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From Tim Lucas' blog:

I've also agreed to record two commentaries for Britain's Arrow Films: Roger Corman's PIT AND THE PENDULUM (1962) and Robert Fuest's DR. PHIBES RISES AGAIN (1972), which should surface sometime before next Spring.

MichaelB wrote:Hard though it is for sane people like us to believe, the specialist steelbook market is massive. In fact, I think it's actually growing while the market for optical media in general is decidedly shrinking.

So the logical outcome will be a future in which people buy empty steelbooks to park on the shelf next to their TV while they stream the movie over the internet. Someone please drop around and kill me before this happens.

Anyway, that is a great set of specs for The Long Goodbye and while I rarely buy discs for the extras any more, it's very tempting.

Mark Gattiss has confirmed on his twitter account just now that today he is recording a commentary of Theatre of Blood with the rest of the League of Gentlemen cast. That is outstanding news.
https://twitter.com/Markgatiss/status/3 ... 9149424640

Clock one significant MG follower & a key reply.

Q1 2014 releases:

Good lord, that's one of the best run of titles that I've ever seen! Ditto on the cover art. Leagues ahead of everyone else in the business in that area. Donald Cammell is quite a surprise - I'm looking forward to the supplements on that one.

Phantom of the Paradise! Also, whatever happened to that mystery misunderstood genius auteur boxset?

Hopfully a Preston Sturges box set somewhere down the line? Or Tinto Brass... :-s

Glad I never got around to picking up the Stuff or importing Phantom

Don Siegel's The Killers on Blu-Ray! Preston Sturges, too! Holy hell, Arrow really is stepping up to the Criterion - Masters of Cinema level.

This lineup looks wonderful, and I'll definitely be picking up Sturges and The Killers, maybe even some of the horror stuff for my wife (can someone tell me which of those horror movies will be the goriest/silliest/most of spooky stuff?)

swo17 wrote:Also, whatever happened to that mystery misunderstood genius auteur boxset?

It's still very much on the cards (I'm now co-producing it, and I can genuinely say without any hype that it's the most exciting BD/DVD project that I've ever worked on), but you won't see it before Q2 at the earliest.

I believe an announcement of the name isn't far off, but Arrow understandably wants to make sure that all the contractual i's/t's are crossed/dotted first - since this projects involves multiple discs, titles and rightsholders it's a bit of a minefield at present.

The Killers and Sullivan's Travels are most welcome. Might get Rabid Dogs as well.

I'm officially going to have to file a complaint against Arrow for taking all my hard-earned money! Seriously, no other company's announcements excite me as much as Arrow's.

Jean-Luc Garbo wrote:Good lord, that's one of the best run of titles that I've ever seen! Ditto on the cover art. Leagues ahead of everyone else in the business in that area.

Really? I thought Frogtown looked like it was drawn by a twelve year old.

exidor wrote:

Jean-Luc Garbo wrote:Good lord, that's one of the best run of titles that I've ever seen! Ditto on the cover art. Leagues ahead of everyone else in the business in that area.

Really? I thought Frogtown looked like it was drawn by a twelve year old.

Not all of it can be great - not so interested in whoever drew the Brass covers - but I think you just pin-pointed what makes the drawing so amazing.

In case anyone's interested, the artists are as follows:

Graham Humphreys: Hellgate, Rabid Dogs
Nat Marsh: White of the Eye
Gilles Vranckx: Blind Woman's Curse
Garry Pullin: The Stuff
The Red Dress: Cheeky, Frivolous Lola, The Phantom of the Paradise
Jeff Zornow: Hell Comes to Frogtown

The covers of The Killers, Sullivan's Travels and Pit Stop reproduced above aren't the official Arrow artwork - or rather, I suspect those will be on the other side of the reversible sleeve.

That's wonderful news, Michael.
He's been doing some great work at Arrow, and on just the sort of films that need this attention.

On another note, dear Arrow Films, what are the chances of you releasing the original Rollerball with your now usual love and attention? I'd very much like not to be tempted into buying the Twilight Time release.
Cheers

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We will shortly be holding an interview with Arrow Films the UK distributor of classic, cult and horror films and are giving you the opportunity to ask them your questions.
What do you want to know about them? How they select their titles? Perhaps you would like to know about their plans for the future? Or just something more general.
E-mail your questions to [email protected] (with the Subject ARROW FILMS INTERVIEW) and we will ask them the pick of the crop for a feature piece on the company.
Be quick though, all questions should be with us by 6 November.

Stefan Andersson wrote:

knives wrote:That does help in consideration (and that my last multiregion broke under a Kino disc evidences that to me). Maybe when I have a bit of money though I still believe that multiregion Blu should not be expected on the level of DVD.

Hi!
Very sad to hear about your blu player being broken by a Kino BD-J disc.

I´m collecting info and may buy a multiregion player. Can you give more info about the BD-J problem? Does it disable the player and/or the modded unit altogether, making the player unusable? In other words, should I avoid all Kino discs?

I should clarify this - there's usually nothing wrong with discs authored in the BD-J mode. They almost always play back perfectly.

But when a disc DOES need a firmware update to play, it's almost certainly BD-J and has some ambitious features on it. Normally that's Hollywood titles. I'm surprised to hear of problems with Kino discs.

Just wanted to say that it's great that Arrow have been given their own section by and on the Forum. I'll be browsing it a lot!

Yes, good move, especially with what's coming up!

A very smart move.

Shouldn't this subforum be second to bottom with the catchall boutique subforum at the bottom?

We'll be working through the old thread to break titles out to separate topics where it makes sense.

domino harvey wrote:Shouldn't this subforum be second to bottom with the catchall boutique subforum at the bottom?

Fixed.

zedz wrote:Yes, good move, especially with what's coming up!

Yes, 2014 is looking set to be a very strong year, with many more original James White restorations and a big multi-disc Arrow Academy release in Q2 that's comfortably the most exciting BD/DVD project that I've ever worked on. It's a total labour of love for all concerned, and I can't wait for it to come out - although there's a lot of work to do between now and then.

Arrow should be revealing a few details very soon, so you won't be kept in suspense for too long - but let's just say that it should go down very well with quite a few people round these parts.