I've been keeping a list of Criterion rumors/hints for some time now, so I'll pop in here if that's alright. Get ready for a bit of a long read.
The Elegant Dandy Fop wrote: Wed Dec 08, 2021 10:01 pm
I'm not fully convinced. Some of these titles seem like good fantasy. Some seem inevitable (
After Hours), but I can't see the current Criterion willingly releasing something like
Pulp Fiction with a huge "Executive Producer Harvey Weinstein" credit in the opening. It's nice to dream though! The spaghetti western could be Monte Hellman's
China 9, Liberty 37, a film Warner has been sitting on forever. Or even
Once Upon a Time in the West, a major film that could use an upgrade, though have Criterion released any Paramount titles since
The Furies? I'd love a
Homicide upgrade, but again, felt like Criterion is less interested in Mamet since his conversion to conservatism.
Also Warner Bros. seems to have so much quality control over their library. They've only licensed two titles to excellent labels like Arrow. I just can't see them handing their titles off to a company like Kino who does quick releases with useless commentaries.
The spaghetti western might be
A Pistol For Ringo/
The Return of Ringo, seeing as that's still on the Criterion Channel under the Morricone Scores collection. I've heard nothing about those other
China 9, Liberty 37 or
Once Upon a Time in the West joining the Collection, though I'd love both. I think the
Homicide upgrade is totally possible given the fact that Mamet and Criterion upgraded
House of Games pretty recently (2019). As for Weinstein and
Pulp Fiction, whether or not that stops Criterion from putting the film out will probably be subsumed by it being too big a title and Tarantino too big a director for the big studios to not just release it themselves.
dwk wrote: Thu Dec 09, 2021 3:26 am
Matt wrote: Thu Dec 09, 2021 3:18 am
A Scorsese 4K that is not After Hours would probably be The Irishman, as it would just mean adding an already-mastered 4K version to the existing release. If not that, then The Age of Innocence.
Cape Fear, which supposedly has a 4K master and Kino, Shout and Arrow have all said they don't have it.
I'd love for this to happen, and the back-to-back releases of
The Irishman,
Rolling Thunder Revue, and the Scorsese Shorts set makes this more likely. Still, the first two of those are Netflix films, and the Scorsese Shorts are all owned by the man himself.
Cape Fear is probably still in the hands of Universal, Amblin, or one of the other companies that was involved with it back in the day.
yoloswegmaster wrote: Fri Dec 10, 2021 2:34 pm
Here is a list of titles that have been "revealed" by this "insider":
Pulp Fiction 4K
After Hours
Brazilian Director boxset
Barton Fink
Scorsese 4K title
The Insider
Happiness
3 Netflix titles (one of which is Mank)
Two French boxsets (Antoine Doinel series and Three Colors Trilogy
Japanese animated film from the 80s 9probably Angel's Egg)
Japanese title upgrade from the 60s (director only has one title in the collection)
Comprehensive boxset for Japanese director that isn't Ozu or Kurosawa
Lars Von Trier title
Contempt
Le Cercle Rouge
1 title that is from this
page
Homicide upgrade
As Good As It Gets
By The Law (this release will also feature a second film from the same director)
Spaghetti Western title that features a score from Ennio Morricone
South Korean title; hinted to be from Lee Chang Dong
Titles from Howard Hawks, Paul Schrader, Monte Hellman, and David Gordon Green
Upgrades for La commare secca and Le deuxième souffle
two more French titles: one from a director who doesn't have a film in the collection and is very controversial, the other is an upgrade from an eclipse set getting a standalone.
Lubitsch title
Couple of Mexican "horror" films; likely to be 'The Other' and 'Macario'
more Hong Kong titles
two more French titles: one from a director who doesn't have a film in the collection and is very controversial, the other is an upgrade from an eclipse set getting a standalone
Pulp Fiction 4K - No way this one is happening. Too much money in a direct studio release for it to be outsourced for Criterion.
After Hours - This one's been
rumored for a while, so I guess it's possible.
Brazilian Director boxset - I don't know anything about this or who it would be.
Barton Fink - Given that we now (seem to) have a pattern of early Coen Bros. coming through Criterion, this one could come someday. Still, I don't think anyone should hold their breath. We might have to wait for a very, very long time.
Scorsese 4K title - Criterion is being economic about their 4k releases, so a big-name director like Scorsese getting one isn't unlikely. My money is on either
The Irishman or
The Last Temptation of Christ, seeing as those are the two most well-known in the collection.
IF we get
Cape Fear, then you can put that one in the running too, but I'd like to see a little more evidence first.
The Insider - Maybe. It does have a U.S. Blu-ray, but I can see it happening on vibes alone.
Happiness - I've seen no indication that this will happen, but they did the sequel already, so why not I guess.
3 Netflix titles (one of which is
Mank) - I don't know why people keep saying that
Mank will join the collection, but maybe my personal antipathy towards the film is clouding my judgement. Other than that, We've been told that we'll be getting releases of
The Other Side of the Wind (per TOSotW actor, Welles historian, and previous Criterion collaborator Joseph McBride as far back as
2019 and again in
2020), as well as
American Factory and
Atlantique. These latter two were slated to be part of
the original Netflix/Criterion releases waayyyyy back in 2020, but have since been outpaced by
The Irishman,
Rolling Thunder Revue, and
Beasts of No Nation.
