Problem is, for smalled companies, to create a Blu-ray is a lot more expensive than a DVD, so sales have to be larger to make a profit and I can’t imagine that sales of Spaghetti Westerns are so high that they can justify it.
It might also be a problem that maybe they don’t pay for any rights anyways and just use transfers from discs (or possibly TV recordings) released elsewhere. 
Anyways, from what I have read I think it is easily at least $10000 to make a basic HD master (thats just for 2k and perhaps at the shitty Italian labs ) and then the rights are supposedly very pricey nowadays (too high). Sure it doesn’t sound very high but if it were low wouldn’t the market be full of discs already?
Wild East has trouble selling even 1000 discs (everything does eventually sell out but it takes years).
Still, Mill Creek did it (and their discs are ridiculously cheap) and I think they actually paid for the rights to the Italian rights holders (who then provided the masters which probably already were ready so no money went there) with their latest double feature (Keoma and The Grand Duel), not so sure about the previous ones since they tried releasing Django which BU had the rights to (and I thought Dorado owns the Last Gun).
I doubt Mill Creek paid for the rights.
The more obscure Spaghetti westerns are a niche market so cannot see a huge amount of titles getting the Blu Ray treatment.
The newer package design of Keoma/The Grand Duel on Mill Creek says licenced from Blue-Underground on the back.
Mill Creek have also done a deal to release a load of Sony titles.
I wish our friends at Wild East would take the high road and release the two masterworks by Robert Hossein, LE GOUT DE VIOLENCE and CIMETERO SENZA CROCI as a double-feature. Everybody who sees these films comes away impressed. The films are praised everywhere, not just on this board, but outside the cult community. So they’re crossover films. Hossein was a highly respected and controversial artist in France and European cinema. He shook up the live theater in France, too. Yet no DVD distributor has shown the remotest interest in his two genre masterpieces. Likely other distributors are unaware of the films, but Wild East is aware of them.
Come on Wild East. Give us A TASTE FOR VIOLENCE and CEMETERY WITHOUT CROSSES.
better cemetery without crosses on a blue ray
Bummer. Looks like Wild East scratched the release date for the Sartana Box Set. No release date at the moment. Hopefully it’ll come out before Summer ends. :’(
Aww damn. I was saving up for that too. Anybody ask them why?
Oh, and might want to post that they are announcing another double feature, Blood at Sundown (aka The Return of Ringo) and A Coffin for the Sheriff (aka A Lone and Angry Man). I actually would have preferred maybe a Ringo double feature, like they did with Arizona Colt. Seems pretty average, though. Link below.
http://www.wildeast.net/blood-at-sundown-coffin-for-the-sheriff-coming-soon-p-208.html
Thanks, JP. When I went to their site this morning there was no mention of the Steffen Double bill. Can’t wait for it. Coffin For The Sheriff is ok, but I love Blood At Sundown.
I don’t get this. Let 'em come up with the Sartana set first.
A Coffin for the Sheriff is just mediocre stuff.
Jonny you had me a bit confused for a moment. Last time I checked, Blood at Sundown is not an alternative name for Return of Ringo. It looks like they are releasing the REAL Blood at Sundown.
Wait a minute, I thought the English alternate titles… Ah, yes, the database has Blood at Sundown as an alternate title for three films, Ringo included. I jumped to conclusions though, my apologies, didn’t notice the Steffen double bill note. The other title for this is $1000 on the Black?
I’ll say it again. Stupid alternate titles! 
Yeah. I really think it would be easier on everybody if they just used English translations of the Italian titles.
They use alot of alternative english titles. I think they use whatever name happens to be on the print, even though it may be a less familiar one. Brute and the Beast is one such example. Almost everybody knows this as Massacre Time. You would think that using the more commonly known English title would be better for sales. Sometimes they actually rectify this by getting another print that actually has the correct title, hence the re-release of Man from Nowhere being renamed Arizona Colt, and rightfully so.
Imagine if Anchor Bay released Mario Bava’s Black Sunday as “The Mask of Satan”, just be cause it happened to be the title on the print. No one would recognize it.
Well another delay in the Sartana set and that stinks and all but another double feature announcement sort of cushions the blow. I personally have never seen well either of the two new titles but specifically Blood at Sundown because I could never find a decent copy to watch and I have been wanting to see it so this is a nice treat.
I hope Wild East will include the original language as an OPTION with English subtitles this time. And from now on. It is time.
I doubt that very much.