Sony Buys Rights to Harold Lloyd Film Catalog (1 Viewer)

[TimJS]

From Reuters:

The Harold Lloyd Trust has inked a deal with Sony, story here .



Tim

 

[Jack Theakston]

Let's hope this one stays put, unlike some of the Lloyd Trust's other aborted attempts at bringing the films to DVD.

Until I have the discs in my hands, I'm quite dubious.

 

[Steve...O]

Good news.

I'm curious about Mr. Theakston's comment (due to my own ignorance). Have there been other deals which were announced and fallen through?

I haven't seen much of Mr. Lloyd other than TCM showings, but what I have seen has been quite funny. From what I gather the Trust, through its own stubborness and perhaps greediness, has relegated Mr. Lloyd to obscurity by refusing to release his films in the past.

Steve

 

[Dick]

Knowing Sony they'll probably dribble these many movies out about one every nine to twelve months. They have no track record for releasing films in groups or in box sets (and I don't count the Sinbad films, which had been boxed as VHS years earlier). Even their Three Stooges compilations are released just one or two at a time. Damn, I wish Warner Bros or Disney or Criterion had gotten hold of these.

 

[Patrick McCart]

They have THEATRICAL re-release rights. New Line has the DVD rights.

New Line puts out nothing but quality DVD's, so I'd expect some wonderful work.

 

[Jack Theakston]

I'm not at liberty to publically disclose who, but two reputable companies made some very substantial offers that I know of, neither of which were announced. The first one (who has released certain films of Lloyd's already) was completely laughed at by the estate at a sum of $500,000 up front, and the other one was considered at four times that amount, but the studio dropped it after too many demands and the faulty sales of a certain box set by a certain silent film comedian that the planned Lloyd set was to follow up with.

I would be very interested to know what amount New Line settled at.

 

[Steve...O]

Thanks Jack.

I can understand Kino's offer being refused, but I think the Warner offer sounds pretty darn generous especially considering all the promotional power that would have been behind it not to mention the first class job they would have done.

I'm presuming the "faulty" sales were for the Chaplin box. I'm not a Chaplin fan so I didn't pick it up, but I wonder if all the criticism of the Video quality didn't dampen sales quite a bit.

Steve

 

[oscar_merkx]

this sounds like great news indeed

 

[Mark Zimmer]

Maybe the Chaplin sales wouldn't have been so faulty had the transfer not been so faulty. I know I didn't buy them because the Image discs don't have the excessive combing problems. Warner's use of the cut versions of the films didn't help either. Presumably New Line won't have those problems with Lloyd.