The Stepford Wives (1975)

[leenevil]

I just tried to watch The Stepford Wives (1975) and man the picture is abysmall. With all the obscure s*** that has been released even on UHD I thought this would at least have received and HD Remaster.. From what I remember it was a pretty solid film and had a creepy ending.

Anyone knows of a place I could watch this in HD?

[COBill]

It was available in HD on Amazon Prime for a brief period of time; sadly it's been removed.

[marcls76]

Originally Posted by COBill

It was available in HD on Amazon Prime for a brief period of time; sadly it's been removed.

It was advertised as HD on Prime but there’s no way it was HD - the picture quality was awful!

[Roy_Batty]

I hope they will eventually release this at least on Blu-ray. A great Iran Levin Story. I own the DVD, but as many have said here, it is a not so great transfer.

[James Luckard]

Originally Posted by leenevil

I just tried to watch The Stepford Wives (1975) and man the picture is abysmall. With all the obscure s*** that has been released even on UHD I thought this would at least have received and HD Remaster.. From what I remember it was a pretty solid film and had a creepy ending.

Anyone knows of a place I could watch this in HD?

The original film is owned by a major pharmaceutical company, Bristol Meyers Squibb, through a bizarre chain of events.

They haven't allowed anyone to touch it since the DVD days. It's being discussed in more detail in the thread for the upcoming BD of the remake:

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=337746

[Erasmus Craven]

Originally Posted by James Luckard

It's being discussed in more detail in the thread for the upcoming BD of the sequel:

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=337746

The sequel would be Robert Fuest's snorefest Revenge Of The Stepford Wives (1980), NOT the abysmal 2004 remake of the original...

[James Luckard]

Originally Posted by Erasmus Craven

The sequel would be Robert Fuest's snorefest Revenge Of The Stepford Wives (1980), NOT the abysmal 2004 remake of the original...

Oops, I was tired when I was typing and wrote sequel instead of remake.

[tangerinewolf]

Originally Posted by James Luckard

The original film is owned by a major pharmaceutical company, Bristol Meyers Squibb, through a bizarre chain of events.

They haven't allowed anyone to touch it since the DVD days. It's being discussed in more detail in the thread for the upcoming BD of the sequel:

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=337746

So it's safe to say (unfortunately) that we're not going to see a blu-ray release. What the hell does Bristol Myers Squibb have to gain by locking up The Stepford Wives? Are they on (their own) drugs?

[Ernest Rister]

William Goldman in his book Adventures in the Screen Trade has some great stories about this film...

[drush9999]

I watched The Stepford Wives yesterday weirdly. Brilliant film. I didn't find the Paramount DVD too bad. Definitely deserves a BD release though.

[ProjectB]

How difficult and pricey is it to license a film from Bristol Myers Squibb?

[Aclea]

Their revenue last year was $42.5b. They don't need the money unless you're writing an incredibly large cheque to grab their attention.

[JGCramp]

Originally Posted by Aclea

Their revenue last year was $42.5b. They don't need the money unless you're writing an incredibly large cheque to grab their attention.

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three was also produced by Palomar and that film has had blu-ray releases. So there's always hope, I suppose.

[Aclea]

Originally Posted by JGCramp

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three was also produced by Palomar and that film has had blu-ray releases. So there's always hope, I suppose.

They don't own that: BMS started their exit from films after they acquired the rights to the book, and were co-producers. Stepford they own. Even when new its distribution was very spotty, especially outside the US where it was largely limited to the arthouse circuit.

[JackForrester]

Great film. One of the rare cases where I prefer the movie over the book. Fans of Jordan Peele's Get Out should acknowledge where the "original idea" of his Oscar winning script came from.

[James78]

Hi Jack, Jordan Peele has been open about his influences. This is an excerpt fom an essay by Kelli Weston in the BFI compendium, Who Can You Trust?:

"Before the arrival of Get Out, it was George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead - one of Peele's many stated influences alongside Rosemary's Baby and The Stepford Wives - that came as close as any film to representing the ever-present danger of existing in a black body."

I would love a Blu-ray release of The Stepford Wives. I hope it materialises at one point!

[Oatlord]

Stepford Wives being denied an HD release is criminal. If BMS were happy to release a DVD, what’s to say they wouldn’t release a blu-ray if enough people asked..?

What are the odds that a small label might license it?

[Shane Rollins]

From what I heard, many people have tried to license it or buy it outright, including Paramount, Sony, and several boutiques. BMS wanted an obscene amount of money for it, so every deal fell through. Considering they’re worth $40 billion at least, the only thing they want is more. That’s the real reason the movie isn’t out. And if I’m not mistaken, they own the book outright too.

At the current moment, the movie will enter PD in 2071, which is way too damn long to wait.

[HorrorBlu]

The "wish list" section is putting me through the ringer today.

Any way we can detach it from appearing on the front page mixed in with the rest of the blu-ray chatter? Every time one gets bumped, it looks like there might be actual news, only to be a disappointment.

[Shane Rollins]

Originally Posted by HorrorBlu

The "wish list" section is putting me through the ringer today.

Any way we can detach it from appearing on the front page mixed in with the rest of the blu-ray chatter? Every time one gets bumped, it looks like there might be actual news, only to be a disappointment.

That was my fault.