The Beastmaster (1982) - the hunt for the original camera negative

The Beastmaster was one of my favorite adventure movies as a kid and I've long hoped for a restoration and US blu-ray release. Boggled my mind why such a popular film hasn't been put out on blu-ray in the US (there are some foreign releases), and now with a recent Facebook post from director Don Consareli, we get the bad news that the original camera negative (OCN) is missing.

Don Coscarelli

BEASTMASTER RECLAIMED!
Today is the 38th anniversary of The Beastmaster with good news and bad news. The good first:
My Beastmaster co-writer Paul Pepperman and I have reclaimed the copyright to our screenplay. The Beastmaster remake anyone?
Bad news to follow:
THE BEASTMASTER IS LOST!
Upon reclaiming our copyright we received devastating news. The original camera negative (OCN) of The Beastmaster has been lost! Actors, artists, craftspeople and technicians put years of effort into production of our film and it appears to be gone! Especially depressing is that this was one of the late cinematographer John Alcott’s final films. John Alcott was Kubrick’s legendary cameraman of A Clockwork Orange, Barry Lyndon, The Shining and more. In honor of his memory we cannot let this stand!
So what can you do to help us find the negative? We are asking fans, fellow filmmakers and collectors to visit www.WhereIsTheBeastmaster.com for all clues we have on the missing Beastmaster negative.
If you have info please use the contact form to send us leads.​

https://www.whereisthebeastmaster.com

I really hope they find it!

 

Jeez... from https://www.whereisthebeastmaster.com/the-lost-negative:

We received devastating news that the film’s rightsholder allowed his attorney to remove The Beastmaster OCN from its climate-controlled vault in Hollywood and store it in his garage in the San Fernando Valley, California. This senseless act was highly damaging on its own as high temperatures in hot garages are destructive to motion picture film causing them to fade and degrade. Adding insult to injury, the rightsholder has informed us that this attorney sold the home, moved out and abandoned the OCN in that garage!

That is just insane. I recently ordered a foreign blu-ray of the film and came to suspect it was not authentic. Would love to have a proper version, 4K UHD if possible.

 

Really is a shame. The BeastMaster section of Coscarelli's book was great!

 

This is Kodo and Podo. They are my friends.

I freaked when I found this in a cheap multi film DVD set. Absolutely nothing else in the package interested me. John Amos was very good and Marc Singer was quickly becoming one of my favorite actors.

Beastmaster 2 now? meh
And please, no reboot.

 

It's a shame they didn't make more in the vein of the first one while Marc was still young and fit. He was obviously willing to do more of them, but for the sequel they transport Dar to 1990 Los Angeles? WTF?

 

wow! hopefully the one who has this will do the right thing and give it up! I'd love a BD!

 

Back in the 80's, it was played so often on cable that it was said that HBO actually stood for "Hey, Beastmaster's On!"

 

I think TBS had 24-hour marathons a few times. I haven't seen it in years but I imagine it would be a major nostalgia rush. They really should have done a trilogy all set in the same time.

 

Holy cow,I was eight years old when I seen Beastmaster in the theater.

 

Even if it's found, is the OCN too far gone to be restored? Post #2 makes it sound pretty bleak and that the damage would be severe.

 

When I was a kid, I found those tall bird/bat-like creatures terrifying, the way they would wrap their nasty wings around a person and seem to digest them down to a pile of bones in just a few seconds.

 

who knows? hopefully it will be better than we expect!

 

Ah yes... I remember those days.

HBO = "Hey, Beastmaster's On!"
TBS = "The Beastmaster Station"

 

For what it’s worth, Coscarelli had nothing to do with the sequel. In his (very entertaining) memoir, he makes fun of it.

 

Yes, this is a fascinating story. I'll have more to say later on in the year.

 

I know. And it had as predictable as result as when Milius had nothing to do with the Conan sequel, unfortunately. Actually, Beastmaster II is worse than Conan The Destroyer. Did Coscarelli say WHY he didn't take part in the sequel? Did he not want to at all, or not want to direct the script they went with? Whether it was Coscarelli or not, as other directors could have done a good job, I just think it was an awful decision to go with the time/dimension travel story and put Dar in the modern world.

 

Don is in the process of getting all the rights back with his producing/writing partner, and there's a good chance they'll try to do a remake and/or a new TV series. A lot is up in the air. He's a very interesting guy -- I think Phantasm is one of the most amazing and original low-budget horror films ever made.

 

One of the last PG movies with frontal nudity?

 

?? Do you mean a brief scene of Tanya Roberts and her priestess/friend swimming in the river? It's really not much

 

Isn't this why PG13 came about a couple of years later?

 

Things like it. I think Spielberg (and the Temple of Doom and Gremlins specifically) got the ball rolling to create the PG-13. I don't know if there's much nudity at all, if any, in PG or PG-13 movies these days.

 

There's barely any in R movies these days.

The varying standards on what is "nudity" for men vs. women is kinda funny, especially when you look at how little Mar Singer, John Amos and whoever his little boy companion is wear through this movie. LOL!

I think PG is just fine as a rating for this movie.

 

The Anchor Bay DVD was pretty good, wasn't it? Haven't watched it in a while.

 

Of course, just because the negative is missing doesn't mean the film is lost.

 

So true!!!!

When MGM/UA had the distribution back in '82, at least one IP and an IN was made either by CFI or Metrocolor…plus 16mm IN’s were struck, both for non-theatrical and TV syndication, so it’s not a lost film. Who knows if YCM's were made, but 2nd or 3rd generation elements are around-- Funny, I had a zoom happy hour with some old colleagues a few days ago and the search for the OCN came up---it sounds like some type of “work” is being done by a small facility in Hollywood on what elements are known, but she wasn't sure if it was a simple review or a start of a remaster---regardless, hope the OCN can be found!!