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

I missed all of this news. Glad to hear this has happened and professionals put love and care into this. I’ll be getting a copy. I loved this when I was a kid. HBO had this in rotation, regularly.

 

Director Don Coscarelli revealed there were like 13 or 14 ferrets in the film! Some did certain stunts better than others, and a few just ran off. The most frightening was at the final shot at the very end, where the tiger kisses the ferret! Not an effect, an actual bit. Don refused to shoot it, fearful of the outcome, but the executive producer pushed him aside and did one take. They got the shot and no animals were hurt.

 

Cool, thanks for that.

 

The picture quality in this 4K VS release is just beautiful, and especially impressive considering the elements they were working with. You can really see how much care and effort was put into the restoration, and the packaging is absolutely top notch. This is one of the best home video releases of the year, it earned a well-deserved place in my prestigious top 10. hahaha
Well done, Mark @Vidiot. Really impressive work.

 

No problem. Stay safe.

Thank you very much; I don't have a 4k player yet, but if the blu ray is region free I will definitely purchase it.

 

A lot of relighting went on, but I tried to use some restraint so as not to step on John Alcott's work too much. In a lot of cases, we're just sneaking in a little fill or a little more "pop" on a face, but it is a change from how it looked in the theater. My take is always, "well, if they could have done this originally, they would have." But we try not to go too far.

I don't know what they did with the new VFX, but some of that was covering up the chain collar on the tiger-painted-black, a few wire removals, and there were a handful of really dodgy mattes here and there. What surprised me was the battle scene at the end was pretty spectacular -- huge fireballs, a thousand extras, horses, the whole thing. Quite a spectacle for a relatively-small indie film, and it was all pretty much real, all shot in Valencia (about 20 miles north of LA).

 

I was under the impression that the new VFX were only used in the blu-ray. I thought the 4k disc was all original.

 

Don Coscarelli is a massively underrated guy. The stuff he has made with next to zero budget...staggering.

It annoys me when you see what far less talented people struggle to do with $200+ million.

 

Very much so. An amazing guy. His book has lots of stories about low budget filmmaking. Great read.

 

I'm out of the loop. It would make sense to use the same fixed VFX in both to me.

 

Yeah. Why do new fx and leave them off the 4k?

 

Yes, Don has some hilarious (and sometimes heartbreaking) stories in his biographical book True Indie: Life and Death in Independent Filmmaking.

https://www.amazon.com/True-Indie-Life-Death-Filmmaking/dp/1250193249

I think Phantasm was one of the most original movie ideas I've ever seen, and it's unique in that he didn't yield to pressure to force a happy ending. That's a memorable, stylish film that really sticks with you.

 

still waiting for the defective doctored BD disc to be replaced! The irony; those who waited and recently purchased this got a corrected disc included in their Beastmaster Box, but those who pre-orderd months before the release and PAID IN FULL have yet to send the replacements to those customers...nice.

 

Can you provide some details on this? I pre-ordered and got my package, but I haven't watched yet. Do I need to do something, or is VS auto sending out corrected discs?

 

sure! here ya go:
Vinegar Syndrome
scroll down...

 

Ah, thanks. I think this link goes right to the post, if I did it right.

Vinegar Syndrome

We regret to inform everyone that Blu-ray #2 of The Beastmaster had a manufacturing related issue (the UHD and Blu-ray #1 are fine). Our replicator has re-pressed the affected Blu-ray disc, and beginning tomorrow, all Black Friday order shipments will contain the fixed disc.
Customers that received the faulty Blu-ray disc will be sent a replacement disc AUTOMATICALLY. Replacement discs will begin shipping out late December. There is no need to contact us.
We are putting additional steps in place with our disc replicator to hopefully prevent this issue from happening again in the future. Thank you all for understanding!
~ Team VS​

 

you got it! I'm still waiting...

 

thanks for letting us know about this!

 

You're welcome. : )

 

The package is really great looking. One criticism - they couldn't put one good picture of Tanya Roberts in the booklet? She's in the background in one and you see her from behind on the ground in another. What's up with that?

 

I was fairly young and went to see it because Tonya Roberts was in it.

Don't remember much else about it.

 

it's all great! Tonya is the cherry...

 

Maybe they need to do a Sheena box next. That really is the ultimate Tonya movie. Probably the most nudity I've seen in a PG flick. Ah, the good old days...

 

I really don't get it. Why do you all insist on calling her Tonya when her name is Tanya? I guess it easier to remember her figure than her name...

 

and they were really the good old days! I agree 100%!