MGM and Studio Canal? (1 Viewer)

[James Reader]

Having just picked up my The Producers DVD I see that it is branded Studio Canal (like another recent MGM release The Fog was).

Now I'm not sure, but Universal owns Canal (or vice versa) so one would expect Universal to be releasing such titles. Thankfully MGM are releasing them, and as rather impressive Special Editions too (something I doubt Universal would do).

I assume this is due to a long standing licensing agreement before Universal and Studio Canal began their partnership.

Does anyone have any details on this?

 

[Jeff Kleist]

yup, licensing agreements betwen Studio Canal and others. Other films of theirs in interesting places are T2 and Stargate with Artisan (originally Columbia,MGM respectively, but MGM seems to retain at least some rights as they do the TV show)

 

[Mark Edward Heuck]

The StudioCanal situation:

StudioCanal's library consists of what had been Embassy Pictures/DeLaurentiis Entertainment Group, EMI, Salkind Productions, and Carolco. And as such, there have been preexisting video agreements for those libraries before Canal+ took possession, and before they were merged (in theory) with Universal Studios.

MGM inherited first dibs on the Embassy library through their purchase of Polygram. Polygram got those dibs from inheriting the Nelson Entertainment company, which was a spinoff from what had been Embassy's video arm. This was a video-only situation, although a one-time theatrical arrangement for THIS IS SPINAL TAP's reissue was made. This deal is over save for titles that MGM already issued on tape, such as THE PRODUCERS and THE FOG.

Artisan handles the Carolco titles from a deal dating back to when Carolco was a majority stakeholder in Artisan's predecessor company Live Entertainment.

Anchor Bay struck a deal with StudioCanal for their EMI and DEG titles, and has now expanded it to their Embassy titles not already released by MGM. It is also beginning to cover foreign films previously issued by Fox Lorber/Winstar/Wellspring, such as DIVA, the Lester MUSKETEER films, and EMMANUELLE.

To a limited degree, StudioCanal also licenses titles directly to Image Entertainment, mostly lesser-known foreign language titles not covered by another defunct U.S. releasing company.

 

[Jeffrey Gray]

Actually, IIRC, to sway slightly off-topic, MGM doesn't own PolyGram. Universal (who bought PolyGram in 1998) simply licensed the PolyGram pre-1996 library (save the ITC catalog, which had been sold to Carlton) to MGM, as well as transferring all the PolyGram contracts with outside companies (including their contract with StudioCanal for the Embassy stuff; I think that PolyGram simply licensed the Embassy/Nelson stuff from StudioCanal, who had absorbed Paravision, who Norman Lear sold Nelson to in the early 90's) to MGM as well. I don't remember ever hearing anything saying that MGM ever OWNED the PolyGram library...