Kansas City, Mo., — Wade Williams, a cinema archivist and film collector, has, according to several of our most reliable sources, died earlier this month. He was believed to be 80.
Williams apparently did not have any family or children, nor was he married at the time of his death, these rumors might be all we’ll get regarding an official notice of his passing. His remains have reportedly already been cremated.
Williams had the rights to a number of MST3K movies, including “The Crawling Eye”, “Lost Continent” and “Bride of the Monster.” He has never permitted the riffing of another film he owns the rights to, “Rocketship X-M.”
Thanks to Paul for the photo and for the heads up.
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MST3K did riff Rocketship X-M in episode 201.
But he steadfastly prevented the episode from being released on home video, or being posted on-line.
I’ve heard comments about him ranging from praise for his efforts at film preservation, to criticism for perceived stinginess when it came to rights issues for said films. I’ve no idea which is closer to the truth, so I’ll just bid him a peaceful rest.
Right, that’s what I meant :-)
I pretty sure RX-M was the first MST3K episode that I saw, after which I was hooked. I would really like to see a release of this one. RIP and no hard feelings, Wade.
Let’s say this does free up the rights to Episode 201. At this stage in the game, is it still worthwhile for Shout Factory to bother with a physical DVD release? Or would it be all Gizmoplex type streaming at this point?
His name brings back a lot of nostalgia for me because it’s all over late 90s and early 2000s DVDs of 1950s sci-fi movies. He has the rights to some important ones like Destination Moon that haven’t been released yet in high definition. My guess as to why some of his movies haven’t gotten proper remasters is he probably didn’t want to be scammed out of the rights.
It would be up to shout factory, but i would like to see a physical dvd.
It would be up to shout factory, but i would like to see a physical dvd.
Dan in WI:
Let’s say this does free up the rights to Episode 201. At this stage in the game, is it still worthwhile for Shout Factory to bother with a physical DVD release? Or would it be all Gizmoplex type streaming at this po