Hey there Shout!  Awesome news I just read on DVD Drive-In about the impending release of the unedited, special edition original "Gamera- The Giant Monster" on DVD in its original Japanese with subtitles!  Will you be working with the Daie people on Special Editions of the rest of the series and ... aawwww heck - I really just wanna know if this means that maybe there's a glimmer of light at the end of the MST-Gamera tunnel?

I've got an old VHS tape of "Time of the Apes" and agree that it'd be lots of fun to see it on DVD too.  But that's not even the same company, is it?  Then again, maybe someone at Daie knows a guy who knows a guy...

...say, how 'bout including the MST ep as an "extra" on the Special Edition...  I know, I know - I can dream.

Thanks for the info, dsman71.

Man, July is gonna be an expensive month.

Jesus, I forgot about August! That's right I plan on getting HUMANOIDS FROM THE DEEP and PIRANHA, too.

I'm hoping to pre-order those two next month. Just to break up the financial burden of July's FORBIDDEN WORLD, GALAXY OF TERROR and GAMERA VS BARUGON's acquisitions. Even though they were postponed from their April date, CD Universe still has them up for pre-order. I noticed the price went up on them, too. They were $14.75 a pop, now their $16 bucks, or so.

Here are the links, in case anyone else feels the need to pre-order them:

Humanoids From The Deep: www.cduniverse.com/sresult.asp

Piranha: www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp

Oh, yeah, one more thing---does Shout have access to that Gamera trilogy from the 90s? I still have the ADV releases, unfortunately, they're not anamorphic. It would be nice to have them on upgraded discs.

I know CD Universe won't have them in April, but I'm sure you can pre-order them for their August release anyway, which is what I intend to do next month, given the state of my finances. Otherwise, I'm looking at a close to, maybe, even over, a hundred dollar order. Attack Of The Crab Monsters in another fave of mine, unfortunately, with all those other flicks I've mentioned, it's not a priority to acquire just yet. 

Did you know Sony is re-issuing there Piranha II: The Spawning DVD in April?

I'll buy it if they letterbox it this time.

Dude, how can you NOT love the concept of flying piranha?! I'm cracking myself up even as I write this . . .

Flying piranha!

Oh, God . . . the mind reels.

Must stop . . . insides hurt . . . feel like I'm gonna pa--- 

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Does this schedule look right, found it on another site:

May 4 – Rock’n’Roll High School DVD & BD
May 4 – Suburbia DVD
June 22 – Death Race 2000 DVD & BD
June 22 – Warlords of the 21st Century and Death Sport (double feature DVD presentation)
July 20 – Forbidden World DVD
July 20 – Galaxy of Terror DVD
July 20 – Attack of the Crab Monsters and Not of This Earth (double feature DVD presentation)
Aug 3 – Piranha DVD & BD
Aug 3 – Humanoids from Deep DVD
Aug 3 – Up from the Depths and Demon of Paradise (double feature DVD presentation)
Sept 7 – Starcrash DVD and BD
Sept 7 – Battle Beyond the Stars
Sept 28 – Not of This Earth (1978) DVD
Sept 28 – Time Walker and Death Space DVD (double feature DVD presentation

I found what I can only assume are a few typos in the above schedule, correct me if I'm wrong, though:

Not Of This Earth (1978), I think, the date for that one should read, (1988), which means that's the one with Traci Lords. If memory serves, the '88 version was pretty good. It was also remade again in 1995, though, I can't recall anything about it, only that Michael York was in it.

Time Walker and Death Space double feature. As far as I can tell there is no Corman flick called, Death Space. I think they meant to write Dead Space, which was a 1991 remake of Forbidden World. It starred Marc Singer, and, unfortunately, I can recall that one. It pretty much sucked, and I remember wanting to see it simply because it was a remake of Forbidden World. If you're a fan of the original, and haven't seen this version, you're not missing anything. I was just on IMDB. com, and, even though, I personally don't remember, a reviewer states its a shot-for-shot remake. But, what I do remember was the gore, and that soft core porn vibe the first one had when the sex scenes kicked in, were pretty much nonexistant. And the creature was quite lame, too.

You talkn' fifty Corman titles?!

