Shout Factory Press Release: Clive Barker's Nightbreed The Director's Cut Limited Edition (1 Viewer)

[Ronald Epstein]

EXPERIENCE CLIVE BARKER’S CLASSIC MASTERPIECE IN TERROR  

LIKE YOU’VE NEVER SEEN IT BEFORE!

 

SCREAM FACTORY™ PRESENTS

 

 

NIGHTBREED: THE DIRECTOR’S CUT

ON BLU-RAY™ & DVD EVERYWHERE OCTOBER 28, 2014

 

"This is film history and beyond my wildest dreams of realization.” Clive Barker

 

On October 28, 2014, the horror home entertainment brand SCREAM FACTORY™, in collaboration with Morgan Creek Productions and Clive Barker’s Seraphim, Inc., will finally unleash the highly sought-after Director’s Cut of Clive Barker’s classic tale of terror, NIGHTBREED! Perfectly timed for Halloween, NIGHTBREED will be available in two retail versions: A 5,000 Unit Limited-Edition 3-Disc Blu-ray™ set and a Special Edition DVD & Blu-ray™ Combo. Written and directed by visionary filmmaker Clive Barker (creator of Hellraiser) and based on his popular novel Cabal, the cult-classic film, NIGHTBREED, stars Craig Sheffer (Hellraiser: Inferno), Anne Bobby (Born on the Fourth of July), David Cronenberg (Director, Eastern Promises) Charles Haid (Hill Street Blues) and features a soundtrack by award-winning composer Danny Elfman. Morgan Creek Television is actively developing a television series based on this film.

 

 

Pre-order now at:

Limited-Edition

http://www.shoutfactory.com/product/nightbreed-directors-cut-deluxe-edition

Special Edition

http://www.shoutfactory.com/product/nightbreed-directors-cut

 

In 1990, the film was released theatrically nationwide. However, the movie studio edited the film extensively and several scenes were excised or rearranged – much to Clive Barker’s disappointment. Since then, a fan-driven movement was created (www.OccupyMidian.com) to see the full version of the film restored and re-released.  Now, after 25 years, fans and horror enthusiasts can finally experience NIGHTBREED like never before! Scream Factory, in conjunction with Warner Bros., was able to find the long-thought-missing original film elements and combed through over 600 boxes to locate not only the lost scenes but a treasure trove of never-before-seen footage as well. With nearly an hour of lost footage meticulously restored, the result is not only a more faithful adaptation of Clive Barker’s book Cabal, but also what he originally intended NIGHTBREED to be.  

 

Official statement from Director Clive Barker: "This is film history and beyond my wildest dreams of realization. When Scream Factory told me that they found the NIGHTBREED film footage I was gob-smacked! This is the ultimate validation of choices made by myself and Mark Miller [of Seraphim Films] all the way back in 2008. As we embarked down the road of attempting to track down the lost footage, we looked at each other and said, 'Maybe one day they'll find it.' It's my pleasure to announce that the day has come. Speaking personally, I didn't allow myself to believe that it would. Even if we did find some footage (which we did in 2009 in the form of heavily degraded VHS tapes) and even if we did find a company willing to release the film (which we did in 2013 with Scream Factory, God bless them) the prospect of finding the actual lost film materials was remoter than I'd wanted to admit out loud.  If the footage could not be found by those who had worked closest on it the same year it had been released, then what were the odds we'd be able to find anything 20 years on? But Scream Factory, in their commendable determination, kept up the search and thanks to them total reconstruction has been made a possibility. There's never been a reconstruction that's had as little chance of succeeding and yet has succeeded on as many fronts as this film has. It's unprecedented. To now have a movie that we can put together in the way that I fully intended it to be seen when I first set out to make this film in 1989 is extraordinary.  The project has moved inexorably to this conclusion. Fate and the hard work of individuals such as Mark Miller, Russell Cherrington, Phil and Sarah Stokes, Occupy Midian, Morgan Creek, and ultimately, Scream Factory have made this a possibility and I could not be happier."

