24 replies to this topic

[Freebooter]

Hello all,

Why was SK not released in the U.S.? I have read about its release in Europe or England, but have never heard of it being released over here. At least not around where Ilive. Just wonderin why. The Trailers look like it is a good movie!

FB

[johnnypt]

It was, for about a week last year in around 25 markets.  It was actually more accessible as an On Demand film in Sept & Oct.  My question is why hasn't it gotten a DVD/Blu release yet.  The merits and box office performance of the film aside, it's strange it can't find anyone to release it here.

Edited by johnnypt, 02 March 2013 - 12:23 AM.

[Freebooter]

Yep, I would like to get that movie too!!

[sonny sixshooter]

Maybe the owners are doing the right thing: trying to bury it out of shame, and crossing their fingers no one will notice that it ever existed.

 

It was on TV over here recently. Didn't make it better. Or worse for that matter. It was just mumbo jumbo between commercials.

[turko]

I don't know how it compares to the Solomon Kane stories, but purely as a sword-and-sorcery flick it was pretty awesome, I thought.

[Freebooter]

Turko, like you said, I don't know how it compares to the stories, but I have only seen trailers for it. But what I saw I liked, as purely sword and sorcery fliks go.

[johnnypt]

I don't know how it compares to the Solomon Kane stories, but purely as a sword-and-sorcery flick it was pretty awesome, I thought.

 

There's a bunch of other threads discussing this in depth, but in short: it doesn't.  One part is based on a minor point in one of the poems, otherwise IMO it has very little to do with the character the way he was written by Howard.  

 

I'm personally not a huge fan of the film myself, but I've seen way worse films get immediate releases and constant play on TV.  This film is competently enough made and Purefoy's profile has risen thanks to a hit TV show, so you'd think someone would get this out already.

[Landsknecht]

I beleive that the DVDs are still showing up on Ebay.

 

I have heard speculations about it having too strong of a religious overtone but in the end no one decided to pick it up  whatever thier reasons.

 

Although it did not follow the REH stories close enough I still enjoyed it.  Now that the obligatory character origin story is out of the way it could spawn much better sequels or a series.   

[glutton]

I enjoyed it for what it's worth. The masked guy looked pretty cool!

[johnnypt]

I beleive that the DVDs are still showing up on Ebay.

 

I have heard speculations about it having too strong of a religious overtone but in the end no one decided to pick it up  whatever thier reasons.

 

Although it did not follow the REH stories close enough I still enjoyed it.  Now that the obligatory character origin story is out of the way it could spawn much better sequels or a series.   

 

There's one other reason why there's likely no push for a US DVD release and almost no chance of a sequel: it made less than $20 million worldwide, so unfortunately there's no demand for either.

[MilkManX]

Yes I too thought we would at least get a US DVD/BluRay but nope. I got the Dutch Blu Ray as it works on US Blu Ray players. (it has Dutch subtitles but you can turn them off)

[Landsknecht]

I have an odd little story to share.  I know that not everyone loves the SK movie especially since it did not exactly follow a REH story.  Persoanlly I give it maybe a 7.5 out of 10 and am glad that I own a copy and can watch it when I want. 

 

My lovely lady wife did not like the movie the first time that I played it and walked away.  She can be a little stubborn and Scottish about her likes and dislikes sometimes.     Any way the disc got put away in the Season of the Witch DVD case somehow.  She popped it in the TV the other night and made it through to about the monastery scene before figuirng out that it was the wrong movie.  By then she was into it enough to finish watching it and suddenly it is not such a bad movie after all. 

 

Watching it again I am taken with the pilgrim family.  Besides being outside the Hollywood formula, as a reenactor I cannot find much to complain about with their gear (which is rare in movies). 

[Freebooter]

Landsknecht, thanks, and I look forward to watching it if and when I can find the DVD.

Freebooter

[Ascalante]

I was able to watch it on Amazon Instant Video. I enjoyed it and if it was released on Blu-Ray I would buy it. That said, it definitely has some flaws, which I think prevents it from being a breakthrough success. Hopefully a good translation of Howard to film will happen before I die. I would love to see Blue Flame of Vengeance done with an HBO quality. Best knife fight ever!

[Freebooter]

I would love to see any of his stories made into a movie, especially "Beyond the Black River", etc.

[SailorMiles]

I'm thinking the only way we get a successful story is if we somehow have a series such as Tales from the Crypt that shows the stories of Pulp authors, the stories would excel in that format.

[Freebooter]

That is a great idea. And if we can only get some one like Peter Jackson to do it. He became a fan of Tolkien and realy got into it and produced Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, etc. I read that he made all the people that played in that movie read LOTR and they all loved it and developed a special bond due to it. So it would be neat if he would just read Howard's and get into his stories in the same way, whether it be Conan, Kane, Bran mac Morn or whatever.

FB

[SailorMiles]

As a producer perhaps, but the best way to do it is to have up and coming directors do it, with smaller budgets it would be easy to get decent actors that would love a chance and something like this with directors trying to get a start in filming, the episodes may not be perfect but I think having people wanting to make this stuff would be grand especially at a cheaper scale than hollywood budgets demand.

[svent13]

As a producer perhaps, but the best way to do it is to have up and coming directors do it, with smaller budgets it would be easy to get decent actors that would love a chance and something like this with directors trying to get a start in filming, the episodes may not be perfect but I think having people wanting to make this stuff would be grand especially at a cheaper scale than hollywood budgets demand.

 

Adding to what you wrote, I would like to see something along those lines with REH's boxing stories.  It'd be great to get a promising actor and director and do a one season series of Steve Costigan.  Or any other of Howard's characters.

[SailorMiles]

A full season with one character I think would actually be bad for the series, especially with boxing slowly moving out of most people's thoughts, an hour show with 1 half hour and 2 15 minute segments of multiple genres would work, as such having one episode with a Steve Costigan, Breckinridge Elkins, an HP story as well as a ERB story. Allow the episodes to be multiple parts, I'm thinking along the lines of Marvel Comics Presents, have 2-3 multiple part episodes with last 3-7 or so episodes at 15 minutes each and have 1-2 one off shows an episode such as one of the multiple short short stories from the Pulp greats. The only way I see this happening is if it combines multiple Pulp authors, I would love a REH only but that is wishful thinking and to be honest having multiple seasons with equal segments to REH ERB and HP plus others would be awesome.

 

My dream season would consist of 10-20 episodes, allowing ERB's Tarzan of the Apes as well as REH's Conan story Red Nails to showcase the first half of the 1st season (those being two biggest names that would allow people to tune in since 9 outta 10 people know those two.) so roughly 10 15 minute segments of Tarzan and Conan. The latter half allow Princess of Mars and say Breckinridge Elkins or such as the lead segments for the last 5-10 episodes.