More huge news for cult movie fans from Shout! Factory, who look to be keeping pretty busy this year.
Word is currently coming down the pipeline that the company has officially licensed the entire Showa Gamera (1965′s Daikaiju Gamera through 1980′s Uchu Kaiju Gamera) series for release domestically on DVD and will reportedly be working from the latest HD transferred elements. Right now news is slim, though Monster Island News reported roughly two months ago that the company is / was on the lookout for 35mm elements for the American cut of the first Gamera feature.
At present only the first film is listed for pre-order at Amazon.com, with May 18, 2010 as the scheduled release date – Gamera: The Giant Monster
I totally offered up the Daieiscope prints of the AIP versions I made and they turned them down, sighting that the print quality wouldn’t be as good as the HD masters. BFD… I guess quality is more important than having them at all. :-/
Well, with the exception of War of the Monsters, it would be pretty easy for them to sync-up the AIP dubs with their new HD masters, so hopefully that option is on the table, at least. Sad as it may seem, I’d like to have the Sandy Frank dubs represented as well. Perhaps they’ll at least include the alternate AIP opening and closing credits as an extra on the applicable discs?
From what they told me, I doubt any of that will be bothered with. Cause I offered up the same options you just did and they dismissed it.
Well, we can hope otherwise I suppose (I’ll be sure to post final supplements as soon as they’re announced either way). Having subbed Gamera officially available at less than $50 a pop for the import discs is something I look forward to all the same.
This is FANTASTIC news! Thanks for sharing it, Kevin. I’m not fairly familiar with the Sandy Frank prints, only owning the GAMERA VS. ZIGRA VHS myself, so I’m not a stickler for its presentation – after all, anything, I wager, would be better than the Alpha Video/Retromedia discs several years ago. I can’t wait to pick the DVD up (Mayish? Yippie!) Here’s hoping the other films will recieve immediate releases, as well!
I sent an email to Cliff at Shout Factory suggesting they look into finding the textless opening and end titles for the Gamera films so that the US credits could be recreated, and he responded saying that Kadokawa didn’t give them any textless sequences. Grrrr. Just goes to show you that DVD companies releasing Tokusatsu will only use what the Japanese company gives them, and not even TRY to come up with anything original.
I dare say a lot of that has to do with the Japanese companies themselves, who are often very reticent about loaning out their films for foreign transfers (particularly if satisfactory masters already exist). Neptune Media didn’t do any better with Daiei in the late 90s, working from the older masters the company had produced for Laserdisc release a few years previously.