 

Details on the two retail sets are as follows: 

 

LIMITED EDITION SET: 

- Only 5,000 numbered sets produced 

- Disc 1: Unrated Director’s Cut of the film on Blu-ray 

- Disc 2: The 1990 R-Rated theatrical version of the film on Blu-ray (through a special licensing agreement through Warner Bros.)

- Disc 3: EXCLUSIVE-TO-THIS-SET Bonus Blu-ray disc packed with extras (details forthcoming)

- Includes Collector’s Book with an essay and rare photos

- Slipcase includes newly designed artwork approved by Clive Barker

- $79.97 SRP

 

**NOTE: Those who order the Limited Edition set directly from www.ScreamfactoryDVD.com will also receive an exclusive 18”x24” poster of the newly designed artwork (available while supplies last)! The Scream Factory site will also receive the first 1,000 numbered copies.**

 

 

 

 

SPECIAL EDITION SET: 

- Disc 1: Unrated Director’s Cut of the film on Blu-ray plus bonus features (details forthcoming)

- Disc 2: Unrated Director’s Cut of the film on DVD (details forthcoming)

- Slipcase includes artwork approved by Clive Barker 

- $29.93 SRP

 

Film Synopsis

Boone (Craig Sheffer) may be a troubled young man, but his troubles are just beginning. Set up as the fall guy in a string of slasher murders, he decides he'll hide by crossing the threshold that separates “us” from “them” and sneak into the forbidden subterranean realm of Midian.  Boone will live among the monsters. Hellraiser creator Clive Barker writes (adapting his novel Cabal) and directs this vivid leap into horror that asks: in the battle of man vs. monster, who's really the monster? The answer supplies flesh-crawling suspense, sudden fear, a colorful Danny Elfman score and a creepy array of shape-shifting beings. They are the Nightbreed, denizens of a world beyond death, beyond the imagination, perhaps beyond anything you've seen.

 

 

JAMES G. ROBINSON and JOE ROTH present A MORGAN CREEK Production of CLIVE BARKER’S “NIGHTBREED”

CRAIG SHEFFER, ANNE BOBBY, DAVID CRONENBERG, CHARLES HAID

Music by DANNY ELFMAN, Special Make-Up and Visual Effects by IMAGE ANIMATION, Sound Design by BRUCE NYZNIK,

Edited by RICHARD MARDEN and MARK GOLDBLATT, Production Designer STEVE HARDIE,

Director of Photography ROBIN VIDGEON B.S.C., 

Executive Producers JAMES G. ROBINSON and JOE ROTH, Screenplay by CLIVE BARKER Based on his novel CABAL

Produced by GABRIELLA MARTINELLI, Directed by CLIVE BARKER

 

 

The link below will take you directly to the product on Amazon.  If you are using an adblocker you will not see link.

 

 

[Jari K]

Great, Shout doesn't ship to Europe. I can first choose the country (why?), put all the details etc and then in the last page: Sorry.

 

[FoxyMulder]

I can buy this from Amazon USA right. ?

This is a real collectors item, finally the directors cut is available and a theatrical cut as a bonus, i hope the transfers good.

Just saw the price.......................steep...........still it's limited and i think i'd really like this one, now someone please release a collectors edition of Richard Stanley's Dust Devil so i can finally put to rest the DVD set i have.

 

[Jari K]

"I can buy this from Amazon USA right. ?"Not right now. The pre-order is only available in Shout's site.They actually found those original negatives, so the Dir Cut is the real deal:"Scream Factory, in conjunction with Warner Bros., was able to find the long-thought-missing original film elements and combed through over 600 boxes to locate not only the lost scenes but a treasure trove of never-before-seen footage as well. With nearly an hour of lost footage meticulously restored, the result is not only a more faithful adaptation of Clive Barker’s book Cabal, but also what he originally intended NIGHTBREED to be."

 

[TheSteig]

You will be able to order it from Amazon and Diabolik DVD at some point - 5000 units wont sell that quickly

 

[TravisR]

You will be able to order it from Amazon and Diabolik DVD at some point - 5000 units wont sell that quickly

I'm sure you're right but the nervous collector in me is worried.

