Blu Ray Wish Lists

[Ultra T-Rex]

[John Schuermann]

[lhb412]

With Warners getting into gear with their catalog Blu-Rays with Warner Home Video proper and the Warner Archive; a (slightly) increased trickle of releases from Universal; and Criterion, Shout Factory, KINO, Twilight Time, and Mill Creek having relationships with pretty much everybody - well, thought I'd take stock of and think about my wish-list. As I've gotten serious about collecting films in the last few years I'm always watching Blu-Ray.com and keeping abreast of announcements. I've become keenly aware of just where the ownership lies in the cases of my favorite films.

My wish-list:

- The remaining Godzilla films, as well as anything kaiju related: any of Honda's other genre films, the Yokai films, Guilala, ect.
- The rest of the classic Universal horror films, especially Son of Frankenstein, The Black Cat, and The Old Dark House.
- As many of the other Hammer Horror films as possible (and I know they are split between several studios, including Warner, Sony, and Universal)
- A Blu-Ray version of Warner's Val Lewton horror collection. I can totally see this coming from the Archive
- Blu-Ray version of Warner's complete Thin Man movie series (I think this should be a general, retail release) as well as their box set of other films where William Powell and Myrna Loy were teamed (bit more obscure, this could be from the Archive).
- All of the Marx Brothers films. The first five are owned by Universal and in bad need of restoration. The post-Duck Soup films are owned by Warner and are all in good shape.
- Plenty of swashbucklers Warner owns: Captain Blood, The Sea Hawk, The Crimson Pirate, The Flame and the Arrow, Scaramouche, The Spanish Main, and anything else of that genre.
- As many Humphrey Bogart films as possible, much of which are with Warner. Rumor has it a Bogart/Bacall set is in the works, which would no doubt include essentials like The Big Heat and Key Largo. The one Bogart film I'd really like that isn't with Warner is Sahara, which is owned by Sony.
- All of the classic romantic comedies Warner owns featuring folks like Cary Grant, Katherine Hepburn, and Jimmy Stewart: The Philadelphia Story, Bringing Up Baby, Shop Around the Corner... oh, and the Gary Cooper/Barbara Stanwyck classic Ball of Fire (owned by Samuel Goldwyn, currently licensed to Warner)
- The Mark of Zorro, '40s version (owned by Fox)
- Other Warner genre films not already covered in October's wonderful set: The Thing From Another World, Gwangi, Giant Behemoth, Black Scorpion
- One Million Years B.C., the longer international version, please!
- The '50s War of the Worlds is technically (I think) with Paramount, but Warner has a deal with them for catalog titles that (again, I think) expires next year. Whether they renew the deal is the operative question in this film's case.
- Pretty much the entire contents of Universal's classic sci-fi DVD set, mostly Tarantula and The Incredible Shrinking Man.
- KINO and Shout are snatching up all the Vincent Price films, but the one as-yet unreleased one I want: Theater of Blood.
- Criterion upgrades: Thief of Bagdad, Red Beard, Kwaidan - and all the Chaplin and Lloyd films they haven't released yet.
- Blu-Ray versions of some of the DVD sets of silent classics KINO put out: Douglas Fairbanks Sr. swashbucklers, F.W. Murnau films, and German expressionist horror.
- Dersu Uzala. KINO's DVD looks very poor.
- Robert Altman's Popeye (Paramount)

One of the coolest things has been Warner going back to boxed sets this year, releasing lots of movies at once. This year they've already released a set of musicals, a set of five films released in 1939 (cinema's 'Golden Year') and now we have upcoming Hammer and giant monster boxes!

[klen7]

I'd be down for a few of those. The Thin Man DVD set was pretty fantastic

[Jinzo Ningen]

Count me on board for a deluxe, fully restored & meticulously remastered Blu-ray of POPEYE. The film was unfairly drubbed upon release. Such a shame. There was a wealth of Popeye lore represented in the film that many fans & critics missed. I still cannot beleive that the greedy suits at Paramount didn't vomit up a Blu-ray even before Robin Williams was cold and in the ground. Perhaps they will still give us something. A film of this type must have had a TON of pre-production work; sketches, make-up tests, etc., etc. that fans would absolutely drool over. They could easily load up an entire 2nd disc with just Bonus Features. All of the remaining cast & crew need to be contacted and brought in for on-camera interviews and/or audio commentary tracks. They could produce at least 3 seperate tracks: cast, production & effects crews, Popeye fan-based trivia & info.

