Godzilla 85 finally?

[Emperor5353]

Any truth to the rumors that Image Entertainment is releasing this on bluray?

[Tohosaurus]

No official word and I don't think it's founded on any concrete facts, so I wouldn't get your hopes up.

[g2kmaster]

Already it seems DVD Aficionado seems to be going along with this claim. I'd be carefull, for Image Entertainment has been compared alot to Echo Bridge as of recent. Their Midnight Series is just a bunch of cheap re-releases of some Anchor Bay titles which were originaly New World properties (Children of the Corn and Hellraiser 1&2) (though it seems AB chose to keep the Halloween titles). Atleast I am pretty sure it will be in widescreen if they do release it.

[gvamp]

I don't think this will get released this company sounds like one that releases Anchor Bay titles and as we all know AB tried to release G85/RoG several years ago but was denied because Toho said they didn't have the license so it looks like this company jumped the gun so to speak and think they have the license to the film.

[omgitsgodzilla]

AB did release it on VHS, so they clearly owned it at some point. There could be hope. But from what I understand AB is just one of many companies that claims to own the US rights, which makes this sort of thing difficult. In all honesty I hope Media Blasters picks it up.

[kpa]

AB did release it on VHS, so they clearly owned it at some point.

For the Godzilla VHS tapes released in the late 1990s, Anchor Bay just acted as a packager/distributor for a handful of other labels like Golden Books and Starmaker (their GODZILLA 1985 tape has the Starmaker logo on the back). Toho has said AB never had any rights to G85.

Just a couple of months ago Toho told me that the legal issues that have held up a DVD or Blu-ray release of RETURN OF GODZILLA/GODZILLA 1985 were still in effect and would be for quite a while. Until then, they would not license the film to any distributors in North America. I have contacts at Image, so after the holiday I'll check with them and with Toho about this. But until I hear something definite from them, I'm not giving much weight to what somebody I don't know said they heard from somebody at Image. Image releases their own DVDs/Blu-rays and also handles titles for other companies (including Criterion) so they may be under the impression that they have G85 through one of those labels.

[omgitsgodzilla]

Hm. Maybe Toho should "buy" the rights back for a small sum from each company that says they own it so that those companies can just bicker for the money amongst themselves while Toho licenses the movie to a distributor that will actually do something with it. Just a thought, I know it won't happen.

[gvamp]

Hm. Maybe Toho should "buy" the rights back for a small sum from each company that says they own it so that those companies can just bicker for the money amongst themselves while Toho licenses the movie to a distributor that will actually do something with it. Just a thought, I know it won't happen.

That'd be to costly in the long run for Toho and they probably wouldn't make their money back trying to resell the license. Toho is a business and as one it wants to make a profit not a loss.

[omgitsgodzilla]

Yeah, probably true. It just strikes me as odd that, as the film's creator, Toho can't just say "skreeonk it" and pull some override thing and get the rights back. I mean, I'm not legitimately surprised they can't, it just sort of seems as if they ought to be able to do that if necessary.

[gvamp]

Yeah, probably true. It just strikes me as odd that, as the film's creator, Toho can't just say "skreeonk it" and pull some override thing and get the rights back. I mean, I'm not legitimately surprised they can't, it just sort of seems as if they ought to be able to do that if necessary.

Contracts prevent them for doing that, if either party breaches said contract then you can have a huge lawsuit on your hand which in turn means losing money.

[omgitsgodzilla]

Yeah. Though wouldn't Toho have records of whoever they sold it to (if there was anyone other than New World)? And that company would probably have records of anyone they sold it to, and they could just trace that to the actual current owner. It probably isn't that simple, but it seems like this shouldn't be so difficult to figure out. And then there's whether they own the Japanese verion in the US, or just G85, which could potentially open up kind of a loophole and allow the Japanese cut to be released here...

[Cimmerian Dragon]

^ No matter how simple it may be, it still involves some effort. Toho probably doesn't give a shit about getting '84 reissued in the U.S., or it's a very low priority at best.

[omgitsgodzilla]

Maybe MB should look into it. In any case, this is all just speculation by someone with only a rather sketchy understanding of intercorporate intellectual property procedures. I'm not very knowledgeable about these things, and am, despite the fact that I'd love to see an official release stateside, content with other means of obtaining said film.

[Cimmerian Dragon]

I actually agree with you, it should not be all that difficult to play "follow the contracts" and get this done. But even "a little" time may be more than Toho feels like devoting to this.

[Goji]

I'm just going to wait and see what Image tells kpa. I don't trust this random guy with his extremely vague post. "Image replied to me"..Well, what did you ask them exactly? That's some important need-to-know information right there.

There just isn't enough information to go by right now.

[Giga Kaiju]

Lets Wait and see but if this rumour becomes true like a couple of months ago with DAM and MEGALON then Great.

[kpa]

When Hanna-Barbera made the 1978 GODZILLA cartoon show, their contract with Toho signed over all rights for the series to Toho after 25 years. Toho hasn't told me any specifics about the contractual issues for GODZILLA 1985, but from what little they have said my best guess is that Toho had a similar deal with New World. New World is long gone, and companies like Anchor Bay have thought they got the rights to G85 when they acquired part of the studio's film library but Toho rejected those claims. And rather than deal with (potentially expensive) litigation Toho is just waiting for all clauses from the old New World contracts to expire so they 100% know the film is free and clear to license for DVD and/or Blu-ray. When it comes to legal matters Toho is always extremely cautious... they like to sue, not get sued.

[therealmccoy]

^So, in other words, this "rumor" is yet another attention-getter, correct? Because that's what I make of it.

[gvamp]

If Toho's contract with New World was for 25 years wouldn't it have expired last year?

[Goji]

If Toho's contract with New World was for 25 years wouldn't it have expired last year?

Yessir. In fact, it would have expired in 2010, I believe.

I look forward to what kpa finds out regarding all this.