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Originally Posted by Michael Brooke  Under EU copyright legislation (which we're still in sync with, and I can't see that significantly changing), they'll definitely still be in copyright. Even films from turn of the 20th century pioneers like G.A. Smith are still in copyright (because he died in 1959, less than 70 years ago), and Cecil Hepworth's equally 120-plus-year-old films only fall into the public domain next year.
The challenge with the early Hammer titles is (a) they'll need extensive restoration work along the lines of what we've been doing with Tod Slaughter's probably more commercially appealing back catalogue (so you're still talking a hefty production budget merely to beat them into releasable shape), and (b) right now they may well be tied up in the fallout from the Network collapse, as they had the rights to Hammer's pre-Curse of Frankenstein films, so I've no idea what's happening with them at the moment, or indeed how far Network got with restoring them (although I suspect with the very early Hammer titles, it's "not very").
Trust me, we're keeping a very close eye on the Hammer situation, and will pounce if anything changes to our advantage (for instance, Sony creating HD masters of three more comedies besides The Ugly Duckling), but I'm afraid nothing's going to happen any time soon. Hence us focusing on Hammer-adjacent projects like Jean Rollin, Mexican genre films and (forthcoming but imminent) Ozploitation, the last two on the grounds that tentative toes in the water a couple of years ago (Roadgames, Mad Dog Morgan, La Llorona, The Phantom of the Monastery) turned out to be surprisingly big hits that sold out much faster than expected. |
Thank you for taking the time to explain, Michael, much appreciated. Only when you mentioned it did I remember that the UK is no longer in the EU, I had just assumed you were still in. It's still a mini-shock.
I totally understand the restoration cost vs profit for the earlier titles. I realise that not everyone mnay not be as keen as I am to watch them...
I already have my Tod Slaughter box in pre-order. This is one bit of British horror that passed me completely by and I can't wait to discover it. That it has the Powerhouse treatment is all the better.
Thinking of Severin's "Cushing Curiosities" box, I'm sure there are still many opportunities for a little box package of hitherto unseen (although not unknown) materials from beloved actors -- they (or Powerhouse!) can easily do a couple more boxes of largely unseen Cushing stuff, especially from the later 70s! -- or directors (early Terence Fisher?) for us to explore.