Official Warner Chat Discussion See Post #2 for Chat Transcript Link. (1 Viewer)

[eric tengren]

Man I wanted to ask about STRAIGHT TIME, THE OUTFIT and THE BUTCHER BOY.

 

[george kaplan]

Kudos to Warner's and the 3 execs who took time to listen to us and communicate with us. I'm disappointed I didn't get in with my questions, but at least some of them were asked by others.

Very excited to see that the p&s comedies are getting an OAR makeover (Grumpy Old Men, Funny Farm, etc.)

Also particularly psyched about Prisoner of Zenda, L.A. Confidential, Blade Runner, The Green Mile and Deliverance.

I was disappointed to hear that they don't own the Samuel Goldwyn titles - that doesn't bode well for Up in Arms and the other Danny Kaye titles.

I'm glad to hear they do own the rest of the RKO feature films. Hopefully we'll end up eventually with films like The Farmer's Daughter, Once Upon a Honeymoon, In Name Only, The Devil & Miss Jones (the 41 comedy, not the porn film), The Great Gildersleeve, Berlin Express, The Ex-Mrs. Bradford and others.

I also hope that the next wave of Errol Flynn films includes the atypical, but wonderful, Footsteps in the Dark.

Again, Warners, thanks for your insightful commitment to films and dvd!

 

[Joe Karlosi]

Yes, same here. That's my concern... that WB may be so worried about pristine quality (which is truly exhilarating whenever it's possible!) that they'd rather not release the more offbeat stuff at all. Putting all 50 Bowery Boys films in a box set (or sets) and occasionally having one feature here or there not looking as sharp or immaculate as another is fine by me, as long as it can mean we get everything.

 

[Jay E]

I also agree. Me and my brother are waiting anxiously for these and we both would like them released in the order they were made. I don't know what shape they are in, but if they are in decent shape, I would be willing to forego pristine quality for some of these titles, especially as I never thought they would make the light of day on DVD.

 

[Joe Karlosi]

It was very disappointing back in 1992 (I think it was) when the "old" Warner released only something like, what, 6 Bowery Boys films to VHS and then stopped? We haven't had any other official home releases from them since, but I've seen pirated copies presumably taken from TV being offered at shows and online. I want them from Warner.

 

[Charles H]

Sony owns Goldwyn. THE WEST POINT STORY is a musical, but I understand that JULIE was pulled at the last moment from the first Doris Day set. Candidates for "So Bad, It's Good" films: THE STORY OF MANKIND, THE PHYNX, THE SILVER CHALICE (for Jack Palance thinking he can fly), BEYOND THE FOREST, MADAM SATAN, YOLANDA AND THE THIEF (only if this would be the only way to market it), Ditto JUPITER'S DARLING (considered the official Swan Song/"nail-in-the- coffin" for the classic MGM musical).

 

[Charles Ellis]

Well, at least it proves that like Hallmark, Warners cares to send the very best- prints!! I'll wait for Slip, Sach, Louie and the rest of the gang. After all, the beautiful restoration of King Kong (from a recently-discovered British print!) took time and it was worth the wait. Besides, the Boys would give us all knuckle sandwiches if they weren't presented "all spiffed up"!!

In regard to the pre-49 titles: has anyone considered China as a source for negatives and other items? After all, I'm sure Warners, RKO and MGM probably did business there before the Maoist revolution!

 

[oscar_merkx]

So much news to digest from reading all of this.

what's the latest with the superman boxset ?

 

[Joe Karlosi]

The one thing that always puzzles me, though, is that the "core" audience for certain older subjects (and the Bowery Boys fans surely apply here) aren't getting any younger. I would think that Warner and other studios would do well to try and get the older titles out sooner rather than later, as their marketing potential can only get less as the decades go on, not more! Obviously, the 18-25 crowd aren't the ones dying for a Bowery Boys Chronology (though there are exceptions)!

 

[Robert Crawford]

George,
I might be mistaken, but I think some RKO films belong to MGM/Sony due to the production company having the rights to them. I'm pretty sure "The Farmer's Daughter" is in the same boat as "The Spiral Staircase" and "Since You Went Away" in which MGM has the dvd rights to them due to the same production company making those films and dvd rights belonging to MGM now.





