Disney and MGM in a 5-year deal to begin in 2003... (1 Viewer)

[John Kilduff]

Read it on dvdfile.com...

Buena Vista Home Entertainment has made a deal with MGM to re-release over 60 titles previously licensed to Anchor Bay. Among those to get re-issued, with new features to boot, include:

"Prizzi's Honor"
"Silkwood"
"Watcher In The Woods"
"Straw Dogs"
"Duel In The Sun"
"The Flamingo Kid"

This is very interesting...

Maybe MGM could do the season sets of "Moonlighting" that Anchor Bay couldn't.

Sincerely,

John Kilduff...

Thoughts, gang?

 

[Will K]

Cool, though it would be nice if MGM could do unrated versions of stuff BV refuses to.

 

[oscar_merkx]

sounds great and here is hoping that we don't get just rehashes.

 

[Patrick McCart]

Hmm...I wonder which company is interested in buying MGM... Is this a hint?

 

[Damin J Toell]

Let's see if Disney does a better job of providing MGM with elements for their films than they did during the course of their Anchor Bay relationship.

DJ

 

[JohnS]

One of my biggest concerns is 16x9!

 

[Jeff Ulmer]

I hope I am wrong, but this is NOT good news. MGM refuses to do anamorphic treatment of 1.66 titles, and has been moving into more and more pan and scan releases.

 

[Jean-Michel]

The DVDFile article mentions Rebecca and Notorious as well. Somebody at the Criterion boards said Spellbound would also be a part of the deal. If this is indeed the case Criterion's lineup of Hitchcock titles may become a lot thinner by the end of next year.........

 

[MatthewA]

What titles will be redone? I may upgrade some of the non-anamorphic Disney/ABC ones if they are rereleased in anamorphic. And let's see some extras, and hopefully they won't remove logos.

 

[Mark Edward Heuck]

I am surmising that this agreement, since it is only for 66 films (not as big a number as one would think), is almost exclusively for the former ABC library, which includes the classic independent Selznick International titles. While WATCHER IN THE WOODS did get mentioned, I doubt that any actual Disney productions will be part of this package; they are likely holding those goodies for themselves.

Well, as long as MGM is willing to fork over dough to replicate the excellent R2 extras on STRAW DOGS, I'll be happy.

 

[soop.spoon]

Here's a list of Anchor Bay licensed Disney titles (ABC/Palomar/Selmur/Selznik)... hopefully we'll see some improved versions of at least some of them under this new deal:

Flamingo Kid
Grissom Gang
Impulse
Junior Bonner
Krakatoa, East Of Java
Last Valley
Moonlighting: The Pilot
National Lampoon's Class Reunion
Night Stalker / Night Strangler
Out Of The Blue
Portrait Of Jennie
Prizzi's Honor
Silkwood
Spacecamp
Spiral Staircase
Straw Dogs
Too Late The Hero
Trilogy Of Terror
Ring Of Bright Water
Take The Money And Run
They Shoot Horses, Don't They?
Candy
Hell in the Pacific
Heartbreak Kid
Sleuth
Stepford Wives
For Love Of Ivy
Heartbreak Kid
Killing of Sister George
Shalako
Sleuth
Stepford Wives
Whatever Happened To Aunt Alice
Smashing Time
Duel In The Sun (Theatrical Version)
Duel In The Sun (Roadshow Version)
Paradine Case
Notorious
Rebecca
Spellbound

Additionally, here's the list of Anchor Bay/Miramax DVDs. could these possibly be part of the deal?

Billy's Holiday
Cook, The Thief, His Wife And Her Lover
Dakota
Lemon Sisters
Mio In The Land Of The Far Away
Nightwatch
Pelle The Conqueror
Scandal
Strapless
Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!
Unbelievable Truth
Working Girls

There's also the actual Disney films released by Anchor Bay... I guess these could be candidates as well?

