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Post by Udvarnoky on Apr 22, 2021 6:41:53 GMT -5
Joel's never seen QUEST OF THE DELTA KNIGHTS? Dude's in for a treat.
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Post by Udvarnoky on Apr 9, 2021 17:29:18 GMT -5
And it isn't even an issue of rights, Joel "gave away" the first 2 as bonuses. He could do it again. He would have been in no condition to give away the episodes had the movies not been licensed. I think it was a case where Shout! already had the STINGRAY rights in hand. Yes, they could do something similar with any other KTMA episodes that are in the same situation, but I don't know how many happen to be.
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Post by Udvarnoky on Apr 9, 2021 16:51:06 GMT -5
I don't undersand why Shout! has never been open about the status of the KTMA masters. The fans are obviously interested, and I can't see what they stand to gain by withholding the information, whether it's positive or negative. While K03 is the holy grail, the condition/extancy of K04-K21 is still highly desirable knowledge. I guess we're not entitled to it, but it's nonetheless frustrating to still be in the dark this many years after the acquisition. I mean, the tapes are there or they aren't.
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Post by Udvarnoky on Apr 6, 2021 14:45:55 GMT -5
If anything, and I know this is an outdated way of thinking, I hope they're aiming at traditional cable TV release. And I'll tell you why... When they shot for streaming, they had the shoot everything quick and at once. Everything was written at once. It all felt rushed, because it was. If they get a TV contract at, say, IFC for 13 episodes, they can take their time. Shoot it over 6 months, write one episode at a time, develop a real writers room, etc. I know this is probably not what they're aiming for, but I think it'd solve a lot of issues. I don't think the method of release is what made them shoot everything in an extremely condensed block of binge shooting. I think it was more to do with cost and cast availability. Whatever the cause, I agree with you: It is a defect, to be corrected.
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Post by Udvarnoky on Feb 2, 2021 11:25:47 GMT -5
I sense no antipathy from Mike toward MST3K or Joel. I think he's made his position clear: His relationship with that show was as an employee rather than a stakeholder, and he'd simply prefer to devote his energies toward projects he has participation in. The success of the MST3K brand enriches Shout! and Joel, so of course it's subordinate in Mike's priorities to projects where he has skin in the game.
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Post by Udvarnoky on Sept 4, 2020 20:13:27 GMT -5
It would be ideal if the Gamera episodes were sold through Rifftrax while the license renewal is still fresh. If any episodes ought to have DVD images in circulation, it's the ones most at risk of the rights being lost down the line.
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Post by Udvarnoky on Aug 30, 2020 14:43:14 GMT -5
MGM is the common denominator with those films, right? The volumes that IT LIVES BY NIGHT and THE SCREAMING SKULL were included on were 2014 releases, so that shakes hands with the seven-year license that seems to be standard.
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Post by Udvarnoky on Aug 25, 2020 18:17:22 GMT -5
I lose touch with this thread for a few shorts weeks, and with the explicit instructions "No whorin' while I'm gone," and return to find that you irrepressible Saxons/Vikings/Pirates/Sultans totally cracked QUEST OF THE DELTA KNIGHTS! Well done to Shout! and Joshua Murphy for this accomplishment. I share in the hope that this episode could join the three Paramount titles for a putative Vol. 40 box set (and, while I'm dreaming big, served alongside featurette interviews with David Warner and Richard Kind), and hopefully it appears on all the usual VOD outlets down the line. For now, I'm content and grateful to enjoy this beloved episode on Shout! TV.
And now I hear they've re-upped the GAMERA rights? Would the fellow with the miracle-workin' wand mind pointing it at SOULTAKER, next?
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Post by Udvarnoky on Jul 13, 2020 20:45:52 GMT -5
Jordan Fields had indicated that Tjardus Greidanus was a hard case for a long time, and that Shout! had despaired of ever obtaining the license. Then, one day, when they approached him for the nth time, they were delighted to find that he had a change of heart -- and it is unknown what prompted it. After the end of what appears to have been a seven-year license (standard?), Shout! was unable to come to terms for a renewal. It's possible that Greidanus has reverted back to feeling resentment toward MST3K, but it could also simply be about money. From Shout!'s perspective, if the asking price for FINAL SACRIFICE is a good deal higher than the average quote, it might be hard to justify paying the ransom given that MSTies had seven years worth of opportunity to buy the episode.
