Unless you do it yourself i think most of these will never be on dvd. 38 Special/Laura Brannigan,Scorpions world wide live in concert & of course Song of the South & Sexy Shorts from Image. Concerts & MUSIC VIDEO COMPILATIONS released on laserdisc are what im seeing.

Most people dont care enough anymore to create the DVD. Highway to Hell is one of those that will never see the light of day for another reason. There are probably hundreds if not thousands! So, that being the case, smoke them while you have them

There are TONS of laserdiscs that will probably never get released. My avatar is one of them. The only way to get Napoleon on DVD are bootlegs of the laserdisc from China. The new restoration that adds another hour of footage is premiering in the US at the end of the month and I can't wait to see it. Many other silent films will never be released in the form that they are on laserdisc as well. As stated, music rights is a big deal breaker for many of these. I too was floored when Metropolis was released.

But you never know. Over the last year with many studios doing DVD on demand like the Warner Archive, many titles have been made available. Stuff like Fellini's Casanova which was only available on Discovision for a very short time is now available, so there is hope.

Ron

The other stuff that wont be released are the old films that have been destroyed.

I once never thought Terror in the Aisles would never be released on DVD or Blu-ray because of the licensing issues of all the titles featured therein, but lo and behold it is an extra on the recent Halloween II Blu-ray. I guess they got around not being able to "sell" the title per say by including it as an extra.

There's also It Came From Hollywood, another compilation movie like TitA which would supposedly have the same rights issues, but who knows at this point.

I also mentioned this in previous posts about the 1998 Full Frame edition of Lady and the Tramp which is the Academy Ratio version. They're released that title on DVD 3x and blu-ray 1x and none of them have the Academy Ratio version of the movie (even though one or two have a 4:3 P&S option, but it's just a cropped hack up of the 2.55:1 Cinemascope transfer from the same disc.)

Someone who researches various film rights issues told me that Image's "Hollywood: A Celebration of the American Silent Film" box set will never be re-released in any video format due to unresolved legal issues involved with the Kevin Brownlow BBC series. We had a perfect edition in our shop for about a year at $125. Finally put it up on eBay and it sold for $350. I've since seen two other editions in much worse condition sold on eBay for under $200.
It looks like soundtrack music issues that have kept Paramount's "Looking for Mr. Goodbar" and "Little Darlings" from ever being released on digital media. Warner's "That Night" might also fall in that category.
"J"

Like London After Midnight? Or at least until someone finds a few existing reels of it in some attic somewhere like they did with Metropolis.

Yeah, Brownlow & Gill's Hollywood will probably never be released. It's sad because it is probably the best documentary ever produced about film of any period. For some reason that I don't fully understand, there was a small window of opportunity to get it released on dvd and during the mastering process that window closed. If I remember, the issue here is certain clips of films that the respective rights holders refuse to allow to be used. It was suggested to just remove those particular clips and release it anyway but that meant more work in editing and it was determined to not be cost effective to put anymore money into it. Heartbreaking really, and a clear example of why copywrite laws need to be re-examined.

Ron

I love hearing stories like the Metropolis story. Its amazing to me what people find in their attics, and gives hope that at some point someone may find a film that has been lost to the history books. I remember hearing that just recently they found another couple episodes of Dr. Who that had been thought destroyed. even if i may have no intention of seeing one of the films found at some point, i love those stories because its a part of history that has been found again. very interesting. I also find that i will be more likely to watch a movie that has an interesting story behind it (even if it's something i may not generally be interested in) than something that doesn't as much.

Yeah, two previously lost stories of Doctor Who have recently been rediscovered (I posted a topic here), there's still 106 missing though.

I rejoiced when the almost complete cut of Metropolis was rediscovered, I saw it in the cinema and it looked fantastic. Unfortunately there's still missing footage from the film:

Hopefully one day we'll see this masterpiece truly complete.

Never rule out that something wont get a release when it is missing or thought destroyed, it may yet still turn up as all the "destroyed" episodes of Doctor Who have shown.