Synapse Films Enters Blu-ray with Vampire Circus

[John Johnson]

Synapse Films is finally entering the Blu-ray arena. The first title from the independent studio, scheduled for December is Vampire Circus, a 1972 horror title from Hammer Film Productions directed by Robert Young and set in a 19th-century village visited by a traveling carnival whose performers are bloodsuckers. Video will be presented in 1080p and 1.66:1, while audio will be monoaural DTS-HD Master Audio.

Special features include:
The Bloodiest Show on Earth: Making Vampire Circus: all-new documentary featuring interviews with filmmaker Joe Dante, Hammer documentarian Ted Newsom, Video Watchdog editor/author Tim Lucas, author/film historian Philip Nutman and David Prowse
Gallery of Grotesqueries: A Brief History of Circus Horrors: retrospective featurette
Visiting the House of Hammer: Britain's Legendary Horror Magazine retrospective on the popular British publication featuring Nutman
Vampire Circus interactive comic book, featuring artwork by Brian Bolland
Poster and stills gallery
Original theatrical trailer
In 2011, Synapse will release Twins of Evil, Hands of the Ripper and the TV series Hammer House of Horror, although at the time it is not known if all will come out in high definition.

http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=5162

[AndyDursin]

Very excited about this release; anyone with a Blu Ray player that wants more catalog titles -- have to buy this one and support Synapse so they'll do more. Same thing with Shout's Roger Corman releases -- if they sell, they'll produce more of them.

[John Johnson]

Very excited about this release; anyone with a Blu Ray player that wants more catalog titles -- have to buy this one and support Synapse so they'll do more. Same thing with Shout's Roger Corman releases -- if they sell, they'll produce more of them.

Andy,
With regards to the Corman titles, do you know if Battle Beyond the Stars is planned for a BD release?

As for Synapse, hopefully they will do more Hammer titles. It's about time these films were out on BD.

[John Johnson]

I found this bit of info.

Synapse’s Don May Jr. gave us the scoop that they’ve picked up Robert Young’s VAMPIRE CIRCUS, John Hough’s TWINS OF EVIL and Peter Sasdy’s HANDS OF THE RIPPER, along with the classic 13-episode TV series HAMMER HOUSE OF HORROR. “We have new high-definition transfers of all three features,” May tells Fango. “Supplement producer Daniel Griffith is working with us on extras, including—so far—interviews with filmmaker and Hammer fan Joe Dante and FLESH AND BLOOD: THE HAMMER HERITAGE OF HORROR writer/director Ted Newsom. Other possible interviews and extras are in the works, including theatrical trailers and TV spots. It’s very possible we will be putting out the three features on Blu-ray as well. If we do, we’ll announce both the DVD and Blu-ray releases at the same time. All 13 episodes of HAMMER HOUSE OF HORROR will be released in a DVD boxed set. The plan is to have these available in third quarter 2010.” Keep your eyes here for details as they become available

And I discovered this particular post over at AV Maniacs by Don May, Jr, the owner of Synapse Films:

The transfers for TWINS and VAMPIRE are done and we are finishing up the digital restoration work on HANDS. All have been transferred in HD and in 1.66:1. The masters for VAMPIRE and TWINS actually look better than the HD/satellite broadcasts that were recently aired.

Daniel Griffith is helping with the supplements and we already have interviews with Joe Dante and Ted Newsom. Working on finding anything else we can! I'll maybe post some screencaps of the transfers in a few days.

We will probably be releasing these simultaneously on DVD and Blu.

http://www.shoutfactory.com/community/3044/thread.aspx

[AndyDursin]

Andy,
With regards to the Corman titles, do you know if Battle Beyond the Stars is planned for a BD release?

As for Synapse, hopefully they will do more Hammer titles. It's about time these films were out on BD.

BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS is indeed coming on Blu-Ray (and DVD) -- the Shout guy confirmed it in a few different places, but now it's been pushed back to July 2011.

I would love to see more Hammers on Blu-Ray too. Though in regards to Synapse, I think only the rights for these particular films were available to them and thus these releases could happen. I don't think they have the rights to do any other Hammer titles unless something changes, most of them are locked in with Studio Canal and other studios. And doesn't Blue Underground still have the rights to the old Anchor Bay Hammer titles? Last I heard, they didn't want to release them on BD because they were afraid they wouldn't sell enough copies.

[AndyDursin]

VAMPIRE CIRCUS looks great. A dynamite package