regarding the ran news.

Unbelievable. I just this morning mailed off my recently sold Criterion DVD in anticipation of getting the Blu-ray version....then I read this.

The DVD is now officially out of print too, so it might be a good time to get it back.

Wow. No Ran Blu Ray for the time being. That does suck.

I'm sure it will come out at some point, but I wonder what happened. The rights must have lapsed and there has to be some sticking point on renewing them. I wonder how far apart the parties are.

Hopefully it still comes out this year.

Thats awful man.

This is equivalent to them releasing The Rock and Armaggedon... except those were good movies.

I just hope this means that Criterion has a Fincher deal and will be releasing The Game.

Oh please.

Don't know how likely that is... Button is Paramount. The Game is a Universal picture.

Not far at all.

Pro-B

That's good news. Maybe a "back on" announcement isn't too far away.

If they are so close, why tell folks, "cancelled indefinitely due to rights issues". Why not simply delay the release to see if they can resolve issues in the short term. It's not like Criterion releases haven't been delayed before for unknown reasons.

Thanks pro-b, good to know.

A member over on blu-ray.com has posted pics of the for "The Wages Of Fear" blu-ray, but I still can't post the link to it. It's post #411, I believe. It looks to be one of Criterion's first blu-rays with the new clear plastic case.

CC

This is the kind of case all Blu-rays should've been in since day one.

^
Courtesy of mattconroy

Pro-B

I'm assuming the case is the same size as the standard Blu-Ray cases, no? I can't tell for sure from the pic.

Hopefully all the previously released Criterion blus are produced in the new style cases from now on

No slip covers anymore? And what is so different that a normal Blue case wouldn't work?

I'm glad they listened. THANK YOU to Criterion for adopting a real package for Blu releases!

Now if they'd just offer empty cases and inserts for the BD releases to date we'd be set.

It isn't that the standard blue cases wouldn't work, just that... well, do you really notice the plastic case in the pictures or do you notice the artwork? I assume Criterion, logically, likes it that way.

I sent an email asking about this, I'll post the results

What's so different though that the clear case shows more artwork?

Yeah, seems like a normal Blu-ray case would work. A lot of old titles had artwork showing through the case, so it seems like it would have the same effect to me.

So is it likely that RAN is going to still see a release in the near-future, once they get the rights issues worked out? I don't really want to rush out and buy the SD DVD as I've held off in anticipation of HD...

Well, I applaud their decision. Now that the format war is long gone, and blu-ray is the standard for HD, you don't need every case or insert to be... so damn blue!