Now What? "Ed Wood" DVD again delayed indefinitely

[reechie]

This time, apparently it got as far as sitting in the back room of video stores before getting recalled again. NOW what's Tim Burton's problem?

http://www.digitalbits.com/#eddelay

(EARLY UPDATE - 1/23/04 - 11 AM PST)

Well, here's disappointing news. Buena Vista's Ed Wood: Special Edition (previously scheduled for release on 2/3) has been indefinitely delayed... again. We've been receiving a lot of e-mails from our retail sources over the last 12 hours, and we've just heard official word from the studio. We have no idea why this might be happening, or when the title might be re-slated for release, but you can be sure we'll update you with anything we hear.


1/24/04

We have a quick update for you on the now delayed Ed Wood: Special Edition. We've been getting a LOT of e-mails from confused retailers, many of whom are telling us that they've already received their shipments of the disc from distributors. The disc had been scheduled for release on 2/3, and many Suncoast stores already have it in their back rooms. However, we HAVE confirmed with the studio that the disc has been indefinitely delayed, so we expect that the disc will get recalled soon and stores will have to return their shipments. No doubt some copies will escape and find their way to eBay. Many readers have noticed that the disc is no longer available on Amazon, and it has been removed from the studio's press site. We'll try to let you know why it was delayed as soon as possible, and we'll post any information pertaining to a new street date as soon as it comes in.

Stay tuned...

[Ken_McAlinden]

Apparently one of the quality executives at Buena Vista was shocked to discover that the color information was missing from all of the production discs, and quickly ordered a recall. ;)

Regards,

[RDK]

:D

I can laugh - I have the LD

[Ere]

Hmmm. It was still being advertised for release today in the Sunday inserts for Best Buy ... maybe a few will make their way out the door.

[Ken_McAlinden]

Originally posted by Ere
Hmmm. It was still being advertised for release today in the Sunday inserts for Best Buy ... maybe a few will make their way out the door. It's unlikely, but we can hope, I guess. The ads get printed in advance, and Best Buy has already turned it into a dead link on their web site (selecting it from the weekly ad or "specials" links causes the generic DVD movies page to show up).

Regards,

[japes]

Went looking for it today. Neither Best Buy, Ciricuit City or Target in my area have a copy. The typical response is: "We didn't get any in today, try back tommorow or possibly at the end of the week." As I was walking out of CC I did notice a memo by the weekly circulars mentioning a studio cancellation and how the DVD would not be available as advertised. Guess no one told the sales staff. Then again should I be surprised. :rolleyes:

[reechie]

A few copies have indeed leaked out, and have hit eBay. I'm told a few FYE stores put them right out on the shelves when they got their shipments in two weeks ago.

Still no explaination...

[Ed Bishop]

That's too bad....fine film, glorious B&W, a real keeper. Why the delay on this one? Be nice if we got some kind of explanation, as it was ready to ship, apparently....:(


ED:ed:

[Mister Kite]

My local music shop called today to say that a couple of special orders came in (The Searchers SACD and the Nilsson Schmilsson remaster), so I swung by on my way home from work to pick them up. While browsing through the DVD section I saw a label divider for "Ed Wood." Believe it or not, there on the rack was one copy of the special edition DVD. I scooped it up, raced to counter and paid for all three items. On the way home, for a brief moment, I almost felt like I had just won the lottery!:D

[Scarecrow]

People have reported finding it at various Best Buys, etc.

[Mister Kite]

Originally posted by Scarecrow
People have reported finding it at various Best Buys, etc.

Brian, yes, that is correct. I was just over at Home Theater Forum and several folks had success today at Best Buy, Borders, Blockbuster, Costco and a few other retailers. It appears that many stores pulled copies from their 'new release' section but forgot about the other racks in the store...

It also looks like the recall may have something to do with a clearance issue for some of the supplements. If that indeed proves to be the case, the thinking is that when Ed Wood is finally officially released, some of the supplements may be different. Does that make this disc legitimately collectable? Only time will tell. My guess is that more of these will surface than the original recalled version.

It simply amazes me to think that this is the second time in a year that Disney has pulled the Ed Wood DVD within days of its scheduled release! :shake:

Gary

[Ron Stone]

There are already a dozen pages of "RECALLED ED WOOD DVD" on eBay, so this recall may not have worked. Prices are impressively high, but will drop if the supply is this plentiful.

