Criterion and Sony

[beamish13]

Drive, He Said
• Restored high-definition digital transfer
• Audio commentary by Jack Nicholson with Robert Towne
• New video interviews with Karen Black, Bruce Dern, Henry Jaglom, and Robert Towne
• New Feature-Length documentary on Raybert Productions and BBS Productions, featuring extensive interviews with Bert Schneider, Bob Rafelson, and Steve Blauner, Jack Nicholson, and Henry Jaglom.

What, no love for Jeremy Larner? We're never going to see a special edition of "The Candidate", but Criterion could probably snag him for this.

[Ashirg]

Does anyone know anything about the possibility of seeing Sally Potter's "Orlando" make it in the collection? The bare-bones Sony DVD is out of print, and Criterion needs more female directors. Also, I'd love to see this on Blu.

Looks like Special Edition DVD is coming from Sony on August 17. Pre-order listings are available at DVD Empire or Amazon...

[tubelord]

In Cold Blood is finally getting its own release on BD in September [-o<

http://www.amazon.com/Cold-Blood-Dub-Su ... d_sim_d_14" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[swo17]

Let me just throw this out there: Taxi Driver? It was supposed to come out on Blu-ray a while ago but never materialized, which reminds me of what happened recently with Night of the Hunter. And obviously, Scorsese and Schrader have a good relationship with CC. Weren't there rumors of a Criterion/Sony deal a while back?

[Cinephrenic]

If there is such a deal, I don't think they would let Taxi Driver go at any cost.

[Doctor Sunshine]

Once upon a time I would have thought the same thing about Stagecoach, Paths of Glory and Chaplin. Nothing is sacred anymore. If that New Hollywood set happens and does well Taxi Driver would surely be a possibility.

[Jeff]

Let me just throw this out there: Taxi Driver? It was supposed to come out on Blu-ray a while ago but never materialized, which reminds me of what happened recently with Night of the Hunter. And obviously, Scorsese and Schrader have a good relationship with CC. Weren't there rumors of a Criterion/Sony deal a while back?

Not just rumors. Bottle Rocket, Repulsion, and Crumb have already been licensed from Sony, and we've had confirmation that there are multiple other Columbia titles in the pipeline. The New Hollywood set would certainly be among them. I've considered the Taxi Driver possibility before. It seems more likely to me that Sony will still ultimately release it themselves, but will acquire the excellent Scorsese commentary from the Criterion laserdisc in exchange for licensing consideration.

[Brian C]

Once upon a time I would have thought the same thing about Stagecoach, Paths of Glory and Chaplin. Nothing is sacred anymore. If that New Hollywood set happens and does well Taxi Driver would surely be a possibility.

But these all have circumstances much different than "the studio didn't really care about one of its prominent catalog titles." Stagecoach and the Chaplins weren't studio-owned to begin with, and of course MGM's problems are well known and don't really apply to Sony and Taxi Driver.

[flyonthewall2983]

Plus, Taxi Driver is too well-known in pop culture and was such a celebrated film from the time it came out. But then again, so is Easy Rider so who knows.

[Doctor Sunshine]

It's a small chance but not impossible. It's whatever makes them the most money and, especially in this climate, as Benjamin Button illustrated, the Criterion brand has value. I wouldn't place any money on it though, bet-wise.

[craiged]

George Hickenlooper has stated today on the Hollywood Elsewhere site that his Peter Bogdanovich documentary (Picture This: The Times of Peter Bogdanovich in Archer City, Texas) will be on the Criterion release of The Last Picture Show.

[Jeff]

George Hickenlooper has stated today on the Hollywood Elsewhere site that his Peter Bogdanovich documentary (Picture This: The Times of Peter Bogdanovich in Archer City, Texas) will be on the Criterion release of The Last Picture Show.

Awesome. I still can't believe that there's going to be a Criterion Blu-ray of The Last Picture Show. Seems to good to be true. Since they're including the doc, I wonder if they'll throw Texasville on as a bonus feature too.

[domino harvey]

It's an interesting documentary and I'm pretty sure I've talked about the doc on this board somewhere before, but it would make a lot more sense as an extra on Texasville than the Last Picture Show

[craiged]

I'm presuming that it's this doc he was talking about, unless he's shot a new one!

