A contact of mine who lives in Europe communicated with ARTUS FILMS about their much delayed HERCULES (1958) and HERCULES UNCHAINED (1959) Blu-rays and it seems the entire endeavour is a no-go. The releases have been abandoned or cancelled.
It’s odd that this is happening to these Steve Reeves movies, which are still popular to this day. The trend of advertising an up coming release without having final closure on the deals is annoying. The packaging was excellent but what’s the point of claiming these titles when the thing wasn’t finalized behind the scenes? It’s very odd way of doing business.
Very disappointing news. At least we have the Japanese blu-rays. Looks like that’s all we’ll ever get.
The following thread sheds some light on this sad affair..
https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/monsterkidclassichorrorforum/french-versions-of-hercules-and-hercules-unchained-t80697.html
Joe, thanks for the link. Yes, it’s pretty sad.
I am interested to buy sword and sandals blu ray like thief of baghdad with steve reeves
THIEF OF BAGHDAD is available on Blu-ray in Germany. You can order from Amazon.
I was able to contact the team @Artus films, and what they told me was that once they made the deal and was given the film elements, the quality was so far gone that the titles were just not restorable, as they were. And it may have been from the same source, Chritaldi films.
And not offering Artus any other options, the project was suspended. Artus seemed to have been too trusting, before inspecting the flim and audio elements. This is not to say that they have abondned the 2 title bluray release all together.
When I last talked with Artus, they were still wanting to complete the project, but still lack acceptable / restoreable materials. If thet exist..?
Hi Todd
This is sad news.