![]() ![]() "You may find that you've gotten the rights to a particular title but the negative was kept at a lab that went out of business. When the legal issues have been resolved, the job still isn't over, as Lustig discovered when he decided to bring a series of 1960s horror movies from Britain's Hammer Films to home video. If an estate is tied up in litigation, any video release will be impossible until it's settled. Now that those rights are much more valuable, the stars or their heirs may decide to hold out for the best possible deal. They were routinely used as bargaining chips in lieu of cash or percentage of profits when studios and producers haggled with stars. Before television became such a large part of the business, the secondary rights to films - including then-undreamed-of home video - were a relatively small part of movie deals. The legal complications of inheritances and estates are often the first hurdle. Lustig bought the rights, and then began a second career bringing his favorite forgotten movies to video. "I did a little research," he said, "and found that they were owned by the estate of producer Mark Hellinger, and the estate was made up of people who had no interest in the film business." One of those people is producer-director William Lustig, who is also a self-described "frustrated film buff-video collector." Lustig realized a few years ago that two of the great films noirs, "Brute Force" and "The Naked City," hadn't been released on tape. ![]() It's often left up to people outside the studio system to bring those films to video. Who can argue with the executive who puts all of the organization's time and money into the video release of a blockbuster like "Independence Day" and ignores everything else?īut serious moviegoers and videophiles want to see more than the latest hits and flops from the multiplexes. And that's what studios are looking for in a video release - big numbers. When that innocence is combined with an unembarrassed view of teenage sexuality and graphic scenes of animals being killed, its appeal to a mainstream audience is limited, at best. When you're dealing with innocence - real innocence - it's easy to spot when it's fake." As Roeg sees it, this "is an adult film that children can understand and appreciate. Second, because the film is about young characters, it's often been labeled a children's film. "It has few visual or verbal signposts to guide audiences through the story," director Roeg said in a recent interview. Those almost hallucinatory scenes have remained indelible in many viewers' memories. The wilderness journey is presented through a series of lush visual images that are alternately idyllic, sexual and brutal. Why hasn't "Walkabout" been a financial hit? For starters, it's almost a silent film. Eventually, producer Max Raab was able to buy it back for $25,000. But "Walkabout" stayed on the shelf until the rights were marked down to fire sale prices. The film got strong reviews in its initial theatrical run and built a devoted but small following. ![]() Two nameless Australian children (Jenny Agutter and Lucien John, Roeg's son) are stranded in a desert wilderness and then rescued by an aboriginal boy (David Gulpilil) who's out on his "walkabout," a physical and spiritual journey to adulthood. For years, the most requested unavailable video has been Nicolas Roeg's 1971 film, "Walkabout." It's a dreamlike story of survival and sexual awakening. One acknowledged masterpiece of the 1970s was finally released on tape April 1. And all too often, the good prints and negatives have vanished. For some films, the video rights are in question. Most obviously, the demand for older movies isn't as great as it is for those that have just enjoyed a theatrical ad campaign. The studios have been slow to bring their "catalogue" titles to home video for several reasons. But for older movies, the picture is murky. Of course, current theatrical releases go to video quickly, usually within six months. There are a lot of movies that have never been available on videotape. An industry that has put the complete cinematic works of Pauly Shore and Steven Seagal on videotape must not be holding anything back, right? ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |