Arrow Announcements, Speculation & Wild, Irresponsible Conjecture

[Grand Wazoo]

I really hope Arrow’s next WB license is for Michael Cimino’s Year of the Dragon. A wonderful work in its commercially released form, but Cimino’s preferred cut, with small but important tweaks, still exists on a print held by the AMPAS

Ditto for that pre-release cut of Last Boy Scout, forget if an archive or WB proper has it

I asked WB Archive about Year of the Dragon and they dismissed including both cuts as being cost-prohibitive. Ridiculous. They likely didn’t even know it existed until after the Academy’s print was screened shortly after Cimino died. I was lucky to see it, and the audience’s jaws dropped when Mickey Rourke said the final line that made UA/De Laurentiis lose their shit

What's the line?

[beamish14]

Ditto for that pre-release cut of Last Boy Scout, forget if an archive or WB proper has it

I asked WB Archive about Year of the Dragon and they dismissed including both cuts as being cost-prohibitive. Ridiculous. They likely didn’t even know it existed until after the Academy’s print was screened shortly after Cimino died. I was lucky to see it, and the audience’s jaws dropped when Mickey Rourke said the final line that made UA/De Laurentiis lose their shit

What's the line?

As in the released cut, Mickey Rourke gets to walk into the sunset with his woman. As intended, he says this: "Well, I guess if you fight a war long enough, you end up marrying the enemy". It’s a perfect summation of his character, as he’s a Vietnam vet who still has biases towards people of Asian origin, but has fallen for a Chinese-American woman. Many people still write the film off as being racist, and it really doesn’t condone the ugliness of the protagonist

[Calvin]

Bird was such an an obvious pairing with Straight, No Chaser (as a simultaneous release, not an actual set) that the fact it didn't happen convinced me it's not in the Criterion pipeline (which obviously doesn't mean it'll come from Arrow either). I think it, Honkytonk Man, and White Hunter Black Heart are the only Eastwood-directed films still absent on BD—French releases of Bird were apparently announced on a couple of occasions, but I'm pretty sure they never actually came out.

Any of them would be great choices for Arrow's Warner deal.

I'm not sure how many more Warner titles we're expecting from them, but the others that I'm hoping for that seem not out of the realms of possibility:

The Lovers (Tsui Hark)
Love in the Time of Twilight (Tsui Hark)
The Butcher Boy (Neil Jordan)
Excalibur (Boorman)
Prince of the City (Lumet)
The Hill (Lumet)
Star 80 (Fosse)
Being Human (Forsyth)

[EddieLarkin]

Excalibur (Boorman)

You'll be happy to hear this already turned up as a postcard recently. See the previous page.

[ryannichols7]

The Hill (Lumet)
Star 80 (Fosse)
Being Human (Forsyth)

please yes to these. Star 80 will probably never come from Criterion, The Hill is in limbo, and Being Human has been a long time must, especially if anything else can be recovered from it

[Maltic]

Ooh, yeah, I'd buy Excalibur on UHD. Kind of a silly film, but it looks great and was a childhood favorite.

Excellent, with Nicol Willamson as a dirty realpolitik Merlin! Interestingly Alex Cox in the 1994 Moviedrome introduction to the film mentions that apparently Boorman really wanted to do an adaptation of The Lord of the Rings (which was presumably around the same time that Ralph Bakshi was doing his 1978 animated adaptation of the first half the story), but did this as an alternative to it.

Boorman’s would have been produced in the 60’s, I think, when Tolkien was still alive.

He and writer Rospo Pallenberg had an interesting creative partnership. I still really like Pallenberg’s script for an adaptation of Stephen King’s The Stand that George Romero was slate to make around 1979

I heard the version of the story Alex Cox tells, but always thought Excalibur would be more up Boorman's alley anyway, given the Arthurian themes in his other movies: Point Blank, Hell in the Pacific, Deliverance, The Emerald Forest, Hope and Glory...

Similar to Joe Dante making an actual Looney Tunes movie, and Minnelli making that film about drapes.

[dwk]

Zavi leaked the November slate
The Mask (4K UHD and Blu-ray)
Outland (4K UHD)
Red Planet (4K UHD)
Dark Water (4K UHD)
Speak No Evil (2022) (Blu-ray)
The Apartment (4K UHD) (UK only)
Deadly Friend (Blu-ray) (UK only)

[Finch]

Still no Pulse? What gives.

[nicolas]

Strange that Speak No Evil is BD only after Plaion released it in 4K in Germany. Bought that one yesterday in a sale and will gladly skip the Arrow now.

[Adam X]

Just to help it feel like the Golden Princess films are getting closer to release, I got a Hard Boiled postcard with my copy of Thief.

[dwk]

Word on the other forum is in the UK, on Apple TV, Halloween, Halloween 4 and Halloween 5 are available from Arrow.

[yoloswegmaster]

Those first 2 titles are attributed to Arrow, while Halloween 5 is under Trancas International Films.

[Finch]

Arrow have teased A Bay of Blood on their social media channels.

[colinr0380]

I was casually wondering but is Sucker Punch out on UHD anywhere as yet? That's a Warner Bros. film and a perfect fit for Arrow if not.

[therewillbeblus]

I was casually wondering but is Sucker Punch out on UHD anywhere as yet?

No, I don't believe it has - that'd be a nice scoop

[GetBusyLivin]

I was casually wondering but is Sucker Punch out on UHD anywhere as yet?

No, I don't believe it has - that'd be a nice scoop

Especially with how Snyder has been wanting to restore the original ending that WB omitted in favor of a reshoot.

[Matt]

Arrow have teased A Bay of Blood on their social media channels.

Excellent! I would much prefer to buy this from Arrow than Severin.

[Finch]

All I want for December is Shawscope Vol 4, and Iron Giant plus Excalibur as the WB titles.

[ryannichols7]

All I want for December is Shawscope Vol 4, and Iron Giant plus Excalibur as the WB titles.

definitely want Iron Giant but they'd for sure tease that and build some hype around it. maybe we should shoot for that Pulse UHD we all want

hoping Mona Lisa gets upgraded also

[Peacock]

I wonder if Arrow will be announcing Silent Night, Bloody Night on UHD soon?

[yoloswegmaster]

According to this post, Arrow is releasing Lady Snowblood on 4K:



I'm confused though since Arrow never announced a 4K release of Lady Snowblood. Plus when was the last time Arrow released a Toho title?

[JamesF]

We’re not releasing Lady Snowblood in 4K, or any other Toho title for that matter. No idea what on earth this poster is talking about.

[Orlac]

Kind of a shame as the film needs a fresh transfer - Arrow's is very brown and the wrong colour space, whilst the Criterion looks...odd, to say the least.

[yoloswegmaster]

We’re not releasing Lady Snowblood in 4K, or any other Toho title for that matter. No idea what on earth this poster is talking about.

Thanks for the confirmation! Genuinely wonder what that person what talking about. Sucks to hear that there is still no new deal with Toho, especially since they have been licensing more titles recently.

[dwk]

I think that post is talking about the Ms.45 UHD being available.