[Spizz]



It will only be available through ScreenArchives, will be limited to 3000 copies and will be priced at $29.95...




From Blu-Ray.com-

Quote:
Twilight Time, a specialty label which focuses on releasing vintage films previously unavailable on DVD, has struck a deal with Sony Pictures Home Entertainment to license and release classic films from the Sony-owned Columbia Pictures library in high-definition Blu-ray editions. Currently, Twilight Time also have a licensing agreement with Twentieth Century Fox Entertainment, and recently released on Blu-ray Michael Curtiz's The Egyptian (1954).


According to a statement released by Twilight Time, only 3000 units of each title will be produced, aimed at the collector/classic film aficionado market, and available exclusively online through http://www.screenarchives.com , the nation's largest independent distributor of specialty soundtracks.The November 8th Blu-ray debut of director Cy Endfield's and special effects master Ray Harryhausen's 1961 science fiction/fantasy classic, Mysterious Island, will be followed by a new release on the first Tuesday of each month. Scheduled follow-up on December 13th is the original Fright Night (1985), the horror/comedy cult favorite written and directed by Tom Holland and starring Chris Sarandon and Roddy McDowall.


The label is the brainchild of 30-year Warner Bros veteran Brian Jamieson and filmmaker/music restoration specialist Nick Redman. In his long tenure at Warner Home Video, Jamieson initiated and oversaw countless legacy restorations, including the films of Stanley Kubrick, Samuel Fuller's The Big Red One, and Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch. Redman, a film historian and Oscar nominee for his 1997 documentary, The Wild Bunch: An Album in Montage, is also a prime mover behind Twentieth Century Fox Entertainment's pioneering series of limited edition soundtracks, the inspiration for Twilight Time's release model.


Unlike movies-on-demand offerings, each Twilight Time release is a Blu-ray or DVD (not a DVD-R) properly pressed from a restored transfer. Each is accompanied by a collectible 8-page booklet complete with original essay, stills, and poster art. And each Twilight Time disc provides, whenever possible, that extra most coveted by cinemusic enthusiasts: an isolated score.


Grover Crisp, Sony Pictures Entertainment's Executive Vice President for Asset Management, Film Restoration, and Digital Mastering, is enthusiastic about his studio's new partnership with the label. "Our collaboration with Twilight Time will allow us to make available for Blu-ray release some of our library's most collectible titles in a way fans have been asking for: restored and re-mastered with attention to detail and quality."


And Jamieson concurs: "Sony and Twilight Time," he says, "will be serving both the collectible drive of film aficionados, and, in a larger sense, the cause of cinema literacy."

Now I can see a few fans getting pissed about this. Firstly it will only be available through that website, secondly it is going to be $29.95, and thirdly 3000 copies for a cult classic is extremly low.


However I love this movie and will be placing my preorder when it appears.






============================================================ ============================================================ ===


Update Post September 5th-


Okay here is an update from the company releasing this-

Quote:
This is in response to what someone had aksed about the limited release of Fright Night.



I hear you Shawn, and I understand completely your feelings of frustration, but consider this: the glass half-full is honestly better than nothing in these situations. If Sony or Fox, or any other of the studios really believed there was a mass-market audience clamoring for their back-catalogue titles, do you think they would be giving them to us, or Criterion or Shout! Factory or Olive? And in addition, we haven't sold 3,000 copies of any of our titles yet--our model may be suspect in the ways you explain, but we are at least making catalogue titles available to the 3,000 who really care. And, guess what? We haven't sold 3,000 copies of any of our titles yet--the studios are watching, and thinking, wow, they can't even do 3,000 units. It vindicates their philosophy, and makes them even more entrenched. See what I mean? We all have to bite the bullet now and realize this is the future, and that will only be sustained if the independent labels are supported. When that fails there is nothing beyond that except streaming.

and some slightly good news. Pricing will be $29.95 which I think is fair for a small company. From their FB Page-

Quote:
Q: How much will the Blu-ray for Fright Night run?

A: $29.95.

No new extras-

Quote:
Our contract with Sony precludes us from generating new "bonus materials" but if the studio owns any pre-existing materials, already cleared for release, those can be included. I do not know the status of the (online) commentaries... but will check into it...we are meeting with the director, Tom Holland, next week and we will go over all this with him.

Quote:
Look for the pre-order info at http://www.screenarchives.com around mid-November.

Still getting this on day 1

 

[Osirus23]

I was going to comment that the upside to all these recent horrible box office flop remakes (Fright Night, Conan) is that studios are releasing the originals on Blu-ray to coincide, but damn, limiting it to 3000 copies? Lame.

 

[grodd]

Looks like we have to be fast on the draw to get the pre-order.


Huge fan of the original 2 and the remake as well.

 

[Dex Robinson]

Yes...saw this yesterday and it's a disappointment. I'm not a fan of producing limited "collector" editions of anything. It's just gimmicky. It's an annoying way of creating a fake market and artificial exclusivety. It's low class and amateurish. Maybe Sony should have struck a deal with The Franklin Mint.

