I had heard that MGM did restore the negatives for the American versions, but they haven't done any transfers as that would be the most expensive task at hand. What MGM did restore, if true, was the edit splices as they were deteriorating; had they not been re-spliced the negatives would've fallen apart. It all comes down to MGM doing new digital transfers of the materials and that is what is stopping them: it seems the negatives need an extensive amount of color correction as they've been reported to being close to faded.

Also, while these titles would be a major potential for a Midnite Movies release, I don't see it happening primarily because we would want both the American and Japanese versions, since each version differs entirely. MGM has not always gone the extra mile to include alternate versions. They had ample opportunity to include the Danish cut of "Reptilicus": that didn't happen because of lack of interest from the studio. Same goes for the Italian cut of "Planet of the Vampires": no interest whatsoever to include that version. MGM also had open possibilities to release their AIP versions of the Mario Bava films "Black Sunday" and "Black Sabbath" which they did restore and have been shown on cable TV: that won't happen as they are under litigation with Alfredo Leone (i.e., I heard Leone did win the case to own the films, but so far nothing else has been reported about it). MGM even restored the God-awful AIP cut of Bava's "Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs" yet no DVD release is even considered...and MGM won't attempt to go as far as to release it alongside the original far superior Italian cut "The Spies Who Came From the Cool". This, from a company that put a lot of effort in their DVD release of "Killer Klowns From Outer Space", which was their big seller I might add. Also, in the case of these three Toho titles it all comes down to the cooperation of both MGM and Toho, something that I don't see being very likely as I'm sure both companies will have their own intentions, good or bad.

Not saying all this to be a downer: I think it would be great if MGM and Toho teamed together to release these three films in the super edition we all want. However, with the cancellation of Midnite Movies, the overpriced rights fees from Toho, MGM's uninterest in the whole thing, and the complete lack of interest from the mainstream stores it's a pipe dream that looks as if it won't come true.