HERCULES (1958) & HERCULES UNCHAINED (1959) from Artus Films

[Joseph Goodman]

What appear to be pre-order pages have appeared for these two films:

Hercules
http://www.arcadesdirect.fr/fr/peplu...mediabook.html


Hercules Unchained
http://www.arcadesdirect.fr/fr/peplu...d-blu-ray.html


Italian and French audio only, with French subtitles. Nothing about these has appeared on Artus's website or social media at this time.

[StarDestroyer52]

Interested to see if this is from a new restoration which I imagine the print is stored in Italy or from an existing print. It seems like these were licensed from the Italian rightsholder, so one hopes maybe a German release that would be English friendly would be coming or even better maybe Arrow?

[Joseph Goodman]

Originally Posted by StarDestroyer52

Interested to see if this is from a new restoration which I imagine the print is stored in Italy or from an existing print. It seems like these were licensed from the Italian rightsholder, so one hopes maybe a German release that would be English friendly would be coming or even better maybe Arrow?

Well, it does promise "Master 2K Restaure" on the packaging, so maybe it will be better than the appalling Japanese set from 2019. The odd thing is, this Artus release is licensed from a different company (Movietime SRL) than the Japanese set (which came from Cristaldifilm).

Back when Kino Lorber announced they were releasing HERCULES IN THE HAUNTED WORLD, they revealed that they'd looked into the Steve Reeves pair, but there were "rights issues" involved. Given the two different companies credited on the releases mentioned above, it's not hard to imagine a labyrinthine rights division across different territories.

And this isn't even addressing the different English versions...

[StarDestroyer52]

Originally Posted by Joseph Goodman

Well, it does promise "Master 2K Restaure" on the packaging, so maybe it will be better than the appalling Japanese set from 2019. The odd thing is, this Artus release is licensed from a different company (Movietime SRL) than the Japanese set (which came from Cristaldifilm).

Back when Kino Lorber announced they were releasing HERCULES IN THE HAUNTED WORLD, they revealed that they'd looked into the Steve Reeves pair, but there were "rights issues" involved. Given the two different companies credited on the releases mentioned above, it's not hard to imagine a labyrinthine rights division across different territories.

And this isn't even addressing the different English versions...

Yep, that adds up to a mess where I would imagine most boutique labels would just say it's not worth the hassle and forget about it which I can't blame them for doing so.

[romuald121]

Emailed the CSR from the website, they said the editor has rights issues and they don't know if they will ever release both movies.

[mcelebs]

when is this being released to the united states?

[Jobla]

Originally Posted by mcelebs

when is this being released to the united states?

It hasn't been produced yet, so impossible to answer.

[Mikezilla3k]

Originally Posted by romuald121

Emailed the CSR from the website, they said the editor has rights issues and they don't know if they will ever release both movies.

Sounds like they figured them out: https://www.peplumtv.com/2024/12/hd-alert.html

[SpaceBlackKnight]

The US dubbed versions are PD since their defunct distributors let them all lapse and anyone can release them. The longer Italian versions OTOH, are protected under worldwide copyright which extends to the US thanks to the 1995 Uruguay act.

The Italian versions are held by an Italian firm who farms out distribution to various companies. Cristaldifilm previously had exclusive distribution rights from this company (explaining the JPN release), and now the master rights holder leased distribution to Movietime SRL which can explain the hold up with the German release.

[Mikezilla3k]

Pre-Orders are now up for March 4th:

https://www.amazon.fr/Travaux-dHercule-Combo-Blu-Ray-DVD/dp/B09SP47L7V
https://www.amazon.fr/Hercule-et-la-reine-de-Lydie-Blu-ray/dp/B09SP8JMDC