[StyxCollector]

Reminds me of the recalled "History of Beavis and Butt-head" 2 DVD and VHS sets that werey recalled. Initially, they went for CRAZY money, but some still trickle onto eBay and sell in the $40 - $50 range. There are more Ed Woods up there than B&B discs were initially, so my guess is it won't really be worth a lot. Right now it's riding the hype.

[Todd Fredericks]

I suspect this DVD will be released after the oscars.....

[RDK]

Geez - 240 of them up on Ebay already. Greedy bastards - everyone's trying to make a buck. :realmad:

[greg_t]

Why shouldn't they? Supply and demand in action.

[C6H12O6]

Any mention of Roy on those Ed Wood DVD's? Maybe this could explain things:

From Jim Hill Media

----

Erasing Roy

Okay. Quick question: How many of you have heard about what happened with those "Disney Treasures" DVDs?

For those of you who don't know: Wave 3 of this extremely popular, limited edition series of Disney DVDs was supposed to have rolled into stores on December 2nd. And -- this time around -- the titles that were to have been offered in collectible tins would have been "The Chronological Donald," "Mickey Mouse in Living Color, Vol. 2," "Tomorrowland" and "On the Front Lines."

But then -- back on November 13th -- Buena Vista Home Entertainment suddenly issued a press release, which stated that -- due to unforeseen circumstances -- the release of Wave 3 of the "Disney Treasures" DVDs was going to be pushed back 'til May 18, 2004.

So what exactly was BVHE's excuse for pushing back the release of "The Chronological Donald," "Mickey Mouse in Living Color, Vol. 2," "Tomorrowland" and "On the Front Lines?" Well ... this is where this story gets kind of convoluted.

Were you to call the Buena Vista Home Entertainment guys directly (as I did) and ask them what was going on, they'd have told you that the real reason that they'd opted to put off the release of Wave 3 of the "Disney Treasures" collection was because their production facilities had just been overwhelmed by retailers' requests for additional copies of "Finding Nemo" and "Pirates of the Caribbean" DVDs to sell this holiday season. Which is what supposedly forced BVHE to push the release of Wave 3 of the "Disney Treasures" 'til May of next year.

Which is a perfectly logical explanation, don't you think? Except that the press release that Buena Vista Home Entertainment put out about this "Disney Treasures" situation says something entirely different. It says that:

Due to the overwhelming consumer demand and retailer orders for Buena Vista Home Entertainment's WALT DISNEY TREASURES Wave 3, we have rescheduled the release to May 18, 2004.

Growing in popularity with each of the two previous debuts, demand for the four titles in the upcoming wave has exceeded BVHE's ability to manufacture enough of the highly-collectible, individually numbered, limited series.

Now where this gets truly weird is that -- if you were to e-mail the Walt Disney Company and ask what became of Wave 3 of the "Disney Treasures" DVDs -- you would have gotten a third explanation of the delay. Which was:

"Yes, it is true that the new releases from "Walt Disney Treasures" will be postponed until May 2004. This is due to a vendor delay. We do not have any further information."

So that's three explanations for the delayed release of four highly collectible Disney DVDs. So which is the real reason we won't be able to purchase any copies of Wave 3 of the "Disney Treasures" DVDs 'til next May?

Roy E. Disney.

How does Roy E. factor in here? Well, how many of you have purchased copies of any of the titles in Wave 1or Wave 2 of the "Disney Treasures" series? Do you recall how each of these collectible tins had a decorative blue wrapper on the outside? Now whose signature was on that wrapper?

You guessed it. Roy E. Disney.

According to my sources within the corporation, Disney CEO Michael Eisner -- in a fit of pique -- allegedly ordered early last month that Roy E. Disney's name be stricken from the packaging of the "Disney Treasures" DVDs. And that -- in addition -- that supposedly an effort should be made to lessen and/or remove any additional references to any or all contributions that Walt's nephew had made to the Walt Disney Company.

Sounds kind of extreme, doesn't it? Well, this should give you some idea how long this feud between Michael and Roy has been festering. I mean, just because Roy E. Disney chose to officially announce his resignation from Disney's Board of Directors on Sunday, November 30th doesn't mean that things weren't terrible between these two for weeks (and even months!) before the mainstream press latched onto this story.

And it's not like Eisner hasn't done something like this before. How many of you recall how -- in the Fall of 1994 -- Michael allegedly ordered that all references to former Disney studio head Jeffrey Katzenberg be removed from all of the company's books, videos and laser discs?

