Anchor Bay/Blue Underround

korano (korano) 2009-03-02 17:13:49 UTC #1

I have a burning question, are these two releasing companies the same? There releases seem to be.

autephex (autephex) 2009-03-02 17:20:23 UTC #2

If I have my facts straight, which I may not, I think the BU guy split off from Anchor Bay and started doing his own thing with BU

I know that BU has re-released some AB titles, only changing the packaging

ENNIOO (ENNIOO) 2009-03-02 18:00:08 UTC #3

I think you are correct.

R_T_C_Tim (R-T-C Tim) 2009-03-03 22:53:00 UTC #4

Yes, Bill Lustig, head man at BU, worked for ABUS originally before starting his own company. Due to the way they divided up the rights, he has been able to re-release several of the ABUS titles (including a few Spaghetti Westerns) under Blue Underground branding.

Blue Underground has largely closed down in recent years, their spin off is Severin Films founded by David Gregory and a few BU staffers - they are releasing a variety of Euro-cult films, but not of the Spaghetti Western variety.

autephex (autephex) 2009-03-03 23:08:45 UTC #5

Good info, I was un-aware of Severin Films

mrchallenge (Col. Douglas Mortimer) 2009-03-03 23:58:43 UTC #6

Thanks for the info Tim, and Mondo Esoterica is the fucking bomb, even though I sometimes disagree with a review here and there, the specs about the discs are second to none.

BU still seems pretty active these days. They are still releasing DVD's. Not as frequently as before but they have some new releases coming up.

cm215 (cm215) 2009-03-04 02:54:32 UTC #7

Yeah, Severin might actually be decent if they're DVD weren't $30 each.

Admin (Sebastian) 2009-03-23 23:31:03 UTC #8

due to the purchase of AB by Starz Ent. there have been restructuring recently, according to Rare&OOP DVDs, a well-informed blog, a whole catalog of titles will be discontinued, Take a Hard Ride included.

It's I guess safe to say that genre titles from AB will be discontinued. Get them while you can

AvatarDK (Søren) 2009-04-11 08:27:46 UTC #9

None of Severin discs costs more than $18 if you buy them at regular online retailers. $30 sounds like the 'suggested' price but you don't pay that anywhere. Ah perhaps you do at amazon.com but not at online dealers like dvdpacific, deepdiscount etc. etc.

Their Emanuelle box sets are around $40 that's true. But they also come with three movies and a soundtrack cd.

Check it out:

http://www.dvdpacific.com/search2008.asp?p=0&s-text=SEVERIN&sws=1&swdvd=1&swdva=1&swumd=1&swhd=1&swbr=1&no=m0

Severin does a fine job. No spaghetti westerns that's true but a lot of other excellent Italian good stuff

AvatarDK (Søren) 2009-04-11 09:31:09 UTC #10

I can see that this thread has been made a 'sticky' but why? It contains no information whatsoever about the spaghetti western releases by the two companies.

Admin (Sebastian) 2009-04-11 10:53:41 UTC #11

so non-sticky it is, sorry my mistake

korano (korano) 2009-04-11 18:47:26 UTC #12

Alright. How about this.

Anchor Bay and Blue Underground are two seperate US DVD releasing companies that saplit andrelease the exact same stuff butin differentcompnaies. Most Anchor Bay discs sem out of print while Blue Underground's are not.

There releasesare top notch. Widescreen, clean picture above or at level with Koch Media. They usually include interviews with the stars and filmakers of the films and some with producers. All ofthem have very in depth if somewhat brief bios of the stars and filmakers. Many of them often include Italian audio as an option. With English subs. They are completely uncut and even include cut out footage from the vaults in Rome. These scenes are presented in Italian with English subs.

Top notch releases.

How's that?

Admin (Sebastian) 2009-08-04 13:39:14 UTC #13

fixed up our BU guid a bit:

http://www.spaghetti-western.net/index.php/Blue_Underground_DVD_catalog

mainly formatting wise. Can someone go through it and add information where it's missing, like video formats, extras, subtitles, etc? thanks! then I might re-announce it on the Main Page

Rififii (Rififii) 2009-08-04 13:40:30 UTC #14

Sad to see they still havent released any new titles...

FrankTalby (Frank Talby) 2009-08-04 14:24:47 UTC #15

Both are on the way out if not already. Blue Underground could not compete with the bigger companies churning out some real junk and not just in the Western genre.

Admin (Sebastian) 2009-08-04 15:39:00 UTC #16

i'd really love to buy all BU's titles, I just can't afford. but if I was an already employed person somewhere (maybe I will in a year from now or so), I'd certainly buy at least 5 titles a month

Pistolero08 (Pistolero08) 2009-08-13 18:08:05 UTC #17

You'd think the Blu Ray releases BU is putting out would be enough to keep it afloat.

autephex (autephex) 2009-10-13 21:22:54 UTC #18

i see that the Blue Underground website is now showing an expired domain name.. does this mean they are officially closed down?

i was trying to find some info on future Bluray releases, mainly Maniac, and saw their website is gone..

i think i'm starting to jump on the bluray bandwagon, as prices are dropping and the picture quality is really quite an upgrade.. we're talking 8gig DVDs versus 50 gig Bluray discs..

anyone have any info on the planned BU Bluray discs that aren't out yet?

FrankTalby (Frank Talby) 2009-10-13 21:43:48 UTC #19

what website were you checking out autephex?

here's the site and it is up and running with news on BluRay dvds. http://www.blue-underground.com/

autephex (autephex) 2009-10-13 21:46:50 UTC #20

nope, just clicked on it again and its not there.. its just a generic template for "movies" and says it needs to be renewed

"blue-underground.com expired on 10/06/2009 and is pending renewal or deletion."