Paramount difficulties?

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Author	Comment
Crespi	Paramount difficulties?	Lead	[-]
(07/17/08 6:33 AM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite	Tags : None Well the question why "Island of lost Souls" has not been released, has been asked many times before. But, I wonder, is this a general Paramount problem? Is there a license problem with the Paramount horrors "Murders at the Zoo" and all? Universal released them on vhs, has anything happend to the rights since? Universal must know by now, that there is quite a crowd waiting for ISLAND and they overlook it every time and even give us obscure mystery titels in Horror collections. Tom you have been in contact with these people, is it simply neglect - or is there some other issue behind this? Chucking out Horror Archive sets at BB really cannot cost that much - plus they were all gone in a short time. Therefore they definitely got in their money. It is a mystery. All in all I am pretty sure that ISLAND would sell a hell of a lot more than the 3rd or 4th Mummy repackaging. Even though it is a wellknown classic. But whoever wanted it, has it. Come on Universal give us another Horror Archive (this time a general release). Atleast release all the stuff that was available in the Horrorseries on vhs.
captainmarvel1957		#1	[-]
(07/17/08 7:36 AM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite	They're just being obstinate. Universal has decided not to release Island of Lost Souls on dvd until after we also agree to buy more copies of Van Helsing so that it can finally turn a profit. * * Just kidding, for all I know Van Helsing made a huge profit. Like Mencken said, "Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public."
chris schillig		#2	[-]
(07/17/08 8:41 AM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite	Cap, according to Box Office Mojo, VAN HELSING raked in $300,257,475 worldwide ($120,177,084 of that was domestic gross). Its production budget was $160 million. Since this doesn't include the money it made in home video release, it's safe to say it did OK. (But who knows how much Universal spent to market it?) I'm not in the camp that says the movie was drop-dead horrible. I thought it was OK, with some decent swashbuckling scenes and many missed opportunities. But I'm DEFINITELY in the camp that wants ISLAND OF LOST SOULS on DVD immediately, if not sooner. Too bad Sommers didn't throw Dr. Moreau into the VAN HELSING mix. Maybe then the movie would have been bundled with the other Uni classics in the VH Ultimate Edition.
captainmarvel1957		#3	[-]
(07/17/08 8:58 AM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite	That's interesting, Chris. The old rule of thumb used to be that a film had to gross three times its production budget to break even. That would mean that Van Helsing would have had to have grossed $480,000,000 to break even. That old rough formula took into account production costs, prints and ads costs, and the percentage of the gross that went to the theater exhibitor. That formula would have changed since the advent of home video. And, there are also ancillary rights that could be considered. I didn't care much for Van Helsing, but then again I liked George Lucas' Willow for some of the reasons that you cite about Van Helsing. And Willow was pretty much panned when it was released.
BijouBob8mm		#4	[-]
(07/17/08 10:33 AM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite	Well the question why "Island of lost Souls" has not been released, has been asked many times before. But, I wonder, is this a general Paramount problem? Is there a license problem with the Paramount horrors I'd say probably not. Keep in mind that one of these, DR. CYCLOPS, came to DVD. (And there are a number of Universal's own self-produced horror titles that were on VHS that have yet to see DVD, such as CURSE OF THE UNDEAD, JUNGLE CAPTIVE, MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD, etc.) Universal has released a large number of other Paramount productions to DVD (such as GHOST BREAKERS, boxed sets of their Marx Brothers comedies, the Hope/Crosby ROAD pictures, and several Cecil B. DeMille films as stand-alones and a boxed set.) Right now, they just seem to have run out of steam in terms of going back to any older titles. (Karloff's MUMMY being the exception, but probably because that title can be tied in with the new Brendan Fraser mummy movie coming out.) Last Edited By: BijouBob8mm 07/17/08 10:35 AM. Edited 1 times.
CAPTAINCOMPANY		#5	[-]
(07/17/08 11:17 AM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite	Hey Crespi! Add to Bijoubob's list "Death Takes a Holiday" (which was included as a "bonus feature" on the Meet Joe Black Special Edition dvd) Doc Carruthers and I mentioned (in a different thread from the Dvd folder) that Island of Lost Souls (or "The Uninvited" for that matter) best bet at receiving dvd releases will be if film gets remade again... Bryan
Crespi		#6	[-]
(07/17/08 11:40 AM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite	I just really hope that there are still some moviemaniacs working at Universal, that want to release the movies we are all jearning for. Hopefully not all departments have been taken over by uninterested twens that are only interested in sales figures. The music department of Universal is a complete shambles, they kicked just about everyone who was any good out, especially the classical music department has shrunken and there are also treasures buried there, that noone knows about / noone gives a damn about. It is all about quick money. Up to now they have been pretty good about our horror classics, lets just hope that was not it. WB postponing the release of their horror collection, makes me worry... Guess we just have to wait. Maybe Universal should release a CHFB exclusive, instead of BB - we are just about the only people buying them anyway.
dobrien		#7	[-]
(07/17/08 11:51 AM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite	Are the film elements for 'Island of Lost Souls' in reasonable condition? If Universal has little faith in its sales potential, the cost of a restoration could be the decider.
