Arrow Announcements, Speculation & Wild, Irresponsible Conjecture

[GetBusyLivin]

I appreciate that Arrow has a balance to strike, and can see the appeal in releases of stuff like The Mask and Spawn, but who in the world was/is looking for a Snakes on a Plane UHD?

Really great film to recall the uselessness of the internet as a metric to a film’s success. It was the first big meme movie with unfunny Redditors laughing about it, and then no one went to see it. Sony tried the same with Morbius and no one gave a shit then either. Under Siege at least has some camp value and is one of the few fun Seagal movies, though I would’ve preferred John Flynn’s Out for Justice where Seagal does the worst Italian-American accent documented in a movie.

In a way, Snakes on a Plane laid the groundwork for bullshit like Zach Snyder’s cut of Justice League, as petitioners begged LionsGate to make it an R-rated film when it was shot with a PG-13 in mind

The situation with the Snyder Cut is hardly like Snakes on a Plane. The former was the completion of a film that was taken away from its director amid tragic circumstances and was a means of closure, whereas the latter is what you described -- a studio responding to a meme

[tenia]

That’s not a name I associate with being canceled. My guess would be Kevin Spacey

Same here.

I mean, there are way too many reasons Seagal should get flak, but surprisingly for someone with such a pedigree of poor on-set behavior, alleged sexual harassment and friendships with half of the planet's dictators, he's still not cancelled.

[Drucker]

When you run in certain political social circles I don't think you can be canceled.

[Finch]

If there are no further announcements, I'd like to think they pushed Peking Opera Blues back a month so Dylan Cheung can fix the subs.

[pistolwink]

I hope they include the original Cantonese soundtrack and not just the re-done soundtrack with multiple dialects.

[The Elegant Dandy Fop]

Are you referring to Shanghai Blues or Peking Opera Blues? I thought it was the former.

[FigrinDan]

Mutant was formed to release posters, records, and toys. They have now expanded into physical media with the first in their new 4K UHD Mutant Mediabook series, Donnie Darko. I have included the information from their announcement email below.

Spoiler

[domino harvey]

Isn’t this just a new case for the existing release?

[mfunk9786]

Isn’t this just a new case for the existing release?

Yeah, that's an Arrow logo on the discs.

[dwk]

But she's got a new hat

[Maltic]

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.

A follow-up here: According to Boorman authority Brian Hoyle, Boorman had been working on a script for an Arthurian film since the late 1960's. The Lord of the Rings project was indeed just "the next best thing" for him.

Boyle also talks about a well-regarded documentary Boorman did in his early BBC days on D.W. Griffith (the epic Griffith of Intolerance more so than the dramatic Griffith of Broken Blossoms, apparently). If only that would be included as an extra by whomever releases the Excalibur UHD....

[beamish14]

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.

A follow-up here: According to Boorman authority Brian Hoyle, Boorman had been working on a script for an Arthurian film since the late 1960's. The Lord of the Rings project was indeed just "the next best thing" for him.

Boyle also talks about a well-regarded documentary Boorman did in his early BBC days on D.W. Griffith (the epic Griffith of Intolerance more so than the dramatic Griffith of Broken Blossoms, apparently). If only that would be included as an extra by whomever releases the Excalibur UHD....

Per Neil Jordan, the script for Excalibur was about 400 pages in length and had a huge number of strands that he eliminated while working in his capacity as a creative consultant

[dwk]

Cliff mentioned in an interview that they had licensed three titles featuring a cancelled actor. Could have been Seagal, so I definitely think that Out for Justice and Marked for Death are likely Arrow titles.

I forgot that Marked for Death is a Fox title. So I guess Above the Law will be the other Seagal.

[MichaelB]

Boyle also talks about a well-regarded documentary Boorman did in his early BBC days on D.W. Griffith (the epic Griffith of Intolerance more so than the dramatic Griffith of Broken Blossoms, apparently). If only that would be included as an extra by whomever releases the Excalibur UHD....

If it's owned by the BBC, the chances of that happening are pretty much zero.

[pistolwink]

Are you referring to Shanghai Blues or Peking Opera Blues? I thought it was the former.

Ah, yeah, I got those scrambled in my brain.

[nicolas]

Peter Hyams’ 2010 4K release coming soon.

[sabbath]

Peter Hyams’ 2010 4K release coming soon.

May I ask the source, nicolas?

Meanwhile, Arrow teased Save the Green Planet! (2003) on their X account on Nov 3rd (reddit link). Some say it's for Tim Burton's Mars Attacks! (1996), but no, the teaser says "Coming Soon" in Korean first, then in English. And I can't think of any other UFO-related Korean film that Arrow might have picked.

[yoloswegmaster]

That's another former Tartan title getting a release from Arrow. Hoping Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring and the other 2 films in the Vengeance trilogy get upgrades soon.

[nicolas]

Peter Hyams’ 2010 4K release coming soon.

May I ask the source, nicolas?

Bill Hunt from the Digital Bits revealed it in his Outland review:

But for my money, Peter Hyams’s 2010: The Year We Make Contact is his best science fiction film. And the good news is, Arrow has licensed that from Warner Bros. too. So if they do as good a job with 2010 in 4K Ultra HD (look for it to arrive on disc sometime next year), I will be happy indeed.

[MichaelB]

Meanwhile, Arrow teased Save the Green Planet! (2003) on their X account on Nov 3rd (reddit link). Some say it's for Tim Burton's Mars Attacks! (1996), but no, the teaser says "Coming Soon" in Korean first, then in English. And I can't think of any other UFO-related Korean film that Arrow might have picked.

Or one that's more obviously topical, given that the English-language remake is in cinemas right now.

[yoloswegmaster]

This is for Excalibur, which I'm very excited for since I saw it for the first time recently and fell in love with how dreamlike and surreal and spiritual it felt. Can't wait to see how splendid the film will look with a new restoration.

[Finch]

That's one of my two wishlist titles ticked off, then. Hoping for Peking Opera Blues on 4K with proper subs (perhaps a HK double bill with all three Chinese Ghost Stories on BD, maybe the first in 4K like the French did?), and maybe a Warner title I'm interested in (The Getaway, The Iron Giant). Titles they teased for last year and still not announced are Mona Lisa, Nightbreed and To Live and Die in L.A. (none of which I care about). Maybe a MGM title like Alfredo Garcia or Miracle Mile on 4K.

[beamish14]

That's one of my two wishlist titles ticked off, then. Hoping for Peking Opera Blues on 4K with proper subs (perhaps a HK double bill with all three Chinese Ghost Stories on BD, maybe the first in 4K like the French did?), and maybe a Warner title I'm interested in (The Getaway, The Iron Giant). Titles they teased for last year and still not announced are Mona Lisa, Nightbreed and To Live and Die in L.A. (none of which I care about). Maybe a MGM title like Alfredo Garcia or Miracle Mile on 4K.

Nightbreed has even more deleted footage that didn’t appear in the new cut on the Blu-Ray, and I really hope Clive Barker gets another shot at editing it

I don’t know what happened with Kino’s promised 4K of Miracle Mile, but the new bonus features were incredible

[dwk]

I dont think Kino ever said they were going to release Miracle Mile on UHD.

[beamish14]

I dont think Kino ever said they were going to release Miracle Mile on UHD.

You’re right. It was an odd Blu to Blu re-release