He also talked about how he tried to get Criterion to release Hearts of Darkness as he has tons of extra material they could include, but seems that will be a non starter now its on the upcoming Apocalypse now package which he claims Lionsgate are not even interested in him & Fax Bahr doing a commentary for

[cdnchris]

I seem to remember him mentioning somewhere long ago he was actually working with Criterion for a while to release Hearts of Darkness (even checking with Coppola to make sure it was fine with him or something) only to find out Paramount was releasing it on DVD without his knowledge.

[felipe]

Criterion is going to release Easy rider on blu-ray? I don't get it. Sony's already released it on blu-ray and the reviews were great.

And I would Sony release it on the first place just to licence it a while later?

[Roger Ryan]

Criterion is going to release Easy rider on blu-ray? I don't get it. Sony's already released it on blu-ray and the reviews were great.

And I would Sony release it on the first place just to licence it a while later?

EASY RIDER is going to be one of the seven features included in THE NEW HOLLYWOOD box set, a collection of films all produced by the BBS production company. I'm sure Sony was more than happy to issue EASY RIDER as a stand-alone, but they were apparently nervous about releasing the BBS box set and have reportedly licensed the set to Criterion to release instead. Since ER is part of that set, it will appear again under the Criterion name.

[atcolomb]

Criterion is going to release Easy rider on blu-ray? I don't get it. Sony's already released it on blu-ray and the reviews were great.

And I would Sony release it on the first place just to licence it a while later?

EASY RIDER is going to be one of the seven features included in THE NEW HOLLYWOOD box set, a collection of films all produced by the BBS production company. I'm sure Sony was more than happy to issue EASY RIDER as a stand-alone, but they were apparently nervous about releasing the BBS box set and have reportedly licensed the set to Criterion to release instead. Since ER is part of that set, it will appear again under the Criterion name.

That's great news if they will do both "Five Easy Pieces and "The King of Marvin Gardens"...both great films and overdue for a special edition.

[Matt]

The box set has been discussed pretty thoroughly in the last several pages of this very thread. You can catch up on the conversation starting here.

[captveg]

As Sony more than likely supervised these transfers and is merely having Criterion distribute (like Paramount did with Benjamin Button), I suspect the Easy Rider disc may be practically identical to the already released Sony BD.

[ianungstad]

Some potentially huge news for Criterion:

http://www.homemediamagazine.com/studio ... ment-20439" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment just signed a multi year deal to produce and distribute Image Entertainment's catalog. Image Entertainment will no longer be involved on the distribution end and will now focus on sales and marketing.

Sony has also licensed an undisclosed number of titles to be released under the Image Entertainment brand. Spike Jonze's Adaptation is mentioned in the press release as one of the titles.

Kind of explains why Sony is suddenly licensing BIG titles to Criterion. I expect we'll see A LOT more Sony/Columbia titles in the collection. It makes financial sense, they get licensing and royalties, plus a % for distribution and maybe more for disc production?

Wouldn't be suprised if Spike Jonze's Adaptation is released as a special edition Criterion as part of this deal, with a barebones Image disc.

Will be interesting to see how this shakes out.

[dwk]

I hope this means that some of the the Home Vision stuff that has been hard to find becomes more readily available (i.e. various Zatoichi films, Sympathy for the Underdog)

[Flike]

Feel a little dense, but does this mean that Image will continue to distribute Criterion while their own library is being distributed by Sony, or is Sony taking all of their manufacturing and distribution responsibilities from them?

Regardless, hope this does indeed give Criterion access to Adaptation.

[ianungstad]

It pretty much means that Sony is the new distributor for Criterion.

[Tribe]

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment just signed a multi year deal to produce and distribute Image Entertainment's catalog. Image Entertainment will no longer be involved on the distribution end and will now focus on sales and marketing.

That is indeed huge and if you think about it, could be the end of Image as an entity. While Image has been carrying titles for a long time, my impression always was that its bottom line depended primarily on its distribution prowess, rather than its back catalog. If its not going to be in the distribution end of things, what in the world will it end up doing to bring in the bread?