Criterion and Warner Bros.

News on Criterion and Janus Films.
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willoneill
Joined: Wed Mar 18, 2009 10:10 am
Location: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Re: Criterion and Warner Bros.

#576 Post by willoneill » Sun Jan 22, 2017 1:56 pm

movielocke wrote:arent we coming up on the declassification?
The Act requires that each assassination record be publicly disclosed in full, and be available in the collection no later than the date that is 25 years after the date of enactment of the Act (i.e., October 26, 2017), unless the President of the United States certifies that: (1) continued postponement is made necessary by an identifiable harm to the military defense, intelligence operations, law enforcement, or conduct of foreign relations; and (2) the identifiable harm is of such gravity that it outweighs the public interest in disclosure.
So two things heres:
1. Trump cannot be predicted, so who knows what happens in advance of that date this October; and
2. If JFK is part of the Regency deal, then it would belong to Fox now, which is why the Warner releases are OOP.

Bruce
Joined: Wed Dec 30, 2009 6:14 am

Re: Criterion and Warner Bros.

#577 Post by Bruce » Tue Jan 24, 2017 6:14 am

I'm wondering whether Criterion might license some of the early 70's Warner titles such as 'Klute', 'Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid' or 'O Lucky Man!'. These all seem like titles that Criterion would be interested in. Any thoughts?

Noiradelic
Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2009 12:45 am

Re: Criterion and Warner Bros.

#578 Post by Noiradelic » Tue Jan 24, 2017 7:59 am

O' Lucky Man! and Klute seem likely.

Costa
Joined: Fri Sep 03, 2010 5:10 pm

Re: Criterion and Warner Bros.

#579 Post by Costa » Tue Jan 24, 2017 12:07 pm

domino harvey wrote:To revive the rumors from last year's drawing, every Blu-ray version of Warners' JFK release is now OOP...
I just hope we could get at last the theatrical cut from whoever!

Really now, it's disheartening seeing only alternate cuts of films released on Bluray and not the original theatrical cut!!
I hope Amadeus comes too!

beamish13
Joined: Sun Oct 14, 2007 5:31 am

Re: Criterion and Warner Bros.

#580 Post by beamish13 » Tue Jan 24, 2017 12:26 pm

A WB title that's far too important to relegate to the Archive is Christine Edzard's epic 1987 adaptation of Dickens' Little Dorrit. It's a Cannon title that was released on VHS by Warners, but unlike Shy People, they still have home video rights to it. I've asked them about it on Facebook a few times, and incredibly, they've said that they just don't have a widescreen master at the present time.

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captveg
Joined: Wed Sep 02, 2009 7:28 pm

Re: Criterion and Warner Bros.

#581 Post by captveg » Tue Jan 24, 2017 1:53 pm

Costa wrote:Really now, it's disheartening seeing only alternate cuts of films released on Bluray and not the original theatrical cut!!
I hope Amadeus comes too!
Pretty sure this is up to the Saul Zaentz Company more so than Warner.

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The Fanciful Norwegian
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 2:24 pm
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Re: Criterion and Warner Bros.

#582 Post by The Fanciful Norwegian » Tue Jan 24, 2017 4:16 pm

Bruce wrote:I'm wondering whether Criterion might license some of the early 70's Warner titles such as 'Klute', 'Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid' or 'O Lucky Man!'. These all seem like titles that Criterion would be interested in. Any thoughts?
Warners' Klute DVD went OOP the exact same week in 2014 as a bunch of other titles that have almost all been reissued or announced by Criterion—the only other exceptions from the linked list are The Breaking Point and The Magnificent Ambersons. Other titles that went OOP that week include The New World, Woman of the Year, and Seven Days in May, only the last of which is still MIA. So I'd say Klute is close to a lock.
Last edited by The Fanciful Norwegian on Tue Jan 24, 2017 4:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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fdm
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Re: Criterion and Warner Bros.

#583 Post by fdm » Tue Jan 24, 2017 4:32 pm

Sadly, Seven Days In May is back in print as an Archive title.

Bruce
Joined: Wed Dec 30, 2009 6:14 am

Re: Criterion and Warner Bros.

#584 Post by Bruce » Wed Jan 25, 2017 7:29 am

fdm wrote:Sadly, Seven Days In May is back in print as an Archive title.
Does that necessarily imply that Criterion wouldn't be able to license it for a Blu-ray release?

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FrauBlucher
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Location: Greenwich Village

Re: Criterion and Warner Bros.

#585 Post by FrauBlucher » Wed Jan 25, 2017 7:32 am

Highly unlikely. Haven't seen dual releases from WB and Criterion.

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domino harvey
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Re: Criterion and Warner Bros.

#586 Post by domino harvey » Tue Feb 21, 2017 8:13 pm

Mister Lime revealed the Westerner is now with WB. Would be a great fit for Criterion and I doubt WB would ever do anything with it themselves

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captveg
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Re: Criterion and Warner Bros.

#587 Post by captveg » Tue Feb 21, 2017 8:19 pm

Isn't it there via the Samuel Goldwyn library? I'm not sure If they would be able to sublicense those.

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FrauBlucher
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Re: Criterion and Warner Bros.

#588 Post by FrauBlucher » Tue Feb 21, 2017 8:23 pm

domino harvey wrote:Mister Lime revealed the Westerner is now with WB. Would be a great fit for Criterion and I doubt WB would ever do anything with it themselves
There is a William Wyler phantom page.

