IT's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World Restoration - Page 3

JonZ · 01-28-2003, 09:24 AM

Despise being in financial trouble,MGM also has the cheapest quality (sort of) DVDs on the market(Can find most of their titles for $9).

I wouldnt complain if they raised the prices of their DVDs a bit to add restoration funds.

Ken Lemons · 01-28-2003, 11:18 PM

Robert is correct in pointing out that the people involved in remaking a film do not have a responsibility to restore the original film. On the other hand, I can think of several reasons why they might want to restore the film.

First, if the elements have very little time left and MGM is not in a position to restore the film, the elements themselves and the rights to their distribution should be obtainable for a very reasonable sum.

Second, The Alamo is a fairly well regarded film with a reasonably important place in film history due to its connection with John Wayne. It also has the patriotic tie-in with the battle of the Alamo itself. All put together, it has reasonable potential for public relations: "Now you can 'Remember The Alamo' because Studio XYZ saved it from destruction".

Third, after the restoration is complete, the DVD of the original The Alamo can be released just in time for the remake of The Alamo. This would be good marketing for the new movie and would also stand to recoup a considerable amount of the initial investment.

I think Robert's figure was $2.5 million for the restoration, but that was for both films and most of the money was needed for IaMMMMW. Even if $2.5 million is needed for The Alamo and another $2.5 million is needed to purchase the elements and the rights (which I hope is exaggerated), $5 million is not a very large percentage of a marketing budget for a major Hollywood film, and this would be very good marketing for an Alamo remake.

Robert Harris · 01-29-2003, 02:32 PM

No one is going to sell the rights to The Alamo for 2.5 million.

And one studio is not about to save a product produced by another.

RAH

Paul_Nyman · 01-29-2003, 03:05 PM

I wrote an email and letter to MGM appealing to them to do a full Restoration on IAMMMMW beofre it becomes to late to save anything!

Robert Harris are there any other avenues besides an online Petition page that you can advise on to alert MGM there are people interested in seeing the elements saved and restored before it becomes to late??

Loved to hear them.

Moe Dickstein · 01-31-2003, 05:53 AM

I doubt that there is much that we can think of that Mr Harris hasn't already thought of or tried.

I think if one of us here chances to win the lottery we should pledge to pay for the restoration (or split it with MGM) I know I would for sure.

Again, If Mr Harris thinks there is anything we can do, then I am with you, but I think he has told us his thoughts in an earlier post where he mentioned banging heads on walls and letting films die their natural death.

Sad but it sounds like its true =(

David Olstein · 02-12-2003, 04:27 PM

Well now I'm thoroughly depressed.

I've written e-mails to both the Film Foundation and Roger Ebert regarding this, and hopefully I'll hear back from one of them.

It seems pretty clear that we need a white knight to come forward to spearhead the preservation efforts with respect to one or both of these films. Apparently Robert Harris, despite the enormous respect he commands among film buffs, does not have enough clout to prod the studios into taking immediate action to save these films. Perhaps there's a high profile director or actor out there who fell in love with one of these films as a child.

Eugene Esterly · 02-15-2003, 07:10 PM

This is just an idea but maybe we can try to get the Library of Congress in on this. The Library Of Congress has something called The Library of Congress Motion Picture Conservation Center. The Library of Congress Motion Picture Conservation Center restored Mr. Deeds Goes To Town. It might be a good idea to get The Library of Congress Motion Picture Conservation Center in on this since MGM doesn't want to pony up the money to restore this movie which is sad.

The Library of Congress Motion Picture Conservation Center has a webpage at http://www.loc.gov/rr/mopic/mpcc.html

The National Film Preservation Board of the Library of Congress is located at http://www.loc.gov/film/

National Film Preservation Foundation is located at http://www.filmpreservation.org/

The Film Foundation located at http://www.film-foundation.org/. There is a list of addresses at http://www.film-foundation.org/contact.cfm .

Jeffrey Gray · 02-15-2003, 07:50 PM

We must remember, MGM is not the bad guy here. They want to restore these films (and they probably want Robert Harris to do it), but they know it's going to be rather hard, and quite expensive for a restoration, as both are large-format (65mm) films.

And don't forget, many films have been saved when they were on their last legs (Lawrence of Arabia, anyone?)

Jeff Swearingen · 01-31-2004, 10:05 AM

In case anyone is interested, TCM is running IAMMMMW in the 182 minute cut today at 12 noon Eastern).

Matthew H · 01-31-2004, 05:30 PM

It's been a year, how has the progress gotten on this situation? Is MGM willing to restore it?

David Lambert · 02-01-2004, 11:14 PM

...Or have the elements deteriorated past the point of saving by now?