Living Deadpan

I think it's too soon to make that analogy. The Wes Anderson treatment includes having new films' DVD debuts on Criterion (did it start with Tenenbaums or Zissou?), let alone his entire filmography.

So far I'd say Zwigoff's closer to a "Steven Soderbergh treatment".

Living Deadpan

Preferably if Zwigoff's commentary isn't solo like his 2010 Crumb commentary. He even says he doesn't like doing commentaries but views them as favors for the companies distributing his film. Perhaps if they could get Zwigoff + Daniel Clowes to comment on Ghost World together.

Slightly OT: what the hell has happened to Thora Birch over the years since Ghost World and American Beauty? She's gone direct-to-video in horror fare that looks like crap. Do I have the wrong impression and her DTV films are actually diamonds in the rough? (Like Train, pictured below)

Sean O'Hara

Birch and Wes Bentley have both had horribly disappointing careers. They both followed American Beauty with one great film (GW for Birch, The Claim for Bentley) then dropped off the face of the Earth. I know Bentley had drug problems, but I don't know what happened with Birch -- with GW, it looked like she was going to fill the same niche that Ryder and Ricci did in the '80s and '90s, but I guess there just aren't that many films for that type of character anymore.

tylergfoster

I'm hoping for two commentaries: one with Zwigoff and Clowes, and one with cast.

That said, doesn't Criterion still do the "edited together" tracks? Seems like you should get good stuff from Zwigoff anyway.

Rubix

thora birch's parents manage her career and they are difficult to deal with so no one wants to work with her anymore. that is what i heard at least.

also, i heard thora's mom was a porn star in the 70's.

calhoun07

I recall reading it was her dad that was asking too much money for the rights to the deleted scenes with her in them so that's why they were left off the DVD. (And there was a screen shot of one of the deleted scenes on the back of the original DVD box, which I always thought was interesting.) Have they let up a bit on the money demands? Or will Criterion pony the money up for them since it's likely to be a $30.00 or so disc so they may make their money back? Either way, I am really going to be disappointed if we don't get the deleted scenes with this release.

Living Deadpan

They have done a few scene-specific conversational commentaries. A couple that come to mind:

-Traffic: Steven Soderbergh chats with Steve Gaghan
-Homicide: David Mamet chats with William H. Macy

Only when he's actually talking. His solo Crumb commentary has some infuriatingly long pauses. I haven't heard this much dead air since Mel Gibson's Braveheart commentary (or Oliver Stone's lengthy Nixon gaps). Basically it's a good commentary for a 90-minute film spread out over 120 minutes (so you might want to have some Tetris or Solitaire handy). Criterion was wise to port over the 2006 commentary he did with Roger Ebert. He even says in his commentary that his goal was to let Ebert do most of the talking, haha.

Living Deadpan

Ricci & Ryder were natural brunettes, maybe she just didn't want to dye her hair black anymore, haha. Here's a 2007 Fangoria interview of blond-Thora promoting her Dark Corners DVD: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvmLRX8MyvI
It's like she's taken over by direct-to-video body snatchers. Steve Buscemi's Seymour would have nothing to do with this Thora. (Ghost World 2: Seymour Attends Fangoria Convention)

Sean O'Hara

Ryder's a blonde. She dyed her black for Lucas and kept it that way.

tylergfoster

Hopefully there will be more to talk about. I mean, there's probably plenty to say about Crumb, but fewer behind-the-scenes anecdotes, maybe, since it's a documentary already?

Plus, he already did one commentary. Wouldn't his comments during the Roger Ebert track and the Criterion track add up to one nonstop solo track?

Living Deadpan

He does make this off-the-cuff comment towards the end which I found hilarious.

To paraphrase, he basically says: Crumb has terrible taste in movies, his favorite movie of all time is Titanic. When Zwigoff asked him "Why?!" and listed all the faults of the movie (basically everything before and after the ship sinking), Crumb's reasoning for its greatness is "But the way they show the ship sinking is so realistic!"

That's priceless. This man known for being such a controversial and edgy cartoonist, a man relentlessly cynical about modern life... his favorite movie is Titanic.

kristina

I always wanted a commentary on that DVD. I hope this gets a release date soon so I can pre-order.

tylergfoster

For the record, the article that revealed this information said the ball is only rolling on securing the title at the moment. Special features haven't even gone into production so don't expect to see much more on this until 2011.

Chicken Warrior

Here's my fingers crossed that You and Me and Everyone We Know gets the Criterion treatment. One of my favorite films of all time.

GenPion

PLEASE let this be on Blu-ray. It will be a must own release then.

ReduxGuy

On the topic of "are they or aren't they" Criterion acquisitions, when's The French Liutenant's Woman coming?

calhoun07

That's actually not the topic of this thread. The topic of this thread is Ghost World is coming to Criterion. It isn't a question of will or or won't it...it will.

tylergfoster

Well, I did mention Me and You and Everyone We Know, and so did Chicken Warrior.

I actually thought that Ghost World was another IFC to MGM title like Me and You (this is why I had initially thought to mention it in the OP) but I guess not (caught myself in time to alter the OP).

My hope is that since Criterion and IFC have a deal, and maybe Criterion and MGM have a deal based on Ghost World, Me and You would be an easy grab, especially since July also expressed her disappointment with the DVD that MGM released, and promised fans a "special edition" in the future if 100,000 copes were sold. Unfortunately, the disc was released at time when Sony controlled MGM's distribution rights, and Sony's logo is on the DVD, so whoever promised July a new edition probably worked for Sony. But then again, Sony and Criterion have a deal of some sort too, or at least they worked one out for Bottle Rocket...

MTRodaba2468

Well, the ball's rolling on it, but let's not get too ahead of ourselves.

They initially had the ball rolling on releasing Eraserhead on DVD as well, but then that news got leaked, Lynch got upset, thinking that Criterion was behind the leak, and ended up releasing it himself.

Matthew Chmiel

MGM no longer is distributing films released by IFC as their contract expired. There's a slew of Fox / MGM double-or-feature triple packs out there with IFC Films releases in the mix (such as the Camp and Saved double feature or Garden State and Me and You...), but at this point, whatever is left for sale is the remaining inventory.

As of now, all of the IFC releases during the MGM releasing period are available to watch instantly on Netflix. Most of them being HD to boot.

I'm assuming if we see DVD or Blu-ray re-releases of these titles, they'll be put out by MPI.

auto

Wow, never heard that. Interesting.

calhoun07

Lynch is a control freak when it comes to his movies. I doubt Zwigoff is going to have a pretentious hissy fit like Lynch did because the news is out there.

calhoun07

I missed those posts.

I guess I was just thinking there's already a Criterion wish list thread started here, so there was no sense to see this one devolve into another wish list.

tylergfoster

Particularly given that a fan asked Zwigoff about it, and Zwigoff told them, which is ultimately the reason this thread exists.

Dan

So... bump?

Any reason why this never happened? I re-watched the original DVD tonight, and I still love it. I'd upgrade to a Criterion version in a heartbeat.