Has anyone heard of any news/plans for some of his earlier stuff hitting blu-ray? Mainly Shivers, The Brood and Scanners. Those DVD's don't even seem to be in print anymore.

Along similar lines, I'd love to know if Criterion still have any rights to Dead Ringers.

I doubt it - their DVD is out of print, as is the 2005 WB disc. I'd love to see Shivers and Rabid get remastered Blu-ray editions.

This was when Anchor Bay had the rights, now the rights are at Warner Bros., so no Criterion for this title. :-(

I wouldn't be surprised to see BU put out Fast Company at some point. Though it's less likely, I suppose Scanners could come out from MGM during a fall horror catalog wave. I'd be ecstatic if someone announced Shivers, then I could unload my DVD copy for some absurd amount of $.

Blue Underground already released Fast Company on Blu-ray. It has actually been out for a while.

I'm not surprised.

Well, shit. I might have to look into that.

You haven't missed much. It's forgettable exploitation fodder, with little, if anything, 'Cronenbergian' about it. Worth renting for the inclusion of his early shorts though.

Hey now... i liked Fast Company. I thought it was surprisingly enjoyable for what it was.

Scanners hit Blu Ray last year overseas, but as the screenshots show, it's not very impressive. There's an HDTV rip floating around the net that looks vastly superior to the official BR.

Lionsgate acquired SHIVERS. Hopefully they'll distribute it stateside on Blu-ray/DVD. They've made it available for HD streaming (Amazon & Netflix Instant), which I hear is the restored print screened at TIFF.

Anyone have info on The Dead Zone? I know that Paramount has the rights but since they have a relationship with Criterion, maybe they'll lease the rights to them?

Many people have criticized Arrow Video's release of Shivers in the UK.

Apparently it's cut .

Here is a comparison, and a nsfw warning. Apparently the R rated print was used for the restoration, hence the missing footage.

http://www.movie-censorship.com/report.php?ID=819977

I guess I should hold on to my Image dvd for now.

Criterion will likely release the Brood at some point, they all ready have it streaming on Hulu Plus in HD.

Here's what Arrow had to say about it on Facebook:

The Shivers restoration was carried out by TIFF (the Toronto International Film Festival) and supervised and approved by David Cronenberg. As such this four-to-five second discrepancy between the film as it appears on our release and how it played in cinemas is likely to have been the result of damaged materials and/or approved by Cronenberg. We are, however, investigating this matter thoroughly and will get back with a full answer as soon as we can.

I actually think that Arrow knew it was not the uncut version. They never advertised it as being uncut. I think people just assumed that since Cronenberg was involved, it would be uncut.

Arrow's response about about SHIVERS is ludicrous -- they admit nothing and it is a lame attempt at damage control. I had no idea the Arrow SHIVERS was not the uncut version, but now I'll be avoiding the title until Criterion releases it, if ever, in an uncut form.

Why go through the effort at a great Blu-ray restoration and release if you're going to release an incomplete version? It is only a few seconds, but they must exist somewhere in good quality on some print of the film in existence.

Same thing happened with Scorpion's KILLER FISH blu, recently released. About 40 seconds of gore of a pivotal scene was cut. The acknowledged response by Scorpion is that was just "a few seconds" and didn't amount to much... Further, Scorpion went on the defensive and purports now that it will not release any films with unrated versions.... Too bad.

Sometimes I feel these companies put so much love into their releases but fail to do their homework in researching appropriate the materials to restore in the first place. Something like a rated vs. an unrated version existing is a huge, huge thing that must be addressed and acknowledged to the fans *before* these catalog titles are released during the drawing-board stage...

Arrow wasn't involved in the restoration. Any Criterion release will likely be the same cut.

I see... Thanks for the info. In the meantime, perhaps a good quality uncut print will surface.