When my action feature film Death Machines was released by Crown International in 1976, it opened in 50 theaters in Southern California alone and then went worldwide.
It was filmed in the 35mm scope process called Techniscope. But when it was released on video and dvd, it was in the flat screen process, losing 50% of the screen.
Today, Death Machines was released for the first time on dvd in wide-screen, made from a good 35mm print.
I was asked to do the director's commentary track on that which I took very seriously. The review of the DVD said this:
"The main bonus here is a very informative and dense audio commentary with director Paul Kyriazi, who talks about making this as commercial as possible after his previous black-and-white scope samurai film, The Tournament, couldn't find a distributor. He covers just about everything you could want to know about the production and reveals how this is connected to Trilogy of Terror, The Killer Elite, and Sanjuro, among others."
I'm very grateful that my movies have kind of 'stood the test of time' in a small way. Recently two of my other movies; Omega Cop and Ninja Busters have had theatrical screenings with Ninja Busters coming out in Blu-ray with my commentary.
Some A movies of the past have disappeared, but not three of my B movies that I treated and directed like A movies, at the time. I was always thinking of how to keep the audience in their seats instead of running out for popcorn as they did with my first movie.
Get the Death Machines DVD here: Click here
My movie & audio list with the 23 stars I directed: Click here