Kino Lorber Studio Classics: Lost Highway

[tenia]

The lampshade on the eighth comparison is quite blown out too, while I'm unsure about how dark the last grab is supposed to be. As a whole, I lack absolute knowledge about the movie's photography, but some of these caps (1, 3, 6, 7 and 9) look way too orange to me. I can imagine the MK2 disc being possibly too cold, but this warmth on the Kino disc almost look like a blunt adjustment.

[swo17]

Any chance of Indicator releasing this?

[peerpee]

It might be blown out in the neg, my point is that the Kino is more blown out than the MK2, and thus worse.

[peerpee]

Any chance of Indicator releasing this?

With Universal looking like having 2-3 years left, I doubt any label would want to get involved at this stage of a licensing period. Kino did though, and look what happened.

The OCN is in France. Universal don't own it.

[mfunk9786]

It's like the MK2 release, but with sunburn! Woof!

[justeleblanc]

With Universal looking like having 2-3 years left, I doubt any label would want to get involved at this stage of a licensing period. Kino did though, and look what happened.

Peerpee, where did you see that Universal has 2-3 years left? And do you know if Elephant Man and Straight Story are in a similar state of limbo with Paramount and Disney respectively?

[mfunk9786]

Typically these deals are 20 years long, and Universal acquired the rights to the film in 2002 or thereabouts, when the husk of October Films merged with Good Machine and was acquired by Universal to create Focus Features under Universal's umbrella - not sure if peerpee has details on the specific arrangement as it pertains to Lost Highway but I'd bet he does and can illuminate further.

[peerpee]

Intelligent guesswork based on experience. Universal weren't in on the ground with the film in 1997. Their first global involvement with it appears to be 2002. Which would suggest a 20 year deal, up in 2022. All speculation on my part, but it would explain a lot of things here.

[justeleblanc]

Thanks!

[mfunk9786]

Also worth noting that not every film released by October went to Universal, which means they surely made some decision on which films they were picking up and which they weren't when October (later USA Films) went away in 2002. Which would suggest that they bought it for a period of time but don't own it forever and ever. The timing makes a ton of sense.

[Finch]

Re the red push in the KL captures: FWWM had a red tint as well and my memory of the most recent MK2 restoration is a bit hazy right now but I seem to recall that the reds were more pronounced on the MK2 than, say, the New Line, and the MK2 print of FWWM was signed off by David Lynch (and the first season of Twin Peaks in particular had the "sunburn" effect, at least on the DVD but the BD seems to have preserved that too for the most part - I don't have my boxset at hand). I'm inclined to say that the colours at least are more accurate on the Kino Lost Highway and in line with what Lynch seems to want his 90s output to look like colour-wise, but either way, it's well short of Tim Lucas's assertion that this is a "gorgeous" transfer. That said, the MK2 definitely looks too bright. I've given Kino a lot of grief over the last few pages but the colours and contrast (blown out highlights notwithstanding) are closer to what I remember seeing in 1997 than the French disc.

[Calvin]

We'll probably never be able to ascertain who is telling the truth behind the scenes. Kino have shown willingness to do restorations and delay releases to please the filmmaker in the past (Brick, Kundun) so I certainly don't doubt that they offered to do so here. Why Lynch would refuse and then tweet that I have no idea. He may have been annoyed at them commissioning extras, but ultimately they had to drop them anyway so it feels like that would be cutting off his nose to spite his face - and that of his fans. There's not going to be another US release for another few years, and probably not in the UK either - it looks like it and Dune are the only Universal releases still in print here.

Any chance of Indicator releasing this?

I suspect if we get any Lynch from Indicator it will be The Straight Story, which is with Film4 in the UK who they have recently been licensing from.

[FrauBlucher]

With all the back and forth about this, I’m really curious to see how this plays out over the next several years. I still think when all said and done it will be re-released by Criterion in the States. In the meantime Kino will probably sell out the run if there are no glaring problems, meaning average to above average, with the disc.

[domino harvey]

It’s worth noting that since Kino Lorber Studio Classics began five years ago, none of their releases have gone out of print. I strongly suspect their license window for this is longer than three years

[FrauBlucher]

But have they ever released anything where the studio’s agreement lapses? And if the title transfers the ownership to filmmaker what does that mean for existing agreements?

[domino harvey]

We don’t even know that such a thing is the case here. I’m merely pointing out that there is no precedent as of yet for a short-term licensing agreement like that from KL. Peerpee may be correct, none of us know yet and won’t for a while unless someone speaks up. But taking for granted that this license and release is only temporary isn’t based on any evidence from this label in particular

[Kino Insider]

Would Lynch have to be addressed for a restoration? It seems Kino could have restored it, put it out even without any extras or input from Lynch and he'd be happy with it? This is maybe too simple of a take but it doesn't seem that complicated?

Per DGA rules that all major studio abide by, no new restorations could be produced without the filmmaker involvement or permission.

[Kino Insider]

Hear hear. Kino should have pulled it.

Why? We were happy with the transfer and it'll be a very good selling title for the label.

[Luke M]

Would Lynch have to be addressed for a restoration? It seems Kino could have restored it, put it out even without any extras or input from Lynch and he'd be happy with it? This is maybe too simple of a take but it doesn't seem that complicated?

Per DGA rules that all major studio abide by, no new restorations could be produced without the filmmaker involvement or permission.

Ah, thanks

[Kino Insider]

The dupe negative is in the US and the original camera negative is in France, like we said, we would've done whatever that made him happy.

[Kino Insider]

Once we knew we couldn't even include a trailer and I knew how he hated chapters, I asked my boss if we could include 1 chapter every minute, instead of our usual 8 chapters, but he said no.

[black&huge]

The dupe negative is in the US and the original camera negative is in France, like we said, we would've done whatever that made him happy.

....right.

Once we knew we couldn't even include a trailer and I knew how he hated chapters, I asked my boss if we could include 1 chapter every minute, instead of our usual 8 chapters, but he said no.

Haha. Super funny.

[Ashirg]

It’s worth noting that since Kino Lorber Studio Classics began five years ago, none of their releases have gone out of print. I strongly suspect their license window for this is longer than three years

John Ford's The Hurricane is OOP, but I think that's it.

[domino harvey]

Oh, that’s right— good catch! As I recall, didn’t it go OOP relatively quickly after release? There may have been other factors at play there, but even just one out of countless hundreds shows it’s def not the norm

[peerpee]

Hear hear. Kino should have pulled it.

Why? We were happy with the transfer and it'll be a very good selling title for the label.

Because the director is alive and he's unhappy with it.

Your main concern is very evident: that "it'll be a very good selling title for the label". Why is your happiness and your sales more important than what the director wants?