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Feego
Joined: Thu Aug 16, 2007 7:30 pm
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Re: Criterion and Warner Bros.

#589 Post by Feego » Tue Feb 21, 2017 9:02 pm

I may be a little confused, but hasn't The Westerner been with WB for a while? Was that just DVD rights previously?

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domino harvey
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Re: Criterion and Warner Bros.

#590 Post by domino harvey » Tue Feb 21, 2017 9:45 pm

MGM put it out previously

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Ashirg
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Re: Criterion and Warner Bros.

#591 Post by Ashirg » Tue Feb 21, 2017 11:42 pm

The Westerner is with Samuel Goldwyn Company so whoever distributes their releases, is putting it out. First it was HBO DVD, then MGM. Now Warner distributes them, but we don't know if they can license that library to another company like Criterion.

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cdnchris
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Re: Criterion and Warner Bros.

#592 Post by cdnchris » Mon Mar 13, 2017 1:01 pm

Though I've never been overly worried about it I remember people having concerns about what logos/versions of logos were being used to open certain titles, hoping they stay true to the original release (concerns about the Saul Bass logo being used for some 70s stuff, like for Badlands, or the Kinney National logo being used for McCabe & Mrs. Miller, or the MGM logo where appropriate, etc.) I think Criterion has been pretty good at keeping them but both Blow-Up and Being There open with the new WB logo (the studio lot one). Being There at least also features the old Transamerica United Artists logo afterwards (that one takes me back to my youth affection for Pink Panther and James Bond films). I'm unsure what would have originally opened Blow-Up (MGM I'm guessing).

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jedgeco
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Re: Criterion and Warner Bros.

#593 Post by jedgeco » Thu Mar 16, 2017 1:27 pm

cdnchris wrote: I'm unsure what would have originally opened Blow-Up (MGM I'm guessing).
That's my recollection from a museum screening several years ago.

I think that if it's a film where WB subsequently obtained rights but was not the original production company/distributor, they slap a current WB logo on the front of it just so they can have their name on it somewhere.

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dwk
Joined: Sat Jun 12, 2010 6:10 pm

Re: Criterion and Warner Bros.

#594 Post by dwk » Thu Mar 16, 2017 6:30 pm

someone at the Blu-ray forum claims that Blow-Up didn't start with MGM's logo, it started with
the opening card "Premier Productions presents" in the US. International prints had a "Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer presents" card instead

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Ashirg
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Re: Criterion and Warner Bros.

#595 Post by Ashirg » Wed Mar 22, 2017 6:53 pm

Some of the titles I think we could look forward to from Criterion (pure speculations) -

I Walked with a Zombie - as I stated earlier, all other double features were re-released by Warner Archive on DVD-R except Cat People and this one (and this title is a better candidate than The Body Snatcher.

Gun Crazy - out on blu in France from Wild Side Vidéo, so HD master exists. Murder, My Sweet and Out of the Past from the first film noir box got blu-ray and DVD-R releases from Warner Archives and The Asphalt Jungle got Criterion treatment, which also leaves question about The Set-Up. Out of boxes 2 and 3, Born to Kill and Border Incident just got DVD-R re-releases in April which leaves Dillinger and Lady in the Lake still out-of-print (but I don't think either will be coming from Criterion).

The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) - this would be another early laserdisc save and DVD went out of print same week as number of Warner releases already out from Criterion.

Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) - another laserdisc save and maybe a New Year's clue (although 2010 DVD is still in print)

The Breaking Point (1950) - DVD-R from Warner Archives went out of print (same time as Kurosawa's Dreams and The Blow-Up)

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FrauBlucher
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Re: Criterion and Warner Bros.

#596 Post by FrauBlucher » Fri Mar 31, 2017 5:12 pm

Ashirg wrote:Some of the titles I think we could look forward to from Criterion (pure speculations) -
The Breaking Point (1950) - DVD-R from Warner Archives went out of print (same time as Kurosawa's Dreams and The Blow-Up)
Well, this looks like it's coming shortly a la Newsletter clue.

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Drucker
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Joined: Wed May 18, 2011 9:37 am

Re: Criterion and Warner Bros.

#597 Post by Drucker » Fri Mar 31, 2017 5:22 pm

I can't imagine The Set-up is considered good enough to warrant a Criterion release. Is it highly esteemed?

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domino harvey
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Re: Criterion and Warner Bros.

#598 Post by domino harvey » Fri Mar 31, 2017 5:31 pm

Yes

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hearthesilence
Joined: Fri Mar 04, 2005 4:22 am
Location: NYC

Re: Criterion and Warner Bros.

#599 Post by hearthesilence » Fri Mar 31, 2017 5:36 pm

It's Robert Wise's best film, and Scorsese (a fan) has said he kept it in mind when he storyboarded Raging Bull's fight scenes.

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colinr0380
Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2004 4:30 pm
Location: Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire, UK

Re: Criterion and Warner Bros.

#600 Post by colinr0380 » Fri Mar 31, 2017 5:47 pm

The Set-Up is great but we shouldn't forget the other fantastic boxing film of 1949, Champion with Kirk Douglas.

(Interestingly both were directed by Val Lewton alumni, The Set-Up by Robert Wise and Champion by Mark Robson!)

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