This question might have been answered before, but of course I'm drawing a blank. How is MGM's films been distributed out between Warners and Sony. Or is MGM still a seperate entity from the two? I know that the Bond series is now over on Sony, and some titles are being released through WB? What's the story? The 65mm transfer to HiDef for West Side Story on HDNet Movies looked gorgeous. Is this slated for Bluray only or HD-DVD??

The way I understand it, except for select properties (like Bond), all the MGM stuff went to Fox for distribution. Otherwise, Sony.

Either way, it's BD exclusive (for now).

Warner owns essentially everything from MGM proper before 1985. This doesn't include anything MGM picked up from other companies, such as UA's library. Since West Side Story was produced by UA, MGM still holds the rights, and more than likely, Fox holds the rights to distribute it. For the moment, that means Blu-ray-only. (Presumably MGM could say "release this on HD DVD too" even if Fox prefers to stay Blu-ray-only, but I don't think there's really any chance of that happening.)

Warner still owns most if not all pre-1986 MGM titles and cartoons.

Warner Bros bought MGM's pre-1986 back catalog of titles. MGM still has the rights to it's post-1986 catalog along with rights to other studio's titles.

Sony bought MGM '06. In '07 MGM opted to have their home video titles distributed through Fox.

As for Casino Royale, that was co-produced with Sony Pictures and will remain to be distributed through SPHE.

muthafu....

And it should be noted that Casino Royale is the only James Bond film distributed by Sony. The rest of the franchise back catalog is now distributed by Fox (who put out the recent DVD editions).

I believe I've heard that the Casino Royale deal encompasses 1 or possibly 2 future sequels for Sony, however.

Yeah, I've heard something about a three picture deal, so possibly two more.

really, that I didn't know...

so if and when Fox get's their act together, some of the more recent BluRay discs might have DTS audio option, like the post-Goldeneye films.

When they bother to release Blu-rays, Fox favors DTS-HD Master Audio as a standard option. I'd imagine they'd include that on any and all Bond titles.

That said, I find it highly unlikely that Fox will dump a complete wave of Bond titles on the format all at once. I'd expect them to parcel them out a trickle at a time, then release box set compilation douple-dips at some point in the future.

Isn't that the case with Rocky Balboa too

Yeah, Rocky Balboa is Sony. Rocky 1 - 5 are MGM/UA - Distributed by Fox Home Entertainment.

fitprod