Lions Gate expands catalog - Halloween, Conan & more (1 Viewer)

[Michael Allred]

from www.davisdvd.com



Could Halloween II & III and the Dead Zone finally get SEs?

 

[Damin J Toell]

Wow. Good thing MGM got the Amityville boxset out the door before this happened.

DJ

 

[Mike_Richardson]

This sounds like it's for international distribution, not domestic.

Most of those films are various Dino DeLaurentiis productions that -- internationally -- are owned by different studios/companies, independent of their U.S. distributors. I find it hard to believe Paramount, Universal, etc. would all be simultaneously "relinquishing" control of those movies in the U.S. -- or if it's even possible for them to do that in the first place.

The notice about DIRTY DANCING would make sense then, because Lions Gate has always held that property in the U.S. (through their buy out of Artisan, Vestron, etc etc). The news of the acqusition putting all rights to that franchise "under one roof" would only be news in regards to international distribution.

Maybe this will mean better international DVDs of some of those films.........but knowing Lions Gate, probably not!

 

[Justin_S]

I'm not a big fan of Lions Gate, but if this does somehow wind up meaning SEs of Halloween III and The Dead Zone, I'm all for it.

 

[Bradley-E]

This does sound like International rights not domestic.

 

[Matt M]

The part that interests me the most is the part about the aquisition of the Vestron titles. Back in VHS days, (according to IMDB and the copies on eBay) Vestron were the ones who released The Monster Squad on VHS. Is there any chance of it getting released by Lion's Gate since they have united all the rights of Vestron.

 

[Rob T]

I wonder if they'll give Conan a 5.1 track.

 

[Rob T]

yeah probably. :frowning:

 

[Michael Osadciw]

Rob T.

My guess is that we'll see a 5.1 soundtrack for Conan The Barbarian when the title hits HD-DVD later this year. There was plans for both DTS and DD 5.1 soundtracks when the first "reissed" Conan DVD came out...but after much searching the original audio elements couldn't be found.

It's quite possible that now, five years later, they could have popped up somewhere.

Mike

 

[Damin J Toell]

I can't vouch for its quality (I'm not very excited by 5.1 remixes of mono tracks, anyway), but Fox has released the film in various places around the world with 5.1 mixes (sometimes just DD, sometimes also DTS) for a number of years now.

DJ

 

[Mike_Richardson]

But Lions Gate has ALWAYS owned Vestron's movies in this country -- so there's no news here. This has to do with international rights, not North American.

I'm with you, I wish we'd see MONSTER SQUAD though...maybe someday.

 

[Mike_Richardson]

The Fox DVD 5.1 mix available outside the U.S. is SUPERB. It's a legitimate 5.1 remix and not only that but the transfer is superior than Universal's SE here as well. One of the main reasons I bought a multi region player, needless to say.

CONAN absolutely benefits from stereo IMHO...it would have had one back in the day but DeLaurentiis wanted to go on the cheap and refused to pay for it. That mono mix on the Universal DVD is one of the worst I've heard -- so the 5.1 remix really rights a wrong IMO. It has nothing to do with artistic integrity, it's all about economics. At any rate, you'll never want to hear Conan in mono again!

 

[walter o]

I am sure my good friend Marc Edward can verify this, but this is certainly a international/oversea deal. I cannot imagine paramount, who just put out a nice DVD of RAGTIME will suddenly lose it to lions gate.

And yes, lions gate had the vestron library for years in the state, controlling such horror classics like PAPERHOUSE, BLOOD DINER, ALLIGATOR, DEATH WEEKEND, IILSA TIGRESS, etc.

As for MONSTER SQUAD, I believe Paramount now controls this thru Taft/Worldvisions.

 

[Christian Preischl]

Have Lions Gate distributed outside the North American market before?

Chris

 

[John Kilduff]

Shit. I was hoping to get a copy of "8 Million Ways To Die" over here. It's probably for the best, though...If it were released here, Lions' Gate would pan-and-scan this title while giving us the 4th or 5th edition of "Terminator 2: Judgement Day".

Sincerely,

John Kilduff...

I envy the Europeans...They appear to be getting titles that we won't be getting.

 

[Mike_Richardson]

I wouldn't be so sure. Lions Gate doesn't exactly have the best track record here in the U.S., and I can't imagine their DVDs of titles MGM/Paramount/Universal have released over here are going to be superior over there...plus, if one of the titles they're most excited about is DIRTY DANCING, it sounds like the same o'l approach they have in North America to me.

 

[Kevin M]

I didn't find the Conan mono track to be that bad, nice bass & treble if a little rolled off on the higher end but not as bad a some I have heard.

These rights have to be for international rights, I can't see Universal giving out R1 rights to these titles, especially to an actual rival studio rather than licensing out a few titles to a specialty house like Criterion or Anchor Bay.

 

[Damin J Toell]

Assuming for the sake of argument that the rights at issue in the article do refer to video rights in the US, it wouldn't be a case of Universal "giving out" anything to anyone. Lions Gate is going to the source rights holder, from whom Universal's right derive. This is like when Disney first licenses a title to Anchor Bay and then later to MGM (e.g., Spacecamp); Anchor Bay isn't giving anything up to MGM, as the decision isn't theirs to make in the first place.

DJ

 

[Kevin M]

I can't see Universal doing this for these particular titles and especially to a growing rival film studio that has acquired a number of assets recently...why would they help the competition? They certainly haven't been that generous in recent years if they could help it.

 

[Damin J Toell]

You keep talking about "Universal doing," so perhaps you didn't understand my previous post. This isn't "Universal doing" anything. Lions Gate acquired these rights from Modern Entertainment, not Universal. Universal isn't "doing" anything with regard to these titles, just like Anchor Bay wasn't "doing" anything when Disney ended their license to some titles and re-licensed them to MGM. Universal isn't the one in the position to make the decisions you're attributing to them. Whether Universal would be likely to do it is irrelevant, since they're not the ones doing it int he first place.

DJ