I am the dude from terrencemalick.org , paul, and the story is this, unrelated to Criterion's announcement, I wanted to get further evidence of WB's intentions toward Badlands. I contacted the V.P. of the home release division. He sent me the message that it "most likely will be Criterion." This makes me think then that it will not be anytime soon, since the film, to my knowledge, hasn't been restored, and to get the Criterion treatment, this is a must. That obviously takes time. Film editor Billy Weber told me that him, Art Director Jack Fisk, Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek have all given either interviews or provided commentary already for a British release, or, he may just be referring to the featurette currently online at Youtube, Absence of Malick. Since that came out in 2003, he may have meant something created sooner than that. Not sure.jindianajonz wrote:I thought the same thing, but it's actually a dude from terrencemallick.com that posted it (see link). That gives it a tad more credibility, in my eyesMatt wrote:Sure, some person on Facebook cites an unnamed "higher-up" who still doesn't commit 100%. Where do I pre-order?
The VP at WB then wrote me that he expects Badlands to see a release "sometime this year."
So, we have confirmation from the Malick camp and now we have one from a credible source at WB as of today, but not Criterion, which would be typical until they post a cryptic shot from their screening room (like they did with The Thin Red Line), or a clue of some sort.
I did follow-up my email with a request about the state of Badland's original print, if there has been any work done on it by Warner Brothers etc., but haven't heard back from him yet. When I do, I will post it asap.