It's the same deal with SOULTAKER. We don't know for sure the copyright owners are anti-MST3K. But if their asking price was exceptionally high, Shout! has to weigh the cost of cutting the check for round two against the likelihood that fans of the episode already bought it during the generous initial window it had been available.
Of course it sucks because in both cases we're talking about classic, gold standard episodes, but what can ya do. And hey, we know from experience that the world of MST3K licensing is full of wacky surprises and hairpin turns. You never know what might happen down the line.
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Post by Udvarnoky on May 8, 2020 8:21:04 GMT -5
Maybe it was more mutual than you give it credit for. I hope I'm just being pessimistic. But there were those comments from Hampton Yount about how he wanted to be involved with the 30th anniversary tour but couldn't because of "a money thing." It's hard not to draw the conclusion that the Netflix cast gradually became the casualty of some serious belt-tightening. I'm assuming that the "touring" side is part of Joel's overall plan to keep the brand profitable and continue generating some sort of new material. I don't think that's even up for debate, and I think it's a smart move on Joel's part. I'll go even further and say that I'm more excited about the future of MST3K now than I was during the height of revival delirium in 2015 when the Kickstarter became a runaway success. The extremely stripped down nature of the tours and this "Riffalong" livestream may partially be an artifact of business realities, but it also feels more appropriate for MST3K in a way that the highly "produced" nature of the Netflix episodes did not, necessarily. It also keeps the show lightweight enough to survive cancellation and adopt to changes of platform, as it always has. I think Joel is moving the brand in the right direction. But I think it's fair to lament that some talent seem to have fallen over the side as he steered the ship into what I hope is a better course for MST3K in the long term.
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Post by Udvarnoky on May 8, 2020 7:59:00 GMT -5
I think we can assume that Shout! has all the master tapes digitally preserved at this point.
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Post by Udvarnoky on May 6, 2020 21:47:25 GMT -5
I'm pleased with the idea of Emily, Conor, Nate and Yvonne as the new cast, as they've all proven their chops. And I think this was in fact the ideal way to curate the future MST3K crew: finding talented unknowns and having them make their bones with a year on the road.
But why didn't Joel do this from the beginning? In retrospect it comes off as if he just used the Netflix cast as a booster rocket to get the MST3K reboot to escape velocity, and now that they've served their transitional purpose he's abandoning them for another, cheaper troupe. And that troupe is excellent, but it still looks like Jonah/Baron/Hampton got the heave-ho through no fault of their own, and that's a bummer.
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Post by Udvarnoky on Apr 2, 2020 9:50:22 GMT -5
I mostly just want to know that Shout! has a proper master of the episode. I am hopeful that is the case, as the Amazon version of Boggy Creek II had horrible muffled audio quality that was not evident in the DVD, Rifftrax, and Shout! TV versions, suggesting that the master itself is fine and there was some sort of encoding boondoggle that happened after the fact. Hopefully Prince of Space is the same. Confusingly, Shout! put a new and corrected version of Boggy Creek II on Amazon, but the old one remains as well. There are in fact two Amazon Video product listings for this episode: The Bad One: www.amazon.com/Mystery-Science-Theater-3000-Continues/dp/B071NLYW2V/The Good One: www.amazon.com/Mystery-Science-Theater-3000-Continues/dp/B082YMSXPH/
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Post by Udvarnoky on Apr 2, 2020 9:44:07 GMT -5
Sad to hear that assumptions were made about Vol. 40, though it would explain why we never got any kind of acknowledgment of it from Shout! after all this time. I remain hopeful that they're continuing to explore what it might take to get some of the unreleased episodes commercially available, regardless of whether or not it manifests as another boxed set.
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Post by Udvarnoky on Apr 2, 2020 8:44:43 GMT -5
For those who saw Prince of Space - did it have the same darkness issue that was present on Shout!'s DVD and the version they gave Amazon (and presumably iTunes)?
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