I just noticed that Warner/New Line recently discontinued their Blu-ray of Robert Altman's The Player. Seeing that it was on Criterion Laserdisc back in the day and with several other Altman films already with the label, has there been any speculation that it may be getting the Criterion treatment once again? Possibly for it's 25th Anniversary in 2017?
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Originally Posted by StLouisRibs
I very heavily doubt Criterion has any plan whatsoever for releases three years in advance. In general I'd guess based on the Wexner chats that at most a release takes 18 months from commission to release with very few exceptions.
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Originally Posted by TJS_Blu
CC isn't in the anniversary edition biz to the best of my knowledge. I think StL Ribs is saying CC wouldn't hold onto a licensed property for 2 or 3 years just to have an "anniversary edition".
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Originally Posted by lilboyblu
I know.
Forget that I even mentioned the film's anniversary.
With New Line/Warner discontinuing their Blu-ray, and with Criterion having laserdisc rights in the past, I was wondering if there had been any speculation that it may get the Criterion treatment on Blu-ray too. Ever. However, upon further investigation, it appears that answer (for right now) is no.
Looks like we still have some work to do with the whole "spoilering leaked info prior to the official announcement on release day" initiative, but I'm seeing a lot of improvement. Good job team! Better luck next month!
I wish. I don't think they've announced two movies of the same director in the same month, unless they were a part of a box set, or were together in a single package.
In the last year there's been:
Gates of Heaven / Vernon, Florida and The Thin Blue Line by Errol Morris (3/15) The Confession and State of Siege by Costa-Gavras (5/15) Breaker Morant and Mister Johnson by Bruce Beresford (9/15)
As the site reviewers like to say all of the time, this one is "ripe for reevaluation."
It's always touted as the worst of the 90s Batman films, but quite frankly, I thought it was considerably better than Batman Forever. Which isn't saying much, but still...
They could release just Altman films for an entire month, and I'd be happy.
An Altman box set would be absolutely incredible. "McCabe", "California Split", "A Wedding", "Images", with upgrades to "Secret Honor" and "Short Cuts". A man can dream.
An Altman box set would be absolutely incredible. "McCabe", "California Split", "A Wedding", "Images", with upgrades to "Secret Honor" and "Short Cuts". A man can dream.
That would be incredible. Been waiting to replace my crappy dvds of: McCabe (it's coming), California Split, A Wedding, and Images. Would be happy to upgrade my Criterion dvds of Secret Honor and Short Cuts, but would prefer it to be in a box set like the one you mentioned.
As Billy and “Captain America,” Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda motored down the highway on their Harley Davidsons to the roaring strains of Steppenwolf’s “Born to Be Wild,” the definitive counterculture blockbuster was born. Former clean-cut teen star Hopper’s down-and-dirty directorial debut, Easy Rider heralded the arrival of a new voice in film, one pitched angrily against the mainstream. After Easy Rider’s cross-country journey—with its radical, New Wave–style editing, outsider-rock soundtrack, revelatory performance by a young Jack Nicholson, and explosive ending—the American road trip would never be the same.
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Disc Features
New, restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised by director of photography László Kovács, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack and optional DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
Two audio commentaries, one featuring actor-director-writer Dennis Hopper, the other Hopper, actor-writer Peter Fonda, and production manager Paul Lewis
Born to Be Wild (1995) and “Easy Rider”: Shaking the Cage, (1999), documentaries about the making and history of the film
Television excerpts showing Hopper and Fonda at the Cannes Film Festival
New video interview with BBS cofounder Steve Blauner
Theatrical trailers
When a gifted but washed-up screenwriter with a hair-trigger temper—Humphrey Bogart, in a revelatory, vulnerable performance—becomes the prime suspect in a brutal Tinseltown murder, the only person who can supply an alibi for him is a seductive neighbor (Gloria Grahame) with her own troubled past. The emotionally charged In a Lonely Place, freely adapted from a Dorothy B. Hughes thriller, is a brilliant, turbulent mix of suspenseful noir and devastating melodrama, fueled by powerhouse performances. An uncompromising tale of two people desperate to love yet struggling with their demons and each other, this is one of the greatest films of the 1950s, and a benchmark in the career of the classic Hollywood auteur Nicholas Ray.
