Stephen King Collection - Riding the Bullet, Bag of Bones etc- 18/10/23 - Via Vision

[bryantburnette]

I'll be pretty thrilled to get this, if only to have Riding the Bullet and Bag of Bones on Blu-ray finally. Hopefully I can get one sent to the U.S. somehow. I might drop Diabolik a line and ask if they think they'll get any.

[bryantburnette]

Diabolik already has it up for pre-order, as it turns out!

[dribblybob]

Just preordered this, what exactly is a hardbox? Thick cardboard?

[lateralspin]

Originally Posted by dribblybob

Just preordered this, what exactly is a hardbox? Thick cardboard?

It looks like the same type of box used to house Imprints

[DMRI2006]

Originally Posted by Ruined

The above bolded line is "mostly false," if you read the history of the film. You imply the theatrical cut was a studio-mandated cash-in via its forced-to-be-cut scenes for "increased showings" at theaters.

However, the director considers the theatrical cut his preferred cut, the director's cut if you will. The extended TV-cut was what was created solely for a cash-in, not the theatrical cut.

The director intended the movie to only be a theatrical feature, but in creating the theatrical feature filmed a lot of material, the best of which could then be edited down to theatrical length - that was his intention, per the director. However, at the time there were a number of King miniseries that performed well on TV. So, after the fact, they offered a pile of money to take all the stuff that was edited out for theatrical run and put it back in so they could make some cash on the TV miniseries aspect. And that is all the TV cut is, a TBS cash-in; its not the director finally getting to restore his vision, because the director has stated his vision was the theatrical cut.

While one may like the TV cut better (it is certainly a lot different), I just find it hard to do so based on all its faults; there are even parts where the censorship makes it hard to figure out WTF is being said by the characters (like the shit on the sheets scene) and the film moves at a snails pace, and it doesnt always make as much logical sense as the theatrical. Portraying the theatrical cut as edited down for monetary purposes is really not true - the director considers the theatrical cut his preferred version, and its actually the TV cut which padded up for monetary purposes - created after the fact solely to cash-in on King miniseries popularity. And in doing so, using cutting room floor footage that was not intended to be seen in the final cut by the director, in order to pad out the runtime for TV.

Ruined, you sound like Fraser Heston was Orson Welles with this "grand vision" for the movie. Fact is he was a replacement for Peter Yates, who developed the movie and worked on the script before Heston ever got there, backing out at the last minute seemingly. We can argue it any which way but the reality is Heston wasn't a very good replacement for Yates either judging by his short-lived career in features. I'd also argue it wasn't his "vision" that kept the movie at 2 hours -- it was almost certainly the studio that held to that.

And you also act like it's 1 or 2 useless scenes that were taken out of the movie. It's a FULL HOUR of material. If it was so useless why did he ever shoot all of it? The script was structured to hold all of that material. That was the point of it. It wasn't written so an entire 1/3 of the movie would end up on the cutting room floor.

Plus, Heston himself admits in the commentary the film should have been longer. No, not the full 3 hours of the TV version, but he eventually and kind of reluctantly admits there was too much left out.

For me the theatrical cut doesn't work at all as a movie. It has far too many compromises and the movie has its own issues. The TV version plays more like one of the zillion mini-series made of King's works, sure, but with this adaptation being so mild to begin with, I don't have an issue with it. It's more watchable for me when viewed that way.

My big problem is the encoding on the Kino version. Hopefully Via Vision does a better job.

[Ruined]

Originally Posted by DMRI2006

Ruined, you sound like Fraser Heston was Orson Welles with this "grand vision" for the movie. Fact is he was a replacement for Peter Yates, who developed the movie and worked on the script before Heston ever got there, backing out at the last minute seemingly. We can argue it any which way but the reality is Heston wasn't a very good replacement for Yates either judging by his short-lived career in features. I'd also argue it wasn't his "vision" that kept the movie at 2 hours -- it was almost certainly the studio that held to that.

And you also act like it's 1 or 2 useless scenes that were taken out of the movie. It's a FULL HOUR of material. If it was so useless why did he ever shoot all of it? The script was structured to hold all of that material. That was the point of it. It wasn't written so an entire 1/3 of the movie would end up on the cutting room floor.

Plus, Heston himself admits in the commentary the film should have been longer. No, not the full 3 hours of the TV version, but he eventually and kind of reluctantly admits there was too much left out.

For me the theatrical cut doesn't work at all as a movie. It has far too many compromises and the movie has its own issues. The TV version plays more like one of the zillion mini-series made of King's works, sure, but with this adaptation being so mild to begin with, I don't have an issue with it. It's more watchable for me when viewed that way.

My big problem is the encoding on the Kino version. Hopefully Via Vision does a better job.

