Criterion Random Speculation Vol.4

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kaujot · #626 Post by **kaujot** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 4:15 pm

I believe My Dinner With Andre is confirmed for later this year.

Antoine Doinel · #627 Post by **Antoine Doinel** » Thu May 01, 2008 7:15 am

Apple is expected to announce today same day/date DVD releases available for download from their store. One of the labels/distributors mentioned as signing on is Image Entertainment. I have it from a pretty good source that Criterion was in talks with iTunes at one point but this is definitely an intriguing development. I wonder if it will be film only (as I'm sure Apple bargained the same cost for every film from each studio) as part of Criterion's whole appeal are the care they put into extras.

AfterTheRain · #629 Post by **AfterTheRain** » Sun May 04, 2008 4:02 am

A Matter of Life and Death will be coming out on DVD from Sony (no date has been announced yet), so a CC DVD will not happen for that title. The other two (One of Our Aircraft is Missing & The Battle of the River Plate) I'm not too sure about.

One film I would just love to see Crierion get their hands on is The Battle of Neretva, though. And hopefully in it's full 175 minute cut.

#630 Post by **Jeff** » Sun May 04, 2008 1:40 pm

There is much discussion of the possibility of A Matter of Life and Death and several other P&P films on the preceding pages of this thread, beginning here.

Cronenfly · #631 Post by **Cronenfly** » Wed May 07, 2008 9:29 pm

Now that Chungking Express has been confirmed for (at least) BR, does this open up the potential for other Jet Tone (or Miramax/Weinstein Co., whoever owns the US rights to Chungking now) licenses (at least Fallen Angels)? I guess it's hard to know without seeing the licensee(s), and without knowing how BR licenses differ from standard def (all on a case-by-case basis, I'm sure), but I'm interested to know what everybody else thinks.

And the firm, official confirmation of Bottle Rocket will (I hope) commence the flood of Sony-controlled properties.

#632 Post by **Jeff** » Wed May 07, 2008 11:27 pm

Cronenfly wrote:the firm, official confirmation of Bottle Rocket will (I hope) commence the flood of Sony-controlled properties.

I hope you're right, but I'm now leaning toward the possibility that Sony's license has expired and this has been licensed directly from either Anderson or James L. Brooks.

kaujot · #633 Post by **kaujot** » Wed May 07, 2008 11:32 pm

Jeff wrote:
Cronenfly wrote:the firm, official confirmation of Bottle Rocket will (I hope) commence the flood of Sony-controlled properties.
I hope you're right, but I'm now leaning toward the possibility that Sony's license has expired and this has been licensed directly from either Anderson or James L. Brooks.

I always heard that Criterion was granted the rights because they gave Sony the right to use a Python commentary.

#634 Post by **Jeff** » Thu May 08, 2008 12:02 am

kaujot wrote:I always heard that Criterion was granted the rights because they gave Sony the right to use a Python commentary.

I've heard that one too, but I don't think that it was anything more than a guess that circulated until it became a "fact." Truthiness.

jaredsap · #635 Post by **jaredsap** » Thu May 08, 2008 12:51 am

Jeff wrote:
Cronenfly wrote:the firm, official confirmation of Bottle Rocket will (I hope) commence the flood of Sony-controlled properties.
I hope you're right, but I'm now leaning toward the possibility that Sony's license has expired and this has been licensed directly from either Anderson or James L. Brooks.

It was licensed directly from Sony. No rights expiration involved.

Cronenfly · #636 Post by **Cronenfly** » Thu May 08, 2008 12:55 am

Jeff wrote:
Cronenfly wrote:the firm, official confirmation of Bottle Rocket will (I hope) commence the flood of Sony-controlled properties.
I hope you're right, but I'm now leaning toward the possibility that Sony's license has expired and this has been licensed directly from either Anderson or James L. Brooks.

I remain guardedly optimistic about other Sony titles. I guess I just want to believe that Sony didn't let such a big chunk of its catalogue go OOP (especially barebones titles ripe for CC treatment like The Spanish Prisoner that now go for big-ish money online) for no good reason...although it wouldn't surprise me too terribly if they never really had any intention of licensing out any of their titles to third parties (as they hinted at in a press release a number of years back, I believe) in the first place.

Cronenfly · #637 Post by **Cronenfly** » Thu May 08, 2008 12:56 am

jaredsap wrote:
Jeff wrote:
Cronenfly wrote:the firm, official confirmation of Bottle Rocket will (I hope) commence the flood of Sony-controlled properties.
I hope you're right, but I'm now leaning toward the possibility that Sony's license has expired and this has been licensed directly from either Anderson or James L. Brooks.
It was licensed directly from Sony. No rights expiration involved.

Do you know if it was a one-off?

jaredsap · #638 Post by **jaredsap** » Thu May 08, 2008 12:58 am

Cronenfly wrote:
jaredsap wrote:It was licensed directly from Sony. No rights expiration involved.
Do you know if it was a one-off?

I'm going to stop here before I get myself into trouble.

Cronenfly · #639 Post by **Cronenfly** » Thu May 08, 2008 1:02 am

jaredsap wrote:
Cronenfly wrote:
jaredsap wrote:It was licensed directly from Sony. No rights expiration involved.
Do you know if it was a one-off?
I'm going to stop here before I get myself into trouble.

Fair enough; if it is indeed a direct Sony license, then (unless it's the Python commentary one-off scenario, which I think you've just discounted) I'll take that to mean that the door's open at least a crack for more titles...maybe CC's Blu-Ray adoption had something to do with the deal taking so long to bear fruit.

Cronenfly · #640 Post by **Cronenfly** » Thu May 08, 2008 11:34 pm

Hmm...Kino's doing Fallen Angels on BR, so I guess that likely makes Chungking a one-off. Miramax has always seemed pretty lax about Chungking (see their allowing for the inclusion of their edition of the movie in the Kino WKW box and the LD being a quasi-CC release), so I guess this makes sense.

Cronenfly · #641 Post by **Cronenfly** » Sat May 10, 2008 1:46 pm

In thinking about it some more, CC's also releasing Zentropa must mean there's a multi-film licensing deal of some sort with Miramax...The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover, Scandal, Heavenly Creatures, Dead Man, Under the Olive Trees
(to name but a few possibilities), anyone?

The Fanciful Norwegian · #642 Post by **The Fanciful Norwegian** » Sat May 10, 2008 1:54 pm

Miramax announced and then canceled their own DVD release of Zentropa because of unspecified rights issues, so I think it's more probable the rights lapsed and Criterion picked them up.

miless · #643 Post by **miless** » Sat May 10, 2008 5:23 pm

damn... I was getting all excited for Greenaway's premiere on Criterion.

Cronenfly · #644 Post by **Cronenfly** » Sat May 10, 2008 5:31 pm

The Fanciful Norwegian wrote:Miramax announced and then canceled their own DVD release of Zentropa because of unspecified rights issues, so I think it's more probable the rights lapsed and Criterion picked them up.

But how do you explain Chungking Express? Miramax's edition is still in print.

denti alligator · #645 Post by **denti alligator** » Sat May 10, 2008 5:54 pm

Cronenfly wrote:
The Fanciful Norwegian wrote:Miramax announced and then canceled their own DVD release of Zentropa because of unspecified rights issues, so I think it's more probable the rights lapsed and Criterion picked them up.
But how do you explain Chungking Express? Miramax's edition is still in print.

Blu-ray only?

Cronenfly · #646 Post by **Cronenfly** » Sat May 10, 2008 7:01 pm

denti alligator wrote:
Cronenfly wrote:
The Fanciful Norwegian wrote:Miramax announced and then canceled their own DVD release of Zentropa because of unspecified rights issues, so I think it's more probable the rights lapsed and Criterion picked them up.
But how do you explain Chungking Express? Miramax's edition is still in print.
Blu-ray only?

Entirely possible, but I still think, right or wrong, that the Chungking/Zentropa combo allows for the possibility of further Miramax titles. It'll take the confirmation of a title more indisputably under Miramax's control on SD and BR to confirm this, so I guess there's no reason to get so excited yet, but there are a lot of OOP/unreleased on DVD/barebones Miramax titles, and things could be different now, post-Weinstein, vis-a-vis title licensing.

kaujot · #647 Post by **kaujot** » Sat May 10, 2008 7:01 pm

Cronenfly wrote:In thinking about it some more, CC's also releasing Zentropa must mean there's a multi-film licensing deal of some sort with Miramax...The Cook, the Thief, his Wife and her Lover, Scandal, Heavenly Creatures, Dead Man, Under the Olive Trees
(to name but a few possibilities), anyone?

Wasn't The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, & Her Lover an Anchor Bay property?

Cronenfly · #648 Post by **Cronenfly** » Sat May 10, 2008 7:02 pm

kaujot wrote:
Cronenfly wrote:In thinking about it some more, CC's also releasing Zentropa must mean there's a multi-film licensing deal of some sort with Miramax...The Cook, the Thief, his Wife and her Lover, Scandal, Heavenly Creatures, Dead Man, Under the Olive Trees
(to name but a few possibilities), anyone?
Wasn't The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, & Her Lover an Anchor Bay property?

No, a license from Miramax same as Atame, Working Girls, and Scandal.

Beyond straight licenses from Miramax, there's also the wildcard of rights expiration to see these titles end up at CC (which very well may be the case with Zentropa and certainly was the case with Working Girls, which ended up with First Run Features).

justeleblanc · #649 Post by **justeleblanc** » Sat May 10, 2008 7:47 pm

Dont forget Belle de jour!

It's also possible that Criterion is merely licensing the titles like with Universal (Dazed and Confused) and the only thing preventing Miramax from releasing Zentropa on their own is that they dont care to.

A lot of these art house titles came about through Weinstein anyway, and since the divorce (where he left many titles behind), Miramax probably was open to the idea of a third party company releasing many of the titles.

Cinephrenic · #650 Post by **Cinephrenic** » Sat May 10, 2008 8:10 pm

The Piano?

Criterion Random Speculation Vol.4

Criterion via iTunes?