Damn... saw this post on the late but hope one of your questions is to ask why the 1927 silent "Wings" that won the first best picture Academy Award hasn't shown up on DVD yet either? I saw in earlier posts that in 2003 and in 2006 they were "working on it" but know the Laser Disc release was decent so elements should be available. Paramount still holds the rights for this title.
Okay I have an update for all of you on The African Queen....
We visited Paramount today and I had the opportunity to talk with one of the top restorationists there about this film.
Basically, this film has been the subject of all sorts of tie-ups over the years which has resulted in its delay of getting released. Among the biggest problem was that the film was not licensed to Paramount but rather a company named Romulus films.
There was also a problem of two different restoration houses (one at Paramount and one in the UK) wanting to work on the project with no mutual agreement on how it was to be done.
All of this caused massive delays in getting dupes struck -- until recently. Over the past few weeks Paramount has been making some huge strides in their efforts to restore this film and is very optimistic that they are closer than ever to getting this film out on DVD and (hopefully) Blu-ray.
Nobody wants to set a particular time of release, but from the conversation I had with the studio, the restoration is very much underway.
As for the other questions, especially regarding WINGS, I unfortunately have no answer. The studio was supposed to answer a list of questions we had presented to them, but they chose to instead to address questions privately among all the attendees, and I did not have enough time to ask about that title but I am hoping that perhaps someone else in our group did.
To elaborate more on African Queen, I was told that Paramount owns the rights in the US but didn't have any elements. After they were located overseas, and after an agreement to work together on them was struck (with the overseas rights holder who had the elements, it took an additional 9 months to get an agreement on how to transport them to the US. All that is behind them now and work is progressing. They did not have a release date that they would share yet, but rest assured they are working on it and wanting to give it the attention it deserves.
I did ask about Wings and was told that it is currently being worked on as well for release, but like African Queen they weren't ready to commit to a date. I guess it makes sense to have the restoration complete before to announce it....
Romulus Films was a British film production company that John Huston did at least 3 films with so I'm not surprised about the legal issues since the original owners are dead. Another Huston/Romulus film is "Beat the Devil" which has suffered a similar fate.
It sounds to me that the earliest we might see this title out is late 2009, but perhaps 2010.
That's certainly good news about "The African Queen".
I think I'm more surprised that they admit to working on "Wings". Parmount has shown nothing less than disdain for their silent films to this point. Hopefully this means, that they are working on some others also. Have they released anything other than "The Ten Commandments" which was only released as a throw-in on the 2-disc set of the 50's version a few years ago?
I don't know about Paramount Home Video, but the studio itself does seem to be a little more open to working on its silent films in recent years than it was previously - the Alloy Orchestra described the new restoration of Underworld they toured with last year as a collaboration, and I believe they worked together again on The Last Command this year. Of course, that hasn't gotten these new prints/scores on DVD.
I'm late into this thread I know, but I'm just wondering whether you got any information from Paramount about the likelihood of them being able to release 'One Eyed Jacks' on DVD and/or Blu-ray - thus finally rescuing it from Public Domain hell.
I did hear a rumour at one stage that the rights are now held by the Brando Estate rather than Paramount, but I don't think the position has ever been confirmed officially. Is there any update on this situation?
I am satisfied with the news regarding "The African Queen". I never really doubted they were working on it but it is gratifying to hear concretely 1) there were obstacles, 2) what those obstacles were, and 3) these obstacles were/are being actively worked on. There's no longer a deep dark void but instead a light at the end of the tunnel.
Godspeed, Paramount. We eagerly look forward to the fruits of your labours!