Director's aren't obligated to "sign off" on transfers. Many times, a studio won't even consult the director over a home video release. I'm sure they do compensate for recording a commentary, but not sure about anything else. When Warner issued Neverending Story, Wolfgang Petersen was never approached about about it, and said later in an interview he had no clue it was even coming out until he saw the disc in stores - but if they had asked him, he would've gladly supervised the transfer just to make sure his vision was handled properly. I'm assuming many directors would do this for free (and it only applies to films over a certain age) if for no other reason than to see their films archived and released properly. They are already most likely getting ancillary rights form a home video release anyway, so I doubt they are paid on top of that for other duties. That's just my guess.
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