From a recent interview with William Lustig of Blue Underground:

This is interesting. I wish I knew what the titles were. He mentions some of the earlier Hammers, so this would presumably be the earliest ones AB released. There are quite a few of those early Hammers I haven't picked up yet -- Dracula Prince of Darkness, Frankenstein Created Woman, Devil Rides Out -- and a few of the Argento films mentioned.

Any idea on what the other titles might be? One hundred is quite a few. I'm hoping that BU re-releases some of the Euro-Horror/Giallo films -- at lower prices with better transfers and more features -- that I haven't picked up from AB yet, in addition to some of the OOP things like "Mark of the Devil" and the "Blind Dead" movies. (I have the AB double-feature ofthe first two Blind Dead flicks, but the second movie is a censored version.)

Oops -- almost forgot. Read the full interview here: http://www.dvdmaniacs.net/Features/bill_lustig.html

Well, take all that with a grain of salt. If you notice, in the DVD Maniacs forum a rep from Anchor Bay responded that none of that was true. He said that Anchor Bay will have the Argento and Hammer titles for at least a few more years and that they plan on rereleasing some of the Hammer titles as double-feature discs. He said that they're also considering an Argento box set.

Well, Anchor Bay has already discontinued some Hammer films (such as Quatermass 2 and Quatermass and the Pit)... so the rep can't very well claim that they'll have all of them for years.

It's possible that Lustig is refering to titles that Anchor Bay has already lost...

He did not say that "none of that was true." Michael Felsher just clarified the lengths of the license terms that Anchor Bay has left on some of their films. Nothing Felsher said contradicted anything that Lustig said. Felsher said that the Hammer titles won't be gone from them for "well over a year." He also said that they have "more than a few years" left on their Argento titles. Neither of these two statements contradict what Bill Lustig said. Lustig said that some rights "have begun reverting back" to him. This is true, as Blue Underground has already released one former Anchor Bay title, Daughters of Darkness. Lustig also said that he has plans to revisit many titles, including the Hammers, "as the terms expire." Felsher didn't contradict his, he just gave us an approximation of how long that will be.

DJ

Anchor Bay's Michael Felsher specifically stated that QUATERMASS AND THE PIT was not out of print, and that they had just sent out a recetn shipment to retailers.

Settle down. Take a deep breath, man. I really don't feel like going back and quoting everything that Felsher said, but clearly his intention was to contradict some of the statements made by Lustig. Lustig made it sound like his BU rereleases were imminent and Felsher came in to say that they weren't. That to me is a contradiction. Of course I know that Blue Underground reissued some former Anchor Bay titles, but it is the Hammer and Argento titles that we're talking about here. I'm sure the thread is still over there if anyone wants to read it, because I really don't feel like getting into a debate over semantics. People can read the interview and the Anchor Bay response and come to their own conclusions.

If I dare to correct you, I need to settle down?

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I really don't feel like going back and quoting everything that Felsher said, but clearly his intention was to contradict some of the statements made by Lustig. Lustig made it sound like his BU rereleases were imminent and Felsher came in to say that they weren't. That to me is a contradiction.

Maybe you think Lustig "made it sound like" BU's re-releases were imminent, but Lustig never said that. He said that the licenses on some films have begun to expire (true and uncontradicted by Felsher), and that BU will be doing rereleases as the licenses on further films expire (also true and uncontradicted by Felsher). Felsher can't contradict something Lustig never said or what you think Lustig "made it sound like" he said.

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Of course I know that Blue Underground reissued some former Anchor Bay titles, but it is the Hammer and Argento titles that we're talking about here. I'm sure the thread is still over there if anyone wants to read it, because I really don't feel like getting into a debate over semantics. People can read the interview and the Anchor Bay response and come to their own conclusions.

The thread is right here. It isn't some hair-splitting semantic debate as to whether Felsher said that "none" of what Lustig said was true, as you claimed; it's simply blatantly false. Spare me the "settle down" garbage to make it look like somehow it's my fault for being a bad person because you're wrong.

DJ

I said settle down because you are clearly worked up about this for whatever reason, and getting more worked up with each new post.

Thanks for the link because it does show that I wasn't really mistaken. I'm sorry I wrote something as definitive and sweeping as "none of that was true" since that seems to be what you're hung up on. So call it a clarification, correction, contradiction or whatever, but Felsher says, "None of our Hammer titles are out of print, and none of them will be for well over a year...While some of our early Hammer titles aren't going to be remastered due to time constraints, they are going to be repackaged and redistributed in double feature sets at new low SRPs by the end of the year...Also none of Argento titles are going out of print here. We have more than a few years to go with TENEBRE, DEMONS, DEMONS 2 and the others."

It's interesting that he says that the Hammer rights rights are reverting back to the licensor (presumably Hammer), while Lustig says they are reverting back to him.

Anyway, my point was only that we probably shouldn't be looking for those Blue Underground remasters for a while yet if Anchor Bay is still doing rereleases and repackagings.

