128 replies to this topic

[B5Erik2]

Soon. Give it a few months.

[Blue Eyes]

[box]With The Living Daylights not being re-released in 2002 a rumour was reported as fact. In truth, Sam Neill has nothing to do with The Living Daylights not being re-released on DVD and VHS.

With the 40th anniversary of the James Bond series, and the release of Die Another Day looming, MGM re-released the previous James Bond adventures on DVD and VHS. However, despite nineteen official previous adventures MGM, and internationally Fox, were only releasing eighteen of the films. For an unknown reason, 1987

[General Koskov]

This legal jargon is code language for...

A CONSPIRACY!!!

(Sorry, watched JFK t'other night).

[DLibrasnow]

Since United Artists bought out the Harry Saltzman share in the James Bond franchise back in the mid-1970s so the late producer could pay off his debts, and MGM subsequently gobbled up UA in the 1980s in a merger (yeah right, who are we kidding - MGM took over UA).

Why is it that Danjaq would hold the rights to the movies, since MGM owns a 50 percent share of EON and also Danjaq.

[zencat]

Way to set the record straight, Blue Eyes. Nice article.

Was TLD really released 15 years ago? My gosh, it seems like yesterday. What have I done with my life?

[fulgentius]

Well, I wouldn't wait for it to be released until at least a few years, seeing how Bond teams up with Bin Laden in this movie !

[Blue Eyes]

The official statement (now a part of the main page article);

[box]The reason the James Bond DVD

[stromberg]

Originally posted by Blue Eyes
Thanks Zencat. It was quite good to be able to do it frankly, and lay a rumour to rest. Can you imagine how this would have entered Bond mythos?

This will become a part of the Bond mythos for sure. But my guess is that people will keep telling that the movie was unavailable because of Aghanistan. We'll see in a few years. Some people will try to keep rumours up to make just some more money out of their old copies of TLD. Shame on them. And apollogies to Sam Neill.

Nice article indeed, and thanks to John Cork for that necessary clearifying.

There it goes, after two months and almost 100 posts, one of the last reservations for wild speculations and up-to-date-rumours

[BONDFINESSE 007]

I CANT BELIEVE THAT A MAN,S EGO GOT THE BEST OF HIM, TO BRING TO A HALT 1 DVD BECAUSE OF A SCREEN TEST?.......A SCREEN TEST? WHAT ARROGANCE. I HAVE AN OLD COPY WITH THE SCREEN TEST THAT I BOUGHT LAST MARCH AND HE CANT GET THAT ONE HA HA

[DLibrasnow]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Blue Eyes

I'm pretty certain that Eon bought out MGM's rights quite some time ago.
[quote] [/QUOTE]

Not sure, What I do know is that Cubby Broccoli put Danjaq up for sale in the early 1990s. There were no takers though.

I doubt EON would have the financial clout to buy out the "lions" share. After all, it was beyond the financial capability of the Broccoli family to buy Saltzmans shares back in the mid 1970s. There is a large portion of both the "Inside The Spy Who Loved Me" and "Harry Saltzman" DVD documetaries on the subject.

I don't know. Does anyone know for sure if MGM sold its 50 percent share of EON?

[zencat]

Originally posted by BONDFINESSE 007
I CANT BELIEVE THAT A MAN,S EGO GOT THE BEST OF HIM, TO BRING TO A HALT 1 DVD BECAUSE OF A SCREEN TEST?.......A SCREEN TEST? WHAT ARROGANCE. I HAVE AN OLD COPY WITH THE SCREEN TEST THAT I BOUGHT LAST MARCH AND HE CANT GET THAT ONE HA HA

Hey, Bondfinesse my man, didn't you read the article? The screen test had nothing to do with it.

[DLibrasnow]

Poor old Sam Neill.....Well I am glad the whole thing got cleared up

[BONDFINESSE 007]

WELL I HAVE SEEN AND HEARD SO MUCH IT IS HARD TO KNOW WHAT TO BELIEVE...ONE TELL US THIS AND ANOTHER TELLS US THAT

[colony]

I work for Blockbuster Video and when the BOGOF offer started in November we got an e-mail through telling us why TLD was not in the offer,and it was two sentences telling us the the basics of the official reason........why didn't anyone just ask.
Personally i get lost with all this rights/ownership jargon, sorry to be selfish but i'm glad i've got my TLD dvd safe and sound on my Bond shelf.

[DLibrasnow]

Nothing selfish about it colony. I picked up the DVDs in their initial release in1999 and 2000 and they weren't cheap. The DVD of TLD will be out eventually for all those who have yet to get it.