Never Cry Wolf
Bears And I
Big Red
Black Hole
Candleshoe
Castaway Cowboy
Cat From Outer Space
Charlie, The Lonesome Cougar
Condorman
Devil And Max Devlin
Great Locomotive Chase
Happiest Millionaire (Roadshow Version)
Happiest Millionaire (Theatrical Version)
Island At The Top Of The World
Last Flight Of Noah's Ark
Legend of Lobo
Littlest Horse Thieves
Midnight Madness
Napoleon And Samantha
Nikki: Wild Dog of the North
North Avenue Irregulars
One Little Indian
One Magic Christmas
Return To Oz
Something Wicked This Way Comes
Tex
Unidentified Flying Oddball
Watcher In The Woods

 

[Damin J Toell]

The DVDFile article mentions Rebecca and Notorious as well. Somebody at the Criterion boards said Spellbound would also be a part of the deal. If this is indeed the case Criterion's lineup of Hitchcock titles may become a lot thinner by the end of next year.........

It's unlikely that this will affect the Criterion releases, as Anchor Bay released those films on DVD through their Disney relationship, as well. Disney likely structures their video license agreements (for the Hitchcock films, at least) to allow for multiple releases by various licensees. Just like we had concurrently available releases on these titles from AB and Criterion, we'll probably just have concurrently available releases from MGM and Criterion.

DJ

 

[Mark Edward Heuck]

Well, doing the math from Jack's list, that is way more than 66 titles. I think it's safe to guess that the Miramax and Disney propers won't be part of the deal.
Also, while Palomar was an ABC imprint in the '70's, I believe that SLEUTH, THE HEARTBREAK KID, THE STEPFORD WIVES, and LAW AND DISORDER are (bizarrely) owned by the Bristol-Myers-Squibb pharmaceutical company, and would not be part of the deal as well.
I just hope this means we will finally get a widescreen CHARLY as part of the deal, and that this time THE KILLING OF SISTER GEORGE will include the innovative trailer that was omitted from the last DVD issue.

Some other ABC titles I hope get issued:

THE BAT
ZACHARIAH
PRAY FOR THE WILDCATS
THE DAY AFTER
GARDEN OF ALLAH
THE TOUCH
GOOD TIMES
THE DINNER PARTY
FIGURES IN A LANDSCAPE
SUPPOSE THEY GAVE A WAR AND NOBODY CAME
DON'T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK
HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS

 

[JohnS]

Sleuth

Anchor Bay already released a newer version of this(16x9), and its a pretty good DVD

 

[soop.spoon]

I believe that SLEUTH, THE HEARTBREAK KID, THE STEPFORD WIVES, and LAW AND DISORDER are (bizarrely) owned by the Bristol-Myers-Squibb

This makes sense... Anchor Bay recently re-released 3 out of those 4, and all three featured great new anamorphic transfers and some supplements.

 

[Jean-Michel]

It's unlikely that this will affect the Criterion releases, as Anchor Bay released those films on DVD through their Disney relationship, as well. Disney likely structures their video license agreements (for the Hitchcock films, at least) to allow for multiple releases by various licensees. Just like we had concurrently available releases on these titles from AB and Criterion, we'll probably just have concurrently available releases from MGM and Criterion.

Actually, BV only licensed the Hitchcock titles to one company, Anchor Bay. Anchor Bay sub-licensed them to Criterion. So if AB's deal with BV was up then the Criterions would automatically go OOP, unless Criterion renegotiated a deal directly with BV.

But that's not really the point. The problem here is that I don't see why MGM would bother releasing these titles at all with two other versions (AB and Criterion) on the market at the same time. There's room for AB and Criterion versions (the AB are bare-bones and cheaper, the Criterions are deluxe editions and more expensive), but where's the room for an MGM version? It seems to me the only reason MGM would consider another version of these titles to be a worthwhile undertaking is if the other versions went OOP. Of course it'll be awhile before MGM releases any of these titles, but I would not be at all surprised if both the Criterion and AB versions went OOP by the end of 2003.

 

[streeter]

The article mentions that MGM will up some of the titles with special features. I will be surprised if there will be many - and I doubt that they'll outdo Anchor Bay on them. MGM has done some great SEs, but they've also let lots of classics go by bare-bones.
Which leads me to my question:

Which of the 66 titles in question have good bonus features and should be snagged before they're OOP?

 

[Damin J Toell]

Quote:

With the AB discs off the market, MGM can fill the niche for barebones discs.
DJ

 

[Daniel Kikin]

I'm still waiting for MGM to release their Spaceballs:SE which was rumored to be in the works earlier this year. Anyone hear anything new on this one?

 

[Jefferson]

SINCE YOU WENT AWAY
was also an Anchor Bay /ABC title...
is that part of this as well, I hope?