LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS Director's Cut coming to Blu-Ray October 8th!

[seaweedjstubbs]

Posted: 6/12/12 at 3:45pm

SO excited for this! LITTLE SHOP is my favorite movie and I am thrilled that we'll get to see the movie the way it was meant to be!
http://www.homemediamagazine.com/warner/little-shop-horrors-makes-blu-ray-debut-27509

[jimmycurry01]

Posted: 6/12/12 at 4:19pm

I will believe it when I see it on shelves.

[amoni2]

Posted: 6/12/12 at 4:29pm

Well Geffen blew a good opportunity to re-release it in theaters in 3D as The Broadway Edition.

[DEClarke]

Posted: 6/12/12 at 4:31pm

Is it for sure that it's not coming to movie theaters? I heard that it would be a Fathom Events (possibly 3D) event this Halloween.

[JP2]

Posted: 6/12/12 at 4:46pm

There is a God!

[Kad]

Posted: 6/12/12 at 4:47pm

Only Blu-Ray? Darn.

[JP2]

Posted: 6/12/12 at 4:51pm

Was the recent ROCKY HORROR release only bluray, or was that on DVD too?

[jimmycurry01]

Posted: 6/12/12 at 4:52pm

Its time to upgrade, Kad.

[DEClarke]

Posted: 6/12/12 at 4:54pm

Blu-Ray players are cheap now... upgrade!

But... is anything ever truly released just on Blu-Ray? I think that there will be a one disc DVD that supplements the already released (and not recalled) one disc DVD.

[Kad]

Posted: 6/12/12 at 4:54pm

I really don't see the reason... and considering that it's been around for 6 years and has yet to render DVD obsolete, I'm not the only one.

[DEClarke]

Posted: 6/12/12 at 5:06pm

Here's an interesting excerpt from an Interview with Frank Oz:

Q: In 1998, a special edition DVD of Little Shop was released and immediately recalled because it contained this black-and-white work print with your commentary track. It remains a highly sought-after DVD, though there’s been a lot of discussion over the years about why that ending was released in the first place…

A: When Warner put the first DVD out, they called me and said, “Do I have the original ending?” And I said, yeah, I had it in black and white. It didn’t exist in color. So I gave it to them to use, and then the DVD came out for a short time with that black-and-white ending as a bonus feature. And then I got a call from David Geffen, and David said, “What are you doing?” I said, “What do you mean?” “Why did you give them the black-and-white version?” I said, “That’s all I had, I thought you were fine with that. I figured you and Warner were working together.” He said, “No, no, no — I have a color version.” “You have a color version?!” He said, “I have a color version. I don’t want the black-and-white version out, I want the color version out.” And so, you know, he’s the producer, so “Okay fine, it’s okay by me if you have the color.”

Q: Did he end up having the original ending in color?

A: He did not. I think he thought he had the color [version], but he probably didn’t understand the work print aspect of it. He probably assumed that there was a color ending somewhere. I was surprised. I thought maybe he duped it in color. David halted all the DVD sales because he wanted the better version of the ending, but that never came out. I’m assuming it’s because, David, in all sincerity, wanted to do a great job and thought he had the color and then probably someone told him, “We don’t have color,” and I think it kind of went away then.

Q: There have been rumors that the film will be re-released this coming Halloween with the original ending. Is it going to be re-released, and if so, will it contain the black-and-white work print or something more?

A: I don’t know actually, it’s interesting. They mentioned the idea of doing a DVD release and I thought, “That’s fantastic,” but I never knew about it. They just called me and told me. I was never part of it. I’m just thrilled they’re doing it.

Q: And to be clear, the color version of the original ending doesn’t exist anymore?

A: The color ending doesn’t exist. No, it’s still the black-and-white ending. It’s their film, so they’ll do what they want with it and I’m just glad that the audience has another way of seeing it.
_____________________________________________________________________________

So, I guess they'll colorize the B&W work print? Or is it possible that a finalized color print still does exist? I've heard that the latter is true... but this is a fairly recent interview.


SOURCE Updated On: 6/12/12 at 05:06 PM

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 6/12/12 at 5:14pm

DEJA VU

[jimmycurry01]

Posted: 6/12/12 at 5:38pm

I really don't see the reason... and considering that it's been around for 6 years and has yet to render DVD obsolete, I'm not the only one.

True, but I love my special features, and they are starting to include less and less on DVD releases while including more on BluRay. That's why I made the upgrade.

