Universal Back Catalog: Any Truth to the Rumor? (1 Viewer)

[MikeEckman]

I remember when the big rumor about Back to the Future not originally being on DVD was because of the Eric Stoltz footage. Then someone said that it was really because of some agreement that Universal had with Columbia Pictures to give them all the profits of Universal's overseas DVD sales. Once DVD started to become a profitable market, Universal realized their mistake and supposedly decided to hold back alot of their back catalog. Supposedly this was the reason for the delay with Legend.

So, my question is, is there any truth to this rumor? If so, would it be reasonable to assume that we should see alot more of Universal's back catalog coming to DVD soon, and maybe some re-releases of their older DVDs?

I for one would like to see some of their older barebones discs get re-released like The Breakfast Club, Timecop, Happy Gilmore, and some other films never available on DVD like People Under the Stairs, Cloak & Dagger (1985), Howard the Duck, and many others.

Hopefully, we will see more Universal back catalog DVD announcements soon!

 

[streeter]

Yes, there is truth to that. Bob Gale came to St. Louis last year for the St. Louis international film festival and someone asked when BTTF would come out on DVD. He explained that Universal had to wait until the end of the year, because, presumably in the wee early days of DVD, they made a mistake and gave up the foreign profits until January 1, 2002... or something like that. He then said that after that date, they were going to get ready to release it on DVD with all the bells and whistles. I don't know if this holds true for more of Universal's titles or just for BTTF, but if so, I imagine it would be the January 2002 date. You might find more info on bttf.com but I doubt that there is any mention of whether it applies to other Universal catalogue titles.

I too would love to see the Henry Thomas Cloak and Dagger, and of course Howard the Duck. Howard rant: I think it's pretty sad that the guy who created Howard killed the character off after the terrible movie version came out - just like Crumb did with Fritz the Cat. I must add, though, that Lucas's much-criticized puppetization of the early 80s IMHO wasn't half as bad as his CGIzation (eh?) of the late 90s. I'll take Ewok masks and costumes over Jar Jar Binks, who looks like Roger Rabbit, any day of the week! (That and the fact that the Ewok movies rule!)
In the former, Howard the Duck was the lowest he could possibly go - the point of no return. In the latter, I think that the worst has yet to come... perhaps the Captain Typho spin-offs, with cheaper cgi effects like on the TPM DVD deleted scenes. yuck!
Cloak and Dagger rant: when I first saw what Harry Knowles looked like, he reminded me of the computer guy from this movie... though that is being awfully generous. This movie is awesome, and it would be awesome if they put some games on the DVD-ROM. Small chance (the TRON DVD producers had the same in mind, but rights issues prevented this from happening)... I bet the same goes for the possibility that we'll even see this movie on DVD in the near future. I have never even seen it in any video store that I have visited.
Cloak and Dagger is also one of the few films that were able to utilize Dabney Coleman's talents very well.

 

[Joseph Bolus]

Yes, there is truth to that. Bob Gale came to St. Louis last year for the St. Louis international film festival and someone asked when BTTF would come out on DVD. He explained that Universal had to wait until the end of the year, because, presumably in the wee early days of DVD, they made a mistake and gave up the foreign profits until January 1, 2002... or something like that.

Actually, the date that I heard that the CTS foreign distribution rights ends is ...
July 31, 2002.

 

[Jason Seaver]

think it's pretty sad that the guy who created Howard killed the character off after the terrible movie version came out

It didn't take, though - there's a new Howard miniseries out right now (although he's a mouse), and Gerber used him in "She-Hulk" at some point afterward.

 

[Michael St. Clair]

think it's pretty sad that the guy who created Howard killed the character off after the terrible movie version came out

Wasn't it more complicated than that? I remember Gerber suing Marvel over royalties...

 

[MikeEckman]

Cloak and Dagger rant: when I first saw what Harry Knowles looked like, he reminded me of the computer guy from this movie... though that is being awfully generous. This movie is awesome, and it would be awesome if they put some games on the DVD-ROM. Small chance (the TRON DVD producers had the same in mind, but rights issues prevented this from happening)... I bet the same goes for the possibility that we'll even see this movie on DVD in the near future. I have never even seen it in any video store that I have visited.
Cloak and Dagger is also one of the few films that were able to utilize Dabney Coleman's talents very well.

I dont know who Harry Knowles is, however, the actor you are referring to is William Forsythe. I've seen him in many other movies since Cloak and Dagger. Two of which were Waterdance and The Rock. In the Rock, there is a line where he mentions something about "the Cloak and Dagger missions". I wonder if that was intentional, or if it was just a coincidence that it was in the script.
Either way, I would love to see this movie on DVD. I'd love to see an SE, but I'd take a barebones disc as long as its widescreen. Knowing Universal, they'd probably say that since theres two kids in the movie, it must be a family film and release it in P&S.
As for the possiblity of playing the Cloak and Dagger video game, you can download the video game emulator MAME Link Removed and then if you can find it, the Cloak and Dagger ROM. It is the EXACT same game seen in the movie and is actually pretty fun to play, although the controls are really hard on the keyboard since the original game was controlled by two joysticks simultaneously.
But to get back on topic here, the date must be July 31, because we surely havent seen many catalog releases by Universal since Jan 1st of this year. Hopefully some announcements will be forthcoming...

 

[Thomas Agermose]

Here in Denmark Columbia Tristar used to have their logo on releases of Universal films.
That changed sometime earlier this year. Now only the Universal logo appears on the covers. I take that to mean
that CT are no longer distributing Universal films.

 

[MikeB]

I'll take Cloak and Dagger, thank you. Also, could you throw in Three O'Clock High?

 

[John Kilduff]

"Breakfast Club", "16 Candles", "Weird Science", "Sign O' The Times", "Into The Night", "Amazon Women On The Moon", "MST3K: The Movie", "The Money Pit", "D.C Cab", OAR "The Jerk", OAR "Streets Of Fire" Collector's Edition, Anamorphic "Scarface" with Moroder soundtrack in tact, "CB4", "Trespass" (The Ice-T/Ice Cube thriller written by BTTF's Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale)...
Universal, all of these...PLEASE! The Columbia/TriStar deal is up...let it all flow through to the USA
Give up the good stuff!
Sincerely Yours,
John "You don't spell it, you eat it" Kilduff

 

[Esten]

All the titles mentioned,plus Child's Play 3,Phantasm 2 and 3 and Gothcha!

 

[James Z]

Oh boy...hopefully some old barebones versions of John Carpenter films, like They Live and Prince of Darkness, will get new releases. Sweet!!

 

[MikeM]

Also, could you throw in Three O'Clock High?

Ah yes....Three O'Clock High is good enough to deserve its own thread. I'd love to have this on DVD.

 

[AaronChauncey]

Would the fact that DC CAB was re-released on vhs in May, 2001 under the "Collector's Choice" banner make it more likely that it will be released on DVD someday?

 

[Chris Xolotl]

The Universal rep specifically mentioned 16 Candles as part of the catalog titles being released during the the first half of 2003. When asked about Scarface, he didn't have any details except that it will be out in 2003 and 2 discs.

They also have a new group called FOCUS, bent on releasing some really crappy looking foreign films.

 

[Chris Xolotl]

Also, if it matters. BTTF will have three different sleeves for the rental market. The retail will just be a box.