In 1986 "Blue Velvet" was released and it became one of the most controversial films of the 1980's. The only film that seem to be more controversial was "The Last Temptation of Christ".
What I find more curious is the history of "Blue Velvet" on Home Video. For a film that was released in the 1980's its so weird how many times HOME VIDEO RIGHTS this film has changed hands.
The film itself was made by DEG a film company that went under over 20 years ago. It was owned and operated by Hollywood Legend Dino De Laurentiis thus the name DEG. The studio financed and released several films in the 1980's that were loaded with star power but none them ever Box Office Hits. 2 better known films made by the studio are "Crimes of the Heart" and "Manhunter" the first film to feature the character Dr. Hannibal Lecter .
When "Blue Velvet" was first released on home video critics who were once opposed the film were now defending the artistic merit's of the film and how the home video release destroyed David Lynch's vision. The reason for that was because the film was shot in panavisions wide screen format.
When Karl Lorimar Home Video (who at this time had a home video distribution deal with DEG) released the film in the Pan & Scan format. This process cuts out about 1/2 the picture and the viewer doesn't see everything the director wanted you to see. This is a common practice. Since the dawn of television any film shot in wide screen had to be pan & scanned for TV broadcast. This same process was brought over to home video.
In the late 1980's Lorimar was bought by Warner Brothers. The home video right to "Blue Velvet" feel into the hands of Warner Brothers. "Blue Velvet" was one of the first films to be released in the WIDE SCREEN format in the growing laser disc market. The reason why Warner Released "Blue Velvet" on Laser disc was by the time the did so the film had grown in statue as one of the best films of the 1980's.
In the every changing ownership right "Blue Velvet" somehow ended up in the MGM Library (Which was owned By Ted turner then Warner Brothers). MGM released "Blue Velvet" on DVD to high acclaim and the film has had 2 releases in that format. Now MGM is releasing a Blu-Ray Disc. with some deleted footage as extras on the Disc. What is amazing about this missing footage was that as of a few years ago David Lynch thought the footage was lost. He felt that the ownership of the film rights changed hands so many times he thought the discarded footage was thrown away somewhere years ago. Some Production stills however did turn up a few years ago .(and MGM included those stills on a DVD release) but not production footage!. Then great new footage from the film was found in Seattle and David Lynch is supervising a new transfer for its Blu-ray release. Now I don't think the discarded footage is going to be re-edited back into the film however the deleted footage is set to be an extra on the upcoming release. Below is a statement from
David Lynch which I got from blu-ray.com
During a recent radio interview, David Lynch revealed that the deleted scenes from his 1986 masterpiece Blue Velvet, which for a long time were thought to be lost forever, had recently been found "somewhere up in Seattle." Lynch said that "hopefully" some of those scenes will end up in an upcoming Blu-ray (although he also noted that some of them "aren't worth putting back together"). It will also feature a brand-new 5.1 mix supervised by Lynch and his sound engineer Dean Hurley.
As explained on the Blue Velvet special edition DVD released in 2002, the original cut of the film as assembled by Lynch had a running length of around four movies. However, his contract with producer Dino De Laurentiis obligated Lynch to deliver a two-hour movie so he had to perform extensive cuts, deleting whole scenes and subplots.
During the interview, Lynch said that he had been seeking out all that deleted material, "because some of these scenes on their own would be beautiful to see again." However, he found out that De Laurentiis's company had been sold to other companies and neither the producer (who passed away in November 2010) nor anybody else knew where the unused and deleted footage was. So it is a stroke of luck that such a treasure trove has been unearthed.
What I find more curious is the history of "Blue Velvet" on Home Video. For a film that was released in the 1980's its so weird how many times HOME VIDEO RIGHTS this film has changed hands.
The film itself was made by DEG a film company that went under over 20 years ago. It was owned and operated by Hollywood Legend Dino De Laurentiis thus the name DEG. The studio financed and released several films in the 1980's that were loaded with star power but none them ever Box Office Hits. 2 better known films made by the studio are "Crimes of the Heart" and "Manhunter" the first film to feature the character Dr. Hannibal Lecter .
When "Blue Velvet" was first released on home video critics who were once opposed the film were now defending the artistic merit's of the film and how the home video release destroyed David Lynch's vision. The reason for that was because the film was shot in panavisions wide screen format.
When Karl Lorimar Home Video (who at this time had a home video distribution deal with DEG) released the film in the Pan & Scan format. This process cuts out about 1/2 the picture and the viewer doesn't see everything the director wanted you to see. This is a common practice. Since the dawn of television any film shot in wide screen had to be pan & scanned for TV broadcast. This same process was brought over to home video.
In the late 1980's Lorimar was bought by Warner Brothers. The home video right to "Blue Velvet" feel into the hands of Warner Brothers. "Blue Velvet" was one of the first films to be released in the WIDE SCREEN format in the growing laser disc market. The reason why Warner Released "Blue Velvet" on Laser disc was by the time the did so the film had grown in statue as one of the best films of the 1980's.
In the every changing ownership right "Blue Velvet" somehow ended up in the MGM Library (Which was owned By Ted turner then Warner Brothers). MGM released "Blue Velvet" on DVD to high acclaim and the film has had 2 releases in that format. Now MGM is releasing a Blu-Ray Disc. with some deleted footage as extras on the Disc. What is amazing about this missing footage was that as of a few years ago David Lynch thought the footage was lost. He felt that the ownership of the film rights changed hands so many times he thought the discarded footage was thrown away somewhere years ago. Some Production stills however did turn up a few years ago .(and MGM included those stills on a DVD release) but not production footage!. Then great new footage from the film was found in Seattle and David Lynch is supervising a new transfer for its Blu-ray release. Now I don't think the discarded footage is going to be re-edited back into the film however the deleted footage is set to be an extra on the upcoming release. Below is a statement from
David Lynch which I got from blu-ray.com
During a recent radio interview, David Lynch revealed that the deleted scenes from his 1986 masterpiece Blue Velvet, which for a long time were thought to be lost forever, had recently been found "somewhere up in Seattle." Lynch said that "hopefully" some of those scenes will end up in an upcoming Blu-ray (although he also noted that some of them "aren't worth putting back together"). It will also feature a brand-new 5.1 mix supervised by Lynch and his sound engineer Dean Hurley.
As explained on the Blue Velvet special edition DVD released in 2002, the original cut of the film as assembled by Lynch had a running length of around four movies. However, his contract with producer Dino De Laurentiis obligated Lynch to deliver a two-hour movie so he had to perform extensive cuts, deleting whole scenes and subplots.
During the interview, Lynch said that he had been seeking out all that deleted material, "because some of these scenes on their own would be beautiful to see again." However, he found out that De Laurentiis's company had been sold to other companies and neither the producer (who passed away in November 2010) nor anybody else knew where the unused and deleted footage was. So it is a stroke of luck that such a treasure trove has been unearthed.
