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Topic: Booking Original Star Wars Films?

Dylan Carroll
Film Handler

Posts: 5
From: Pensacola, FL / United States
Registered: Jul 2014

posted 04-17-2015 05:29 PM

Hey every one -

Does any one have any experience doing a DCP screening of the original trilogy - not an official re release, but on a film by film basis? Imagine it might be kind of tough, just looking for some feelers.

Thanks in advance.

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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 04-17-2015 05:56 PM

If I recall correctly commercial theaters haven't shown the original theatrical cuts of the original Star Wars trilogy since the 1980's. All that has been shown in theaters since then has been the revised "special edition" versions.

The rumor mill is buzzing about a possible Blu-ray release this fall of the original cuts of the original trilogy. We'll have to see about that, but chances look pretty good for it. Perhaps a DCP might be made as well once that is produced.

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Leo Enticknap
Film God

Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000

posted 04-17-2015 06:04 PM

Someone approached us last month about a private rental screening of the trilogy, wanting to use 35mm prints from the late '90s rereleases which somehow (goodness knows how, given the security paranoia that surrounded those rereleases) ended up in the hands of a private collector. We said that we'd need proof that he'd cleared the screenings and could produce written permission from the rights owner before we'd show them. Surprise, surprise - we never heard from him again.

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Marcel Birgelen
Film God

Posts: 3357
From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands
Registered: Feb 2012

posted 04-17-2015 07:03 PM

quote: Dylan Carroll
Does any one have any experience doing a DCP screening of the original trilogy - not an official re release, but on a film by film basis? Imagine it might be kind of tough, just looking for some feelers.

Even if you get the permission from the studio (it's Disney nowadays, you won't get permission), I'm wondering where you expect to get the DCPs, because they officially don't exist.

And what version do you want? The original theatrical releases, the 1997 special editions, the DVD editions or the Blu-Ray cuts? Because they're all different...

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Mark Ogden
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 943
From: Little Falls, N.J.
Registered: Jun 99

posted 04-17-2015 07:20 PM

quote: Marcel Birgelen
Even if you get the permission from the studio (it's Disney nowadays, you won't get permission)

The original trilogy is still controlled by Fox, in spite of the Disney deal, and they are free to license and distribute same for all theatrical/non-thearical/home video without Disney approval. A New Hope is theirs in perpetuity, their control of Empire Strikes Back and Return Of The Jedi runs through 2020, at which time they will revert to Disney. Any BluRay release of the original three (or six, really) films that Disney wants to do must have Fox on board, at least for the next five years.

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Victor Liorentas
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 800
From: london ontario canada
Registered: May 2009

posted 04-17-2015 08:45 PM

Fox policy in Canada is No dvd or Blu-ray allowed.

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Michael Kurtzke
Film Handler

Posts: 45
From: Ashburn, VA, USA
Registered: Feb 2013

posted 04-17-2015 09:27 PM

quote: Victor Liorentas
Fox policy in Canada is No dvd or Blu-ray allowed.

Same here in the US for us. The Star Wars films were 35mm Only when we tried to book them.

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Michael Putlack
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 187
From: Fort Collins, Colorado
Registered: Sep 2011

posted 04-18-2015 02:02 AM

quote:
Fox no longer distributes the films you need to contact either Lucas or Disney.

- Our Fox booker in an email to me on December 17th.

Also, doesn't this belong in the thread I started on the same subject last week?

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Scott Norwood
Film God

Posts: 8146
From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas)
Registered: Jun 99

posted 04-18-2015 03:07 AM

quote: Michael Kurtzke
Same here in the US for us. The Star Wars films were 35mm Only when we tried to book them.

Are they actually bookable in 35mm? I always assumed that the answer was no and that it wasn't worth wasting Fox's time to even ask. If there is a chance, though, I might pursue it for a venue where the owner has been asking about this.

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Victor Liorentas
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 800
From: london ontario canada
Registered: May 2009

posted 04-18-2015 08:25 AM

Also if we played them,all profits had to go to charity! Including concession!

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Marcel Birgelen
Film God

Posts: 3357
From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands
Registered: Feb 2012

posted 04-18-2015 09:12 AM

quote: Mark Ogden
The original trilogy is still controlled by Fox, in spite of the Disney deal, and they are free to license and distribute same for all theatrical/non-thearical/home video without Disney approval.

Maybe they still hold the rights, but I was referred to Disney. Disney practically never allows you to show something that's not currently in release... Given their increasing market share by acquisitions over the years, that's more than a little frightening.

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Scott Norwood
Film God

Posts: 8146
From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas)
Registered: Jun 99

posted 04-18-2015 09:49 AM

I have not found that to be true. Outside of the "big" animated titles and anything Pixar, Disney has some availability of older titles, though often not great prints. I have booked Mary Poppins and Bedknobs & Broomsticks (not my picks...I just booked them) within the last couple of years. Both prints had issues, but the titles are available.

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Marcel Birgelen
Film God

Posts: 3357
From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands
Registered: Feb 2012

posted 04-18-2015 10:04 AM

Well, yes... they *might* be willing to give you some classics, but even a main feature from a few years ago is practically always a no-go.

If somebody can explain the logic behind this concept to me, then I'm all euh... ears. [Wink]

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Leo Enticknap
Film God

Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000

posted 04-18-2015 11:12 AM

I don't know if this is still formally their policy, but Disney used to have a marketing strategy of doing a major re-release of their mega-classics at set intervals, effectively as if they were new movies, and keeping those titles totally unavailable (legally) on any medium during the intervening period. I'm guessing the rationale was that if customers did not have the chance to see these films most of the time, they would make the effort to do so at the periodic re-releases and that this would boost those theatrical grosses.

On the subject of Disney, a guy I used to know in England has a pristine, 1947 16mm diacetate IB print of Song of the South. When I projected it for him (in 2007 or '08) it looked better than any 16mm print of that vintage had any right to - sharp, clear, no shrinkage/vertical weave that I could see and the audio was not bad, either. A while later, he told me that plans were afoot to show it as part of a university conference about racism, and asked me about the logistics of installing a projector in a lecture theatre that didn't have one.

Long story short - Disney's lawyers sent warning shot letters to the university when the provisional schedule was announced, and despite the university's own legal department advising that under the fair use/fair dealing and educational use provisions of British copyright law, their claim that the screening qualified on both counts would have been virtually bulletproof, the institution still backed off and canceled the screening.

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Steve Kraus
Film God

Posts: 4094
From: Chicago, IL, USA
Registered: May 2000

posted 04-18-2015 12:57 PM

I don't know about UK laws but does fair use ordinarily allow use of an entire work? Perhaps an album cover, newsworthy photo, or movie poster where there simply is no substitute, but an entire movie, not just excerpts?

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