Whither BCI Eclipse?

Upsetting news online this morning about the demise of trailblazing genre DVD label BCI Eclipse. According to Video Business - and to an associate who emailed me from BCI last night - parent company Navarre has pulled the plug on the genre division, citing continued unprofitability from the label, as well as general economic conditions during the recession. This is especially shocking given the fact that BCI's titles were generally priced at a bargain level, and that home entertainment is usually considered to be one of the few businesses that prospers during tough economic times. If people don't have money, it's cheaper for them to stay home and watch a video, right?

What this news means for upcoming BCI titles like Takeshis, East Meets West, their Shaw Brothers titles (both on DVD and Blu-Ray), and their announced acquisition of the old Miramax library of Golden Harvest and Cinema City films, nobody knows. Suspicions are that Navarre will try to sell the films back to their original licensors. This would be tragic, as no other U.S. companies are likely to pick them up again anytime soon...in fact, what companies remain in the marketplace who could even consider doing so?

For the time being, any fans out there who may have put off purchasing some BCI titles they've had their eyes on might want to visit Amazon pretty soon. I imagine most of these discs will be going out of print in the future. (This would include Battle Heater and Unlucky Monkey, of course.)

Personal condolences go out to BCI marketing and acquisitions manager Cliff MacMillan, who just received a pretty shitty Christmas present. Whether anybody will ever get to see all the supplemental materials I've been working on for the past year, including the interviews with Mineko Okamoto, Genji Nakamura, Yurei Yanagi and Makoto Ashikawa, Masayuki Mori, Hisao Maki, Hiroaki Fujii, Rentaro Mikuni, and others, time will tell.