PJAceto		#8	[-]
(07/17/08 12:07 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite	There are some pretty good grey market disks out there. The film can't be that bad.
Bob Furmanek		#9	[-]
(07/17/08 12:36 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite	This has been discussed at length elsewhere. Short answer: the 35mm elements are in rough shape.
Crespi		#10	[-]
(07/17/08 12:40 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite	Well then I surely hope someone out there is trying to restore them soon. Before they get worse. The Print they used for the VHS was pretty decent.
TServo4		#11	[-]
(07/17/08 1:13 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite	Long story short-- there were two elements to IoLS. One was a projection print at UCLA and the other one was the fine grain that MCA made in the late '50s/early '60s when they bought the Paramount library. The FG was a one-light, which means there are scenes that are permanently mistimed now. The UCLA print was used for the LD, and is no longer usable. J. Theakston The Central Theater, Passaic, NJ
BijouBob8mm		#12	[-]
(07/17/08 1:28 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite	Gonna plunge in and show my ignorance, here. If the print used for the laser disc is not in good shape, is there any way of using one of the actual laser discs (or their master disc) for source material and digitally cleaning it up? Last Edited By: BijouBob8mm 07/17/08 1:46 PM. Edited 2 times.
Crespi		#13	[-]
(07/17/08 1:44 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite	So the UCLA print is destroyed? The problem with the laser disk would be the resolution, DVD has a higher resolution and the whole point is to actually use it - otherwise one could simply keep the VHS. So a new preferably HD transfer of the source would be great, one could use this to make the DVD. Should no other source be available, a beefed up official version of the LD would be better than not having it at all. I once owned a UK DVD of IoLS - it was simply dreadful. The vhs was a hell of a lot better. Last Edited By: Crespi 07/17/08 1:47 PM. Edited 1 times.
BijouBob8mm		#14	[-]
(07/17/08 1:50 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite	The problem with the laser disk would be the resolution, DVD has a higher resolution and the whole point is to actually use it - otherwise one could simply keep the VHS. I know that LD's don't have the same resolution as a DVD but, theoretically, wouldn't the laser disc look better than the VHS (with a DVD made from LD also looking better than VHS), should a good quality print or negative no longer be available? Last Edited By: BijouBob8mm 07/17/08 1:52 PM. Edited 1 times.
Michael Elliott		#15	[-]
(07/17/08 1:51 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite	PJAceto wrote: There are some pretty good grey market disks out there. The film can't be that bad. Not to mention I'm selling off the ones I've bought from the grey market folks in the Class. section here. Sorry, lame plug.
Crespi		#16	[-]
(07/17/08 1:56 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite	BijouBob8mm wrote: I know that LD's don't have the same resolution as a DVD but, theoretically, wouldn't the laser disc look better than the VHS (with a DVD made from LD also looking better than VHS), should a good quality print or negative no longer be available? Sure a LD transferred to DVD is going to be a lot better, the resolution of the LD was higher than the vhs. Also an old vhs can have many mechanical problems, plus snow etc. But a transfer from actual film to DVD would obviously be the best option. I personally would not mind getting a good private DVD transfer from the LD (hint, hint) Trouble with Grey market is, you never know what you are going to get... Last Edited By: Crespi 07/17/08 2:00 PM. Edited 1 times.
TServo4		#17	[-]
(07/17/08 2:07 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite	Ultimately, any video master that is as old as the master that was used for IoLS on LD and VHS will not pass QC when the time comes for a DVD. Most likely it was mastered to a 1" tape (I don't know this for fact). And then the other sad fact is that I don't think anyone is interested in releasing the film at Universal, and even if there was a slight interest, it's been vetoed by the circumstances. I'd like to be wrong, though. J. Theakston The Central Theater, Passaic, NJ
Aupperle	ISLAND OF LOST screening August 20	#18	[-]
(07/17/08 4:55 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite	The American Cinematheque in Hollywood has listed ISLAND OF LOST SOULS for Wednesday, August 20. Generally they screen 35mm prints so does anyone know what kind of material they'll be getting for ISLAND OF LOST SOULS? http://www.americancinematheque.com/mastercalendar.htm Jim Aupperle Last Edited By: Aupperle 07/17/08 4:57 PM. Edited 1 times.
Wich2		#19	[-]
(07/17/08 4:56 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite	I can only add that my memory is that the TV print that PBS runs here on occasion looks o.k. (granted, ONLY "o.k.") And a twenty-year old 1" - if cared for - might still be usable. I think "the best we could muster", with a disclaimer that that's exactly what it is, would certainly look better than the abominable THE GHOUL that was the first Commercial release of same. Best, -Craig W.
Joe Karlosi		#20	[-]
(07/17/08 6:08 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite	ISLAND should still come out. It's a very good film, and an important one. There have been other less-than-pristine quality DVDs released of other movies, depending on the situation. The Three Stooges film MEET THE BARON comes to mind. It's better than nothing, and a written prologue at the start of an IOLS release could explain the circumstances and say as much. ---------------------- "It's MORE ... than a hobby!"

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