The Other Side of the Wind has probably been held up by its extras, about two hours of which have been reorganized into the film-cum-interview
Hopper/Welles and
at least a couple hours more of which will be reorganized into similar films, one with Curtis Harrington and the other with Henry Jaglom and Paul Mazursky. All three of these were originally confirmed for 2020, so I guess we'll just have to wait. I'd count on us getting Mati Diop first, given Criterion's (very good) push for diversity and her collection of shorts on The Criterion Channel.
Two French boxsets (
Antoine Doinel series and
Three Colors Trilogy) - The
Antoine Doinel series is probably coming, seeing as
Carlotta films recently restored it in 4k. I don't know about the
Three Colors Trilogy. It's great, but don't forget the economics here - how much money is in a rerelease or a 4k of it?
Japanese animated film from the 80s (probably
Angel's Egg) - I'd love for this to happen, seeing as
Angel's Egg is only Blu-ray is a Japanese one. However, I've seen no indication of this.
Japanese title upgrade from the 60s (director only has one title in the collection) - I checked the Collection, and this will most likely be
Jigoku or, and this is a little less likely, an Eclipse upgrade for something in Nikkatsu Noir. I don't think that it will be
A Woman Ascends the Stairs since there's that Silent Naruse Eclipse Set.
Comprehensive boxset for Japanese director that isn't Ozu or Kurosawa - Super special thanks to whoever just posted about how Janus is partnering with Lincoln Center for a
Kinouya Tanaka retrospective. It could also be Kazuo Hara,
who has five films listed on Janus Films' website, or Juzo Itami,
whose complete filmography as a director has literally just been sitting on the Criterion Channel since it launched.
Lars Von Trier title - I've seen absolutely nothing about this. Hopefully it'll be a a long-awaited upgrade of either
The Element of Crime or
Europa.
Contempt - As someone else just pointed out,
Criterion Channel just chose Contempt as the subject of Observations on Film Art No.45. Seeing as
Pierrot Le Fou was recently rescued and returned to the Collection, and with a second Blu-ray release at that, it seems very possible that we'll get
Contempt back too.
Le Cercle Rouge - Idk about this one, but I seem to remember some talk about Criterion getting it back. Approach with caution.
1 title that is from this
page - I've seen no evidence of any of these becoming Criterion titles anytime soon.
Homicide upgrade - Not impossible. Mamet worked with Criterion not too long ago on a
House of Games upgrade.
As Good As It Gets - Easily the biggest reach on this list. Almost certainly bs. I've seen no evidence of it and it doesn't seem remotely like even Criterion's previous James L. Brooks film,
Broadcast News.
By The Law (this release will also feature a second film from the same director) - I've seen no evidence of this, but I guess anything's possible with these older foreign titles.
Spaghetti Western title that features a score from Ennio Morricone - I've seen no evidence of this, but
A Pistol for Ringo and The Return of Ringo are both on the Criterion Channel under the Scores by Ennio Morricone label. Maybe we'll get them in a two-film set like the
Lady Snowblood films or
The Emigrants and
The New Land.
South Korean title; hinted to be from Lee Chang Dong - I have neither seen any evidence of this nor have I any idea what that film would be, but I am not even remotely familiar with Lee.
Titles from Howard Hawks, Paul Schrader, Monte Hellman, and David Gordon Green - I don't know about Schrader, Hellman, or Green, but I know that Howard Hawks'
The Big Sky was restored by The Film Foundation and
keeps showing up on The Criterion Channel.
Upgrades for
La commare secca and
Le deuxième souffle -
La commare secca is definitely coming.
It was restored and shown at the 2019 Venice Film Festival (it is translated as
The Grim Reaper in this article). Idk about
La deuxième souffle, but
Janus still has the rights to it.
two more French titles: one from a director who doesn't have a film in the collection and is very controversial, the other is an upgrade from an eclipse set getting a standalone. - There are a lot of controversial French directors, so Idk about this first one. As for the Eclipse Set upgrade, There are 10 Eclipse Sets from French directors which together contain 40 films. Of these forty, the two most likely to get standalone releases are
Wooden Crosses (which, like
Contempt, has an episode of Observations on Film Art studying it) and
Les rendez-vous d’Anna (which I heard someone mention would get upgraded years ago).
Lubitsch title - Idk what this would be. Check the Criterion Channel to see which Lubitsch titles aren't removed in the next couple weeks.
Couple of Mexican "horror" films; likely to be
The Other and
Macario - I heard it said that these would be from the 40's and 60's, but I'd guess that a more likely candidate would be 1934's
The Phantom of the Monastery,
which is on The Criterion Channel as part of the Film Foundation collection.
more Hong Kong titles - There are several candidates for this, but I can't remember what they are.
dwk wrote: Fri Dec 10, 2021 6:44 pm
Neon announced Criterion will release
The Worst Person in the World in 2022.
This is true.
RSTooley wrote: Sat Dec 11, 2021 2:08 am
Linguini also stated that
The Misfits and
The Seventh Continent are coming down the pipeline in 2022. However, the person comes off so immature and desperate for attention that I can't help but think they are just trolling.
The
The Seventh Continent rumors actually go back quite a while.
This post says that Criterion got the Michael Haneke films that Kino Lorber lost. It says that Criterion got
The Piano Teacher,
Funny Games,
The Castle,
Benny's Video,
The Seventh Continent, and
71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance. All six of these movies are on The Criterion Channel, and the first two have Criterion releases, so this could just mean that Criterion is finally getting around to it. Idk about
The Misfits, but I'd love some more John Huston.