Scarface98.9
11-10-2002, 03:01 PM
This is some good and bad news for old film lovers
C'mon, Arnon...
As a prelude to today's Most Wanted DVD's box I'm passing along some news I'm hearing about the Criterion Collection and two distinctive Robert De Niro films -- The King of Comedy ('82, d: Martin Scorsese) and Once Upon a Time in America ('84, d: Sergio Leone). Criterion, widely respected for its distinguished DVD presentations of first-rate titles, wants to get to work on a pair of special-edition DVD's of Comedy and America that would boast first-rate transfers and all kinds of bells and whistles.
But there's a problem in the form of producer Arnon Milchan, who apparently owns the negatives and most of the paper on these films. Milchan, I'm told, is refusing to sell the DVD rights to Criterion despite their having made a very handsome offer. There's also the prestige payoff down the road of having these excellent films remastered and memorialized by a company that knows how. "There's virtually no downside to Milchan letting this happen," a source contends. "His position doesn't make any sense."
Milchan's distribution chief Roy Matalon says New Regency "currently [has] existing long-term deals in place with 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros. that will [result in] these studios releasing these two titles on DVD shortly. While we're appreciative of Criterion's excellence in producing quality DVD's, we're extremely satisfied with the quality and distribution [of DVD's] from these two prestigious studios."
This is from moviepoopshoot.com (column Hollywood Elsewhere)
http://www.moviepoopshoot.com/elsewhere/index.html
C'mon, Arnon...
As a prelude to today's Most Wanted DVD's box I'm passing along some news I'm hearing about the Criterion Collection and two distinctive Robert De Niro films -- The King of Comedy ('82, d: Martin Scorsese) and Once Upon a Time in America ('84, d: Sergio Leone). Criterion, widely respected for its distinguished DVD presentations of first-rate titles, wants to get to work on a pair of special-edition DVD's of Comedy and America that would boast first-rate transfers and all kinds of bells and whistles.
But there's a problem in the form of producer Arnon Milchan, who apparently owns the negatives and most of the paper on these films. Milchan, I'm told, is refusing to sell the DVD rights to Criterion despite their having made a very handsome offer. There's also the prestige payoff down the road of having these excellent films remastered and memorialized by a company that knows how. "There's virtually no downside to Milchan letting this happen," a source contends. "His position doesn't make any sense."
Milchan's distribution chief Roy Matalon says New Regency "currently [has] existing long-term deals in place with 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros. that will [result in] these studios releasing these two titles on DVD shortly. While we're appreciative of Criterion's excellence in producing quality DVD's, we're extremely satisfied with the quality and distribution [of DVD's] from these two prestigious studios."
This is from moviepoopshoot.com (column Hollywood Elsewhere)
http://www.moviepoopshoot.com/elsewhere/index.html