Italian Job canceled by Paramount !!! (1 Viewer)

[David Lambert]

My bet is on the gact that New Line Cinema & Paramount made a deal, they even had a court case or something similar about the Bond name.

You're confused, Oscar. Bond is MGM, not Paramount. Go get some sleep.
Edit: Sebastian, you need some sleep, too. You're cranky. There is no way Paramount deserves criticism of that level for a few postponements or cancellations. Stuff happens, and here you are getting over-excited about it. I agree that someone somewhere at Paramount - probably in their clearances department - isn't as on-the-ball lately as they ought to be. But let's not go overboard.
Yeah, there's a few lately: The Fan, It Came From Hollywood, The Tenant, and not The Italian Job. But that's just a drop in the bucket, and the first one is back on the schedule for Sept. 24th, last time I checked.
Yeah, it's fustrating, too. But I think that with a bit of patience and faith, they'll all come out sooner rather than later. The 2nd title is the one I'm most worried about, since so MUCH material in it needs clearances. But I expect they had everything but one last-minute thing that popped up, since it was a last-minute hold on the release. In fact, I bet there are pressed discs actually out there somewhere!

 

[oscar_merkx]

David

:b :b :b

anyway, Austin Powers Goldmember had many Italian Job pointers that were great

 

[PhilipG]

My reaction to this news sorta sounded like: "Ducking Well, I truckin' rate those grit-for-trains cover-duckers". (Sorry, just got through my Sopranos season 3 DVDs).
First those "dual language" Canadian covers, and now this. Looks like Paramount are competing with Columbia for worst p.r.

 

[Neil White]

This disappoints me too. My first car was a mini :b . Unfortunately it wasn't one of the Mini Coopers from the movie.

I do hope they get around to releasing this some day or I'm going to have to take the plunge on a Malata soon.

N

 

[Cees Alons]

I'm holding on to my R1-order. Hope it will turn out to be a relatively short delay.
The Tenant postponed too? Bad decision! Hadn't heard about that one yet...
Cees

 

[Ted Todorov]

Guys...getting the R2 version in Region 1 only will lessen the sales of the Region 1 release.

And we should care about this because...? What are they going to do, stop putting out R1 DVDs? Quite to the contrary, we should get the R2 version whenever it is superior to R1, which in this case it clearly is by virtue of its very existence.

By buying more non-R1 releases maybe we can spur the studios into paying more attention to R1. Example Columbia's penchant for giving R1 Pan & Scan while R2 get anamorphic widescreen.

Ted

 

[Jeff_HR]

I agree, ABSOLUTELY!

 

[JulianK]

It's all about consumer empowerment and sticking it to "the man", baby!

Multi-Region DVD - you know it makes sense!

 

[Deepak Shenoy]

Just so long as they don't cancel Roman Holiday or Sunset Blvd., I won't have to kill anybody.

Well, they have been delayed by 3 weeks according to DVDEmpire and will now come out on 11/26. I'd be really pissed too if these and To Catch a Thief got canceled.

 

[Malcolm Cleugh]

I would be very surprised if they did not release it in the US, given the money Paramount have invested in it. There is a newly commissioned documentary running over an hour, remastered DD5.1 track, commentary and "Blue Danube" deleted scene. The only disappointment was the C4 documentary included on the VHS SE was not included, this had much more on the driving stunts, which are rather brushed over on this disk. Also no participation from Michael Caine, not even old interview footage.
The US may even do better than the UK, as the US TV spots arrived to late for inclusion in the R2 version.
Have been watching this over the last couple of days superb
Hopefully any remake will improve on Stallone's dire Get Carter which completely destroyed another classic English film.

 

[Andy Sheets]

Hopefully any remake will improve on Stallone's dire Get Carter which completely destroyed another classic English film.

Naw, it's not destroyed. I've got the dvd of the original movie waiting to be viewed at home, and I even saw the end of it on tv a few weeks ago. No Stallone in sight
I really hope The Italian Job comes out before too long. I've never seen it but I've heard nothing but great things about it.

 

[Micheal D]

Also no participation from Michael Caine, not even old interview footage.

There's been a few interviews around the net relating to the people that created the R2 disc. This one from the producer of the DVD, mentions that there were planning to have Michael Caine on the disc but they didn't have the time... in case you were wondering:
Link Removed
Pity about the region one disc though. :frowning:

 

[oscar_merkx]

I just watched the R2 version and thought that the interviews were topnotch and liked the menus where the minis were moving all over the place
yes too bad Michael Caine was not involved.

 

[Chris May]

the transfer onto the R2 DVD looks pretty good from where i'm sitting. a few years ago it was put out on VHS (PAL - i don't know if it came out in the US) as a 30th Anniversary SE. this was digitally remastered 2.35:1. if u have it i'd keep the video if i were u coz i holds a documentary 'The Mini Job' which was made by Channel 4....this hasn't shown up on the DVD :frowning:

 

[Nelson Au]

I'll just add a quick comment. I am lucky to have found an OOP laserdisc of The Italian Job early last year. I watched it several months ago. I had never seen the film from beginning to end before and not in a very long time. I heard all the exciting comments about it since I am a fan of caper films and cars in films. Bullitt is my favorite film of the genre.

But perhaps the reason Paramount is holding off on this DVD is for concern of it's marketability. I enjoyed it, but it was a bit of a let down to me. Maybe it's too "English" for Americans to appreciate. Not everyone get's it. I thought the ending was a bit of a downer. I did enjoy the 60's feel it has, the use of fashions and lifestyles of the era in the film makes it fun. It's appeal could be very limited in the United States unlike England. I have a colleague at work from England and he's a car nut and loves that movie.

Just my POV. For what it's worth. If the DVD makes it's way to our stores, I will very likely pick it up, the laserdisc while good, does look like some color correcting is needed.

Nelson

 

[Mark Pfeiffer]

Just thinking out loud but perhaps the DVD release of The Italian Job is being held back to coincide with the theatrical release of the new remake with Mark Wahlberg.

You can get an idea about the remake at Upcoming Movies. I suspect the DVD release may have been delayed until the remake's release next summer.

 

[Piers C]

I think Nelson is on to something, but I think Paramount's decision is based on protecting the "marketability" of their remake for an American audience. Could their thinking be that the less a U.S. audience knows about the original the better? Why risk having an American audience associate their remake as a British 60's caper? Its certainly a shame.

I found a copy of the latest DVD Empire mag and enjoyed reading about the R2 release, including details about the supplements and some of the history behind the film. It was interesting to read about the conflict over casting (i.e., Benny Hill) and making it less 'hard.

Maybe someone has already suggested this, but it might help to contact Paramount to encourage them to "re-visit" their decision. on a US release.