 

[dvdmike007]

I want it so much, but do not want to support that

 

[Strevlac]

Actually, I think Fright Night is going to be $29.99. Add shipping and that's still pretty steep. I bought The Egyptian for $40 but that was a pretty hard to see film with a very small market. Kind of dissapointed Sony isn't releasing this one themselves.

 

[Kram Sacul]

3000 copies? This isn't a cd score release....

 

[Damnationdoormat]

Pfffttt, they can keep the damn thing with those stipulations.

 

[DM2006RI]

Surprised by the negative reactions in here. Yes it's a bit more money, and yes I'm surprised Sony or Image didn't do this themselves to coincide with the release of the remake, but it's also 3000 copies and it does make it limited. I think some folks need a reality check -- the market for BD catalog titles really isn't there and obviously it's not developing fast enough (or at all) to interest the studios, which is why we're seeing titles licensed out to the likes of Mill Creek and Image Entertainment and now Twilight Time on a limited-edition basis.


With that in mind, it's either this or nothing at all for certain titles. Apparently some of you would rather have the latter?

 

[Dex Robinson]



Quote:
Originally Posted by DM2006RI /forum/post/20896004


but it's also 3000 copies and it does make it limited. I think some folks need a reality check

Well, we agree on one thing: some folks need a reality check.


Twilight Time invented their own fake reality to make this a limited edition. They decided to make a small number of discs and sell them for big prices through their own website based on an artificial market they designed.


ANY company can produce a small number of ANY product and call it a limited edition. It's an excuse to spend a minimum amount of money manufacturing an item and make a maximum amount of money selling it.


It's perfectly legal, free enterprise. It's also a sleazy way to exploit fans. I can't defend this kind of low-class opportunism.

 

[Spizz]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Dex Robinson /forum/post/20896141


They decided to make a small number of discs and sell them for big prices through their own website based on an artificial market they designed.


ANY company can produce a small number of ANY product and call it a limited edition. It's an excuse to spend a minimum amount of money manufacturing an item and make a maximum amount of money selling it.


It's perfectly legal, free enterprise. It's also a sleazy way to exploit fans. I can't defend this kind of low-class opportunism.

It's not ideal but I guess your not a fan of the Criterion Collection then....

 

[Partyslammer]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Spizz /forum/post/20896181


It's not ideal but I guess your not a fan of the Criterion Collection then....

Which Criterion title was limited to 3,000 copies?

 

[Spizz]

More through the "big prices" part of his statement beacuse the title/s was outsourced to Twlight Time. The same could be said for Criterion releases.


In response to your question though how many Criterion DVDs went out of print and demanded higher prices on the 2ndary market because there wasnt enough quantity? Hopefully the same doesn't happen with their Blu-Ray releases.


Either way I should of clarified my post.

 

[Partyslammer]

To be honest, I'm much more excited about the release of "Mysterious Island" on Blu-ray even if it's through this company on a limited basis. Word is it will have an isolated Bernard Herrmann score which sweetens the deal.

 

[Partyslammer]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Spizz /forum/post/20896274


(snip) In response to your question though how many Criterion DVDs went out of print and demanded higher prices on the 2ndary market because there wasnt enough quantity? Hopefully the same doesn't happen with their Blu-Ray releases.

Well, it already has happened with a few Criterion titles going OOP on Blu-ray so I do concede your point there as well as in regards to the higher pricing of their titles.


I agree with your comment about the way this company is creating an artificially inflated collector's item with a stated limited release number is rather obnoxious, but it needs to be mentioned that there's quite a few "cult" films that the major studios and specialty labels have already released on Blu-ray that have sold barely over 1,000 copies.

 

[Kentai]

$40's not cheap I admit, but I'm already considering pulling the trigger. I know I've paid more for less, and that Screen Archives release of THE EGYPTIAN was supposed to be really nice. (Wasn't a film I was all that interested in, for better or worse.)


It honestly makes much more sense to press 3,000 copies and cater to the die-hard fans who will pay any price than it does to press 30,000 copies and wind up stuck with 25,000 copies there's no market for. Do that and a bunch of those wind up on Amazon and eBay for $10 each, and it drags the perceived value down with it... which, honestly, is pretty close to where we're at now as it is.

 

[Spizz]

True True. But if this sells out within a day or week it should show the demand was there for more than 3000 copies.


Either way I'll get my copy

 

[Robert Simandl]

Blind buy for me the day Screen Archives makes it available.

 

[DM2006RI]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Dex Robinson /forum/post/20896141


Well, we agree on one thing: some folks need a reality check.


Twilight Time invented their own fake reality to make this a limited edition.

Do you honestly believe THE EGYPTIAN or MYSTERIOUS ISLAND would sell enough copies on BD to justify a full blown retail release? BD catalog product just doesn't sell. Everyone knows it and the numbers bear it out...so outside of not releasing titles like these at all, what's your solution to getting these out there?

 

[Dave Mack]

If the remake had been a hit instead of a huge flop, I wonder if it would have been different?