An E-Mail Appeal to Mr. Wade Williams

[bavanut]

Okay, everyone, I have an idea. It’s a long shot, and I’m under no illusions that it will actually work, but I think it’s at least worth a try.

Mr. Wade Williams owns three very desirable Golden Age 3-D titles that are not yet available on Blu-Ray, despite several sincere efforts to orchestrate a release. I don't want Mr. Williams to give up on these titles. I am hoping that friendly, enthusiastic e-mails will communicate to him the great potential success that could be reaped from restoring and releasing these three gems from his collection.

I want each of you to sit down and write a personal e-mail to Mr. Wade Williams.

Be polite. Don’t raise any criticisms or accusations. Treat him as you would any member of this forum, with perfect respect and dignity. Be an ambassador.

Tell him that you want to see Robot Monster on Blu-Ray in 3-D. And Cat-Women of the Moon. And the Western Hannah Lee, for these are the three 3-D films he owns.

I would suggest a brief e-mail that strikes a friendly tone. Urge him to do what he can as soon as possible to restore these three films and bring them to market, stressing that you dearly wish to see them in 3-D, and by that we mean modern, discrete, color-neutral 3-D, not anaglyph. You can and should mention the fine work done by the 3-D Film Archive, but be careful not to mention Bob Furmanek or Greg Kintz by name. We do not want him to misread and dismiss our appeal as some sort of ploy orchestrated by those fine gentlemen. He needs only to know that we have noticed and commend the Archive’s fine work on other important 3-D restoration projects.

Mr. Williams's e-mail address is wwilliams2@peoplepc.com. This e-mail address is the one provided on the "Contact Us" page at Mr. Williams's website, and so, presumably, friendly e-mails will be welcomed. Good luck to us.

[BobbyMcGee]

Context please?

[bavanut]

Ah, yes. I should have realized that not everyone will be aware of the story. Mr. Williams owns three very desirable Golden Age 3-D titles that are not yet available on Blu-Ray, despite several sincere efforts to orchestrate a release. I don't want Mr. Williams to give up on these titles. I am hoping that friendly, enthusiastic e-mails will communicate to him the great potential success that could be reaped from restoring and releasing these three gems from his collection.

I have edited my initial post to better convey my good intentions.

[Zivouhr]

Here are two trailers found.

YouTube

Robot Monster Trailer. 1953

YouTube

Cat Women of the Moon. 1953 also I believe.

[Tommunist]

This is the same guy that won't licence "Rocketship X-M" to Shout Factory so they can release the MST3K episode of that movie on DVD. Which stinks because it is the first episode of season 2 and features the first appearance of TV's Frank and Kevin Murphy as Tom Servo. Apparently, the title holds some sentimental value to him and may be under the impression the MST3K riffing of the movie devalues it's worth.

To me, this is just money left sitting on the table by Mr. Williams, and unfortunately, it will be diminishing returns the longer he sits on them.

[levcore]

I'm assuming this is NOT Wade Williams the actor and another Wade Williams?

[bavanut]

You are correct. It is not Wade Williams the actor, but a different individual.

[levcore]

Originally Posted by bavanut

You are correct. It is not Wade Williams the actor, but a different individual.

Ah thanks, I recognised the name from Prison Break and was thinking "THAT guy has these rare 3D movies???" lol

[cinerama]

Wade responded here post #9

[deltatauhobbit]

Originally Posted by cinerama

Wade responded here post #9

Here's Wade Williams response from HTF:

I appreciate the interest in the 3D restoration of ROBOT MONSTER- CAT WOMEN OF THE MOON- HANNAH LEE and have
been in negotiations since late last year with 3D Archive and Kino. We could not come together on a distribution license
with KINO which I am sorry about. They do great work as do others like Criterion, Robert Harris, Twilight Time, Olive, VCI .
Sinister Cinema, Jeff Joseph and others

At times I get e-mails from fans that believe I am not really interested in the library, or realize the important place many of
my films hold. This is not the case ! I saw many of these films as a child theatrically in the 50's and 60's. When television converted
to 100% color many of these films became available. I acquired the rights to as many as I could find from Warners, Paramount , NTA, George Pal, Harry Popkin estate, Jack Broder Estate, Astor, Medallion, Weiss Global-Lippert, ( George Foley ) Plus television series- TALES OF TOMORROW- SPACE PATROL and TOM CORBETT-SPACE CADET etc.

