*** Official 2009 Warner Chat and Discussion Thread (1 Viewer)

[DavidJ]

Just read through the transcript. I didn't miss as much as I thought I did. This was the first chat I was able to successfully join, but I got in about an hour into the chat and had to leave about 45 minutes later. Since Warner cut it short, I didn't miss much.

Thanks to Ron, Parker and the HTF for the chat. And even though the answers were not as detailed as I would've liked, thanks to Warner for participating. It is definitely not something they have any obligation to do and they have tended to be more open to these types of things than many of the other studios.

I'd still like more technical details about the Archive program.

 

[Simon Howson]

Same here, but I guess the best we can do is direct questions to:
[email protected]

They have already sent me two replies.

I sent them another email asking if the DVDs are dual or single layer. I also pointed out to them that a lot of the video samples are incorrectly formatted (some pan and scan, others squeezed) and some are fore the wrong film, e.g. the Quentin Durward clip is for a modern film, exactly what it is I don't know, but it looks like a Vietnam War film that I obviously haven't seen in a long time.

 

[Greg_M]

Nothing else about the "The Devils" except "it's under consideration" - it's been under consideration at every WB chat over the last 10 years - will it ever come out and what is the hold up????

 

[Charles Ellis]

Mister Crawford:

It's the Dark Shadows films awaiting release, not Dark Journey!!!!!!! PLEASE CORRECT THIS............

 

[Anthony Neilson]

The BARRY LYNDON thing is maddening. What did he mean by saying - "If you're taking about new editions, no"? In what sense could "Any plans for ..." be mistaken for being a question about an old edition?

But surely they would have mentioned if it was coming out on BD? And surely if it (and LOLITA) was coming out on BD, they'd do a few new supplements for it?

So one can only assume they have no plans to release it on Blu-ray, which is baffling. Surely all the Kubrick titles have been good sellers for them? BARRY LYNDON needs to be seen in Hi-def.

Good news about the on-demand service going international, though. And I'm particularly excited to see WHERE EAGLES DARE on Blu-ray. Wish that question about THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING had got through.

Thanks to all at HTF for their hard work in making this happen, and thanks to WB for attending.

 

[John Hodson]

Biggest disappointments, for me;

Any plans for Barry Lyndon and Lolita?

Warner: If you mean new editions, no.

Any chance of Where Eagles Dare and Hammer films on BRD?

Warner: Where Eagles Dare is coming next year. No plans for Hammer films.

I'm ever so slightly ambivalent about the Archive; the pricing, in these times, is troubling, as is the fact, despite the good news about overseas sales, there'll be a block on Allied Artists and RKO films. I think there's a correlation between...

The pricing of the titles at 19.95 at Warner Archive is rather high, will the price be lowered?

Warner: The amount of purchases have been great and the issue of pricing has not been discussed.

And answers like...

Will there be a 5th Gangster Boxset?

Warner: No further boxsets are planned, but more Bogart/Cagney/Robinson/Raft titles on Warner Archive.

The days of bagging movies for a handful of dollars in a boxset are, if not over, being seriously curtailed it appears. It was nice while it lasted though

 

[svenge]

I'm happy that I got at least some type of answer on my question re: "NO TIME FOR SERGEANTS", but having negotiations over legal rights with heirs sounds sounds like it's going to be a looooooooong time before this comes out on DVD :frowning: I'll be surprised if it comes out before 2012.

 

[Simon Howson]

Do you know if Warner Home Video owns the rights to RKO and Allied Artists films in Australia? Three of the titles I definitely want to buy are Allied Artist titles (Wichita, The Oklahoman, The Big Circus), and of course today I asked about a heap of RKO film noir that they said will be on Warner Archive, not in a future noir set.

The third and fourth noir sets cost me AUD$9 and AUD$6 PER FILM respectively - INCLUDING postage. They are now going to cost nearly AUD$30 per film EXCLUDING postage! OK the exchange rate has something to do with this, but not all of it.

Perhaps this is an admission by Warner that selling them so cheaply in boxed sets was unsustainable? It also makes me think that the fifth noir set will contain 5 films rather than 10, but again will be priced at $60 RRP.

 

[Simon Howson]

At least they are going to do them right. Silent films often need a lot of work to look good on video.

Maybe one way to think of it is that paying US$20 for Warner Archive DVDs will help them fund prestige projects that otherwise they never would release.

 

[marcSV]

As opposed to what was announced in the chat session and on Robert Crawford's initial entry, the Warner Archive is NOT AVAILABLE WORLDWIDE. The DVDs can only be shipped to Stateside addresses. Does anybody know whether this is going to change? Why did Warners announce worldwide availability when the Web site refuses to ship outside the U.S.A. This is a little disappointing and inconvenient if you don't happen to be residing in the United States. What's going on here?

 

[Simon Howson]

So not yet, but SOON they will sell these DVDs internationally PROVIDED they own the world-wide rights to them.

If they can't ship them internationally, then Amazon Marketplace and eBay will probably have the ones you can't get directly.

 

[Corey]

Who would've thought we'd have the day when there are more Norma Shearer films on dvd than Jean Harlow?

 

[Simon Howson]

By "great difficulty" do you mean Davis asked for a fist full of dollars?

 

[Joe Karlosi]

Even though I have always been able to get onto every previous chat, I couldn't access it at all last night. But whatever -- at least it seems like we got a lot of information from Warner.

I'm very happy in that the horror set I was hoping for will be coming for Halloween (FRANKENSTEIN 1970, THE WALKING DEAD, YOU'LL FIND OUT, and ZOMBIES ON BROADWAY). One might nitpick because Peter Lorre in THE BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS was relegated to the "Warner Archive" reject pile. I think BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS would have fit very well in the Halloween set with the other 4 films though .... in addition to starring in BEAST, Peter Lorre also is also in YOU'LL FIND OUT, so this could have been a 5-movie package hilighting Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi and Peter Lorre. But at least we'll be getting all of these one way or another.

It was also a relief to hear Warner say they're going ahead with The Bowery Boys, probably for 2010 (sounds mighty futuristic for Slip and the Gang).

Yeah, and count me in among those who shakes his head at questions about films like THE DARK KNIGHT and the SUPERMAN movies ... we've already got releases for them on disc, so let's concentrate on stuff that's NEVER been released, for crying out loud. I loved it when Warner said "Been there, done that" for Superman.

 

[Simon Howson]

Yeah, it makes me think we need a better way for coming up with questions, for example this website that lets people propose and vote on a dynamic list:
Listphile: Shared lists, atlases, and databases

 

[John Hodson]

Sorry Simon, I haven't a clue about Antipodean rights.

 

[Anthony Thorne]

It's not included in the transcript, but Warner's answer to the genius asking about getting THX-1138 shown theatrically via digital prints in the UK cracked me up.

In 2012/2013 I'm going to ask Warners about THE DEVILS again, with a reminder that if it's not out sometime within 5 years after that, I'll really have to start bugging them. Maybe they're planning something super special for the 50th anniversary in 2021 and don't want to spoil the happy surprise.

 

[Simon Howson]

Warner Home Video have (very) slowly released a lot of their classic titles here. Not all of them obviously, but you can get the gangster films for example individually. However, they haven't released ANY of the film noirs, which are generally RKO films. That suggests to me that they don't own the rights to them here.

 

[MarcoBiscotti]

Bummer that top noirs like Armored Car Robbery are being shuffled into the Archive Collection... aren't these among the studio's best sellers when it comes to their classic film library? At least that was the impression I was under; surely these films would be able to sustain their own releases...

 

[MarcoBiscotti]

Would the RKO's and others not under int'l license still be available to order in Canada?