Sorry to blather on... but yes. I would LOVE to see this film make it to Blu. But only if it's a worthwhile upgrade, not just porting the DVD version over. I already have that. No double-dipping unless it's truly warranted.

[lhb412]

^ I actually think Criterion's a possibility for Popeye. They're big on Altman. They're also the only company I can see giving it the kind of attention you describe.

[XvGojira]

[lhb412]

^And Shout's putting out a 'special edition' of Army of Darkness, too! Hope they include the director's cut.

Also, one of my wish-list entries is now scheduled: KINO is putting out F.W. Murnau's Faust.

[DannyBeane]

[Jinzo Ningen]

[Gwangi]

[Gwangi]

Actually, now that I think about it, skip "The Last Days of Pompeii", but most likely the fourth movie in a possible Warner Brothers Special Effects Volume II will most likely be "The Giant Behemoth". That fits in MUCH better with The Thing, Scorpion and Gwangi.

[klen7]

^ i'd buy that set!

[Gwangi]

LOL, I just thought, if a volume II does come to fruition with the movies we've mentioned, Warner Brothers, could you possibly issue a brand new commentary for "The Giant Behemoth"? The old one with Dennis Muren and Phil Tippet was terrible. In fact, it was probably the worst commentary I've ever heard!

[lhb412]

Oh, I just thought of an idea for two further Warner sets to get some of the wanted genre titles on Blu-Ray:

Alien Invasions: The Thing From Another World, Children of the Damned, Village of the Damned, War of the Worlds (predicated on if they renew their deal with Paramont)

Giant Monsters: The Valley of Gwangi, The Giant Behemoth, The Black Scorpion, Attack of the 50 Foot Woman

Really loving that Warner has sped up their catalog titles via the resurgence of the boxed set (which isn't as big a format as it was since the heyday of DVD). So far this year they've released new sets for classic Musicals, Frank Sinatra movies, John Wayne Westerns, and a collection called 'The Golden Year' that selects five films from 1939. All of those included at least one already released movie, but they all had a few newly released ones, too. I can't wait 'till they announce what's coming out for the holidays. Maybe the much rumored Bogart/Bacall set?

[lhb412]

Okay, so Shout Factory has a bunch of mystery titles to be announced at SDCC. They're also teaming up with Famous Monsters for a kaiju vs. kaiju fans-vote thing going on right now on facebook. All are Godzilla-series monsters. Shout teased that they're partnering with Famous Monsters on another mystery panel at SDCC.

https://www.facebook.com/FMOFL/photos/a ... =1&theater

Might be nothing, could be something really awesome in the pipeline.

[Tom R VanSlambrouck]

My guess is one of three things or any combo of these three things:

A. They picked up the licenses for Son and MG74

B. They sublicensed Classic Media's Library

C. Zone Fighter

Of the three choices B. seems most logical because they already own the streaming license for Classic Media's Godzilla films.

[klen7]

I'm expecting B...but if it's C, i'm buying two copies

[Henry88]

a and b.

[canofhumdingers]

Oh please let it be A & B! Please please please!?!?

[lhb412]

[Jared]

As most of you probably know, turns out it's neither A, B, or C....it's just a television marathon of the Classic Media titles. Oh well. I wonder if it will at least be in HD...

[lhb412]

Phooey.

Well, maybe there's more to it than that, but I'm not getting my hopes up.

[lhb412]

Shout just retweeted a tweet from TheTokusatsuNetwork clarifying that the streaming marathon is the extent of their Godzilla announcement.

... at least enough was stirred up that they recognized a need to address it.

And Shout's much-hyped panel announcements were pretty lackluster, aside from the Arkoff titles for the next MST3K set and Freaks and Geeks on Blu Ray. There certainly wasn't much for their fan-favorite 'Scream Factory' label. The biggest new title is Return of the Living Dead, and that already has a decent Blu-Ray release from MGM. They would have been smarter to save Army of Darkness and the two Tales From the Crypt movies for the big con announcement.

[jellydonut25]

That's pretty disappointing given the tease.