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Is The StudioCanal Collection from Lionsgate a dead series

post #1 of 23
7/9/11 at 9:18am
Thread Starter 

its been some time since any kind of release from them, while across the pond, the have picked up on Optium in England and are releasing lots of titles. just wondering if we are going to get some anouncements for North American releases?

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post #2 of 23
7/9/11 at 9:57am

I can only hope. This way Criterion could get the rights back to Third Man, Ran, and Contempt. 

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post #3 of 23
7/9/11 at 10:14am
Thread Starter 

well the hope was that one of the companies would get lionsgate to actualy release catalog titles, and that doesn't look like it is happening, so much that it has for north america studio canal, republic, it just becomes more frustrating as time passes. 

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post #4 of 23
7/9/11 at 11:31am
Lionsgate only handles the distribution and sales of the releases. All the decisions are done by the French.
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post #5 of 23
7/31/11 at 4:36pm
Thread Starter 

seems that the UK is geeting a bounty of releases,

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post #6 of 23
8/1/11 at 6:26am
Quote:
Originally Posted by dana martin View Post

seems that the UK is geeting a bounty of releases,


??? Have I missed something?
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post #7 of 23
8/1/11 at 6:42am
Thread Starter 

most of the releases are via optimum,

 

the dam busters

whiskey galore

brighton rock

the lavender hill mob

kind hearts and cornets are just a few

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post #8 of 23
8/1/11 at 11:07am
Quote:
Originally Posted by dana martin View Post

most of the releases are via optimum,

 

the dam busters

whiskey galore

brighton rock

the lavender hill mob

kind hearts and cornets are just a few

These are not Studio Canal Collection releases.
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post #9 of 23
8/1/11 at 9:35pm
Thread Starter 

In a short statement released via their TweetDeck, British distributors Optimum Home Entertainment have announced that as of September 1 they will be renamed to StudioCanal. The move, which will also affect Kinowelt in Germany, aims to harmonize the name of the affiliated companies that currently distribute content owned by the French juggernaut.

 

 so in a way yes they are, just havent taken the plunge into getting a region free player or i might jump on some of these
 

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post #10 of 23
8/2/11 at 5:24am
What's your point? Studio Canal acquired Optimum already in 2006 and Kinowelt in 2008. The titles you mentioned are regular Blu-ray releases, not Studio Canal Collection editions.
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post #11 of 23
8/2/11 at 5:51am
If I can cut through this a tad, his point is (a) Studio Canal produced a Europe wide series of releases dubbed 'The Studio Canal Collection' some of which were sold in the US under Studio Canal's agreement with Lionsgate. (b) Studio Canal Collection releases appear to have stalled, if not completely come to a halt, though Studio Canal, and their UK and German labels (Optimum and Kinowelt) continue to release catalogue titles, but there appear to be no further BD tie-ups with Lionsgate as yet.

It was announced some weeks ago that Kinowelt and Optimum would become 'Studio Canal' as part of what appears to be a tidying up operation by the parent company. The press release:

STUDIOCANAL harmonises the name of its affiliated companies in the United Kingdom and in Germany.

From September 1st, 2011, Optimum Releasing and Kinowelt, subsidiaries of STUDIOCANAL in the United Kingdom and Germany, will be named STUDIOCANAL.

This decision to create a single, unique brand definitively establishes the company as a European studio.

STUDIOCANAL will also have a new visual identity, with a new logo (see attachment)* and new moving logo, both created by British agency Devilfish.

The moving logo will be unveiled in early September, for the world premiere of TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY, film based on John le Carré's best seller, directed by Thomas Alfredson, starring Gary Oldman and Colin Firth, produced by Working Title and fully financed by STUDIOCANAL. (The film will be out on September 16th in the UK, and early 2012 in France and Germany)

Along with this change of name and visual identity, STUDIOCANAL's German teams will move offices from Leipzig to Berlin, on September 1st as well.

Olivier Courson, Chairman, says: "We are already working together as one company across the three countries so this is a very natural evolution for STUDIOCANAL. It will strengthen our status as the only European company in the UK France and Germany. It will also provide clarity to all of our creative and business partners."

The SCC may or may not continue once this has been completed (Plein Soleil and Arizona Dream appeared for pre-order on Amazon as part of the series in May, though they've now disappeared). Regardless of whether the SCC is dead/continues, I think the main point of interest for folks in the US - and it's a very fair question - is just what has happened to the Studio Canal/Lionsgate agreement and why more catalogue titles are not appearing this side of the pond?

Meanwhile the exact opposite appears to be happening with VCI and their deal with ITV in the UK; ITV appear to be offering HD masters of catalogue titles to VCI that they have yet to release on BD at home. Frustrating.
Edited by John Hodson - 8/2/11 at 6:16am
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post #12 of 23
8/2/11 at 8:49am
Rightly or wrongly, I think there's a perception that titles like The Dam Busters, Whiskey Galore and Brighton Rock won't sell in North America. I think it's pretty unlikely these will get region A releases unless they're licenced out to companies like Criterion.
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post #13 of 23
8/2/11 at 9:07am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Worth View Post

Rightly or wrongly, I think there's a perception that titles like The Dam Busters, Whisky Galore and Brighton Rock won't sell in North America. I think it's pretty unlikely these will get region A releases unless they're licenced out to companies like Criterion.

