Deletion of Indicator/Powerhouse Fox titles (1 Viewer)

[Thomas T]

Yes, unfortunately, there have been a number of reports of Twilight Time Blu-rays failing over time due to poor manufacturing.

I've scanned all my Twilight Time titles, 83 in all, and only one was bad ..... Khartoum. Since it's OP, I had to go to Great Britain and purchased the Eureka pressing which used the same transfer as TT and even as the same commentary track from Nick Redman and Julie Kirgo.

 

[jayembee]

these titles were licensed direct from Fox? I didn’t know that , I thought they culled them from the Vatican archives

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230130005094/en/Alliance-Entertainment’s-Mill-Creek-Entertainment-Announces-New-Home-Entertainment-Licensing-Agreement-with-The-Walt-Disney-Company

Mill Creek Entertainment Signs New Distribution Deal with Disney

www.blu-ray.com

Do you know something we don't? Or are you just hoping? I'm not aware of any deal between Disney and Mill Creek to release titles from 20th Century Fox's library.

The linked-to posting says:

"Mill Creek Entertainment has signed a new distribution deal with Disney. Mill Creek Entertainment will release on Blu-ray and DVD a variety films and TV show from ABC Signature, 20th Television, Hollywood Pictures, Touchstone Pictures and 20th Century Studios libraries."

But to point it out again, this deal is just for reissues of previously-released titles in the same formats of those titles. If a title was DVD-only, the reissue will be DVD-only. If a title was BD, the reissue will be BD.

This suggests that Mill Creek will just be re-pressing the same authored discs that have been released before. Which means that they' should be the same scans, same masters, and same bit-rates/compressions. Whether they'll have Mill Creek branding, or MC is just arranging for re-pressing and distribution is unclear.

To be honest, I haven't seen any of these Mill Creek re-issues -- the deal was announced in January, but I've no idea if they've actually released anything yet -- but then they probably aren't anything that I feel the need to look for.

 

[jayembee]

Is there some kinda known issues w/ old Twilight Time BDs?

Back when I was buying them, if I didn't have the time to watch right away, I'd chapter-skip through each one to make sure there weren't any egregious problems. I only had one (Stormy Weather) hang on me. I was able to get it exchanged by TT for a copy that was fine. It's been a while since I've watched most of my TT discs (always new movies to watch), so I can't confirm if it's a widespread problem.

 

[AlanP]

these titles were licensed direct from Fox? I didn’t know that , I thought they culled them from the Vatican archives

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230130005094/en/Alliance-Entertainment’s-Mill-Creek-Entertainment-Announces-New-Home-Entertainment-Licensing-Agreement-with-The-Walt-Disney-Company

Mill Creek Entertainment Signs New Distribution Deal with Disney

www.blu-ray.com

Any updates on Mill Creek's planned first batch being released from FOX ?

 

[Patrick McCart]

While I don't have The Third Secret, the rest are definitely worth importing. Little Murders is a delightfully insane comedy with a hell of a pedigree - Alan Arkin's directorial debut, written by Jules Feiffer, and shot by Gordon Willis. Dragonwyck is interesting because it's the only disc I've seen that lets you switch between two transfers on the fly via multi-angle (Indicator's Night of the Demon does have six iterations of the film split across two discs).

 

[Worth]

Any updates on Mill Creek's planned first batch being released from FOX ?

That’s only for titles that have already been released. There’s not going to be anything new here.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

That’s only for titles that have already been released. There’s not going to be anything new here.

Yeah, that’s a package of films mostly from Disney subsidiaries that no longer exist like Hollywood Pictures, movies like “Another Stakeout” which, for better or worse, Disney seems to want to keep in print. This package of films had already been released once by Mill Creek. The Mill Creek licensing period expired, and Disney then did a new deal with Kino. Reading between the lines of what’s been posted here and elsewhere, Kino didn’t really want those films, but had to accept them as part of a larger deal to get the films Kino actually did want. That licensing period with Kino has since ended. Mill Creek is now re-releasing that same package of “Another Stakeout”-type titles that they once held.

Wondering if there’s some kind of contract language in Disney’s ownership of those subsidiaries that requires those titles to be in print, because they were never big sellers or popular titles to begin with, and have now already had two releases of the exact same masters on two different labels. There can’t be a significant audience left for them. That’s what’s called a “maintenance” release in the industry - it’s not about cultivating new market share or anything dramatic like that, but just keeping the title in print.

 

[Robin9]

While I don't have The Third Secret, the rest are definitely worth importing. Little Murders is a delightfully insane comedy with a hell of a pedigree - Alan Arkin's directorial debut, written by Jules Feiffer, and shot by Gordon Willis. Dragonwyck is interesting because it's the only disc I've seen that lets you switch between two transfers on the fly via multi-angle (Indicator's Night of the Demon does have six iterations of the film split across two discs).

I have The Third Secret Blu-ray disc and I can assure everyone it's excellent. If the film appeals, buy the disc.

 

[Ed Lachmann]

The linked-to posting says:

"Mill Creek Entertainment has signed a new distribution deal with Disney. Mill Creek Entertainment will release on Blu-ray and DVD a variety films and TV show from ABC Signature, 20th Television, Hollywood Pictures, Touchstone Pictures and 20th Century Studios libraries."

But to point it out again, this deal is just for reissues of previously-released titles in the same formats of those titles. If a title was DVD-only, the reissue will be DVD-only. If a title was BD, the reissue will be BD.

Gives me hope for The Egyptian, Demetrius and the Gladiators, Exodus, Khartoum and a whole slew of others. Yeah, kinda jonesing for these mythic Mill Creek announcements. The other odd duck in all this is Sandpiper Pictures who did blu-ray rereleases of Alexander the Great and Solomon and Sheba both available at Amazon.

