confronted with a tinker-toyman called (close your ears) Roddy (sic) the Robot, they are flabbergasted. "Amazing! What a creation! How did you ever constuct him?" they babble in unison like undergraduates at a college for cretins. "Oh, just something I tinkered together in my spare time," super-scientist Morbius (Walter Pidgeon) modestly explains. An automation of this nature in the inventively advanced culture the background of this picture implies, would be as astounding a sight, I should think, as a ball-point pen in present-day European or American society. Can you imagine a delegation of fans calling on Editor Hamilton at his NEBULA offices and exclaiming, "Oh! Ah! Hoo-ha! A portable typewriter. You must be a genius to own an unbelievable machine like that." Not, of course, to imply that Peter Hamilton is NOT a genius. After all, it must take some kind of a genius to offer you a column like this, issue after issue, in the face of all opposition, when in place of Ackerman you could be reading two more pages of Willis.

"Nevertheless, despite the disparagement cast on FORBIDDEN PLANET, you will not want to miss it for several reasons. One, the 50 minutes of weird, alien "electronic tonalities" that constitute the music score. Created by sci-fi fans, Louis and Bebe (Mr. and Mrs.) Barron, this new sound will probably be around for a number of scientifilms to come. Geo Pal called me the day after first hearing the "electones," and enthusiastically discussed their future possibilities. Pal has taken an option on THE TIME MACHINE, and has an origional screenplay on ATLANTIS developed for him by David Duncan. Duncan's DARK DOMINION has been bought for filmization.

"Other reasons for seing F. P. are its magnificent machinery and enthralling architecture (visible during 10-15 minutes of the whole), and the wholely horrifying, satisfying manifestation of the Monster. Walt Disney has done devilishly well in animating evil incarnate at the climax of the film. His and other special effects are magnificent and unforgettable, most of the rest of FORBIDDEN PLANET best quickly forgotten.

"So much, if not too much, for F. P. On the more satisfying side, whilst it is not on a par with BREAKING THE SOUND BARRIER, nevertheless ON THE THRESHHOLD OF SPACE is well worth seeing. This was the verdict of a mixed company of fans and pros who recently went together (about 20 strong) to see a pre-showing of the picture starting at exactly midnite. Rocketsled experiments and gondola ascension to 100,000 feat are graphically portrayed in technicolor and cinemascope, and even though a commentator's voice says at the end of the picture "This is NOT science fiction, it is fact," you know that only a few short years ago it would have been, and there are considerable elements of interest to the s.f. fan."

 

[Rodney]

I think it is time to ring the bell, and everyone take a breath.

If one looks objectively over this thread, the one thing that is common with everyone's post is the passion and the love for film. What we cannot agree on is how to best get these wonderful movies restored and released out to the public. And a deal will never be made publicly through this forum, no matter how much we all wish it.

It is too easy to say what someone else should do with their property. Much harder when it is you who is involved, and you have money, blood, sweat and tears into the works. You may disagree with Wade Williams on his choice of how he runs his business, but it is his business. We don't know all the issues involved, and most likely will never know. It is unrealistic to think "we know better". Maybe we do, maybe we don't. But since I have not walked ten miles in Wade Williams' moccasins, I don't want to make the assumption I know better than he does.

I will say that I truly appreciate Wade Williams, Bob Furmanek, and Robert Harris weighing in on this thread.

Now I do hope that what comes out of this is that people and companies see that there is genuine interest in these films, and money to be made on restoring and releasing them, sooner rather than later!

 

[ThadK]

I think Mr. Williams has a comprehension problem. The constant refrain has been that the 3-D Film Archive will gladly pay the upfront costs for Hannah Lee, so long as they make it back. Then, Mr. Williams will get a cut of the profits thereafter. Given the bounty of Blu-Rays coming from Mr. Williams' holdings, I don't think he's going to get a fairer deal than that. Unless he's hoping to get a $20K fee or something up front, which would make him certifiable.

 

[Keith Cobby]

I think it is time to ring the bell, and everyone take a breath.

If one looks objectively over this thread, the one thing that is common with everyone's post is the passion and the love for film. What we cannot agree on is how to best get these wonderful movies restored and released out to the public. And a deal will never be made publicly through this forum, no matter how much we all wish it.