Fraser specifically stated the TV/extended cut is not his director's cut, and that the theatrical cut is his preferred cut of the two. While he said he would have ideally liked to include an extra 20 minutes of material to the theatrical cut, between the two versions he feels the theatrical cut is the better one. Makes sense, since 2 hours is a lot closer to 2hr20min than 3 hours.

I have no issue if you like the extended cut better and want a better encode than the botched Kino disc, but director's cut it is not - per the director.

Yeah, it sounds like a lot was filmed. That happens sometimes. Per the info available, at no point during filming did Heston think he was making a mini-series, was theatrical feature the whole time - so likely he just filmed a bunch and edited it down to theatrical length. Would not be the first time. The mini series came after the theatrical cut, after filming had finished and assembled from cutting room floor material, commissioned by TBS because other King miniseries were making bank at the time. Given the theatrical cut is available in pristine 4K with original dialogue, while the extended cut was only preserved standard definition, censored, and in the wrong aspect ratio - I'd also question, if literally anyone who worked on the film cared about the extended cut after cashing in on the TV run why it wasn't preserved better; obviously the source it was assembled from didn't have any of those issues, and if it had paramount value to someone that worked on the film the source could have been better preserved.

[dribblybob]

Just got a shipping notification for this and noticed that JB has it $20 cheaper via Madman Ent.

[DawnShadow]

Every single title in the set is getting a separate release on Valentine's Day. The box itself is getting re-released as well in a more standard case.

[Anamnesis]

Originally Posted by DawnShadow

Every single title in the set is getting a separate release on Valentine's Day. The box itself is getting re-released as well in a more standard case.

Oh good, I wanted 1408 from this set as it is one of the few films where I prefer the theatrical version over the director's cut and previously only the dc has been available.

[Filmmaker]

Originally Posted by DawnShadow

Every single title in the set is getting a separate release on Valentine's Day. The box itself is getting re-released as well in a more standard case.

Perfect! I can grab RIDING THE BULLET and BAG OF BONES then!

[Filmmaker]

Originally Posted by Anamnesis

Oh good, I wanted 1408 from this set as it is one of the few films where I prefer the theatrical version over the director's cut and previously only the dc has been available.

I have had the (agreed, preferred!) theatrical cut on a German Blu-ray for years.

[SubElement]

Originally Posted by DawnShadow

Every single title in the set is getting a separate release on Valentine's Day. The box itself is getting re-released as well in a more standard case.

Huh, where did this get announced? Did I miss it?

[DawnShadow]

Originally Posted by SubElement

Huh, where did this get announced? Did I miss it?

It's listed on their B2B site. They'll formally announce it shortly I assume.

[the13thman]

Originally Posted by Filmmaker

I have had the (agreed, preferred!) theatrical cut on a German Blu-ray for years.

The German Blu-ray has both cuts on the same disc. Nice slim case too.

[Filmmaker]

Originally Posted by the13thman

The German Blu-ray has both cuts on the same disc. Nice slim case too.

I have the Steelbook.

[skads_187]

Originally Posted by DawnShadow

It's listed on their B2B site. They'll formally announce it shortly I assume.

Do you have a screenshot by any chance? I can't seem to find it, Ill wait as well if this is the case. Will need to decide if I should replace my Riding the Bullet German copy....

Also: Any news on the Needful Things TV cut?

[DawnShadow]

The standard case version has been either cancelled or postponed. Individual titles:
https://b2b.madman.com.au/actions/ca...eleaseId=69527
https://b2b.madman.com.au/actions/ca...eleaseId=69531
https://b2b.madman.com.au/actions/ca...eleaseId=69543
https://b2b.madman.com.au/actions/ca...eleaseId=69544
https://b2b.madman.com.au/actions/ca...eleaseId=69545
https://b2b.madman.com.au/actions/ca...eleaseId=69547

[dbabluray]

Just got my copy of the boxset over the weekend. All the films look great except both the 1408 discs unfortunately. Something is very odd with the resolution on them, and there is prominent pixelation throughout. Again, this is not a problem for any of the other films included, but unfortunate for anyone grabbing this set to get the theatrical of 1408 on blu.

[Anamnesis]

Originally Posted by dbabluray

Just got my copy of the boxset over the weekend. All the films look great except both the 1408 discs unfortunately. Something is very odd with the resolution on them, and there is prominent pixelation throughout. Again, this is not a problem for any of the other films included, but unfortunate for anyone grabbing this set to get the theatrical of 1408 on blu.

oh dear, I was hoping to pick this up when the individual release comes out. I wonder where they got their master from.

[LMFAObros]

Originally Posted by Anamnesis

oh dear, I was hoping to pick this up when the individual release comes out. I wonder where they got their master from.

Yeah happy with the Roadshow release even tho it lacks the theatrical cut