Warner to open up their vaults for cinephiles.

[DREAMASTER]

Ever wondered why some films are not released on DVD these days even though they were released on some other format, VHS or laserdisc, in the past? I’m pretty sure there are a few reasons, owners rights and assorted legal mumbo jumbo most likely but for the most part I think it simply comes down to money and lack of general interest. Releasing a DVD is a costly venture especially when you are dealing with obscure titles with a very small market. There is a reason many of the smaller DVD companies that deal with cult films are going under, costs are high and the chance of investment returns are slim. Us film nerds who dwell in to the world of obscure films on a daily basis like to believe that the world revolves around us but the sad truth is, 90% of the viewers out there don’t give a rats ass about the films we love and want. So the odds of getting a good release for a film we’ve been hunting for are getting less and less likely. Warner Brothers, whose library consists of well over 5000 movie titles are hoping to make some cold hard cash on us film geeks by offering up every single title in their vast collection for sale, either as a download or as a pressed DVD under the Warner Archive label. Most of these titles are very obscure and some are considered cult material but the idea that if a single dude out there wants a copy of Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze, he can do so by simply ordering it on DVD and have a copy in his hands after a few days. Brilliant. Each film comes in its own case with artwork on both the case and the disc so this doesn’t look like some hack job.

This on demand service started about a week ago and so far there are 150 titles on the site. Very few I recognize I must admit but I’m sure there are many out there giggling with glee over some of the titles on hand. Now I seriously doubt that these are all remastered titles, speck free and clean as a whistle but you can read some reviews online about some of the discs. Most of them seem very good considering the type of service this is. This is a genius idea and I really hope more studios will do the same, there are tons of films out there I wish I could get on proper DVD rather than to scour the web searching for subpar torrents of VHS rips.
One thing just occurred to me, Warner owns the rights to Ken Russel’s The Devils, yes please.

http://twitchfilm.net/site/view/warner- ... inephiles/


Excelent!