#930
Post
by Cronenfly » Sun Sep 30, 2007 12:18 pm
Beyond the dated Sony PR that has thus far yielded no licensed titles (to my knowledge), is there really any hard proof that anything else from Sony/Columbia will be coming beyond Bottle Rocket (the Apu Tilogy also being a decently speculated candidate)? As much as I'd love to see Safe, California Split, Fat City, Husbands, Love Streams (isn't that one still with MGM, though?), Obsession, In the Company of Men, Gas Food Lodging, The Spanish Prisoner, Homicide, Things Change, Spider, 32 Short Films About Glenn Gould, et al., does anyone think that Sony would really allow such a large chunk of their library out?
I know what they said in their PR, but I still can't quite believe it...happy to be wrong though, and have a situation like the onw with Universal emerge, where the titles will be a steady stream (not just a block like Fox or New Line) of both debuts and reissues. They (Sony) obviously hold a lot of their back catalogue in relative contempt, so it would be great to see, but I'm not holding my breath...the whole business seems to be moving like molasses if at all, so, as I say, I'm just going to wait and see, personally. May be a good time to make some coin off of the OOP titles, though, before they materialize again, if you're one of faith...I don't think I could live without California Split and Safe if they never made the CC, though. As well, who knows if the commentaries/other special features will make the leap for a bunch of the already released titles? That could be enough to dissuade CC from licensing some of them, I think (re.: the Seconds discussion in the Paramount thread).
Just one more tangent: I'm still not positive that Bottle Rocket wasn't just a trade for the Life of Brian CC commentaries, or whether the rights were just (forcibly or not) let go to their original holders (a la Slacker). I think that the same could explain the Apu Trilogy box, so I'm not sure that we should be so hopeful that any of the other aforementioned titles (and beyond) are coming. Not to spoil the party: just trying to be pragmatic. This is Sony after all: just look at what they did to the MGM catalogue vs. what Fox is doing now (though maybe that was lesson enough to them to start being smart with some of their own titles and license out). Only time will tell...
EDIT-My mistake: Safe seems to be OOP as well...It would be fantastic to see, but I can't imagine there being a whole lot of features to add beyond the pre-existing commentary. An improved transfer would be enough, though, and I'm sure that CC could come up with something interesting in conjunction with Haynes (if only Velvet Goldmine could find its way into their hands too).
And I think that California Split will only happen if the music rights can be cleared and the full version released, something I can't ever see being economically feasible enough to happen.
Last edited by
Cronenfly on Sun Sep 30, 2007 6:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.