Dave Miller
Marketing Manager, DVD and sell-through

Some time ago, MGM decided to put all James Bond films on moratorium. What’s the reasoning behind that and when will we see new releases of Bond titles?
MGM has put the entire Bond collection (with the exception of Tomorrow Never Dies) on moratorium on all formats worldwide as part of a catalog rejuvenation strategy. We’re planning a large-scale promotion of the Bond films on all formats in the near future, and hope to be issuing a few new titles on DVD, in addition to the previously released films.

Will already released Bond films like “Goldfinger”, “Dr. No”, etc. find a new release as well, or will you just continue where you left off?
They will be repackaged into Amaray packaging, but will likely be the same disc as was issued in '97 and early '98.

Selling "Tomorrow Never Dies" as a standard edition, and re-releasing it half a year later as a "Special Edition" could be considered very "aggressive" by many. What prevented you from releasing the film as a "Special Edition" in the first place?
We originally had hoped to release the two products simultaneously. However, once we got deep into development, it became clear that we couldn't get a high-caliber product out so soon after the theatrical release. Getting the attention and focus of high-profile talent soon after a theatrical release is extremely challenging. Usually this time is spent engaged in international publicity tours, supervising video transfers, and other fun stuff that only talent gets to do.
We also had envisioned a very aggressively styled (and extremely expensive) menu system that would make the user feel like a secret agent who had gained access to Bond's personal computer. This type of work is time consuming and requires plenty of time for revisions and final tweaks. In the end, I was pleased with the product, and it was very well received, but next time we'll start earlier and try to get both out on the initial street date.

Which one has been MGM’s most successful DVD release so far?
“Tomorrow Never Dies”. Even without the Special Edition factored in, it is the best-selling DVD yet released by the industry.

To many people’s dismay, “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” was one of the few pan&scan releases from MGM. Why did you decide to release exactly this film in a butchered version?
Chitty is a relatively long film, and we therefore had to make a decision as to which aspect ratio to release. As our research shows that over 30% of our customers prefer the pan&scan format, and given that Chitty is a children's film, and was released in conjunction with a large VHS promotion of the film targeting parents and their children, we felt that our plan was the only sensible release strategy. In fact, Chitty has done better than we expected. Sales are comparable to “Get Shorty” or “Blown Away” and far surpass that of “Singin' in the Rain”, “Poltergeist” and other films that your readers would expect to be top sellers on DVD. It ranks in the top 30% of our releases in terms of sales.

“How The West Was Won” is a monumental film. Sadly the transfer used for the DVD release last year is quite bad with strong and distracting discoloration. Are there any plans for a restoration of this film?
We were disappointed with the image quality of the film, but there wasn't a lot that could be done at the time. The film was made using the Cinerama process, and over the years has developed many problems with the original materials. I believe that restoration work on that title is being considered for the next few years.

How does MGM gather requests, and where can people go to make requests?
MGM is currently revamping its home site (www.mgm.com). All e-mail sent to the site will be forwarded to the proper department. While we can't answer all submissions, be assured that all mail is read by the appropriate department.

How important is DVD to MGM’s business?
MGM has the largest video library in the industry, by a high margin. We firmly believe that DVD represents the future of home entertainment. As such, we have taken great care to ensure that each release is treated properly. While some studios have dumped out product as fast as they could, we have tried to develop a sensible strategy for releasing product that people want to buy. We also develop new key art where appropriate and spend a great deal of time on our insert booklets. They aren't just rehashes of press kits from long ago. We hire a writer for each title who performed exhaustive research to gather as much material as possible that will be of interest to the film enthusiast and collector. We have also tried to create easy-to-use, themed menus that stay true to the film, without becoming a nuisance to navigate through.

Can you give us a brief outlook into what DVD owners can expect from MGM in 1999?
You will see some of our deeper catalog and legendary epic titles, including brand new restorations of Ben Hur and Doctor Zhivago (yes, both in 16:9 and 5.1) as well as The Maltese Falcon and some other favorites. You will also see a few more special edition releases.We also hope to get some of the Polygram and Orion libraries out in the second half of the year.

 By Guido Henkel

January 24, 1999