April 6, 2009 The "Four Flies on Grey Velvet" DVD due for release in the U.S. has been blocked for legal reasons. Meanwhile, Argento's "Suspiria" is now on Blu-Ray -- but only in Italy!

First the good news: "Suspiria" has been released in Italy on Blu-Ray. No U.S. Blu-Ray release has been announced by anyone, but one could anticipate that Blue Underground would release it here someday as they seemt o hold the rights to the film in the U.S.

Now, the bad news: "Four Flies on Grey Velvet" has hit a legal snag. According to the official Profondo Rosso store Web site, the film's DVD release in the U.S. may be blocked:

NEWS of 23/03/09
Good news and bad. The good news is that the refined film by Dario Argento 4 FLIES ON GREY VELVET was finally issued on DVD in the U.S. and was announced in output in Italy in May to work on DVD distribution 01, which then would not be more than Rai Cinema.

The bad news is that the lawyers of the Argento family has already been put things in motion to block these two releases. Why? Because Claudio and Dario Argento, who are the legitimate owners of this film for the whole world except the United States (where the owner is Paramount), were only informed about this dvd by chance

An unidentified foreign company has sold the rights to 4 FLIES ON GREY VELVET to Rai, but Claudio and Dario Argento swear that it never ceded rights to the said foreign company and therefore, in their view, this is a sensational case of piracy.

There are already lots injunctions and legal injunctions to prevent at least quest'uscita 4 FLIES ON GREY VELVET Italy. The Rai/01 has subsequently announced that it has suspended for the time distribution of 4 FLIES ON GREY VELVET, at least until it has been made clearer on the actual situation of the rights of this film.


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