Reading this I realized that I have owned every single one of these releases at one point in time (geez). I was looking forward to this new set as being the FINAL collection I will buy, but I would surmise that to be false? Personally, I am not one to look a gift horse in the mouth. Sony/Ghost Corps did up their game significantly with this release. I am absolutely thrilled with all this new content! Don’t get me wrong though. Am I a little disappointed that deleted scenes from GBII that we know about are still missing? Oh, absolutely! Seeing the release trailer with the Eugene Levy shot, I would’ve assumed all the shot footage with him helping them escape would’ve been included? How is the Ecto-1A scenes not included? Well, I think I know why? Sony has to pay General Motors now every time they show the vehicle. Sounds stupid but it’s true. Have you bought any merchandise in the last decade of the Ecto-1/Ecto-1A only to see the GM logo on the packaging?
We didn’t get the full Fort Detmerring scene because of dumb legalities like that. In 2016, our group was invited to Sony for the reveal of the ATC trailer and Sony provided a meal to the fan groups where Ivan Reitman went around table by table to talk to us fans. While he sat at our table I asked him about the Fort Detmerring scene. His response was that it simply ran too long and slowed the pacing of the film down which is why it was cut. Also, he said the best bit - being the ■■■■■■■■ - still worked in the montage without all the rest of the scene. I said to him that fans have been wanting to see that scene since knowing about it. I guess maybe that request hadn’t fallen on deaf ears. Fast forward sometime later and someone sent us a picture that someone posted online of the master tapes for the Fort Detmerring scene. OMG! They found it!
Fast forward to 2019, a few of us are asked out to Sony to provide props for a photoshoot. This happened a few months before Fan Fest and right on the cusp of the steelbook blu-ray release (the one with all the new bonus content). I had asked somebody in particular if the Fort Detmerring scene would even be on the blu-ray where it was confirmed, BUT that they had to cut out a large portion of the scene due to legal reasons (ie not wanting to compensate John Volstad - I assume). It’s also why the Showreel tape or whatever its called had the audio muted at the beginning. They just have some silly legal stuff they have to abide by. Is it why some of these scenes are omitted from the new set? Yeah, more than likely I predict.
I am going to guess that having to pay GM is the reason why the ‘possessed Ray’ and the additional Sherman Tulley scenes are omitted because they feature scenes of the Ecto-1A. Also, was the company or prop maker that made the Subway Ghost creature credited in the film? Were those scenes even shot? If not, that would sense why they’re not on this set. Now the composited Slimer scenes, the Liberty Island ending and other scenes like the changing out of the firehouse sign make no sense why they’re not on there unless they’re lost?
Obviously I know nothing of the specifics, but I can’t imagine why Sony wouldn’t just money hat those involved to get the full material out there. Eehhhh… I guess if we saw the material it would probably make sense.
Like the Spider-man 3 cut material sounded amazing on paper and solved some of the pacing problems. And then the 3.1 cut leaked and… no the cut content was nothing to write home about and didn’t solve any of the issues.
I’d say the only difference is with Afterlife we have literally seen some of the material that was cut and it looks ace. Like… slimed waitress, doritos, popcorn… that all looks great to me!
[quote=910dohead post_id=4966477 time=1643643958 user_id=36345]Reading this I realized that I have owned every single one of these releases at one point in time (geez). I was looking forward to this new set as being the FINAL collection I will buy, but I would surmise that to be false?
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I owned all except the individuals of the double feature DVD (I guess technically I owned the individual of the first film for a couple of weeks when I was initially given the wrong reward at Fan Fest for my ticket package and they told me to keep it) and the gift set version of it. I also never bought the gift set version of the Blu-ray double feature – I never buy the ones with the statues because I’m both not really interested and have nowhere to put them. I think I bought the individual 4K UHDs just a couple of weeks before I learned about the 35th Anniversary Steelbook, which was frustrating, especially because I didn’t have a 4K player in 2016 and thus didn’t upgrade for awhile.
I never considered that legal issues might prevent the release of further deleted scenes. I guess it makes sense, but I wonder how much it could possibly cost. You’d think Sony could put some of the $1b+ in merch money they’ve hauled in over the years toward it (and I don’t know if “merch” encompasses all the money they must have made off of all these editions, plus digital copies, rentals, etc)…
Still, can’t wait for my set to arrive tomorrow. Frustrated that it’s “by 10pm.” Hopefully a little earlier than that…
Mine arrived today and I’m just pottering through it. I’m only being slightly hyperbolic when I say the montage in the assembly cut of GB1 is worth the price of entry alone. It’s quite something, and I’ll say no more to spoil it!
The TV edits are funny as well. They serve another purpose - It brings back how many of us first saw Ghostbusters, either on TV or on VHS. No wonder people thought the suits were grey. It’s amazing how many years went bye before people could really see the film properly, in wide aspect and vivid colours.
The preview cut is awesome good to see where the deleted scenes fit in the original montage is cool also the alternate takes throughout the cut makes it cool too see how different they delivered their lines in the final released cut. Also the extended scenes some worked i thought and would been good left in
Just in case anyone had any questions, The Digital Bits confirmed with Sony that this set is a limited edition and that they have no plans to reprint it at this time.
[quote=The Digital Bits]Also today, we’ve confirmed with Sony Pictures Home Entertainment that their Ghostbusters Ultimate Edition 4K Ultra HD release was a limited edition. Not only did it sell out almost everywhere within a day or two of its announcement, the studio currently has no plans to make more copies.
[/quote]
Well, unless they reduce the price of the UK version, they’re all going to end up in landfill like that ET game in the 1980s. Still loads of those on sale, I’d imagine.
Needless to say, every corner of the box was either damaged or torn. I tried to initiate a return but they do not offer a replacement, only a refund. So I guess I’m stuck with this damaged set as they are currently sold out everywhere.
I guess I should have bought one from Walmart or BestBuy.
Just watched the Ghostbusters IIdeleted scenes. Total running time is 18:42, which is pretty thin for how many scenes they technically encompass (especially as this is 18:42 including the deleted scenes from the 35th Anniversary Steelbook).
Still, there are some good gems in here. I wish we could hear the music to get the full joke, but there’s a great new intro on the alternate take on World of the Psychic (which I think is a slightly funnier scene, even if the addition of Milton and Chloe Webb’s performance are better than what we got here). I really liked the additional bit after they use the Gigameter where Dana asks Peter if she’s cursed, and the Dana/Peter moment in the courtroom. The Sherman Tully scene is fascinating but kind of a shrug comedically; the other hospital scene is better. The Liberty navigational argument is also funny, and the new take of Hardemeyer outside the museum is better than the one in the previous batch.
Looking at this, I really do wonder if there’s some chance the other stuff was found and was all held back because they would’ve had to edit it. Could just be sort of a confirmation bias thing when the very first scene opens with 30 seconds of silenced music, but there’s another part of me that thinks this feels like a nicely comprehensive archive, and it seems a little odd that the other material wouldn’t have been with it. It’d be interesting to know what the discovery process was for these scenes.
EDIT: looks like my memory is not great and some of the ones I liked were on the old disc!
The 4K UHDs in this have Dolby Vision and are superior to the ones from previous editions. No idea about the organization of the bonus features and what might be lost if you swapped out the new Blu-ray discs, but it wouldn’t surprise me if those are reprints.