[Blue Eyes]

WELL I HAVE SEEN AND HEARD SO MUCH IT IS HARD TO KNOW WHAT TO BELIEVE...ONE TELL US THIS AND ANOTHER TELLS US THAT

Do you still believe in Santa Clause too?

I doubt EON would have the financial clout to buy out the "lions" share. After all, it was beyond the financial capability of the Broccoli family to buy Saltzmans shares back in the mid 1970s.

I'm pretty certain that I'm right about this. My memory tells me that Eon bought their other half back from Eon and not MGM.

[DLibrasnow]

Originally posted by Blue Eyes

I'm pretty certain that I'm right about this. My memory tells me that Eon bought their other half back from Eon and not MGM.

I'm not sure what you mean by this. United Artists owned 50 percent of EON in the early 1990s, I'm just not sure if Wilson and Broccoli ever were able to buy up the former Saltzman shares that United Artists bought in the mid 1970s.

[Blue Eyes]

Replace my second Eon with MGM. I meant that Eon bought them off UA before MGM bought the company.

[DLibrasnow]

Thats possible...

[The Girl With The Golden Gun]

Originally posted by fulgentius
Well, I wouldn't wait for it to be released until at least a few years, seeing how Bond teams up with Bin Laden in this movie !

i'm sorry, elaborate, please.....

[fulgentius]

Well, not to turn this into a political discussion, but the character of Kamran Shah was very close to the image that was Bin Laden's at the time.

I don't know if you were around during the 80s, but if you were, I'm sure you remember that mujahedeen were "sold" to the public as romantic freedom fighters who could do no wrong. Of course, former mujahedeen are not too popular right now, but at the time the fight against communism was all that mattered. The movie "Rambo III" and "The Living Daylights" shared the same enlightened worldview and both actually came out at the same time.

It's possible that Kamran Shah was actually based on Bin Laden: rich, well-educated man who goes to war against Russia, he is helped by the western powers in the process (Kamran Shah is helped by Bond, Bin Laden was trained by the CIA !)).

How things have changed !

[DLibrasnow]

Yes, I thought about this too. I believe that Kamran Shah was based on Bin Laden, who was busy fighting the Russians at the time, with the help of the USA.

[Turn]

If we go by this approach for TLD, then shouldn't the same be applied to Rambo III, which came out a year after TLD. It too dealt with Afghan freedom fighters struggling against the Russians and the invincible Rambo leading their cause.

The Rambo trilogy released that DVD a year ago and I haven't seen anybody threaten to pull it. Then again, Rambo is no Bond.

[fulgentius]

Yes, both films were very similar (related note: unfortunately Rambo was released at the very end of the Afghan conflict and was thus immediately outdated; beginning of the end for Stallone)

Small difference, though, is that Rambo III doesn't feature any "Bin Laden type" character like Kamran Shah.

Might explain why it was not pulled off, but then again, as you said, Rambo is no Bond; with DAD (a movie with controversial politics of its own) coming out, the last thing MGM would have wanted was to alienate the audience with a 15 year old catalog title. Too risky. Rambo, on the other hand, is essentially a dead franchise; can't really be hurt in any way right now.

While MGM's decision (if indeed they pulled the film off because of 11/09) might seem ridiculous and hyper careful, let's not forget that some nutcases recently launched a petition for Newline to change the title of the movie "The Two Towers" because of 11/09. Nutcases or not, these guys are potential moviegoers too...

But all of the above is pure speculation, of course...

[The Girl With The Golden Gun]

Originally posted by fulgentius
Well, not to turn this into a political discussion, but the character of Kamran Shah was very close to the image that was Bin Laden's at the time.

I don't know if you were around during the 80s, but if you were, I'm sure you remember that mujahedeen were "sold" to the public as romantic freedom fighters who could do no wrong.

i was b. 1984 !!! so was 5 when LTK came out!!!!

[fulgentius]

A little too young to watch CNN perhaps :-)

[The Girl With The Golden Gun]

also, not in the right country to receive it! we can get Fox, but thats about it!

[fulgentius]

you can get Fox inside your hollowed out volcano lair with liquid hot magma ?

wow !

[The Girl With The Golden Gun]

yeah, mini-me and the laser provide excellent coverage, didn't you know!! i've also realised that if i volcano contains magma, it can't be hollowed out! d'oh!!!!

[Scottlee]

I could be wrong about this. I did only skim-read much of the 100 odd replies after all. However, if I'm right, I can't believe nobody has at least considered this theory...

*Half price deals enable you to buy the entire Bond DVD set for about