Is Screamers in there somewhere? Even though I like Island Of The Fish Men, I prefer that creepy prologue Corman put in his truncated version of it.

As long as Shout puts the Japanese uncut versions on, I'll buy the Barugona nd Jiger dvds.

So I guess UCLA is going to sit on the Americanized version of Gamera instead of letting Shout Factory release it on DVD (they wanted too much money).  I can't believe that - hiding it away in a vault is a better choice than allowing it to be digitized so that the movie's fans can finally enjoy it is a better choice?  How much money does UCLA really need?  I hope UCLA doesn't own the rest of the Americanized titles.

Thanks, Mr. B.

D'ya see any hurdles in upcoming Gamera releases in regards to Americanized versions?

Thanks!

Personally, I think ordinary DVD is more than sufficient for films like "Gamera". Gamera is fun, but it's hardly a cinematic masterpiece. Kevin Murphy wrote an interesting and entertaining piece a few years ago slamming the whole BluRay and HDDVD format business, pointing out at the time that the quality of "ordinary" DVDs is amazing and that the newer formats were clearly attempts to get people to spend a whole lot more money for only a small improvement in quality.

In spite of the drop in the price of BluRay players I still don't own one and continue to purchase regular DVDs. The cost of the BluRay player may have dropped but the cost of the discs is still outrageous. I really have no interest in going back to paying the kind of money per movie that we all paid when home video was in its infancy years ago. Regular DVD is good enough for the MST3K releases from Shout! Factory and it's certainly more than adequate for the likes of source material such as "Gamera".

Well we're not all rich enough to dump formats at a moments notice and move up the next big thing.

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that Gamera probably deosn't have Hi-Def masters. If anything Gamera would look awful on Blu-Ray, as would pretty much everthing made before 2000.

Yeah - the elements you've got to work with couldn't be as bad as what Alpha put out are they?  (Who knows, maybe they are).  But it's true, the English dubs are what made the movies fun and made them a part of our childhood memories.  I'd been hoping someone would put out DVD's compatable to what that other company did with Godzilla, and I think we're all very grateful, but I personally don't mind waiting a little extra time for a release that includes both.

UCLA couldn't be talked down from the high price the were asking for the Americanized Gamera like the rights owner of "The Final Sacrifice," could they?  What good's it doing them sitting in a vault when California's running out of money for education?

Brian, I really like your attitude in regards to sharing your disappointment about the dubs.    Yes, they are only movies, but most us grew up watching the dubs and they are the reason why many of us became Gamera fans.  I for one am glad you didn't tell us to "suck it up" and enjoy these versions instead!

Thanks for all of your efforts in helping to put this together and I do agree that this new print looks better than ever!

And we will see what the versions after Barugon will include!

Funny side note - I got a gift card for Best Buy so the first think I thought was "I want Gamera."  So I searched for it on the Best Buy website and it didn't come up (?)  ...then, on a hunch, I typed Gammera (with 2 "m's") and there it was.  So remember folks, to misspell it if you want it from Best Buy!

Hello Mr. Brian Ward,

I just bought Shout! Factory's "Gamera vs. Barugon," and I was very impressed! I have only seen the American International Pictures' verson of this film on late night TV, and the quality of the transfer was stunning. The extras were also wonderful, and I learned a great deal about a movie that I thought I had knew everything about.

A few questions for you regarding your Gamera series:

I recently read in an online review of the Barugon DVD that future Gamera releases will not feature any audio commentaries and multiple titles will be combined to single discs. Is this true? Will there be ANY extras (aside from menu selections and perhaps an animated title menu) on future Gamera releases?

Also, mentioned in the audio commentary by August Ragone, there is a documentary honoring the life and career of the man who created the Gamera and monster suits for the series, along with the miniatures and special effects. Is there any chance that this documentary, or parts of it, could be translated and featured as an extra on a future release?

Lastly, the Daimajin series was frequently mentioned in the audio commentrary, since the first Daimajin film was released on a double bill with Barugon by Daie. Do the copyright holders of the original Gamera series that Shout! has been dealing with recently also own the rights to the original Daimajin series? If so, is there a chance for a future release of the series, either as a boxed set of all three films or released individually?

Thank you for your time and keep up the great work!

Marc