5.2.03

Unearthed is is doing great. Had our 1st battle with the MPAA for Junk for the Blockbuster and Hollywood release. Talk about pain in the ass. Junk was rated NC-17 and we had to cut ONE scene in the film for a R Rating. Don't worry though. The DVD's of Junk available at all major stores and online is the UNCUT version. We just had to cut the version for the rental versions for Blockbuster and Hollywood rental outlets. They won't be sold, just rented to the masses. We also had problems with the MPAA for the DVD covers. On the DVD of Junk we have a flip cover. One with the chick with a hunk of meat in her mouth and the flip side is a bunch of zombies. The MPAA BANNED both versions so we had to make a couple of other versions of the covers for the Rated R release. Talk about a pain in the ass.

Here's the covers so you can see what was banned for Blockbuster. Pathetic huh.

THESE ARE THE COVERS THAT ARE BANNED BY THE MPAA AND CANNOT BE IN BLOCKBUSTER OR HOLLYWOOD VIDEO HOWEVER THEY ARE THE COVERS FOR THE RETAIL MARKET. SO IF YOU BUY JUNK THESE ARE THE COVERS YOU WILL GET..

BELOW
THESE ARE THE COVERS THAT WE SUBMITTED TO THE MPAA FOR THE BLOCKBUSTER RATED R RELEASE
 

VERY TAME AND NON-THREATENING HUH?

NOW, I've been hearing on the web a tiny bit of complaining about Junk not being ANAMORPHIC. Believe me, I myself wanted JUNK in anamorphic. Here's what happened and the reason why JUNK isn't anamorphic. The Japanese company that sent us the master materials sent us a crappy Digital BetaCam master. The color was off big time. It was the same master they sent Asian Cult Cinema for the PAL release. We couldn't us it because 1. it wasn't anamorphic, and 2. it was crappy. 3. It had burnt Japanese subtitles in the print. We contacted them and asked for a print of the film so we could do a fresh telecine master. Now we found out that JUNK was never shown in theaters so they didn't have a print available. We complained some more so they sent us the original cut negative of the film. We were thrilled until it it got into the hands of our telecini company in California. She looked at the film and told us it was the original CUT negative with all of the splices they used to put the film together. The glue from the splices ran onto the whole film glueing it together. This was really really bad. It meant that the whole film would have to be taken apart and re-glued together. They used the wrong glue when it was cut and now the negative was ruined to a degree.

We contacted the Director Atsushi Muroga and he gave us a master copy of the film for us to do the DVD compression for the DVD. IT had the burnt Japanese subtitles in it but it looked great and was by far, way better then the Asian Film Network release. NOW, we were like, Grrrr. cause we couldn't do an anamorphic transfer but we accepted it cause it was the best we could do. Suddenly we heard a UK company that was releasing Junk was doing it in anamorphic. I was like, "HELLO, come to pappa!" We contacted them and we started to work out a deal to get their anamorphic transfer for our release. They sent it and we looked at it. Fucking YUCK!. Now I was pissed off. This is the anamorphic transfer from the UK company. They took the bad Digital Betacam master that was originally sent to us and they converted it to PAL format, loosing a generation. The color was off, and the detail was lost. Then they took that version and they used a computer to do a FAKE anamorphic transfer. It looked like total shit and I was not about to use it for our release. We could have taken our film and made a FAKE anamorphic transfer for the film but we would have lost detail and some color to it. I was not about to do that. As a fan I want the best possible picture we can get. As a company I want to release the best version possible. So we released it letterboxed.
Just cause it says anamorphic doesn't mean it is a real anamorphic transfer. We could have used the UK version but the quality of the film would have been hurt. I am thrilled to say that our release is the best release out there and I stand by my decision.

Now before you say anything we had the same exact problem with Evil Dead Trap 2. Both Evil Dead Trap 2 and Junk came from the same company. Same negative problems, same fake anamorphic in the UK. I would rather release a clean, crisp version then a fake. dull, altered color film with anamorphic plastered on the cover to help sales. We want to release the best versions possible with our films and we will continue to do so. Below is a small list of our films that will be anamorphic. A real anamorphic transfer with fresh telecine.


BLACK SUN THE NANKING MASSACRE
ROCK AND RULE
RUBBER'S LOVER
PINOCCHIO 964

NON ANAMORPHIC TRANSFERS
EVIL DEAD TRAP 2
AFTERMATH/GENESIS/THE AWAKENING TRIPLE FEATURE
GUINEA PIG DEVIL DOCTOR WOMAN/MAKING OD DEVIL DOCTOR WOMAN/SLAUGHTER SPECIAL TRIPLE FEATURE
BOY MEETS GIRL
REVENGE OF BILLY THE KID
RED ROOM #1
RED ROOM #2
MU ZAN E
SENKETSU NO KIZUNA


Now some of these are not anamorphic due to them being video in the 1st place, shot in fullframe or cause the negs aren't available.

2.25.03

Wow, I do have to say, it's been a pretty busy month here at Unearthed Films. I'd like to thank all of you for your ravenous support you have shown us for our release of the Guinea Pig Series. If you wondering what the hold up is on the 4th disc; The Devil Doctor Woman / Making of Devil Doctor Woman DVD has been put on hold for a tiny bit. Why, you might ask? Because were in the middle of getting our hands on Guinea Pig The Slaughter Special to add on the disc. The Slaughter Special is like the greatest hits of the Guinea Pig movies all rolled up into one. We wanted to give the Devil Doctor Woman DVD an extra oomph so our release would be better then the German Box Set that was put out by the now defunct Devil Pictures in Germany. Hope that answers your questions about the lateness of the disc.