 

[AlanP]

Gives me hope for The Egyptian, Demetrius and the Gladiators, Exodus, Khartoum and a whole slew of others. Yeah, kinda jonesing for these mythic Mill Creek announcements. The other odd duck in all this is Sandpiper Pictures who did blu-ray rereleases of Alexander the Great and Solomon and Sheba both available at Amazon.

What happened to the Sandpiper releases ? They seemed to have stopped cold ? No releases for awhile ??

 

[jayembee]

What happened to the Sandpiper releases ? They seemed to have stopped cold ? No releases for awhile ??

Say what? They just released four titles on June 20: A Prayer for the Dying, Romeo Is Bleeding, The Barefoot Contessa, and The Secret of Santa Vittoria. And three other titles on June 13: Scorpio, One Man's Hero, and Lawman. And a couple of titles in May, and a bunch of titles in April. And so on.

 

[ahollis]

Sandpiper does not seem to have an active thread on here. Someone should keep the older thread up to date.

 

[Robin9]

Say what? They just released four titles on June 20: A Prayer for the Dying, Romeo Is Bleeding, The Barefoot Contessa, and The Secret of Santa Vittoria. And three other titles on June 13: Scorpio, One Man's Hero, and Lawman. And a couple of titles in May, and a bunch of titles in April. And so on.

I assume Sandpiper are stuck with the same lousy transfer of The Barefoot Contessa that Twilight Time had to use. Ditto Lawman: presumably the same censored version of Burt Lancaster and Sheree North in bed together.

 

[jayembee]

I assume Sandpiper are stuck with the same lousy transfer of The Barefoot Contessa that Twilight Time had to use. Ditto Lawman: presumably the same censored version of Burt Lancaster and Sheree North in bed together.

Almost undoubtedly. But that wasn't the issue I was addressing, which is that Sandpiper is still releasing titles.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Regarding Sandpiper, I do list their titles in the Amazon Pre-Order List. Since the June releases, Amazon has finally added another Sandpiper title which is "Clambake" scheduled for September 5th.

 

[AlanP]

Say what? They just released four titles on June 20: A Prayer for the Dying, Romeo Is Bleeding, The Barefoot Contessa, and The Secret of Santa Vittoria. And three other titles on June 13: Scorpio, One Man's Hero, and Lawman. And a couple of titles in May, and a bunch of titles in April. And so on.

Thanks for the update on Sandpiper, I kept looking for somewhere about new releases but, couldn't fing anything ? Do you think they will be releasing the FOX titles or those are not in the package ?

 

[jayembee]

Thanks for the update on Sandpiper, I kept looking for somewhere about new releases but, couldn't fing anything ? Do you think they will be releasing the FOX titles or those are not in the package ?

My knowledge of Sandpiper is restricted to what gets announced at blu-ray.com. No one seems to know who they are. Screen Archives Entertainment took over the Twilight Time label, and what was left of the stock from the original TT. But Sandpiper seem to be releasing new editions of what TT had released previously (mostly; I think some of their titles are not TT reissues).

I'd be surprised if they release any Fox titles. I imagine Disney has those locked away now (except for what Criterion has contracted). The only other label I can think of that has released Fox titles since Disney's acquisition of Fox is the British label Signal One. But their situation was one where they had contracts for releases that they were having issues getting out into the marketplace. I'm guessing they were having cash flow problems. The Signal One brand was taken over by another company who appeared to have to fight to get Disney to let them eventually release what Fox titles S1 had already contracted for. I believe all of those have since been released. The more recent S1 releases haven't been Fox titles.

 

[Dan McW]

I assume Sandpiper are stuck with the same lousy transfer of The Barefoot Contessa that Twilight Time had to use. Ditto Lawman: presumably the same censored version of Burt Lancaster and Sheree North in bed together.

The only time I ever saw the version of Lawman with the Sheree North nudity was when it turned up on Dailymotion more than a year ago. At last check, it had been pulled. It had the more modern greenish UA logo at the beginning (I don't know what that logo is called), not the more recent UA logo. All U.S. VHS, DVD, and Blu editions, plus a German edition I have and Encore Westerns showings I've seen, are the censored version. A friend of mine said the uncensored version turned up on one of the Showtime channels in the 1990s.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

My knowledge of Sandpiper is restricted to what gets announced at blu-ray.com. No one seems to know who they are. Screen Archives Entertainment took over the Twilight Time label, and what was left of the stock from the original TT. But Sandpiper seem to be releasing new editions of what TT had released previously (mostly; I think some of their titles are not TT reissues).

I believe Sandpiper is run by Brian Jameson, who was Nick Redman’s partner at Twilight Time.

 

[AlanP]

My knowledge of Sandpiper is restricted to what gets announced at blu-ray.com. No one seems to know who they are. Screen Archives Entertainment took over the Twilight Time label, and what was left of the stock from the original TT. But Sandpiper seem to be releasing new editions of what TT had released previously (mostly; I think some of their titles are not TT reissues).

I'd be surprised if they release any Fox titles. I imagine Disney has those locked away now (except for what Criterion has contracted). The only other label I can think of that has released Fox titles since Disney's acquisition of Fox is the British label Signal One. But their situation was one where they had contracts for releases that they were having issues getting out into the marketplace. I'm guessing they were having cash flow problems. The Signal One brand was taken over by another company who appeared to have to fight to get Disney to let them eventually release what Fox titles S1 had already contracted for. I believe all of those have since been released. The more recent S1 releases haven't been Fox titles.

Thanks for the clarification about Sandpiper !