It is too easy to say what someone else should do with their property. Much harder when it is you who is involved, and you have money, blood, sweat and tears into the works. You may disagree with Wade Williams on his choice of how he runs his business, but it is his business. We don't know all the issues involved, and most likely will never know. It is unrealistic to think "we know better". Maybe we do, maybe we don't. But since I have not walked ten miles in Wade Williams' moccasins, I don't want to make the assumption I know better than he does.

I will say that I truly appreciate Wade Williams, Bob Furmanek, and Robert Harris weighing in on this thread.

Now I do hope that what comes out of this is that people and companies see that there is genuine interest in these films, and money to be made on restoring and releasing them, sooner rather than later!

I concur and this would be a good post on which to close this thread.

 

[Johnny Angell]

It's been stated that this thread is unusual in that public negotiations are occurring. Negotiations require at least two parties to be acting in good faith, they are both willing to engage in "give and take" to reach an agreement.

Does anyone really think that there have been real negotiations taking place? I don't. It takes two.

 

[TM2-Megatron]

a- The 3D films are ready for distribution when a distributor licenses them !!! I am NOT going to spend 20K on HANNAH LEE so a handful of collectors can see it before they die. I am planning to be around awhile and am still buying intellectual property rights ( films ). It will be restored sooner or later as will the rest of the library. This does not happen over night. It's a long and expensive project restoring and releasing a dvd.

Mr. Williams, no offense intended, but those "collectors" who you don't seem to care about dying, are the majority of your audience. They're also more or less in your age bracket, so perhaps you should be more empathetic. These are people who are at least as passionate about film as you claim to be, so don't be surprised when they get frustrated by some of your responses. The point is, your window of opportunity for profiting from these titles is narrowing with each tick of the clock, something you don't seem to fully recognize. Do you think the average Gen X'er or Millennial is ever going to be interested in most of your titles?

I'm 33, and something of an exception in that I'm a millennial and am interested in vintage 3-D titles and would purchase all three of yours on release day, but that's only if they're properly restored and released on 3-D Blu-Ray (I could care less about 3-D movies distributed digitally, or crappy anaglyph versions). Although the 3-D Film Archive isn't the only party capable of restoring a 3-D film, they've certainly shown themselves to be the best of the bunch and the most passionate when it comes to the preservation and presentation (for all fans to enjoy) of 3-D cinema. And perhaps most important for your purposes, they can do excellent work on a shoestring budget. When I read one of Mr. Furmanek's posts a while back about how they'd done some restoration work for a mere $10 or $20K, I was shocked. You won't get a better offer than theirs, and as a fan of 3-D film and potential customer I strongly encourage you to take it.

Although I've never been involved in a commercial DVD release, I would like to respond to your comment about it being a long and expensive project by pointing out to you that the 3-D Film Archive's recent Kickstarter campaign to restore September Storm reached its $25,000 goal on August 2nd. As soon as it hit that amount, the restoration work was essentially greenlit, so let's assume that they started scanning and restoration work the next day. Backers are expected to receive their 3-D Blu-Rays in December of this year. That's a mere 4 months from the the green light to having an actual product in customer's hands. While I won't argue with you that it can be an expensive process... for most of us $20,000 is still quite a chunk of change (though it still seems like a bargain for an expert restoration), there's absolutely no reason for it to be an exceedingly long process if all parties involved can get along.

 

[Bob Furmanek]

Yes TM2 Megatron, everything is proceeding on schedule and our restoration of SEPTEMBER STORM will be in backers hands this December.

Our restoration of IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE was completed months ago and will be released on 3-D Blu-ray October 4.

 

[Jeff S in NJ]

The constant refrain has been that the 3-D Film Archive will gladly pay the upfront costs for Hannah Lee, so long as they make it back. Then, Mr. Williams will get a cut of the profits thereafter.

There was even talk of another kickstarter campaign to try to raise the funds so it doesn't have to come from Mr Williams "on spec" or the 3D-Archive. There are lots of good offers out there but stubbornness seems to be getting in the way.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Mike, thank you very much for keeping this thread active.

How ironic. Congratulations one and all.

Based on the relentless public attacks here, this thread is closed.

Shameful, indeed.