[BroadwayBenny]

Posted: 6/12/12 at 6:03pm

Yeah, but your DVDs are not "obsolete" when you get a blu-ray player, in fact, blu-ray players will play and upscale the quality of your DVDs to where it will look better than it does in a standard DVD player. I've only upgraded a few titles, and that's more because the movies went through an awesome restoration than because I wanted to upgrade formats.

This is the greatest news of the year as far as I'm concerned. Little Shop has such a sentimental spot for me, for many reasons. YAY!!

[jpbran]

Posted: 6/12/12 at 6:16pm

If your TV is 40" or larger, you'll REALLY notice the difference in picture quality between DVD and Bluray. 40" or less, and it's not so obvious...

[seaweedjstubbs]

Posted: 6/12/12 at 6:40pm

According to this article, it will be released on DVD as well. It also includes a higher quality picture of the cover art. http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/06/12/little-shop-of-horrors-takes-a-bite-out-of-bddvd

[seaweedjstubbs]

Posted: 6/12/12 at 7:52pm

Here's an ad for the release. Interesting that there hasn't been anything announced on the official Warner Bros site yet. I'm sure there will be something soon. http://www.highdefdiscnews.com/?p=81412

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 6/13/12 at 5:56am

Minor cover art quibble(s): The word "Horrors" should be in dripping blood...and they really should replace John Candy's picture with Vincent Gardenia's.

Updated On: 6/13/12 at 05:56 AM

[tazber]

Posted: 6/13/12 at 6:17am

Totally agree about the title font, carlos. How boring.

A title like that needs color and fun.

But I am really excited for this release.



Just a word to those who haven't upgraded to BD:

I held out for awhile also, but players are so cheap these days I went ahead and got one. It was a great decision.

Not every movie needs BD, I mean how good are some of the old classics ever gonna look? But the sound of BD is amazing.

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 6/13/12 at 6:46am

I would have given it a retro-look very similar to those old horror comics from the late '50s and early '60s, like this:

[tazber]

Posted: 6/13/12 at 7:01am

^^^^^

So much better, Carlos! The comic conceit is a great idea.

The current font (including the cast names at the bottom) is the standard romantic comedy font. Odd.

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 6/13/12 at 7:10am

Thank you taz!

Yeah, the fonts used are pretty generic. Imagination and creativity in home entertainment packaging has gone by the wayside. I know that for many it isn't as important as the contents inside the packaging, but as a graphic design enthusiast I notice these type of things.

[best12bars]

Posted: 6/13/12 at 7:11am

Having worked on DVDs and Bllu-ray discs myself ... I can tell you two big reasons why Carlos's cover would be rejected by Marketing at the studio ...

1) The fonts are too difficult to read at a quick glance. When you scan through dozens of releases on a Walmart shelf, you have to recognize a title in less than a second. They will cut you some slack if there is an instantly recognizable iconic image that does the job without the text. But more often than not, it's readability that counts over design.

2) It's too "retro" for a mainstream studio title. They are looking at a wide release of this DVD and BD, so they don't want to go too retro and appeal to only a niche "classic movie" audience. The solution (in my past experience) was always to play it safe: a big star's head over a solid white background with a clean sans-serif font (usually red).

Updated On: 6/13/12 at 07:11 AM

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 6/13/12 at 8:01am

Which proves my point that imagination and creativity has gone downhill in favor of plain white backgrounds, bobble heads and clean sans serif fonts.


B-O-O-O-O-RIIIIIING!!!

Updated On: 6/13/12 at 08:01 AM

[best12bars]

Posted: 6/13/12 at 8:07am

Boring, yes. But it's not new. They didn't go downhill so much as stay there. It's where they started.

The only cool retro covers are for niche titles (the archive MOD series) or a well-established movie with iconic imagery.

Most people may not realize that Marketing calls the shots in Home Entertainment. They were the boss. They paid the bills. They had to approve everything that went into producing a DVD or BD, from content to cover art to menus. So "selling" always came before "designing."

Marketing before creative. If it comes down to one vs. the other, Marketing always wins.

EDIT: The only time they lose is if it's written into a someone's contract with creative control of the home entertainment release ... like a David Fincher or Steven Spielberg. Some of the big "star directors" have full creative control on those releases.

Big movie or TV stars usually have a creative sign-off on all images that are used of them, but not full control of the project. (That always made for delays waiting for approvals.)

Updated On: 6/13/12 at 08:07 AM