Want to see the 1982 Roy Scheider/Meryl Streep thriller "Still of the Night" on DVD? How about '77's action-drama "Rolling Thunder" starring William Devane and that young go-getter Tommy Lee Jones?
Up until now, these titles -- like many in the voluminous MGM film library -- have not been available on DVD in Region 1-encoded versions for the U.S. market.
But Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment thinks it's finally found a cost-effective way to release some of the more fringe titles in the MGM vault: manufacturing DVD versions on demand.
Partnering with fulfillment provider Allied Vaughn, Fox announced Tuesday that it will make 50 "MGM Limited Edition" titles immediately, with a full flurry of 400 titles available via the scheme over the next 18 months.
Discs will cost $19.98 and be available for order through various retailers' sites.
Fox began experimenting with DVD cook-to-order about six months ago, authoring a limited collection of 27 MGM titles -- including early-'60s TV series "Flipper" -- for on-demand DVD replication.
"MGM is deeply committed to making its library of films and TV shows available to as wide an audience as possible," said Eric Doctorow, G.M., MGM Worldwide. "MOD provides an ideal solution to retailers who wish to expand the MGM DVD titles they offer to their customers without having to make an inventory investment."
Here are the first 50 titles available under the latest announcement:
Bad Jim (1990), 92 min.
A cowpoke buys Billy the Kid's horse and, upon riding it, becomes an incorrigible outlaw himself.
By Love Possessed (1961), 116 min.
Lana Turner and Jason Robards star in a drama of passion and propriety as blue-blooded pillars of a small New England town who must face their defiant son's (George Hamilton) increasingly rebellious behavior.
Diary Of A Madman (1963), 96 min.
Vincent Price turns in a classic performance as a sculptor, possessed by an evil spirit, who hires a model (Nancy Kovack) to pose for him -- then learns thereafter that she has been brutally murdered.
Futureworld (1976), 104 min.
An amusement park of the future caters to any adult fantasy. Lifelike androids carry out your every whim. A fun place, right? Not so, as a reporter and his Girl Friday find out while on a press junket to the newly opened Futureworld...
The Hawaiians (1970), 132 min.
A sea captain's discovery of water on a plantation leads to planting of pineapples on the island.
Rolling Thunder (1977), 99 min.
A gang of sadistic thugs murder the wife and child of a Vietnam vet, who, along with his war buddy and a woman, track down and kill the murderers.
The Satan Bug (1965), 114 min.
John Sturges directed this sizzling suspenser about a nerve-racking chase to recover flasks of a lethal virus which were stolen from a government lab by a deranged and dangerous scientist, who has decided that now it is his turn "to play God"...