Crawdaddy

 

[Ronald Epstein]

I would bet that based on the attitude of this
membership towards Universal and Sony,
that there's little point in inviting them to a chat.
Both these studios would be putting themselves in a
very bad position to take on some heat.

Martin Blythe is no longer with Paramount domestic,
and without him, it would be next to impossible to
convince that studio to do a chat with us.

As for Fox? I invited Peter months ago to join
us and so far there has been no response. Peter is
very busy these days with his new baby and I think
the timing has just been bad for him. The studio is
still VERY supportive of this forum.

 

[StacyV]

I had absolutely no idea about this chat. I'm on the tv-dvd board so much I didn't even bother to check the film/doc page. But a big thank you to whoever asked about Up The Down Staircase. "Maybe in 2007" is better than nothing, I guess.

 

[Travis Brashear]

Pleasant surprises:

POLTERGEIST, DELIVERANCE, BLADE RUNNER, ARTHUR, THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY and the GRUMPY OLD MEN series are being redone; OUTLAND is under serious consideration for a remaster.

Disappointments:

Warner still refuses to do right by the woefully underseen and underappreciated FEARLESS (this is just an unconscionable oversight on their part--hell, my LaserDisc of FEARLESS is at least letterboxed!); my complete inability, even with gunslinger-from-Gilead reflexes, to queue for questioning at the chat.

Overall, the pros well outrank the cons, so I'm pleased (though did anyone else notice that virtually every title inquired about was answered with the phrase "next year"? 2007's gonna rock like a mofo, but what the hell is WHV releasing this year???)...

 

[Joe Karlosi]

You never know. Hopefully they're professional enough to take some criticism if it's indeed warranted, but I'd bet the HTF audiences would be respectful to them if the studio heads were thoughtful enough to come online and address their audience, and we had the opportunity to ask them about future releases and so forth. Many of us might express our displeasure with DVD-18, for example, but I think we'd be more tactful about airing those views and respect the situation. It couldn't hurt to ask.

 

[Thomas T]

I doubt Storm Warning would be one of the non musical offerings in the next Doris Day box set as her role is a supporting one. I suspect they will be two MGM films, the thriller Julie and the comedy Tunnel Of Love with Richard Widmark.

 

[Mathew B]

I'm a little disappointed to see the Lethal Weapon series hasn't popped up. Surely they're worth another shot at considering they're a bit slim extras wise (but the DCs do have DTS...).

 

[Aaron Silverman]

The problem with a Sony chat is that the people who might be willing to do a chat may not have the information we'd be looking for. I get the feeling that the corporate culture there is such that the right hand doesn't always know what the left hand is doing. Couldn't hurt to ask, though.

Thanks to Keith and Crawdaddy for posting the summaries! Some good news and some bad in there (count me in the huge crowd that's stunned at the lack of plans for a decent release of Fearless!).

 

[Charles Ellis]

And heaven knows what's up at Fox and Universal! Warners suffers from an embarrassment of riches, and we are all anxious to see our faves get the fab WBHV treatment, but these do take time. The fact that Mr. Feltenstein & Co. take such pains in restoration, aspect ratio, et cetera separates Warners from all the others in their presentation of film & TV classics on DVD!!

 

[DaViD Boulet]

no more non-anamorphic 1.66:1 DVDs from WB!!!!

Woohoo!

Of course...now that they've finally fixed that... I'll be waiting to buy everything in HD...




What's wrong with the current disc?

 

[Travis Brashear]

Well, that's four of us in this thread alone lamenting the FEARLESS oversight...hopefully the good folks at WHV are reading this feedback and realizing the error of their ways. WHV--don't base your interest in redoing FEARLESS on the lackluster sales of the first DVD release...there's a very obvious reason why its sales have tanked. I'm practical enough to concede that there may not be a sufficient audience to warrant a 2-disc Special Edition release for FEARLESS, but a 16x9 remaster with the trailer is a no-brainer. PLEASE RECONSIDER.

Oh, and I'm tickled pink that Martin Blythe has left Paramount; the difference between his unceasing and grating practice of corporate evasiveness and inflexibility and not getting any direct communication from Paramount at all is nil.