Twilight Time / Redwind

[captveg]

No interest in any of the films, but easily some of TT's best covers.

[What A Disgrace]

I guess we'll be getting official announcements and specs on the other May titles soon, and in the coming weeks, the July and August slate.

Why is it that, despite everything going against them, Twilight Time is one of the more exciting boutique labels in the states right now? Am I just that starved for Hollywood catalogue titles?

[knives]

Probably. They're pretty much the only ones regularly releasing '50s Hollywood pictures. The only one ahead of them on that account is Olive.

[What A Disgrace]

Indeed, and Olive has been...well, their slate has been much less exciting as of late than back when they were releasing Johnny Guitar, The Sun Shines Bright, and Jerry Lewis Blus (though getting The Big Combo and The Pawnbroker on Blu is not to be sneezed at), and their discs are still very barebones and all. Twilight Time has, though largely failing to address the issue of their prohibitive pricing structure, shown a real effort to improve both in terms of the quality of their roster and their selection of extras. If you're just waking up in the morning and not being too critical, Bring Me The Head of Alfredo Garcia, Used Cars, and Equus could almost be mistaken for Criterions judging by their specs (Used Cars even has "More!"). And I have to respect them for having the courage, or whatever you call it, to release some of the more "square" films of the classic Hollywood canon, like The Eddy Duchin Story, a movie I'm inexplicably in love with.

[Adam X]

Rollerball - Release Date: May 13th, 2014

Pre-order date: Wednesday, April 23rd.

Special Features:

• From Rome to Rollerball: The Full Circle

Well I'm especially looking forward to Rollerball, despite who's releasing it. Does anyone know if this extra is the vintage 'featurette' on the DVD release, or if it's actually something new that's been cooked up.

Could've done without the added lens flares to the artwork, but otherwise it's not too bad. Don't know what was wrong with just using the appropriately more gritty original artwork though.

[Ashirg]

From Rome to Rollerball: The Full Circle (~8 mins) is a featurette from 1975 and Return to the Arena: The Making of 'Rollerball' (~25 mins) is from 2000 and available on DVD releases.

[Adam X]

Thanks Ashirg, I figured that was what it was.

[pointless]

Thunderbirds booklet art:

[FrauBlucher]

Once again TT feels the need to explain their relationship with SAE. The following is from them on one of the many TT threads over at HTF. I went back several pages on the thread and do not see any reason for TT to defend their relationship. It's curious, but it's always a fun read none the less, enjoy......

With regard to SAE and TT, we just wanted to clear up some ongoing confusion and misunderstandings about the relationship between the two companies.

Firstly, SAE is one of the most reputable (online) retailers in the business. Around since 1976 (long before the internet), SAE has for decades been the major purveyor of soundtrack and broadway show albums in the USA. Well-known to all the studios for their handling and distribution of film music, it was a logical decision by TT co-founder Nick Redman who has been producing soundtrack albums for 25 years, and in particular for Fox for the last 20-plus years, to pact with SAE for the retail and fulfillment end of TT's business model.

The model, well-known to SAE, since it has been employed with soundtrack albums for many years, made them the ideal outlet for DVDs and Blu-rays being marketed and retailed in exactly the same way. Like all aspects of TT's model it is based on simplicity both at the licensing and distribution ends of the spectrum.

SAE (based in Virginia), is contracted by TT (based in California) to handle everything to do with shipping and fulfillment. Bear in mind that TT is only one of dozens of labels for which SAE handles these same exact responsibilities. As TT has grown in size and influence, SAE has expanded to retail many DVDs and Blu-rays from other studios and labels. The net effect has been to make SAE a major player in home video distribution just as they had always been for recordings.

The growth factor has been sudden and immense, both for SAE and TT who are both small in terms of human resources. TT's decision to go to 5 titles a month has placed further strain on shipping and distribution necessities and like all things in life it will get sorted out as adjustments are made. Who knows, maybe one day SAE will operate on the same humongous scale as Amazon, but until that day a little bit of patience is required on everybody's part. SAE are taking on more staff to absorb the dramatic increase in volume and TT will work a lot harder to maintain deadlines and schedules -- the exponential growth of TT's business has been somewhat surprising, but rest assured every effort will be made to iron out the kinks and ensure a smoother operation. It's very difficult to prepare for something that's unknown and unexpected, and all anyone can do is roll with the changes as they appear and adapt as quickly as possible.

