Shout! Factory / Scream Factory

[knives]

That's what I said in not as many words.

[Feego]

Haha, sorry about that. I misread your post. I thought you were saying they were NOT including the cut that was previously released on DVD.

[dwk]

SHOUT! FACTORY AND WERNER HERZOG FILM GMBH ANNOUNCE MULTI-FILM PACT FOR CROSS-PLATFORM DISTRIBUTION

Internationally Acclaimed Werner Herzog Film Classics Include

FITZCARRALDO, AGUIRRE: THE WRATH OF GOD, NOSFERATU THE VAMPYRE, THE ENIGMA OF KASPAR HAUSER, WOYZECK, HEART OF GLASS, COBRA VERDE, STROSZEK, FATA MORGANA, LITTLE DIETER NEEDS TO FLY, LESSONS OF DARKNESS,
BALLAD OF THE LITTLE SOLDIER, LAND OF SILENCE AND DARKNESS and more

Los Angeles, Calif. and Vienna, Austria – August 20, 2013 – Shout! Factory and Werner Herzog Film GMBH announced an exclusive, multi-picture alliance to bring a coveted library of classic films by legendary writer/director/producer Werner Herzog, currently being re-mastered in high-definition for new edition releases in North America. The announcement was made today by Shout! Factory’s founders Richard Foos, Bob Emmer and Garson Foos, and filmmaker Werner Herzog.

This multi-year alliance provides Shout! Factory extensive rights to 16 highly sought-after Werner Herzog films and documentaries, including digital distribution, home video and broadcast for cross-platform releases. Award-winning and critically acclaimed features include FITZCARRALDO, AGUIRRE: THE WRATH OF GOD, NOSFERATU THE VAMPYRE, THE ENIGMA OF KASPAR HAUSER, WOYZECK, HEART OF GLASS, COBRA VERDE, STROSZEK, FATA MORGANA, LITTLE DIETER NEEDS TO FLY, LESSONS OF DARKNESS, BALLAD OF THE LITTLE SOLDIER, LAND OF SILENCE AND DARKNESS, as well as several other acclaimed titles.

“Werner Herzog is a filmmaking icon and a celebrated master storyteller. He holds an incredibly rich legacy in cinematic history worldwide. Many of his memorable classics have been long-out-of print in the North American home entertainment marketplace. We are honored with this opportunity to bring these iconic films to movie collectors and legions of fans on digital entertainment platforms and at retail,” stated Shout! Factory’s founders in a joint statement.

"I am very proud to start this new collaboration with Shout! Factory and, given the outstanding reputation of Richard Foos, Bob Emmer and Garson Foos, I am confident that our joint efforts to bring my films to the North American public again in brand new HD quality will be hugely satisfying and rewarding." Werner Herzog

Shout! Factory plans an aggressive rollout of these cinema classics through physical home entertainment releases and a variety of digital entertainment distribution platforms. As excitement builds for these new home entertainment releases, Shout! Factory and Werner Herzog Film will announce additional news later this year.

About Shout! Factory

Shout! Factory, LLC is a diversified multi-platform media company devoted to producing, uncovering, preserving and revitalizing the very best of pop culture. Founders Richard Foos, Bob Emmer and Garson Foos have spent their entire careers sharing their music, television and film favorites with discerning consumers the world over. Shout! Factory’s DVD and Blu-Ray™ offerings serve up feature films, classic and contemporary TV series, animation, live music and comedy specials in lavish packages crammed with extras. Shout’s audio division boasts GRAMMY®-nominated box sets, Broadway cast albums, new releases from storied artists, lovingly assembled album reissues and indispensable “best of” compilations. In addition, Shout! Factory maintains a vast digital distribution network which delivers video and audio content to all the leading digital service providers in North America. Shout! Factory also owns and operates Timeless Media Group, Biograph Records, Majordomo Records, HighTone Records and Video Time Machine. These riches are the result of a creative acquisition mandate that has established the company as a hotbed of cultural preservation and commercial reinvention. Shout! Factory is based in Santa Monica, California. For more on Shout! Factory, visit shoutfactory.com.

Shout truly is on their way to becoming the new Anchor Bay.

[Askew]

The best part of Shout! getting the Herzog films over Criterion is that they'll all be released in a timely matter.