Don't believe me? Then go chase yourself down a copy of the 1993 edition of Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" on laser disc. Now take a look at this disc's additional features. Given the multiple number of times that Jeffrey pops on this laser disc, you'd think that Katzenberg himself had animated every single frame of the film.

Now contrast that to the "Platinum Edition" of "Beauty and the Beast: The Special Edition" DVD that Buena Vista Home Entertainment put on sale last Fall. You could search through all the features on both discs in this set and I doubt that you'd hear more than one or two brief references to Jeffrey. It's now as if Katzenberg never existed. As if this talented producer never ever worked at the Mouse Factory.

Well, it's one thing to supposedly order that all references to a former studio head of the Walt Disney Company be deliberately stricken from the record. But quite another when the CEO Of the corporation tries to pull the same move on Walt's nephew.

Said one studio insider:

"This is a truly stupid maneuver on Eisner's part. This ham-handed attempt to get back at Roy is going to totally blow up in Michael's face. You can't just pretend that Walt's nephew never existed. Particularly now that Roy and Stanley are on the outside, trying to convince Disney shareholders that they too can make a difference.

This is the sort of thing that they used to do during Stalin's time in the Soviet Union. Not something you try and pull in today's Hollywood. Particularly when there are people like you out there, Jim. Who are happy to shine a spotlight on Eisner whenrver he's behaving like an ***.

I honestly don't know what the deal is with Michael, Jim. You'd think that -- given what PR disasters Mike Ovitz and Jeffrey's exits turned out to be for Eisner -- that this guy would finally learn from his mistakes. But not Michael. Every time Eisner gets mad, this guy loses IQ points.

Mark my words, Jim. It's this stupid petty stuff that's ultimately going to cost Eisner his job at Disney. The fact that the price of the company's stock is holding steady isn't going to matter much to the media once they find out that Disney's CEO likes to act like some Soviet dictator.

The very idea that he even try to erase all references to Roy E. Disney within the Walt Disney Company ... That's going to come back and bite Eisner in the *** big-time, Jim."

I'm afraid that I have to agree. If this allegation proves to be true -- that Eisner did in fact order that Roy E. Disney's name be removed from the wrappers on the "Disney Treasures" DVDs -- this is going to make Michael look pretty bad. That Eisner would stoop to this sort of Stalinist behavior, and then think that he could get away with it without anybody ever noticing is just beyond arrogant. It's ignorant.

Of course, once this story breaks today, I'd imagine that Buena Vista Home Entertainment will quickly be issuing a damage control press release. Which will attempt to explain why BVHE had three different explanations as to why Wave 3 of the "Disney Treasures" DVDs wasn't actually released on December 2nd.

It'll be interested to see how these guys handle the whole "Is Roy's signature still on the DVDs' wrapper or not?" issue. I'm betting that -- just to play it safe -- Buena Vista Home Entertainment will issue a non-denial denial. Which is PR talk for an answer that sounds pretty good, but doesn't actually get around to answering anyone's question.

But -- if these are the sorts of moves that Mike's going to make -- maybe it's good that he and a team of his trusted executives reportedly quietly slipped away from Disney headquarters in Burbank yesterday afternoon. To meet in secret some 30 miles away from the lot. With the hope that whatever it was that they were talking about wouldn't leak back to Walt's nephew and Stanley Gold.

And what is it exactly that Eisner and Co. supposedly talked about? Allegedly, they were putting together a battle plan for the next few weeks. Something that would take the wind out of Roy and Stanley's sails. Undercut the momentum of the "Oust Eisner" movement.

And what might that plan be? When I know ... You'll know. I'll post what I learn right here as soon as I get my hot little hands on the info.

But -- for now -- let's all reflect back on the idea of a CEO that's so out of touch, so arrogant, that he actually allegedly thought that he could erase Roy E. Disney from the Walt Disney Company.

[Ken_McAlinden]

Originally posted by C6H12O6
From Jim Hill Media

----

Erasing Roy...
That's an interesting theory even if some of the justification gets a bit broad, but I don't think it has anything to do with the Ed Wood delay. It would pobably be worth posting a link to the article in this thread. (http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=18361)

[RDK]

Just found out that a friend here at work got a copy of Ed Wood shipped to him from Amazon. He preordered and had no idea until I told im that the disc was "recalled."

[Oatsdad]

Any mention of Roy on those Ed Wood DVD's? Maybe this could explain things:

I seriously doubt this had anything to do with the delay. Roy Disney had nothing to do with "Ed Wood" and I can't conceive of any reason he would be mentioned in its supplements...