I am not worked up whatsoever, though it does get rather annoying to be told to "settle down" constantly. I was completely calm and civil in my first reply to you, but I do find it annoying when people pull the lame "settle down" thing when someone dares to correct them. Ironically, each time you tell me to "settle down," it only serves to annoy me. I humbly suggest that you "settle down" with telling me to "settle down." It's your first day on this forum, and you're not off to a good start if you think telling others to "settle down" every time you're wrong about something is a good thing to do...

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It's interesting that he says that the Hammer rights rights are reverting back to the licensor (presumably Hammer), while Lustig says they are reverting back to him.

Lustig is the American licensor. He obtained the rights himself and sublicensed them to Anchor Bay.

DJ

I said it once, man. Jeez Louise. Next time I'll include a smiley face or something so you don't get so bent out of shape. Maybe if you weren't so hell bent on proving that I'm "wrong" then maybe we could actually have a civil conversation. Or maybe you'd realize that I wasn't so "wrong" after all. I haven't seemed have had a problem with any other posters on this board.

Anyhoo, Felsher says that they still have the Argento titles for a few more years? Damn, I've been really holding off buying some of AB's more problematic Argento discs, hoping for superior BU discs. Guess I'll be waiting awhile.

I feel like I'm stuck in a scene from Anger Management...

What in the world so uncivil in my first reply to you? The fact that I put a single word in italics? Suddenly that's an uncivil thing to do and shows that I need to settle down?

And you're still completely wrong about Michael Felsher having said that "none" of Lustig's interview was true, which you finally conceded. I never disagreed with the third sentence of your first post about how long Anchor Bay had left in their licenses.

DJ

Not to belabor the point, but this statement is not correct. Quatermass 2 is an Anchor Bay Hammer title. Quatermass 2 is out-of-print. So at the very least, one of their Hammer titles is OOP.

AB's rights to the early Hammer's expire in late 2004.

whatever happens...happens...so I'll just wait and be excited. I'm excited about ANYTHING that BU puts out, whenever they put it out. I worship BU and now have every title from the label, and will continue to purchase each dvd the day they come out. not only does my taste fit the label....but I'll support anything Bill releases anyway. there are some very hot titles coming out this year!!!

I didn't know Quatermass 2 was OOP. It still looks to be readily available.

QUATERMASS 2 is still in print, just like QUATERMASS AND THE PIT. Don't believe those out-of-print claims on eBay. The prices people are paying for these discs on eBay is ridiculous. Up to $50!!? You can buy them at DeepDiscount for $18. I think people get confused when a print run runs out. They think that those "out of stock" notices mean that the disc is out of print and then the eBay sellers rush in to take advantage before the next print run goes out to stores.

I seem to remember some time back that Anchor Bay tried to claim that they still had the rights to Fulci's Zombie even though they knew that Media Blasters actually held the rights.....

Erm...they do still hold the rights. They reissued their Zombie disc at a lower price point until the Media Blasters disc arrives. You can still buy the Anchor Bay disc most anywhere for $9.99 or less. They said they rereleased it at that price because too many people were being duped into buying it at inflated prices on eBay.

I've been meaning to buy Demons 1 and 2 for a while. Is the Anchor Bay version good, or should I wait for this "rumor" to surface.

Darth -- where did I say I was basing my information on eBay claims? Anchor Bay themselves sent notice to retailers that Quatermass 2 is out-of-print.

All of the appropriate sites have changed their information to reflect this:

http://www.hometheaterinfo.com/discontinued_n-r.htm
http://kazart.com/mec/queryDVDList2?...re&sort3by=ASC

Aren't BU going to release 'Q The Winged Serpent' and didn't this use to be an Anchor Bay title?

Incidentally, i'd love Blue Underground to get their hands on those AB Argento titles....i for one would love to see a 'proper' anamorphic transfer of 'Tenebrae' (fully uncut of course) so as to replace my sub-standard 'anamorphic' (which is worse than R1) 'uncut' (which strictly isn't) R2 version.

I am a retailer and I can still order copies of QUATERMASS & THE PIT and QUATERMASS 2 from my distributors. Apparently other retailers can as well since both are in stock at a number of online stores. It would appear that, currently, neither is out of print.

Can you please give me an example of a few of the "number of online stores" that has Quatermass 2 in stock?

DVDPlanet -- out of stock
DVDEmpire -- out of stock
DeepDiscountDVD -- out of stock
Digital Eyes -- out of stock
Amazon -- out of stock

I'm just curious where you're finding this...

Maybe it's a Canadian thing. DVD Box Office, Direct Video, DVD-Plus and Totalactionuniverse all have it. Maybe it's out of print for US distributors? Or maybe, like I said before, this just means that their print run is out and they're waiting to rerelease it as one of their double-features. Remember Zombie was unavailable for a while, but it was later reissued at a lower price point.