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SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
New 2K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
New audio commentary featuring film scholar Dana Polan
I’m a Stranger Here Myself, a 1975 documentary about director Nicholas Ray, slightly condensed for this release
New interview with biographer Vincent Curcio about actor Gloria Grahame
Piece from 2002 featuring filmmaker Curtis Hanson
Radio adaptation from 1948 of the original Dorothy B. Hughes novel, broadcast on the program Suspense
Trailer
PLUS: An essay by critic Imogen Sara Smith
Director Kaneto Shindo’s documentary-like, dialogue-free portrayal of daily struggle is a work of stunning visual beauty and invention. The international breakthrough for one of Japan’s most innovative filmmakers—who went on to make such other marvelous movies as Onibaba and Kuroneko—The Naked Island follows a family whose home is on a tiny, remote island off the coast of Japan. They must row a great distance to another shore, collect water from a well in buckets, and row back to their island—a nearly backbreaking task essential for the survival of these people and their land. Featuring a phenomenal modernist score by Hikaru Hayashi, this is a truly hypnotic experience, with a rhythm unlike that of any other film.
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SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
New, high-definition digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
Video introduction by director Kaneto Shindo, recorded for a 2011 retrospective of his work
Audio commentary recorded in 2000, featuring Shindo and composer Hikaru Hayashi
New appreciation of the film by actor Benicio Del Toro
New interview with film scholar Akira Mizuta Lippit
Trailer
New English subtitle translation
PLUS: An essay by film scholar Haden Guest
A Hollywood studio executive with a shaky moral compass (Tim Robbins) finds himself caught up in a criminal situation that would fit right into one of his movie projects, in this biting industry satire from Robert Altman. Mixing elements of film noir with sly insider comedy, The Player, based on a novel by Michael Tolkin, functions as both a nifty stylish murder story and a commentary on its own making, and it is stocked with a heroic supporting cast (Peter Gallagher, Whoopi Goldberg, Greta Scacchi, Dean Stockwell, Fred Ward) and an astonishing lineup of star cameos that make for a remarkable Hollywood who’s who. This complexly woven grand entertainment (which kicks off with one of American cinema’s most audacious and acclaimed opening shots) was the film that marked Altman’s triumphant commercial comeback in the early 1990s.
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SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
New 4K digital restoration, with DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 surround soundtrack on the Blu-ray
Audio commentary from 1992 featuring director Robert Altman, writer Michael Tolkin, and cinematographer Jean Lépine
Interview with Altman from 1992
New interviews with Tolkin and production designer Stephen Altman
Cannes Film Festival press conference from 1992 with cast and crew
“The Player” at LACMA, a short documentary about the shooting of the film’s fund-raiser scene
Map to the Stars, a gallery dedicated to the cameo appearances in the film
Deleted scenes and outtakes
The film’s opening shot, with alternate commentaries by Altman, Lépine, and Tolkin
Trailers
More
PLUS: An essay by author Sam Wasson
In the 1970s, Wim Wenders was among the first true international breakthrough artists of the revolutionary New German Cinema, a filmmaker whose fascination with the physical landscapes and emotional contours of the open road proved to be universal. In the middle of that decade, Wenders embarked on a three-film journey that took him from the wide roads of Germany to the endless highways of the United States and back again. Starring Rüdiger Vogler as the director’s alter ego, Alice in the Cities, Wrong Move, and Kings of the Road are dramas of emotional transformation that follow their characters’ searches for themselves, all rendered with uncommon soulfulness and visual poetry.
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DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
New, restored 4K digital transfers of all three films, commissioned by the Wim Wenders Foundation and supervised by director Wim Wenders
Audio commentaries for all three films, featuring Wenders and actors Rüdiger Vogler and Yella Rottländer on Alice in the Cities, and featuring Wenders on Wrong Move and Kings of the Road
• New interview with Wenders, directed and conducted by filmmaker Michael Almereyda
• New interviews with Vogler, Kreuzer, Rottländer, and actors Hanna Schygulla and Hanns Zischler
• Outtakes and Super 8 home movies
• Restoring Time, a 2015 short about the restoration work done by the Wim Wenders Foundation
• Same Player Shoots Again (1967) and Silver City Revisited (1968), two newly restored early short films by Wenders
• New English subtitle translations
• PLUS: A book featuring essays on the films by filmmaker Allison Anders, author James Robison, and critic Nick Roddick
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