[jwd5275]

Which is probably why they went with Shout! instead of Criterion....

[criterion10]

Shout! usually does good work, and with Herzog supervising the transfers, these releases will probably be of very high quality. Still, I can't help but feel as though Criterion would have been the perfect outlet for Herzog's filmography.

Edit: Scream Factory actually wrote on their Facebook page that Nosferatu will be appear as part of that collection, as oppose to a mainline Shout! release.

[Zot!]

This more proletarian approach somehow works for me. Like others have speculated, it would have taken Criterion forever to release these things and at high cost. Some of the lesser titles may have been buried indefinately. I think a choice between this line-up and the forthcoming BFI's will be plenty good for me. Criterion already needs to get their updated Tati and Fassbinder releases going, rather than acquire more huge catalogues to sit on.

[captveg]

I'm more than fine with this. Not everything has to be funneled through Criterion.

[Zot!]

I don't see heart of Glass or Even Dwarves Started Small mentioned. I wonder if these won't be included? I thought they both had their charms. Dwarves in particular seems like it would be a cult favorite.

EDIT: Oops, I meant Signs of Life, not Heart of Glass.

[swo17]

I think it's one of domino's favorite films or something.

[warren oates]

I don't see heart of Glass or Even Dwarves Started Small mentioned. I wonder if these won't be included? I thought they both had their charms. Dwarves in particular seems like it would be a cult favorite.

Look again: Heart of Glass, at least, is mentioned twice. There's a great newish book about the making of it, btw. Maybe they just aren't mentioning the dwarf movie in the press release because the title is so un-PC. I can't imagine Herzog not wanting to see that back in print in HD, especially with that great commentary.

[zedz]

Signs of Life was originally separated from the bulk of Herzog's other work in the US (released on DVD by New Yorker, rather than Anchor Bay), so there may be some historical rights issue preventing its inclusion in this batch. I'd dearly love to see that film get the deluxe BluRay treatment, so I hope somebody else (BFI, most of all) have got their hands on it.

Considering they have 16 films and mention 13 of them by name (and one of those is the short, relatively obscure Ballad of the Little Soldier), I assume the remaining titles are shorts / docs as well. Having Dwarfs but not mentioning it in the press release seems like an odd thing to do. On the other hand, the only two titles from the Anchor Bay box sets not mentioned are Dwarfs and My Best Fiend, and I'd lay odds on the latter being one of the unmentioned titles.

[knives]

Signs of Life was originally separated from the bulk of Herzog's other work in the US (released on DVD by New Yorker, rather than Anchor Bay), so there may be some historical rights issue preventing its inclusion in this batch. I'd dearly love to see that film get the deluxe BluRay treatment, so I hope somebody else (BFI, most of all) have got their hands on it.

They do mention one of the New Yorker controlled titles though so I don't think that makes it automatically out.

[zedz]

Signs of Life was originally separated from the bulk of Herzog's other work in the US (released on DVD by New Yorker, rather than Anchor Bay), so there may be some historical rights issue preventing its inclusion in this batch. I'd dearly love to see that film get the deluxe BluRay treatment, so I hope somebody else (BFI, most of all) have got their hands on it.

They do mention one of the New Yorker controlled titles though so I don't think that makes it automatically out.

Well, the best case scenario is that the three unmentioned titles are this one, Dwarfs and (the inevitable?) Fiend, though it actually seems weird that Little Soldier should take precedence in publicity over any of those.

[knives]

It is weird and makes me wonder if they're only mentioning titles they feel are features which Little Soldier barely counts as. If so I wonder if the early shorts with the short docs New Yorker released won't also be released (though that's sort of a silly thing to do). This I bet almost 100% is just wish fulfillment on my part though as the unmentioned titles are my favorites.

