MovieChat Forums > Battle Beyond the Stars (1980) Discussion > HD?

HD?

posted 15 years ago by jdryyz
4 replies | jump to latest

Roger Corman is the "King of B Movies". Does this mean his films will probably not see the light of day in new, modern formats? A lot of his movies made it to DVD but they ended up a lot like ports of laserdiscs/VHS in terms of quality. Are any of his films even anamorphically enhanced on DVD? I know my copy of Battle Beyond the Stars isn't.

Since the aforementioned is probably his biggest production ever, it seems like the best candidate for release on Blu-Ray, but I just cannot imagine that it would be cost effective for them to gather the resources necessary for this. Perhaps when Blu-Ray production costs decrease, it will be more feasible. Now that Avatar is out in theaters, maybe even James Cameron and Gale Ann Hurd can contribute to new extras since they were involved in the making of it. I hope so because BBTS is one of my favorite cheesy sci-fi films. One of only a handful I got to see in the theaters as a child. What good memories.

[–] jdryyz 15 years ago

It would seem that I have my answer:

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/forum/thread/297044/shout-factory-press-release-shout-factory-secures-rights-to-extensive-roger-corman-library#post_3649796

[–] laurence01 15 years ago

There is no reason why any film should not be released in HD. The definition of film is higher than Blu-Ray anyway.

[–] jdryyz 15 years ago

I certainly agree-- any *film* should go HD. I didn't mean to suggest that old movies "look fine on DVD". Just the opposite-- I want the films in the best format possible. Sadly, there are other factors in the decision making process. In this case, it took another company to pickup the Corman library. I'm glad they did!

[–] Banjo_oz 15 years ago

I was frankly shocked to learn BBTS was on DVD (a lot of b-movies have never got past VHS, or even TV!). As a childhood fave, I was thrilled to get it (after a lengthy search!)... and even more stunned to find it had more special features than a lot of modern new releases these days!!!