 

[McCrutchy]

Well, this is a most welcome surprise, and I have ordered the LE from Shout! out of pure respect. I never, ever thought that they and Barker would ever be able to get Morgan Creek (and Warner Bros.?) to re-scan the film for Blu-ray, and I had resigned myself to seeing a composite, where the footage from the theatrical was 1080p, but the alternate and extended footage would be 480i and upscaled.

I also appreciate the configuration, where Shout! justifies the price of the LE with three Blu-ray Discs including an exclusive BD of extras, as well as a mini-poster (for the first 1,000 orders, I guess), but then gives those with tight budgets the cheaper option, with the restored Director's Cut Blu-ray only.

Of course, already the forums and social media are littered with people complaining about paying $80 for the LE. Doesn't make much sense to me. For one thing: $79.97 is, I'm sure, the MSRP, and won't be the discounted price people will pay for the LE from other sources. Wait a few days, and the LE will probably be available for $55-$60 from Amazon. The 5,000 copy limit is nothing, as 5,000 copies of the LE will be around for years, and the standard DC release is "not" limited, though I suspect selling more than 10,000 copies of that is probably a wish.

To me, these are the Blu-rays worth paying extra for--those where the label goes to bat for the film and re-scans the elements for a new Blu-ray. The fact that Shout! got WB involved and willing to license out the theatrical cut, is simply amazing, given that WB have licensed out maybe a handful of their titles, period. And even better, they found a way to get the DC film elements re-scanned, where Morgan Creek was (seemingly) totally uninterested in doing so. If $80 is what it takes to get films like this restored and presented properly, then it's a pittance.

Just look at something like the Blu-ray of The Big Red One, where WB apparently could not be bothered to go back to the film elements for the Director's Cut of that film, and instead, presented it as an SD "extra". And WB is clearly massive compared to Shout!, and could have afforded the restoration.

It is really annoying when these people, who are, frankly, either cheap or ignorant, take over the internet and blast a company for a release like this. This isn't the Demons fiasco from Synapse, and this isn't a TT release, either. Shout! have seriously gone above and beyond, and I wish that something like this could be the norm for most films on Blu-ray.

 

[Ignatius]

Fantastic. I didn't think they'd find the original film elements since earlier searches had turned up nothing. And this is more than just a simple re-scanning of the newly discovered elements; I'm pretty sure that Barker's original version never got past the rough cut stage before the studio ordered re-shoots. So beyond just having the elements scanned it would have been necessary to create and mix a completely new cut of the film, as opposed to just slapping some footage back in.

It would have been possible to take the fan-made extended cut that's been touring festivals and conventions and have Barker fashion his own version out of that, but all the added footage is taken from a pair of workprint VHS that Barker discovered. Release that on Blu-Ray with a bunch of special features and die-hard fans would be happy just to have that elusive extended version. To make the push to track down the missing elements and create a proper directors cut is a massive investment, and one that deserves to be applauded.

Given the amount of work that must have gone into this, the price tag for that limited edition is perfectly reasonable.

 

[TravisR]

Given the amount of work that must have gone into this, the price tag for that limited edition is perfectly reasonable.

Absolutely. They aren't just raising the price to see if they can sell less of them or to piss people off. It's the cost of a quality product. I fully expected the 'new' footage to come from a 3/4 inch tape or even a VHS tape (not out of laziness but because I figured the film of the excised footage was tossed in the garbage 20 years ago) so, while I'd love to pay $1 for everything that I want, I can appreciate why the price is as high as it is.

 

[TravisR]

On their Facebook page, Scream Factory said that they've already sold through the first 1,000 copies of Nightbreed and now they've allocated the next 1,000 to their website. I doubt that they'll sell the next 1,000 that quickly (they went so fast because of the hardcore fans immediately grabbing them up) but there's now only 3,000 left for other retailers.

 

[Jari K]

"they went so fast because of the hardcore fans immediately"Was the "first" 1000 signed or something? This was the reason (perhaps I was wrong, though) why I tried to order it right away (please Shout, at least remove those country options).

 

[FoxyMulder]

So when can i buy it from Amazon. ?

