Nuns On The Run

[Dragon78]

I love this movie, it needs a Blu Ray release. Who else is with me?

[Manfonse]

Hoping one of the British distributors pick this up. Wonderful movie.

[redxrebellion]

I’m in. Love Eric Idle

[drush9999]

Yep I'd be in
Missing Pieces and Splitting Heirs too

Really want Terry Jones' The Wind in the Willows and Personal Services as well.
Hell even Graham Chapman's The Odd Job.

Edit: Also Michael Palin's A Private Function & American Friends

[Aunt Peg]

Good film this. I'd love to see it again 'I want to commit a major crime'

[HotRats]

The Trinity explained

Nuns on the Run - Holy Trinity Explained - YouTube

[Dragon78]

Love the Trinity explanation.

[streethawk007]

Ah definitely, have been waiting for this to come out on blu ray for years, in my top 10 comedies of all time, please someone release this!!, “from now on it’s every nun for himself”, classic!!

[R0CK0X]

I'd love to see this flick again.

Spectacles, testicles, wallet and watch.

[jaws3dfan]

Right up there with any Monty Python film!

[jaws3dfan]

I just got the VHS in mail today, I bought it on ebay and I only paid 6.25 with free shipping still hoping for a Blu-Ray release someday!

[meremortal]

Can't recall much about this but recall enjoying it. The same goes for Splitting Heirs.

[Dragon78]

At least Splitting Heirs is getting a blu-ray release.

[Dragon78]

Well the movie's 35th anniversary is in 2025. So if we don't get it by then then we are not getting it on blu ray.

[Froggy0705]

Loved this film! Hope it does get a Blu-ray release at some point! Anniversary or not i don't think a film like this would get that hype for an anniversary edition lol but I could be wrong

[chen lung]

I'm quite fond of the film and own the UK Anchor Bay DVD (the one with extras), but there are flaws with it:

• Sporadic interlacing
• One mix goes out of sync during 'Blow Away'
• Audio overall doesn't always sound great (not sure if it's inherent in material or bad filtering)
• No SDH

Technology has improved since that time, so hopefully a better transfer can make its way onto a Blu-ray.

[drush9999]

Originally Posted by chen lung

I'm quite fond of the film and own the UK Anchor Bay DVD (the one with extras), but there are flaws with it:

• Sporadic interlacing
• One mix goes out of sync during 'Blow Away'
• Audio overall doesn't always sound great (not sure if it's inherent in material or bad filtering)
• No SDH

Technology has improved since that time, so hopefully a better transfer can make its way onto a Blu-ray.

Most of those old Anchor Bay UK Handmade Films releases look bad. Some seemed like a bodged NTSC upscale to PAL.

[Dragon78]

Does this movie have an HD version on streaming and/or non-US blu ray?

[Dragon78]

Fingers crossed that we will get it this year.

[Shane Rollins]

Originally Posted by drush9999

Most of those old Anchor Bay UK Handmade Films releases look bad. Some seemed like a bodged NTSC upscale to PAL.

This is from the Wikipedia page on Life Of Brian, another HandMade Films release:

A number of scenes were cut during the editing process. Five deleted scenes, a total of 13 minutes, including the controversial "Otto", were first made available in 1997 on the Criterion Collection Laserdisc. An unknown amount of raw footage was destroyed in 1998 by the company that bought Handmade Films. However, a number of them (of varying quality) were shown the following year on the Paramount Comedy Channel in the UK. The scenes shown included three shepherds discussing sheep and completely missing the arrival of the angel heralding Jesus's birth, which would have been at the very start of the film; a segment showing the attempted kidnap of Pilate's wife (a large woman played by John Case) whose escape results in a fistfight; a scene introducing hardline Zionist Otto, leader of the Judean People's Front (played by Eric Idle) and his men who practise a suicide run in the courtyard; and a brief scene in which Judith releases some birds into the air in an attempt to summon help. The shepherds' scene has badly distorted sound, and the kidnap scene has poor colour quality. The same scenes that were on the Criterion laserdisc can now be found on the Criterion Collection DVD.

Sorry about all the pork there, but you get the idea. And there's a whole section on the HandMade Films Wikipedia page called "Changes in ownership and recent history" that's pretty revealing too:

[Show spoiler]

Following a series of box office bombs in the late 1980s and excessive debt incurred by O'Brien, which was guaranteed by Harrison, HandMade's financial situation became precarious. The company ceased operations in 1991 and was sold three years later to Paragon Entertainment Corporation of Toronto, Canada. Afterward, Harrison sued O'Brien for $25 million for fraud and negligence, resulting in an $11.6 million judgment in 1996.

New owner Paragon Entertainment Corporation restarted production under the HandMade name in 1996–1997. The company's most notable release of that era was Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998). In 1999, Patrick Meehan and Cartier Investments acquired HandMade from Paragon.

In June 1999, The Equator Group plc became the exclusive distributor and manager of the HandMade Films library, and attempted to purchase the company from Cartier outright, but negotiations were unsuccessful until a reverse takeover agreement with Hand Made Holdings Ltd announced on 15 May 2006.

The Equator Group reincorporated as HandMade Plc on 8 June 2006 and the new company was traded on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) stock exchange (changing its ticker symbol from EQG to HMF). Trading of HandMade plc shares was suspended several times, notably June to October 2009, after the company failed to provide 2008 audit results to shareholders.

On 29 April 2010, Almorah Services Ltd tendered a takeover bid, priced at £0.01 per share in cash and HMF was delisted from the AIM on 29 June 2010. HandMade plc was re-registered as HandMade Limited, a private company, on 2 February 2011. Handmade Limited entered administration on 11 July 2012, liquidation on 24 April 2013, and was dissolved on 22 February 2018.

In 2016, Park Circus purchased distribution rights to the HandMade film library.

In 2017, following an investigation by the Insolvency Service, three HandMade Limited directors were disqualified from acting as a director of a company: Patrick Anthony Meehan for 13 years, David Bernard Ravden for five-and-a-half years, and Peter William Parkinson for four years. The directors misused funds to "pay off relatives" and "on matters undisclosed to advisers, shareholder or potential investors".

Originally Posted by chen lung

I'm quite fond of the film and own the UK Anchor Bay DVD (the one with extras), but there are flaws with it:

• Sporadic interlacing
• One mix goes out of sync during 'Blow Away'
• Audio overall doesn't always sound great (not sure if it's inherent in material or bad filtering)
• No SDH

Technology has improved since that time, so hopefully a better transfer can make its way onto a Blu-ray.

It would not shock me in the least if the new owner's I-don't-give-a-f*ckery extended to Nuns On The Run, and that's the reason the Anchor Bay disc looked bad. Anchor Bay's "boutique" releases (where they gave TLC to movies that otherwise wouldn't have gotten any) could only be as good as the elements and/or transfers they were given. They couldn't turn water into wine.

It also wouldn't shock me if there are few elements if any that still survive.

It's one thing when the vault blows up/catches fire and we lose stuff like Freaks and London After Midnight. It's another thing when people just don't care and toss out things of value, like HandMade's owner did here, and like Hallmark did with Filmation's archives. In the US, 20th Century Fox had rights at least up to 2000, but I have no clue what the US rights situation looks like today.

UK rights should be a little less messy, considering there's probably fewer cooks in the kitchen, but still I can think of no real reason why this is OOP. Messy ownership, bad/missing elements, or a combination of the two are the most likely candidates.

As batshit as it sounds, if Eric Idle is on social media, tweet him. Worst case scenario he doesn't answer, that or he tells you what you can go do to your mother. He's a Python so either one is a likely outcome.