Thanks to all for your continued enthusiasm and support.

[Arrow]

Once again TT feels the need to explain their relationship with SAE. The following is from them on one of the many TT threads over at HTF. I went back several pages on the thread and do not see any reason for TT to defend their relationship.

It sounds like it's in defense of SAE's handling of shipping TT's product to the standards of the consumer.

[captveg]

Yeah, the bluray.com thread has had multiple complaints about orders not yet shipped, so it's in response to that, though why they posted it on HTF rather than BR is beyond me.

[kingofthejungle]

HTF is to Twilight Time what Fox News is to the Republican Party. It's their friendly avenue of communication that provides no risk whatsoever of further interrogation on the selected talking points. That they would answer BR.com complaints on HTF isn't surprising. After all, don't they have an unacknowledged embargo on BR.com these days, what with cutting off their screener discs and all?

[EddieLarkin]

Uh huh. They posted it on Blu-ray.com at the same time, and have confirmed that they resumed sending screeners to them sometime ago.

[kingofthejungle]

I'm actually very reassured to hear that. It's a step in the right direction, and a sign that this overly-defensive stance the company took within it's first few years might be softening into some form of professionalism.

[tenia]

Indeed. It uses a neutral enough tone not to make overly defensive, so that's certainly better than no communication at all on this point.

On the other end, I had to read it twice to understand where they were going to, so...

However, I guess nobody at HTF is asking what TT calls an "exponential growth". Because for me, it means "exponential growth of customers", but how do you do that when you haven't increased exponentially your lot size ? \:D/

[captveg]

Uh huh. They posted it on Blu-ray.com at the same time, and have confirmed that they resumed sending screeners to them sometime ago.

Hadn't seen it there. Makes more sense.

[fdm]

However, I guess nobody at HTF is asking what TT calls an "exponential growth". Because for me, it means "exponential growth of customers", but how do you do that when you haven't increased exponentially your lot size ? \:D/

Whether "exponential" or not I'll leave for someone else to figure, but they have gone from 3 to 5 new TT titles a month, for starters, and have an increasing selection of older titles when they don't quite sell out, so I'd go with an increased number of orders (and packages) as being where the most growth has occurred. Substantiated somewhat by growth in delayed order shipments.

[Moe Dickstein]

Yes it's number of releases each month where the growth figures in.

They originally were doing one, then two, and now 5 and more. That's literally exponential

[swo17]

I look forward to ten years from now when these guys will be putting out 50,000 releases a month.

[fdm]

Yes it's number of releases each month where the growth figures in.

They originally were doing one, then two, and now 5 and more. That's literally exponential

You forgot 3.

[Moe Dickstein]

I just jumped forward to today and figured you all could make the leap.

[FrauBlucher]

I look forward to ten years from now when these guys will be putting out 50,000 releases a month.

At this point SAE will explode.

Unless this happens.....

TT's decision to go to 5 titles a month has placed further strain on shipping and distribution necessities and like all things in life it will get sorted out as adjustments are made. Who knows, maybe one day SAE will operate on the same humongous scale as Amazon, but until that day a little bit of patience is required on everybody's part.

Which I seriously doubt will ever happen, unless SAE starts selling bras, bikes and belt sanders.

[Perkins Cobb]

The future: Half a dozen SAE drones, hovering around me in a circle until I buy a Blue Lagoon Blu-ray.

[EddieLarkin]

[George Kaplan]

Oh! This THE FIRM! Not the Alan Clarke original. OK.
Well, nothing to do but raise my glass in three more raspberries to TT and wish them "good luck" on selling out this pressing.
(Pssst...TT...you might want to think about having somebody sign some of these. Is there anybody?)
Free footballer jersey, anyone? It's free!