 

[Jari K]

We don't know.

 

[FoxyMulder]

I do love a good collectors edition but i might just buy the cheaper directors cut of the film, i guess it all depends on what exactly those additional extras are, i don't see any information on them, i guess they are still working on that side of things.

 

[Jari K]

I guess they found a lot of stuff, so perhaps deleted scenes, outtakes, even some additional make-up effects etc? With this, I'm sure they could also create some great, in-depth "Blade Runner-ish" documentary."...and combed through over 600 boxes to locate not only the lost scenes but a treasure trove of never-before-seen footage as well."

 

[TravisR]

"they went so fast because of the hardcore fans immediately"Was the "first" 1000 signed or something?

I mean it was probably the people that have been waiting for years jumping on it as soon as it was up for sale.

 

[Vincent_P]

...This isn't the Demons fiasco from Synapse...

What exactly was the "DEMONS fiasco from Synapse"?

Vincent

 

[McCrutchy]

What exactly was the "DEMONS fiasco from Synapse"?

Vincent

The complaints about Synape's release of Demons and Demons 2 were justified, because Synapse only offered (and is still only offering) them in expensive SteelBook case versions, which, if I recall correctly, were/are only available from their site. I love Synapse and I really appreciate their work, but to only offer a Blu-ray in a more expensive version simply because of non-unique metal packaging (SteelBooks are used worldwide, and too much now) was an error.

Essentially, with those releases, you are paying $91.90 for two Blu-ray films with extras in metal cases, whereas with the Nightbreed LE release, you do pay a $56 premium, but for that, you get two Blu-ray films (including one licensed, and the other restored TNG-style), extras, a slipcase, a "book" and a bonus Blu-ray of extras...and all for over $10 less than the Demons set. And if the extra content is not worth it, you can still get the newly restored DC version of Nightbreed for around $20. This of course, is without taking into account the fact that Bava's vision of Demons and its sequel was never destroyed by an American studio who went in and (for all intents and purposes) permanently altered the film(s) at the source(s). Original, complete versions of Bava's films have been available in different territories for years.

And yes, I know Synapse, unlike most labels, routinely re-scans and restores their films for Blu-ray. And I know Scream Factory often does not do this. Indeed, I own more Synapse BDs than I do Scream or Shout! Factory ones.

I will happily buy amaray versions of Demons and Demons 2 if and when they appear, but while I will gladly pay a premium for film restoration and preservation, and even for disc content and packaging, I don't pay large premiums just for SteelBook cases.

 

[Vincent_P]

I still don't understand how that qualifies as a "fiasco", and beyond that you seem to have little to no understanding as to why Synapse released the DEMONS films the way they did. Also, where did you order the NIGHTBREED L.E. for $56 from? Because I can only see an order link directly from Shout for $79- and that's for ONE movie. Yes, it's two different cuts, but it's two cuts of the same movie. DEMONS and DEMONS 2 are two separate films and two separate releases.

The DEMONS 1&2 and NIGHTBREED releases are apples and oranges, and I'm very happy to be able to order the L.E. of NIGHTBREED at the premium price tag as I've been a fan since I saw the compromised theatrical cut as age 17 back in 1990 and absolutely appreciate the time, effort and money that has apparently been put into this release. I guess I just don't understand why a supposed fan and supporter of Synapse Films like you claim to be felt the need to muck up this thread with an attack on their integrity which has nothing whatsoever to do with the upcoming release of the restored NIGHTBREED.

Vincent

 

[McCrutchy]

I still don't understand how that qualifies as a "fiasco", and beyond that you seem to have little to no understanding as to why Synapse released the DEMONS films the way they did. ..I guess I just don't understand why a supposed fan and supporter of Synapse Films like you claim to be felt the need to muck up this thread with an attack on their integrity which has nothing whatsoever to do with the upcoming release of the restored NIGHTBREED.

Vincent

Vincent, there was no "attack" on Synapse of any kind. Their release strategy for those two films was a mistake, and importantly, one that they have yet to correct. Nevertheless, that was merely an example I used in contrast to this Nightbreed release, where complaints about price are less justified.