comment #1

D.Z. says ...

I wonder if that has anything to do w/ the recent slow-down in New Beverly updates.

comment #2

Cadavra says ...

It is a disaster, but only a short-term one. What were destroyed were answer prints used for screenings; the negatives and fine grains are stored elsewhere and are safe.

comment #3

Mgmax, le Corbeau says ...

That's what I've heard too. The archival material was at Deluxe; these were the prints they sent out for repertory showings. Unfortunately, I wonder if it really is only a short-term problem; hard to imagine they'll strike new 35mms of a lot of those things, at least for some years, or ever in many cases.

comment #4

rgmax99 says ...

"...the negatives and fine grains are stored elsewhere and are safe."

Yes, but is it not going to be a major financial undertaking to duplicate ALL those negatives and fine grains for the destroyed answer prints?

Perhaps my hope for an anamorphic Charley Varrick literally went up in flames on Sunday. Why duplicate that when there's likely to be more return on the money to duplicate friggin' Problem Child?

Woe is me.

comment #5

Kristopher Tapley says ...

Holy shit. I know Joe Corey.

But to the issue at hand, don't studios keep these things in deep vaults while stuff that has any exposure whatsoever are duplicates? I'm pretty sure that's how WB handles it. If irreplaceable stuff is gone, that's a rather epic tragedy.

comment #6

Kristopher Tapley says ...

Oh, I suppose I could have read the comments that have already been made. Like I said, if stuff's irreplaceable, them I'm sad. Otherwise, the studio better hope for a killing with The Incredible Hulk to offset some of those duplication costs!

comment #7

Mgmax, le Corbeau says ...

The point is not that irreplaceable stuff is gone. Apparently it's not.

So if they want to make a Blu-Ray DVD of Blonde Venus or Horse Feathers or Trail of the Vigilantes, the materials exist (assuming they did a week ago) to do it. What may not exist, though, is a projectable 35mm print they're willing to let out of the house and be screened by a repertory theater. So the films are not lost, but it's very possible that a bunch of stuff-- from 30s Paramount films (which Universal owns) to Touch of Evil and Vertigo to who knows what-- just got harder to see on a practical level, maybe permanently.

comment #8

Mgmax, le Corbeau says ...

Okay, it may not be that bad. A 35mm collector posted this at NitrateVille:

"As far as the prints on the lot that were damaged are concerned, the only prints on the lot were the ones that don't get rented very often. More popular titles I believe are stored at Deluxe. So that CREATURE [FROM THE BLACK LAGOON] show may still be on (although I can never bring myself to see thing film in anything other that Polaroid again)."

comment #9

The Hoyk says ...

True, Mg, the popular revival material is safe. But the very notion of "not rented very often" means that repertory booking of Universal titles is going to get much less adventurous; bookers will be stuck with only hits and no curiosities. In L.A. alone, cult rarities like THE LONELY LADY, THE GHOST AND MR. CHICKEN, and COBRA WOMAN used to be easy to screen, but those past shows are now likely their last exposure theatrically, and previously-planned local midnight shows of PRINCE OF DARKNESS and even BRIDE OF CHUCKY, a movie barely 10 years old, have been cancelled.

comment #10

p.Vice says ...

Damn. All those poor fans of Bride of Chucky...

comment #11

Rothchild says ...

Don't be a dick, p.Vice. I'm not into Bride of Chucky, but there was a big screening planned at the New Bev for the anniversary. If I was a fan of that film and found out about this I would be incredibly disappointed. If this had been Fox and they lost the print of Phantom of the Paradise that they showed at Edgar Wright's fest it would have been a tragedy. Goddamn welders.

comment #12

Jimmycrackcorn says ...

"Okay, it may not be that bad. A 35mm collector posted this at NitrateVille:

"As far as the prints on the lot that were damaged are concerned, the only prints on the lot were the ones that don't get rented very often. '"

Well, geez, yeah, as long as it was only non-blockbusters affected, who cares, right?

"Damn. All those poor fans of Bride of Chucky...

Posted by p.Vice at June 3, 2008 03:17 PM"

You know what? Fuck you.

comment #13

corey3rd says ...

The films that went up in flames were the titles that they would rent to colleges, museums and festivals.

Universal was notorious for being extremely slack on keeping 35mm films in stock. I remember them not having any rental prints of Jaws and To Catch A Mockingbird. They also have an outrageous in-house charges. Ask anyone at the Alamo Drafthouse about the shocking bill they received when they offered to pay for striking a fresh print of Two Lane Blacktop.

Odds are that maybe 1% of the titles that went up in flames will get fresh prints struck.h The market for projecting 35mm is getting slim.

comment #14

Josh Massey says ...

Prince of Darkness scared the boo-boo out of me when I was a kid. I'm guessing it doesn't hold up.

comment #15

Jesse Perry says ...

"To Catch A Mockingbird"?

comment #16

corey3rd says ...

To Kill a Mockingbird - damn this Happy Hour special

comment #17

George Prager says ...

Apparently, THE LAST MOVIE safe. Someone had it stored in an empy pizza box in a break room across the lot.

comment #18

BurmaShave says ...

All you downplayers, just imagine if a college exploded but only the underclassmen died. Feel better?

comment #19

D.Z. says ...

I think what surprises me is that they didn't store the prints at a different office/warehouse, given the past fires they've had over the years.

comment #20

Mgmax, le Corbeau says ...

Not to mention, they stored it near an attraction which erupted in giant fireballs every few minutes (the Kong ride).

comment #21

supertaster says ...

Is the argument that anything ever committed to film is a precious piece of art? Even the most commercially compromised shite like "Bride of CHucky"? A "tragedy"?? I may have never heard anything so pretentious and sentimental in my entire life...

...a better analogy than college students might be wine...imagine a a cellar full of Carlo Rossi and Franzia destroyed...plenty of work and sweat went into making the jug wine, but in the end, there's plenty of better, more worthy wine to savor...and if there are jugs of Paisano stored safely somewhere else, well then shedding a tear becomes even more absurd,

comment #22

gpcreative says ...

Time to actually build a fire-proof building, I think.

comment #23

vp19 says ...

I wonder how this might affect Turner Classic Movies' long-range programming plans, as it's been showing its share of Universal and pre-1948 Paramount product in recent years.

comment #24

Le Samorai says ...

This is why, of course, film archives-- real film archives like UCLA, MoMA, and the Library of Congress-- keep their material in fire proof vaults. From the sound of it, it seems like Universal had these films in air conditioned rooms and thought that they were properly cared for. Ridiculous. If you have an acetate (or nitrate) print in the right conditions, it will maintain its quality for literally hundreds of years with minimal detorioration.

The long term effects of this are pretty big, but the short term consequences is that you will see a lot less older Uni films in archival houses etc.

comment #25

Terry McCarty says ...

George Prager wrote:
Apparently, THE LAST MOVIE safe. Someone had it stored in an empy pizza box in a break room across the lot.

If ever a film deserved a Criterinon release, THE LAST MOVIE is it.

comment #26

Cadavra says ...

"I wonder how this might affect Turner Classic Movies' long-range programming plans, as it's been showing its share of Universal and pre-1948 Paramount product in recent years."

Not at all. TCM shows films on a digital video format such as DigiBeta; they don't run actual film prints.

And to all those who sarcadtically boo-hoo the loss of "lesser" films: just because something is unknown doesn't mean it's not good. We've screened a ton of rare Universal/Paramount titles at Cinecon over the past few years, and our attendees have been knocked out of their seats (occasionally literally) by many of them. We were planning many more this year, and we still can't believe they're now gone.

comment #27

jany says ...

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