I bought all rights world-wide to INVADERS FROM MARS ( with the exception of US television broadcast ) from the late Richard Rosenfeld 40 years ago in 1976 and ROCKETSHIP XM from Adrian Weiss " Weiss Global" the same year. These films have been licensed and released on VHS and DVD since the late 70's by me thru STARLOG VIDEO- NOSTALGIA MERCHANTS- MEDIA HOME ENTERTAINMENT- ENGLEWOOD ENTERTAINMENT AND IMAGE ENTERTAINMENT.

Restoration is being planned on INVADERS FROM MARS and DESTINATION MOON

My library has been in constant release for many years for home use- theatrical , television and has been represented for several decades by CORINTH FILMS in the US and BLUE DOLPHIN in the UK.

The home use-DVD rights for the US/Canada were licensed to IMAGE ENTERTAINMENT for the last decade and the license terminated last January and these rights have reverted to me again.

The change in demand and the forms of transmission and exploitation require new scans- close captioning. DVD's are still
important but streaming, down-loading. Amazon Prime, NetFlix and TCM are the remaining outlets from classic films.

I am sure INVADERS FROM MARS- DESTINATION MOON-ROBOT MONSTER-CAT WOMEN OF THE MOON and HANNAH LEE
will find a licensor for the 2D and 3D restorations. These along with the 7 Ed Wood films and others will be restored and released
properly and legally licensed.

I appreciate hearing from everyone and am working diligently on the restoration of these important films.

wade williams

Doesn't sound like negotiations went all that well. If he really is expecting the 3D films to get restored and released, the 3D Archive is pretty much his best bet since there really aren't too many people out there with the know how or desire to do it. Probably boiled down to money but I don't expect Bob to explain it since discussion of it could derail any future dealings.

[TM2-Megatron]

That's a more encouraging reply than I'd have expected, but I agree it probably came down to money in the end and that we're unlikely to see any movement on any of this in the near future.

Honestly, though, I'm not really sure why somebody his age would be playing the "hold out for more money" card. I imagine he's already very comfortable, and I don't believe for a minute that Kino and/or the 3-D Film Archive wouldn't have offered a him a fair deal.

[petergee]

I actually struck up quite a nice email conversation with Mr Williams and got the feeling he is totally aware that he is in possession of several films that require preservation but for whatever reason (distribution deals or other problems, including financial costs of restorations) have prevented it.

I raised the idea with him of Kickstarter-type campaigns (ala September Storm) to help fund restortion costs but this didn't gain much of a response.

I do hope that if a distributor (Kino, Twilight etc) could approach him with a possible deal then something might happen?

[Interdimensional]

Well done Mike, you got a response! I had thought your plan would fall on deaf ears.

As much as I have huge respect for Bob F, I don't want to pick a side in this, I just hope it all works out. I'm especially pleased to hear that the 2d films Destination Moon and Invaders from Mars are being restored. The image quality in Invaders from Mars is diabolical, I never knew a dvd could look so bad.

I really hope Wade is sincere in what he says and can come through and redeem his reputation and preserve these films.

[bavanut]

Interdimensional, I truly appreciate your tact and diplomacy. But we shall see what we shall see. Mr. Williams needs to really get on the stick and preserve the elements he has, even if he has no immediate prospect of making his films available commercially. In my view, he bears a tremendous burden of stewardship.

In other news, I know we are all quite gratified to see the forward strides being made by the 3-D Film Archive on their latest in a succession of marvelous preservation/restoration projects.

[Interdimensional]

Originally Posted by bavanut

Interdimensional, I truly appreciate your tact and diplomacy. But we shall see what we shall see. Mr. Williams needs to really get on the stick and preserve the elements he has, even if he has no immediate prospect of making his films available commercially. In my view, he bears a tremendous burden of stewardship.

The way I see it, a lot of the money and commercial value of these films will have dried up, compared to how things were in the dawn of VHS and the later DVD era. But at the same time, we're at a point technologically where digital masters can be created that will be as good if not better than original film elements, and be infinitely reproducible.

Just like the big studios, he has successfully reaped the profits from these films for decades. It's now time to pay back a portion of those profits and reinvest in the films themselves.

[Zivouhr]

That was a quick response from Mr. Williams and the likely flood of fan emails he received supporting blu ray 3D releases of these films, no doubt helped. His response seemed open minded, though we'll see what happens from here.

[Mikezilla3k]

Well, with the Invaders From Mars announcement, I'm guess Wade's supposed rights don't mean much now?

Wonder how this bodes for Rocketship X-M......