Criterion Collection to Launch Free-Standing Film Streaming Service

The Criterion Collection and WarnerMedia announced today that the Criterion Channel will launch a free-standing streaming service.

The news comes in the wake of the shuttering of FilmStruck, which previously hosted the Criterion Channel. The service will launch in spring 2019, and the films will additionally be part of WarnerMedia’s recently announced direct-to-consumer platform that is planned to launch in the fourth quarter of 2019. WarnerMedia will not be involved in Criterion’s new, independent service.

“We are incredibly touched and encouraged by the flood of support we’ve been receiving since the announcement that FilmStruck will be shutting down on November 29, 2018,” wrote Criterion in a statement on their website.

Also Read: WarnerMedia to Shut Down FilmStruck Streaming Service

“Our thanks go out to everyone who signed petitions, wrote letters and newspaper articles, and raised your voices to let the world know how much our mission and these movies matter to you.

The Criterion Channel will be picking up where FilmStruck left off, with thematic programming, regular filmmaker spotlights, and actor retrospectives, featuring major classics and hard-to-find discoveries from Hollywood and around the world, complete with special features like commentaries, behind-the-scenes footage and original documentaries.

As with FilmStruck, The Criterion Channel will continue to produce their guest programmer series, “Adventures in Moviegoing,” which so far has already featured such cinephile luminaries as Barry Jenkins, Guillermo del Toro, Bill Hader, and Mira Nair. Criterion’s monthly 15-minute film school, “Observations on Film Art,” “Tuesday’s Short + Feature,” and the Friday double-bill, will all be back as well.

Also Read: 30 Classic World War II Movies, From 'Battleground' to 'Dunkirk' (Photos)

Among the newest additions to the Criterion Collection that will soon be available on the service include Rob Reiner’s cult 1980s classic “The Princess Bride,” Ingmar Bergman’s “Shame,” and two of Sidney Poitier’s most famous performances, “A Raisin In The Sun” and “In the Heat of the Night.”

FilmStruck announced in October that its service would be ending by the end of November, leading many film fans to wonder the fate of FilmStruck’s extensive library of rare, classic and foreign films, and how a new streaming service from WarnerMedia would continue to provide the service’s curated experience. Portions of the Criterion Collection had been available on Netflix and Hulu in years past, but FilmStruck became the first site to offer the nearly 1,000 films that had been added to the collection for an extra subscription fee.

A petition that was started on Change.org and had the support of Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese amassed over 50,000 signatures since the announcement of FilmStruck dissolving.

Criterion is setting the subscription price at $10.99/month but is offering a $9.99 rate and a 30-day free trial to early subscribers.

10 Westerns Inspired by Samurai Movies, from 'The Magnificent Seven' to 'A Fistful of Dollars' (Photos)

We finally got a glimpse of Shogun World in "Westworld," and the idea to mash up the two universes isn't just a coincidence. There's a long history of Westerns borrowing from samurai cinema and the other way around. Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa studied the work of director John Ford, which, in turn, led to many of Kurosawa's movies to be remade as Spaghetti Westerns. The cowboy and the samurai are each lone wanderers in a lawless world, so a crossover of themes is plausible. Here are 10 instances in which the West met the East.
HBO
"The Magnificent Seven" (1960) and "Seven Samurai" (1954)

Kurosawa's landmark film, "Seven Samurai," was highly influential on modern action cinema, but its most direct descendant was John Sturges' "The Magnificent Seven," starring Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson and Eli Wallach. The film is a remake, but its representation of American ideals of heroism and underdog spirit have propelled it to become its own classic.
United Artists/Toho Company
"A Fistful of Dollars" (1964) and "Yojimbo" (1961)

Another Kurosawa remake, "Yojimbo" is about a mysterious, quiet and lone ronin who wanders into a small town and fights to end the warring between two rival gangs. And "A Fistful of Dollars," Sergio Leone's unauthorized remake, is literally the same thing. Clint Eastwood's scowling menace is to just about any Western what Toshiro Mifune's crazed intensity is to samurai movies. "Yojimbo" would also get a sequel, "Sanjuro," as would Eastwood's "Man With No Name" series in "For a Few Dollars More" and "The Good, The Bad and the Ugly."
United Artists/Toho Company
"Blindman" (1971) and "Adventures of Zatoichi" (1964)

Zatoichi is one of Japan's longest running samurai characters -- a blind warrior originally played by actor Shintaro Katsu -- who appeared in a total of 26 films and a subsequent TV series. The Spaghetti Western "Blindman" is likewise about a sightless hired gun inspired by the Zatoichi character. And the 17th film in the Zatoichi series would be directly remade as the Rutger Hauer action movie "Blind Fury."
Twentieth Century Fox/The Criterion Collection
"Unforgiven" (1992)

In 1992, Clint Eastwood deconstructed the genre that made him famous with "Unforgiven," a Western about a gunslinger forced to face his murderous past. Twenty-one years later, Lee Sung-il and Ken Watanabe turned "Unforgiven" into a samurai tale with the saga of an infamous warrior who wants to live in peace as samurai are apprehended in 19th century Japan.
Warner Bros.
"Red Sun" (1971)

Toshiro Mifune put forth one of his most famous performances in "The Seven Samurai," as did Charles Bronson in that film's remake, "The Magnificent Seven." "Red Sun" saw both actors -- and both genres -- collide, as an outlaw is forced to team up with a samurai to help recover a Japanese ambassador's gift from bandits who left the outlaw for dead.
National General Pictures
"Requiem for a Gringo" (1968) and "Harakiri" (1962)

Masaki Kobayashi's samurai classic is about an elder ronin who wishes to find an honorable place to kill himself. The Spaghetti Western is more gory and psychedelic, but is loosely based on "Harakiri."
Paradise Film Exchange/Signal International
"The 5-Man Army" (1969)

In this Spaghetti Western, Tetsuro Tamba plays a samurai who turns tricks and joins a posse of bandits that intends to rob a train filled with gold that's heading across the Mexican border.
MGM
"Today We Kill, Tomorrow We Die!" (1968)

"Seven Samurai" star Tatsuya Nakadai shows off his skills with a machete instead of a sword as villain James Elfego, the leader of the Comanchero gang, in this Spaghetti Western.
Cinerama Releasing Company
"Django" (1966)

While not a direct remake of "Yojimbo," the Spaghetti Western classic "Django" starring Franco Nero is another story of a lone gunslinger taking on two warring gangs.
Anchor Bay Entertainment
"Sukiyaki Western Django" (2007)

Takashi Miike's stylized samurai action movie is a stylized, East meets West homage to Spaghetti Westerns that even stars Quentin Tarantino -- who has borrowed liberally from both Westerns and Japanese cinema in his own films -- in a small role.
First Look International

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Akira Kurosawa’s films inspired some of the most iconic Westerns ever made

We finally got a glimpse of Shogun World in "Westworld," and the idea to mash up the two universes isn't just a coincidence. There's a long history of Westerns borrowing from samurai cinema and the other way around. Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa studied the work of director John Ford, which, in turn, led to many of Kurosawa's movies to be remade as Spaghetti Westerns. The cowboy and the samurai are each lone wanderers in a lawless world, so a crossover of themes is plausible. Here are 10 instances in which the West met the East.

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10 Westerns Inspired by Samurai Movies, from 'The Magnificent Seven' to 'A Fistful of Dollars' (Photos)

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