George Reis, moderator of the Yahoo Midnite Movies Forum just posted the following -

I have been in contact with Philip Waddilove, producer of WITCHFINDER GENERAL (aka CONQUEROR WORM). After MGM spent years and lots of dough on a pristine, restored new DVD transfer of the film, Waddilove was lead to believe that it was on Sony's October '06 schedule. Apparently, this is not the case and Sony has little interest. This is how Waddilove replied to me:

"I'm at a loss for words. Why MGM would go to the trouble of a total restoration without releasing the DVD of "Witchfinder General" is beyond comprehension. However, exactly the same fate has befallen "The
Buttercup Chain", my other movie (with Columbia) now also hidden away in the vaults at Sony. On several occasions I was informed by James Owsley (Director of Restorations at MGM) that Witchfinder was definitely on
their October 2006 release schedule. But, apparently, the principal at Sony doesn't greenlight DVDs of anything older than ten years!!"

Yes my friends, it's obvious that Sony's ownership of the MGM catalog is the worst thing that could have ever happened, and as editor of DVD Drive-In who spearheaded a petition to continue the Midnite Movies, I am totally fed up. The decision to put titles in the Midnite Movies series that don't fit the bill, and not continuing the fine work that the old regime had started confirms this.

If you would like to voice your opionion, outrage or make suggestions, I urge everyone who reads this who wants the Midnite Movies series to continue as it should, write to Chris Franchino, who manages MGM catalog marketing, at [email protected] .

That's terrible. I've been waiting for Witchfinder General for a long time now. Now who knows if it will ever be released. Just terrible.

If Sony keeps this up, thousands of other films will also sit in the vaults.

Get a region free player.

"Get a region free player."

This will not solve anything since MGM's new transfer of the film is from the original elements and not sourced from inferior video elements like the UK release.

I've fired off an impassioned plea to Mr. Franchino about "Witchfinder", Leone, Midnite Pirate Movies and other atrocities. This has got to stop.

Not only is this terrible news for us, but it's a bad business decision. Haven't they noticed the great success that WB has had with packaging and promoting their catalog titles? Or the Fox Studio Classics, Fox Noir, etc. Or the Universal Franchise Collections?

No, obviously all the time they are spending green-lighting gems like Blue Thunder the TV series has kept them in the dark about that.

Keep the mail to Sony cool and present logical arguments for example pointing out how well other studios are doing with their releases of older archive material.

Nothing switches off interest at a studio faster than passionate demands from what they perceive as emails from "obsessive fans", especially if marketing types there think that people are trying to tell them how to do their jobs.

Remember, Sony's only interest is in dollars and cents. They have to be convinced they'd make money by doing this; they could care less about pleasing or disappointing us, except where that would change their sales figures.

"Keep the mail to Sony cool and present logical arguments for example pointing out how well other studios are doing with their releases of older archive material."

I totally agree and basically did the same, as I urge the others on here to do.

sony seems to only care about triple and quadro-dipping their blockbuster recent titles more than releasing library titles.

And now they hope to get everyone to dip yet again to buy stuff on Blu-Ray.

I think this is the worst thing that can happen, I bet Sony will be spending vast amounts of time and money on trying to prop up Blue-Ray, everything else will go on the back burner.

maybe Criterion's offshoot library should start releasing these films. Since Sony is dropping the ball here.

Reportedly Sony will not license titles to other dvd companies and would rather them sit in the vaults than do so.

Sony can sit on this and spin!

>>sony seems to only care about triple and quadro-dipping their blockbuster recent titles more than releasing library titles.
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Yeah I see that the DARK CRYSTAL is out for the 40th time-now with a new cover.

Here's an update, but what does this mean for us?

http://www.videobusiness.com/article....html?nid=2705

It means they have a lot of highly-paid executives who are being shuffled around into different positions to shuffle different papers and collect different high salaries as the MGM library continues to langish in their vaults. But at least they all get paid well and have good jobs - that's what matters most, of course.

I don't see any mention of any intent to focus on catalog titles at all. In fact, it says they think DVD sales are slow so I seriously doubt the Midnite Movies line is even on their radar at this point. Sony thinks digital downloading is the new rage so it's focusing attention on that instead. So it looks like we'll get to download DARK CRYSTAL on Amazon soon. Oh joy.

And the copyright cartel strikes again...
Yet another example of how the myth of copyright as property stunts "the progress of Science and useful Arts."

Some studio or manufacturer must be making money off of every single DVD being produced. It's probably a few pennies here and there. Why else is Sony pouring all of its resources in these proprietary new technologies. The most glaring recent example was the whole UMD format which was only compatible with a unique machine.

I think there's only one reason why Sony bought MGM... James Bond. It's the most successful MGM franchise and I'm sure they're witholding release in favor of Blu-ray.

Hmmm. DVD sales are slow huh?

Could be something to do with no new titles not being released and people deciding they don't want to buy their fourth copy of Dark Crystal . Not even if it's "excitingly" on Blu-Ray or downloadable file which no-one uses yet.

If this is true, why doesn't Sony just license the old AIP titles to Blue Underground or some other company who would jump on releasing them to dvd?

You can't expect Sony to make sense....I mean, really, come on.

I seem to recall an article about 18 months back that spoke of the Bond films going through a massive restoration and remastering process after which they'd be digitally stored in hi-def.

It would be crazy for Sony not to take advantage, but then this is Sony we're talking about...

Incidentally, even a film being licensed to a third party doesn't guarantee a release. Blue Underground acquired the rights to the Hammer films that Anchor Bay used to hold, and then decided not to re-release them because they didn't think the sales would be good enough.

And now it;s looking as though Anchor Bay may have re-licensed the Hammers back again, with new remastered editions coming next year (I'm hoping very hard this will include Satanic Rites of Dracula !)

I think if BU did license the MGM Hammer films (like TWINS OF EVIL, HANDS OF THE RIPPER, VAMPIRE CIRCUS), they would jump on releasing them here with extras, escpecially since they've never been out on Region 1 before.