'sup with Blue Underground lately? (1 Viewer)

[soop.spoon]

Their website hasn't been updated with "coming soon" or "future" releases in a long time. There haven't been many rumors or announcements from other sources lately either. Fire And Ice seems to be the only title on the schedule!

Does anyone know if things are going well for Blue Underground?

(I was just getting used to their great, varied output... specifically Shock Waves, The Final Countdown and Circle Of Iron)

 

[Damin J Toell]

Bad Boy Bubby is due on 4/26.

They have much in the pipeline, including a Giallo boxset, a set of the four Blind Dead films, and Argento's Bird With The Crystal Plumage.

DJ

 

[Eric DiPiazza]

I was wondering that too last week when I checked their site. However that is GREAT news about the Blind Dead films! I have the old Anchor Bay disc with two of them on it and the transfers seriousley need an upgrading.

 

[soop.spoon]

Thanks for the info! You'd think they'd put that on their site... especially seeing as how the cover art is available! I wonder what else is being released under the radar?

 

[Joe:C]

Looks like Fire and Ice is coming out in the summer. I posted a tiny bit of information in this thread.
It seems Blue Underground is still putting out discs, but are slow about updating their website.

 

[Gordon McMurphy]

New hi-def anamorphic transfers of the Blind Dead films have been completed. High-quality elements for Night of the Seagulls proved difficult to locate, but I believe that the camera negative was finally uncovered.

Amando De Ossorio died in 2001, but they have acquired archive video interviews with the director.

Salon Kitty is out at the end of the month.

I'm sure that they are working on about a dozen titles at present, but are perhaps reticent about announcing them - like Criterion.

 

[soop.spoon]

Thanks for the Blind Dead info, Gordon.

...Salon Kitty has been out for over a year.

 

[Iggy_P]

The following are confirmed releases coming from Blue Underground (according to the excellent Mondo Digital site):

Bad Boy Bubby
Giallo Collection 2
The Bird With Crystal Plumage
The Fifth Cord
The Enzo Castellari Collection
Blind Dead Collection
My Brilliant Career
La Scorta
Fire And Ice
How To Kill A Judge
One Dark Night
The Quiet Earth

The new Salon Kitty is a single disc version of the previous limited 2 disc release.

 

[Walter Kittel]

The Quiet Earth? Great news!!! Certainly one of my more anticipated releases. It is going to be so cool to revisit that film. Sure hope it lives up to my memories of the theatrical presentation some 20 years ago. ( Man, I can't believe it has been that long ago. )

- Walter.

 

[Brook K]

I heard somewhere that BU would be releasing Argento's Four Flies On Grey Velvet, anyone else heard that?

 

[Anthony Thorne]

BU have been trying to clear the rights to FOUR FLIES, but there has never been any legit announcement from them that they've been successful. When Bill Lustig was down here in Melbourne several months back he cryptically mentioned that there were a few 'difficulties' with the title but wouldn't expand on that. He did say way back then though that BU already had a full, internal release schedule of titles bought and due to come out lined up all the way to the end of 2005. That was mid last year so theoretically they'd have even more now (?). Lustig also mentioned that FINAL COUNTDOWN had been a massive success for them, had sold much better than they anticipated, and the profits from that one title alone would be paying for a lot of new acquisitions. The impression I received was that the company was doing fairly well - even the SPAGHETTI WESTERN COLLECTION, which reportedly cost a motherlode of bucks to put together, earned its money back - so ideally we should be able to look forward to more BU discs for years to come.

 

[Gordon McMurphy]

Yeah, when I think about it, Final Countdown was probably a massive score for BU. It's always great when a small video outfit makes a well-deserved big profit on a quality release like BU's FC set; it's a much-loved film that had never a decent home video release and BU finally gave it care it needed.

Tracking information on Four Flies is very difficult. From what I can gather, Paramount still own the rights, but have neglected the film over the years - just as they have practically forgotten all about Let's Scare Jessica To Death. Another problem is that Paramount don't actually have any good elements for the film. The negative is stored in Rome. There has been letterboxed VHS tapes in Europe, but they were all awful.

I'd love to see a SE of The Quiet Earth.

 

[Damin J Toell]

This is what's up with Blue Underground lately.

DJ

 

[soop.spoon]

Great timing! That's a sweet update.

 

[Joe:C]

Wow, I was just there yesterday and all they had was Fire and Ice. It's good to see the update.

 

[Brook K]

Bird with the Crystal Plummage is the only "buy" I see, but I'll try and sample some of these through rentals. I'm particularly intrigued by Strip Nude For Your Killer

 

[Anthony Thorne]

Interesting to see NEWSFRONT - I know the Australian disc of it has a lot of extras already, Phil Noyce commentary and so on, so I wonder if BU are porting the extras or producing more for it. Good movie anyway..

CRYSTAL PLUMAGE, the Blind Dead box, the Castellari crime titles and the various giallos (most appearing in the Giallo Collection unless plans have changed), are all sure purchases for me. I also heard that they have a few more Jess Franco titles due later this year, SUCCUBUS and reissues of KISS ME, MONSTER and TWO UNDERCOVER ANGELS/SADISTEROTICA. Altogether that's a bunch of cool discs (especially for Eurocult fans) and I like the idea of BU springing even more surprises on us after this batch.

 

[Mark Zimmer]

Now all we need are some release dates....I've been salivating over that Blind Dead box for a long time but last I heard the elements were still problematic for either the 3rd or 4th film in the series. So who knows when that's actually coming out.

 

[Anthony Thorne]

Bruce Holecheck posted on another board that elements were indeed problematic for the fourth BLIND DEAD film for a long while - BU had uncovered a couple of variant prints and was thinking of making a composite - but sometime over the past handful of weeks they finally found the complete original negative for the movie. (It would have been interesting to be a fly on the wall in their office on that day). The discovery of the fourth BLIND DEAD negative hopefully clears the way for the box to come out later this year.

 

[Geremia P.]

Holy smoke. This is a great movie.