[dwk]

Scream has announced the special features for their Vincent Price Collection:

FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER
• Vintage and rare Introduction and final words from Vincent Price
• Audio Commentary with Roger Corman
• Vincent Price Retrospective Commentary with author Lucy Chase Williams featuring Pitor Michael as the voice of Vincent Price
• Audio interview with Vincent Price by historian David Del Valle
• Theatrical Trailer
•Still Gallery

THE HAUNTED PALACE
• Vintage and rare Introduction and final words from Vincent Price
• Audio Commentary by author Lucy Chase Williams (The Complete Films of Vincent Price) and Richard Heft
• Audio Commentary by author Tom Weaver
• A Change of Poe- an interview with director Roger Corman
• Theatrical Trailer
• Still Gallery

THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH
• Vintage and rare Introduction and final words from Vincent Price
• Audio Commentary by author Steve Haberman (Silent Screams: The History of the Silent Horror Film)
• Interview with Roger Corman
• Theatrical Trailer
• Still Gallery

THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM
• Vintage and rare Introduction and final words from Vincent Price
• Rare Prologue
• Audio Commentary with Roger Corman
• Theatrical Trailer
• Still Gallery

WITCHFINDER GENERAL
• Vintage and rare Introduction and final words from Vincent Price
• Audio Commentary with producer Philip Waddilove and actor Ian Ogilvy
• Witchfinder General: Michael Reeves’ Horror Classic
• Vintage Interview with Vincent Price conducted by film historian David Del Valle (1987)
• Vincent and Victoria: an Interview with Victoria Price
• Theatrical Trailer
• Additional Vincent Price Theatrical Trailers
• Still Gallery

THE ABOMINABLE DR. PHIBES
• Audio Commentary with director Robert Fuest
• Audio Commentary with author Justin Humphreys (Names You Never Remember, With Faces You Never Forget)
• Introductory Price: Undertaking “The Vincent Price Gothic Horrors”
• Theatrical Trailer
• Still Gallery

[dwk]

Scream will be releasing Witchboard and Night of the Demons on Blu-ray in early 2014

[dwk]

Both are out on December 10th:

[domino harvey]

Invasion of the Bee Girls was an OOP MGM title that was going for big bux, nice to see it brought back for next to nothing

[dwk]

Scream is releasing Die Monster Die! on Blu-ray in early 2014

SURPRISE TITLE ANNOUNCEMENT!

Ready to cruise back to the 60s? We are! The 1965 shocker DIE, MONSTER, DIE! (starring Frankenstein's monster himself, Boris Karloff) will be coming to Blu-ray for the first time from us in the early part of 2014. No other details to report at this time.

Check out the artwork, which uses the original theatrical poster art--that we always find groovy.

[domino harvey]

Blu-ray version of the Bad Dreams / Visiting Hours double-feature coming next year Not wild about owning another copy of Visiting Hours, but Bad Dreams on Blu is a no-brainer!

[dwk]

Update on the Bruce Lee set from the Official Bruce Lee facebook page

Hi Philippe. I share your frustration. On the Bruce Lee side of things, we wanted this done right, and done with the highest quality. The version due out in October will be true HD. Here is the official answer from the distributor (Shout! Factory). FROM SHOUT! FACTORY: "We discovered that we had not been given the recently restored transfers used for the Blu-rays in Hong Kong and Japan, but rather the original masters done a few years ago in Canada. We therefore acquired the improved masters, and have included them on this new set, for a truly definitive Bruce Lee collection." This has been the cause of the many delays and problems.

I hope you understand, and again, I understand and share your frustration.

I have no doubt that Shout was getting jerked around by Fortune Star, but if they would have listened to people's complaints about the Jackie Chan "HD masters" not really being HD and acted accordingly to ensure that they got real HD masters from Fortune Star (you know, reject the obvious SD masters that Fortune Star supplied to them) they would have saved themselves a lot of time, money, and aggravation.

[Orlac]

Fortune Star has jerked around all the companies it supplies to for years.

[dwk]

Early 2014

[dwk]

Scream posted the extras for their Night of the Comet Blu-ray:

***EXTRAS REVEALED for NIGHT OF THE COMET!**

We're proud to announce the final list of bonus material that will
be included on our Collector's Edition DVD & Blu-ray combo of NIGHT OF THE COMET (out 11/19). Check em' out!

- Commentary with Writer/Director Thom Eberhardt
- Commentary with Stars Kelli Maroney and Catherine Mary Stewart
- Commentary with Production Designer John Muto
- Valley Girls At The End Of The World – Interviews with Stars Kelli Maroney and Catherine Mary Stewart
- The Last Man On Earth? – Interview with Actor Robert Beltran
- Curse of the Comet – Interview with Special Make-Up Effects Creator David B. Miller
- Still Galleries (Behind the Scenes and Official Stills)
- Original Theatrical Trailer