Universal to release "Army of Darkness: Screwhead Edition" on May 19 (1 Viewer)

[Jesse Blacklow]

Blu-ray.com - Army of Darkness Announced for Blu-ray

 

[zackscott5]

Why couldn't they seamless branch the Director's cut with the theatrical cut? What would be wrong with that? I don't think this is going to be a sale for me.

 

[Edward Schatz]

No sale if it does not have the director's cut. R3 DVD will work just fine. And what is with Universal's love of BD-25? I have not read anything about BD-50s being hard to come by.

 

[Jason Seaver]

Well, it is an 81-minute movie with most of the extras likely standard-definition ports. Considering Uni fit this on an HD-15 before with the main problem being the transfer rather than the compression, how necessary could going over 25GB be?

 

[PerryD]

Just picked this up for $5 on HD-DVD with the current Amazon sale. It will be interesting to see if the blu-ray is improved in any way.

 

[Stephen_J_H]

Because they would have to licence the DC from DDLC, which would cost more money. Uni doesn't really want to invest a lot of money in AoD because it bombed theatrically and took a while to recoup their investment on video.

 

[Sam Posten]

GROOOOOOVY

 

[Vincent_P]

Didn't Universal play a high-quality longer cut of ARMY OF DARKNESS on TV? This suggests they have access to the original footage.

Vincent

 

[Josh Pounds]

The information in this release doesn't make sense.

The commentary track was recorded for the Director's Cut of the film -- Raimi and Campbell would not do a commentary for the theatrical version. This would suggest the version of the film on this disc is the director's cut, BUT...

Why include the "original ending planned for the film" in the release? Unless THAT information is incorrect and referring to the "S-MART" ending?

What gives? We need clarification please!

 

[Shad R]

Alright, use spoilers if u need to but...I've never seen the directors or heard about the original planned ending. Is it worth buying the directors cut?

 

[zackscott5]

Well, If they have the original planned ending as a bonus feature...didn't they already pay for the footage???

We need more info on this release or Starz video (distributer of Anchor Bay titles on BluRay) to release the boomstick edition.

Without more info...still No sale.

 

[Stephen_J_H]

It's not a question of "already paying for the footage." The DC is owned by DDLC, in the same way that WB does not own distribution rights on the DC of Natural Born Killers, so that version of the film was released on video by another company. Universal only holds the distribution rights to AoD in North America (I believe it's distributed in Europe by MGM/Fox), and only to the theatrical version. They can licence the deleted scenes for inclusion in a DVD/BD, but once that footage is incorporated into the film, it becomes a different version of the film, and a separate entity as far as copyright is concerned.

 

[zackscott5]

Stephen, I see your point and all this legal crap is what is killing good versions of films and creating hardship for the audience in general.

It just goes to show you that the world would be better without lawyers

Like I said...Starz needs to get going with the Blu-Ray of the directors cut of this as well as the original Evil Dead post haste!

 

[Michael Osadciw]

I may have read elsewhere that Anchor Bay's release rights have now ended for all Evil Dead films including AoD. Any truth to this? (Who is DDLC, btw?)

 

[Vincent_P]

I think it stands for Dino DeLaurentiis Company.

I also don't see how Universal would have to re-license anything. Didn't THEY cut the film for its U.S. release? They would have licensed the original version, then applied the edits themselves, no? Now, if they discarded that cut footage, I'd imagine they might have to pay to use a longer element held by another company, but as far as "rights" go I don't see what the issue is here.

Also, as I pointed out above, Universal's T.V. version of ARMY OF DARKNESS contains much of (if not ALL of) the extra material from the "Director's Cut", and in very high quality. This suggests that they DO have access to that film material in their vaults.

Vincent

 

[RickER]

Couldnt they have come up with a better name for the thing? Screwhead Edition...jeez!
I will have to wait and see before i buy. But not because of the name.

 

[Stephen_J_H]

It's Dino DeLaurentiis Communications. The thing we all need to remember here is that Uni is merely the distributor; they didn't finance the movie. [rant]While Uni may be showing the longer cut on TV, they may only hold broadcast rights to that version. Rights are parceled up like this all the time, especially in cases invloving independent producers, and I take exception to blaming it on the lawyers. Frankly, in a situation like this, it's the accountants who are the real devils, because they dictate just how much a company like Uni is going to fork out. The lawyers are merely facilitators in a circumstance like this.[/rant]

 

[Ray_R]

The R3 MGM NTSC 96m looks damn near HD what with the great film grain and details. And I agree with why Universal is using a BD-25. They should be using BD-50's for all feature film releases regardless of the running time. Just max out the bitrate.
The only thing which was really good about Anchor Bays Boomstick Edition were the extra features. The film transfer was awful. So I'll wait for the image comparison sites before I cave in.
I still don't even own a Blu-ray player yet.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Gents,

First of all, Home Theater Forum gets all Press Releases and we
would have posted this ourselves rather than having someone give
credit to another site.

Fact of the matter is, Universal pulled this press release hours
after posting it. I expect changes to be made to it.

 

[Jonathon M]

Cheers for the additional info on this. The site I originally read it on (The Digital Bits) hasn't mentioned that Universal pulled the press release.

Here's hoping Universal decide to give us a better package than the one they've dangled briefly in front of us. Or at least a little more clarifying info...