NiGhT oF ThE CoMeT (1 Viewer)

[walter o]

Also on the same date, they are releasing SOLARBABIES, if anyone remember this cheezy teen Sci-Fi. Only thing to recomend this the main song by Smokey Robinson, and a pre-LOST BOYS Jason Patric and Jamie Gertz.

Odd MGM/Fox is putting this one out, as this was a MGM title, so it should have been with Warner (like WISE GUYS was, as both were 1986 releases from MGM, as MGM no longer controls MGM titles from pre 87). Since this was produced by Mel Brooks, did Brooks got his rights back, and gave it to Fox?

 

[Mike_Richardson]

Hmmm....I think it's 1986 that's the cut-off point for the MGM-control of their own catalog.

RUNNING SCARED and POLTERGEIST II have always been handled by MGM, never by Turner/Warner, and both of those came out in '86, no? By that standard SOLARBABIES ought to fall under MGM's control.

 

[walter o]

But WISE GUYS and 9 1/2WEEKS and GINGER AND FRED are now controlled by Warner, they were MGM titles from 1986, so there must have been a cut off point in 1986, maybe before the Summer?

 

[Lord Dalek]

IIRC, MGM owns everything post-Spaceballs.

 

[Colton]

Didn't Sony purchase the complete MGM catalog?

- Colton

 

[Drew Reiber]

They bought MGM as a studio, then sold the majority of it and kept a stake in the company. They were also acting as distributor of the MGM catalogue until the new owners felt it wasn't in their best interests, at which point they switched over to a dist deal with Fox. Sony still sees some of that money, I believe.

 

[Mike_Richardson]

Walter that's what I'm thinking. There is a clear divide on what MGM movies are MGM owned and which ones fall under the Turner/Warner category. Looks like Spring '86 is that point, since SOLARBABIES was a spring title in '86 (if I'm not correct) and POLTERGEIST II and RUNNING SCARED were the studio's summer films -- all three of which still fall under the "current MGM" ownership.

 

[Mike_Richardson]

There definitely seems to be a "cut off point" in terms of which MGM movies fall under Turner's ownership. As I wrote above POLTERGEIST II and RUNNING SCARED were Summer '86 films from MGM and *don't* fall under Turner's control. SOLARBABIES doesn't either, apparently, which makes you think it's early '86 that's the cut-off time.

Everything before that point is Turner (Warner), everything after it is still MGM.

Maybe SOLARBABIES *is* the dividing film??

 

[Drew Reiber]

Then I must be thinking of the UA catalogue.

 

[Mike_Richardson]

Yeah, I believe so. It's so weird, isn't it?

What's basically MGM's catalog today is mostly UA films. The real MGM (pre 86) is a part of Warner.

Which is why it's ironic when you see the MGM lion before PINK PANTHER, BOND, ROCKY, etc. Those are all UA franchises and yet they're all that's left of MGM now.

 

[Aryn Leroux]

Night of the Comet Cover-Art

 

[TheBat]

solarbabies was released in November of 1986.

Jacob

 

[Radioman970]

I like the cover. Very cool this is going to happen. I'll officially remove it from my stack of "things to burn to DVD myself". I also removed Rich Little's A Christmas Carol (it's out!). I'd love to remove The Gate (if we could just get a widescreen verison like the German one), Stepfather (ditto) and TerrorVision.

 

[Drew Reiber]

Kelli Maroney confirmed on her IMDB message board that MGM did not bother contacting anyone for special features. Truly disappointing when you consider how eager the cast and crew is to remind people of the film's existence. If they release this as pan & scan, I'm going to stick with the copy I taped off HBO and write off expecting anything from MGM in the future.

 

[TheBat]

fox is releasing both solarbabies and night of the comet.

Jacob

 

[Mark Edward Heuck]

Yes and no. Fox has taken over administration and distribution of MGM's DVDs; however, they had said they were setting up an entirely separate staff for that purpose, in order to avoid the neglect towards the catalog that Sony was demonstrating when they were in charge.

It is a darned shame that whoever put these DVDs together did not solicit any participation from the cast and crew. I would suspect, however, that since it has only been a short time that Fox has been in charge, they may have rushed these into production - the 16x9 materials were probably already done since they've aired on cable television, and in order to ramp up catalog releases again they took what they had and started pressing. The upcoming April releases of PLAY DIRTY, PULP, and THIEVES LIKE US are likely also based on material already prepared for release in other regions. As time goes on, while we likely cannot expect the glory days of special edition releases of KILLER KLOWNS or VALLEY GIRL, I think Fox will put together good added value content for the MGM titles once again.

 

[Drew Reiber]

We don't even know yet if it's going to be 16x9.

Furthermore, it's kind of strange that the cast & crew has had some reasonably consistent contact with the studio of late only to be ignored. Disorganization is one thing, but I noticed that nobody was even talking about the release in any official capacity until Tom Ebernhardt and the cast hired some lawyers to figure out where the rights were and potentially develop a sequel. A realistic goal or not, it's extremely disappointing to consider that the potential interest in the title may be a direct result of their digging and now they're just sitting by, readily available to the same people they notified at MGM just last year.

Honestly, I figure it just has more to do with the home video department rationalizing that the expenditure in getting these people into one place for a commentary or documentary isn't worth the time, money or effort. C'mon, they're releasing it with Solarbabies. That's a pretty dismissive release considering the write-in campaigns and effort of the original film participants to get it back out there.

As for the "glory days", my hopes for MGM getting the rest of their Midnight Movies-like catalogue onto DVD continue to drop. The appearance of these two films (Comet & Solarbabies) is extremely random considering that they're still sitting on such a huge volume of viable, long-in-demand releases. Where's the already complete restorations of Witchfinder General or From Beyond? Or Larry Cohen's Full Moon High and Wes Craven's Deadly Blessing? And I'm just talking about the MIA horror titles. Don't even get me started on the plethora of major, non-Leone spaghetti titles that will probably never see the light of day!

 

[Radioman970]

I wouldn't buy P&S either!!

/bold-faced lie

 

[Ethan Riley]

So do we still not have any specs for this disc? The cover art is good (though I hope those big-80s hairdos don't turn off new fans lol). We still don't know if it's WS? Or any music replacement? I swear to you--if they replace "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" I ain't buyin' it--!

 

[Radioman970]

I've got to agree on that. That song must remain. If they changed it they should get the Lauper version. That's the only change I'd be okay with.

/honest answer