Damn, Warner's! (1 Viewer)

[Roger Rollins]

To Steven FC:

Don't be surprised if you DO see A TALE OF TWO CITIES or THE MORTAL STORM arrive on DVD from WB. These are great, important films, and unlike the other studios, WB has executives who actually know about their product, and are enthusiastic about it. I'm certain that if they released either of those films, they could do so, and do so earning a profit for the company.

"The D.I." may be a little it too "out there", but, the WB people are so shrewd, creative & so far above their competitors, that maybe they could find a way to get that one out too. Let's hope so. It deserves a good DVD release.

 

[Charles H]

If they can "release" VIVA KNEIVAL this week (and I understand it looks terrific) without including it in a Gene Kelly signature Collection...then anything is possible!

 

[Paul_Scott]

 

[Nils Luehrmann]

Double Ditto!

Warner’s upcoming Ben-Hur: 4-disc Collector's Edition will likely be my top nomination for DVD of the year, but there are so many titles coming from Warner this year that I am very excited about, none more so that their newly restored original 1933 King Kong!

 

[Adam_ME]

Screw Warner Bros! They don't support DTS!








Ok, just kidding. Every other complaint I've ever had about them, they've addressed. P&S titles have been replaced with WS versions(except for Ace Ventura anyway). The snapper is history. They even caved in on their policy against releasing unrated films.

Too bad New Line and Warners can't swap libraries. Then we'd have all of the above PLUS the DTS support.

 

[Patrick McCart]

About DTS...

99% of the classics Warner releases really don't need DTS. In fact, they use a higher bitrate DD 5.1 now, so that's good enough.

Pretty much anything made before 1978 would be kind of a waste of space. Although, I'd imagine 2001: A Space Odyssey would be fine... although, it would require splitting the film onto two DVD-9's in order to keep the image looking good.

 

[JohnMor]

There's a few others still P&S only: Frantic and Private Benjamin to name just two. But I agree, they do tend to address the concerns better than most studios.

 

[Michael Warner]

So far for 2005 just over 50% of my DVD purchases have been Warner Brothers titles. I can't recall another time period when one studio so dominated my wallet.

 

[Mark Zimmer]

Splitting 2001 wouldn't be tragedy; it does have an intermission, after all.

 

[Lars Vermundsberget]

Speaking of Warner Brothers, that's some name you have there, "Michael Warner".

 

[Michael Warner]

Yeah...too bad I don't have any brothers.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

You know what's pretty incredible?

It just so happens that two of the most
loved studios on this forum are those who
have supported HTF more than anyone else.

Both Peter Staddon at Fox and George
Feltenstein at Warner are two of the nicest
non "studio attitude" people that you ever
would want to meet.

Both individuals have absolute passion
not only for the product they release but
the manner in which it is released.

While Warren Lieberfarb is considered the
Father of DVD, I often refer to Peter
Staddon as the Godfather of the format.
It was through him that Fox drove anamorphic
releases and Special Editions to a new
level back in the late '90s when all the
other studios were releasing plain-vanilla
non-anamorphic releases.

George Feltenstein? Well, the success of
the Warner classic catalog on DVD says it all!
This is a man who has driven Warner Home Video
to new heights. If you ever met the wonderful
people that are part of the Warner Home Video
team, you would immediately understand why their
product is as good as it is!

Yeah, it may seem I'm doing a lot of heavy-duty
brown-nosing here -- but I have been around for
a while and have met a lot of studio people in
my time.

If you had the opportunity to see the people
involved behind-the-scenes and how they
embrace their product, this forum and your
suggestions, you would have a clearer idea as to
why these two studios are consistently at the top
of everyone's list.

 

[Jaime_Weinman]

WB has done some excellent work in features, and overall they are clearly the best big studio when it comes to classic features (though this has at least something to do with the fact that they have the best and biggest library, and that they have the corporate relationship with Turner Classic Movies). With TV shows, they're middle of the pack -- they do a good job on some shows but abandon others -- and with animation, as the Tom and Jerry fiasco proves, they have a lot of problems. And some of their releases of current films are good but not much ahead of other studios.

Basically, I think when we talk about "Warner Brothers" we're really talking about George Feltenstein. The company's doing OK, but he's doing great.

 

[Dane Marvin]

Warner Bros is easily the best studio around. The competition isn't even all that close between it and the nearest competitor (Fox in the 2 slot). Part of it is that they have a ton of great properties, but the biggest thing is they know what to do with what they have.

I make it a point to buy nearly every single classic film that they release in a Two-Disc SE (and many of the contemporary classics as well). I absolutely adore the treatment given to "Rebel Without a Cause". I blind bought "East of Eden" and still haven't watched it yet, but I'm sure I'm in for a treat!

I'm absolutely giddy for the future of WB releases, too:

King Kong: Two-Disc SE
Ben-Hur: Four-Disc CE
The Wizard of Oz: Two-Disc SE
Network: Two-Disc SE
Bonnie & Clyde: Two-Disc SE
Million Dollar Baby: Two-Disc SE (w/CD soundtrack)

My life will nearly be complete once those titles street!