duff beer

Why are DVDs lacking in classic scifi that is everything up to 1965? Movies like This Island Earth, Mole People, and Forbidden Planet (special edition anyway, it's past August already) among many others aren't on dvd... why?

bluesparrow

I'm sure some people are about to rake you over the coals and list all the classic scifi films that ARE on dvd, but I'd have to agree with you. I find it extremely odd that the horror market is catered to so diligently, yet scifi is an afterthought...

...Horror is my favorite film genre, but you'd think with so many dvd companies doing horror SOMEONE would wake up and try to do justice to all the lesser known and classic science fiction films out there. There have been some great discs, no doubt, but so many great sf movies are relegated to 50 FILMS FOR $10!!! treatment.

We need a company that is to science fiction what Blue Underground is to horror and exploitation.

rasalas

This Island Earth has been available on DVD for several years from Image Entertainment.

milo bloom

It's been out of print (along with it's illegitimate cousin MST3K: The Movie) for a few years now and goes for unholy amounts on ebay. I could kick myself for everytime I held TIE in my hands at Borders and never got it. I did get MST3K though. f

duff beer

Yeah but it's been out-of-print with prices ranging in the 200-300, i'm not willing to pay more than 15 for this. A This Island Earth SE would be nice though

g_i_john

If I got could a ton of old sci-fi films in a set, like the man with the x-ray eyes and iq81 (i think it's called that) and others, i would be a happy happy boy.

Forum Troll

Lest we forget:

Fartface

One of my personal favorites. I remember this playing on a double bill with 'First Men in the Moon', which is on dvd, so why haven't they released 'RC on Mars' yet? The other one I'd like to see is 'Colussus: The Forbin Project'. I've had 'This Island Earth' for a long time! You mean it's worth $300? I would never have guessed this was out of print. And why mention 'X-Ray Eyes' with Ray Milland. That's been a cheapo MGM midnite movie for some time! It even has a Corman commentary (which I always enjoy).

gorgo99

Robinson Crusoe on Mars was released by Criterion on Laserdisc, it was supposed to be a nice set... hopefully they still have the rights for DVD!

bboisvert

Unless they have recently reacquired them, they don't have the rights. Paramount owns the film... too bad, since the Criterion edition was fantastic. This was the favorite film of the owner (?) of Criterion, so the LD edition was a real labor of love.

And, yes, it is insane how many different boomstick editions we get of cult horror films (even incredibly obscure ones), yet classic sci-fi is practically ignored. The fact that Universal has yet to reissue This Island Earth even though OOP copies are selling for hundreds of dollars is nuts.

B5Erik

I'd like to see more classic Sci-Fi on DVD, but there are a number of good titles available:

War Of The Worlds
When Worlds Collide
Forbidden Planet
The Day The Earth Stood Still
Them
Destination Moon

Those are just off the top of my head.

But, yeah, there hasn't been a lot of attention paid to that genre as far as releasing more titles on DVD. I'm sure that will change over the next year or so...

bboisvert

... But, for example, WAR OF THE WORLDS. It was released on Laserdisc with a stereo soundtrack and fantastic picture quality. A couple of years later, the DVD came out -- mono, with noticably worse picture quality. And no extras on either set.

There's definitely room for improvement here. Just about all of them (except Day the Earth Stood) are bare-bones.

bluesparrow

I'd love a dvd of those Czech sf films DVD Savant mentioned a few months back, Ikarie XB-1 and Voyage to the End of the Universe.

Films along those lines, or released ones like First Spaceship on Venus or Mario Bava's Planet of the Vampires, are what I'd like to see more of on dvd.

DavidH

I can't believe The Incredible Shrinking Man is not out yet.

Regarding Robinson Crusoe on Mars, Martin Blythe said not too long ago that there are no plans for releasing this on DVD.

marty888

I know - that, along with a decent Day of the Triffids would make my day!

TheV

Best thing about these films is that many might be in PD in a few years.

sracer

Absolutely! Let's throw in the BBC miniseries by the same name too.

marty888

It might also be the worst thing - once a title goes into public domain and every cheapie label can throw it out into the marketplace, the incentive to invest any money in a restoration and/or cleaned up transfer, or any substantive extras, disappears. With a few exceptions no major label is going to release a title that has to compete with the Brentwoods and Madacys of the marketplace.

TheV

True, but being in the industry I see a lot of numbers and some of these films, sorry to say, can't make them. The audience isn't big enough...or it's thought that they can't. I'd argue that it's an incorrect assumption in some cases, but I've spoken with a few producers about films that they own but won't bother to put out. The big boys like Criterion or a major studio don't release (buy rights to) a lot of things because they don't have the feeling that it will make enough money. Given that, I'd rather see some films make even a cheapie label than none at all.

StrTrkker

I thought that Day of the Triffids was released already in one of those crappy cheap fly by night DVDs..

marty888

Yes, that's why I said "I know - that, along with a decent Day of the Triffids would make my day!"

StrTrkker

Sorry....I didnt see the decent part on your post.

darqleo

Because the studios are waiting for the remakes of WAR OF THE WORLDS and FLASH GORDON to cash in.

bluesparrow

Hmm..I don't really buy that...we've had two Star Wars movies since dvd came out, Riddick(good or not, it was a big budget sf movie), the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Minority Report, AI, others I'm sure I've forgotten...hell Star Wars ep 4-6 and Thx 1138 just came out on dvd, what better way to cash in than to have some dvds on the shelf next to those in the science fiction section for the millions of people who came in to buy them?

I can't say I buy this either, sales figures or not. If no one bothered to try and cultivate a market for this, then naturally the numbers won't be there for the occasional barely promoted release.

I find it difficult to believe a genre whose fans have supported a popular cable channel for years, Star Trek shows of dubious quality, many big budget Hollywood movies(also of dubious quality), and an entire literary genre, would be so sparsely supported on dvd if given respectable treatment.

I mean look at the effort Anchor Bay put into a poorly thought of horror film like Creepshow 2...they can do that because they helped cultivate a market that'd support even a relative stinker like that in a nice edition. Is horror fandom bigger than science fiction fandom? Not at all. Horror fans can just expect to have a quality selection of dvds available to them when they enter Best Buy, and therefore they turn out.

duff beer

I just feel classic scifi is neglected, not only in there not being the movies at all some of the Coleman Francis ones and small budget ones, some fade away in the land of no print, the greatest ones lack SE's or are announced and are two months overdue and don't get me started on foreign classic scifi made in Italy, Mexico, etc.