Scorpion Releasing, one of several labels catering to the cult film collector, had this to announce regarding a recent deal they made with MGM:
All I can say is it's the biggest deal I have ever done, and these will be Ronin exclusives and will not go through Kino , my deal has some horror films, some action , some comedy , biker films, some drama from the 70s , Leo Fong, The Hammer, some Cannon . several AIP titles, a black and white monster movie, Japanese monsters, and as well as deluxe edition of some of my all time favorite action films with new scans, I'll be hinting at one of them in a week or so.
"Monsters are tragic beings. They are born too tall, too strong, too heavy. They are not evil by choice. That is their tragedy. They do not attack people because they want to, but because of their size and strength, mankind has no other choice but to defend himself. After several stories such as this, people end up having a kind of affection for the monsters. They end up caring about them." - Ishiro Honda
It seems too early to me to guess what these titles might be, and I don't know nearly enough about Scorpion or the terms of this deal. If the deal is with MGM then it would almost certainly have to be any of the three Brenco-released Toho films. (For those not keeping track at home, those are The Human Vapor, Gorath, and The Last War.) Of those three films, only Gorath has a traditional Japanese monster, and its monster is deleted entirely from the American release that MGM has. Also bear in mind that licensing through MGM would mean Scorpion would probably have to go to Toho to get the Japanese versions of these films, as MGM allegedly only has very poor elements for the American versions. For those reasons I'd bet this has to refer to something else.
Okay, so scrubbing through Wikizilla's search engine, the small description on Wikipedia, and a few topics on this board, this is what I've come up with that MGM possibly owns via their majority ownership of the old AIP library (It was kind of hard to track down info for these all in one place so please add on if I missed anything/got stuff incorrect):
- Several Showa Godzilla films (Not likely at all, Criterion has those)
- War of the Gargantuas (See above)
- Showa Gamera films (Very unlikely, I don't think MGM has any of these)
- Some of Media Blasters' library: Space Amoeba, Frankenstein, Dogora, Atragon, Matango (Also unlikely, these have probably reverted back to Toho/don't think MGM ever owned these)
- Yongary (Possible, but Kino Lorber already released it on Blu-ray)
- The Magic Serpent (Another possibility. Not sure who owns this one)
- Gappa (See above)
- Warning from Space (See above)
- Gorath, The Last War, Human Vapor (The only Toho films we know MGM has but as Teresawa said above, they likely only have poor elements to use)
If it's not something from Toho, I think it might be The Magic Serpent, Gappa, or Warning from Space. We'll have to see.
Last edited by UltramanGoji on Wed Nov 28, 2018 1:35 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Gargantuas wasn’t an AIP release, and of the former AIP titles you named, the only one that definitely still resides with MGM through AIP is Yongary (as mentioned already released on Blu-Ray). The others have all since long reverted to their Japanese studios.
One possibility is Voyage into Space, AI-TV’s feature version of “Johnny Sokko.” Actually either the film or series could fit the bill: MGM titles, Japanese monsters, and not presently on Blu-Ray. But I would argue that the entire series seems unlikely considering it’s already on DVD and the film on its own doesn’t really warrant its own release.
Looking forward to seeing what comes of this. Scorpion does great resortations (eerily enough I'm watching their new Death Ship restoration and it's beautiful).
Any issues, please feel free to private message me or e-mail me at MaritonicTK@gmail.com. Bruno says we're not supposed to hate.
MechaGoji Bro7503 wrote: ↑Tue Jan 31, 2023 3:24 pm
Don't go to a friend's wedding, send him 100 copies of Gamera vs Zigra instead. Be a man.
I'm definitely curious to see what they mean. Might also just be regular horror creatures, though the connotations of "Japanese monsters" do suggest daikaiju.
MGM *did* have Return of the Giant Monsters (the AI-TV version of Gyaos) in the early 2000s. That film, with the MGM logo, ran on UPN on 6 April, 2002. According to Keith Aiken here, MGM's rights to Return expired as late as 2005-06. I'm certain that none of the AI-TV Gameras are still with MGM, as Shout! was able to license all the classic Gamera films from Kadokawa through Joyplex in 2010-11.
I was also thinking Gappa The Triphibian Monster but that wasn't an MGM title either.. It has had several DVD releases under Gappa and Monster from a Prehistoric Planet..
Godsteigman wrote:I was also thinking Gappa The Triphibian Monster but that wasn't an MGM title either.. It has had several DVD releases under Gappa and Monster from a Prehistoric Planet..
It may have been once but it isn’t anymore. AI-TV brought it over here as Monster from a Prehistoric Planet and it was officially released on video and laserdisc under that title through Orion. MGM later purchased Orion, but I think Gappa had reverted to Nikkatsu by then; Media Blasters put it out on video and DVD the next year.
Godsteigman wrote:I was also thinking Gappa The Triphibian Monster but that wasn't an MGM title either.. It has had several DVD releases under Gappa and Monster from a Prehistoric Planet..
It may have been once but it isn’t anymore. AI-TV brought it over here as Monster from a Prehistoric Planet and it was officially released on video and laserdisc under that title through Orion. MGM later purchased Orion, but I think Gappa had reverted to Nikkatsu by then; Media Blasters put it out on video and DVD the next year.
MikeSTZillak wrote:
Isn't the AIP version public domain?
No, it shouldn’t be in the public domain, but distributors certainly treat it that way. The AI-TV version has the adequate copyright notice on the title card. AI-TV’s successors (Filmways, Orion, now MGM) almost certainly didn’t renew the copyright though, but that’s probably because they didn’t have a chance to before their rights expired and it reverted to Nikkatsu. Even if the copyright for the AI-TV version expired, I’m pretty sure all versions of the film should be protected here through international copyright laws. I’m not a lawyer so I can’t explain the ins-and-outs, but that’s how I understand it.