Therein lies one of the paradoxes; Criterion's Kind Hearts and Coronets is OOP because Studio Canal withdrew their license. Now it's coming on Blu via Optimum later this year, but no sign of Lionsgate releasing it as yet.
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post #14 of 23
8/2/11 at 4:21pm
Lionsgate is like one of those weird old ladies that has a hundred stray cats and saves every newspaper from the last 50 years in the basement. rolleyes.gif
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post #15 of 23
8/2/11 at 6:26pm
Thread Starter 

Patrick, yes and unfortunatly some of those cats being held hostage in that house are "The Republic Films" a deal with StudioCanal that has stalled after three releases, and now a  deal with MirMax, what i was trying to say has been stated well by John, but also, so many titles that Lionsgate has under its wings at the moment you would think that they coluld go and start to release some pre 70's catalog titles,  

 

as for the titles mentioned, seemed to remember think it was anchor bay that had an alec guiness collection that had some and a british war collection that had the other,

 

Peter Jackson was planning a remake of the Dam Busters so maybe a tie in is in the wings, but the fact remains these will sell in UK as they are british films, and maybe not as well in the US, but limited release could be a way to offset that, MGM seems to be doing pretty good with the exclusive release thru various retailers

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post #16 of 23
8/3/11 at 5:07am
Anchor Bay released many of the Studio Canal British titles on DVD:

Kind Hearts and Coronets
The Lavender Hill Mob
The Man in the White Suit
The Captain’s Paradise
The Ladykillers
The Cruel Sea
The Ship That Died of Shame
Went the Day Well?
The Dam Busters
The Colditz Story
The Maggie
A Run For Your Money
Whiskey Galore
The Titfield Thunderbolt
Passport to Pimlico

But I suspect they no longer have the rights.
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post #17 of 23
8/3/11 at 5:44am
You suspect correctly.
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post #18 of 23
8/3/11 at 10:58am
Quote:
Originally Posted by dana martin View Post

Patrick, yes and unfortunatly some of those cats being held hostage in that house are "The Republic Films" a deal with StudioCanal that has stalled after three releases, and now a  deal with MirMax, what i was trying to say has been stated well by John, but also, so many titles that Lionsgate has under its wings at the moment you would think that they coluld go and start to release some pre 70's catalog titles,  

 

as for the titles mentioned, seemed to remember think it was anchor bay that had an alec guiness collection that had some and a british war collection that had the other,

 

Peter Jackson was planning a remake of the Dam Busters so maybe a tie in is in the wings, but the fact remains these will sell in UK as they are british films, and maybe not as well in the US, but limited release could be a way to offset that, MGM seems to be doing pretty good with the exclusive release thru various retailers


It's likely Lionsgate uses the licenses as collateral for their new films. This is what Hallmark did with the Hal Roach library until RHI bought it back... and is now putting out the complete runs of Laurel & Hardy and Our Gang in remastered editions. I can't think of any other reason why a studio would license so many libraries only to barely cherry pick from them.

The worst part is the fact LG won't license stuff they obviously don't care for. Anchor Bay licensed a few Handmade Films and StudioCanal titles to Criterion, even when they had their own editions in print.
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post #19 of 23
8/3/11 at 5:57pm
Forgive me if I'm asking a variant of the same question... or thread steeing.. but what about all those wonderful titles I saw advertised while enjoying Ran and The Ladykillers from Studio Canal? Ran and The Ladykillers being the only two titles I remember seeing stateside. Elephant Man? The Deer Hunter? Will these ever get a U.S. release?
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post #20 of 23
8/3/11 at 6:12pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Anthony_H View Post

Forgive me if I'm asking a variant of the same question... or thread steeing.. but what about all those wonderful titles I saw advertised while enjoying Ran and The Ladykillers from Studio Canal? Ran and The Ladykillers being the only two titles I remember seeing stateside. Elephant Man? The Deer Hunter? Will these ever get a U.S. release?

Elephant Man is a Paramount property Stateside & The Deer Hunter belongs to Universal. Rumors have been swirling for YEARS about a pending release of The Elephant Man from Paramount to no avail. Deer Hunter did receive an HD-DVD release from Universal during the format war, but they seem to be taking their sweet time re-issuing the HD-DVD titles on Blu-ray. Just so you'll know, both of these Studio Canal titles are available in the UK and are REGION-FREE (well, almost. Region C exempted) with supplements encoded in 480i. I presently have both the Universal HD-DVD and the Region-free Studio Canal edition of The Deer Hunter.
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post #21 of 23
8/4/11 at 10:48am
I'm thinking they are not continuing with releases through Lionsgate. There is a Belle De Jour hint from Criterion and Pierrot le fou seems to be available again through Amazon and Barnes & Nobel.
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post #22 of 23
8/4/11 at 11:12am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bradley-E View Post

I'm thinking they are not continuing with releases through Lionsgate. There is a Belle De Jour hint from Criterion and Pierrot le fou seems to be available again through Amazon and Barnes & Nobel.
Studio Canal does not own North American rights to Belle de jour and Criterion confirmed that it is coming already more than a year ago. Pierrot le fou is still out of print.
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post #23 of 23
8/4/11 at 1:29pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Eerik View Post

Studio Canal does not own North American rights to Belle de jour and Criterion confirmed that it is coming already more than a year ago. Pierrot le fou is still out of print.

I did not know that about Belle de Jour and I guess Pierrot le fou is not big enough seller to stay out of circulation because the 2 retailers I mentioned it is still readily available. Studio Canal must not be hoarding all the titles though, because Léon Morin, Priest was released by Criterion. Hopefully if they are not releasing through Lionsgate they will still find other avenues to be released in the U.S.
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