Bram Stokers Dracula Table

[Espy]

No, my question is: "Does the release of BSD mean that Shadow and Johnny Mnenomic and similar tables are possible?" (By similar I mostly mean also made in the 1990s) (I hope you're right that Marvel and Disney tables are impossible! )

It largely depends on if the actors appear on the machine. Unfortunately, the two you listed do have a lot of expensive actors on them, so would probably need kickstarted.

 

[kinggo]

Don't put the idea in their head. Here in Europe your US censorship rules make me laugh and cry at the same time.

+43576473
spilling someone's guts is OK, blowing someone's brain in HD is OK, but a pair of tits...........well a big no no, that could seriously mentaly disturb children. Let's pretend that we didn't survive the first year or so of our lives by mostly sucking them.
A pair of plastic one is the issue for Big Bang Bar but at the same times, dolls can have them and kids play with them.

 

[The Night Flier]

Think they will edit out the girl moaning as she is being bitten by Dracula ( multipliers raising ) ? I'm thinking along the lines of Scared Stiff here and maybe we'll only here the moans in the pro version.

Now you've got me paranoid enough to pick up the Pro Version!

BSD is going to be an epic release for me anyhow and i'm more than happy to go pro for that table.All good.

 

[pm1109]

Just found a great you tube video of BSD
Cant wait

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OaN7vEYvfA

 

[lapaille]

nah ... this one is better https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4doA6X7Bzg

 

[Kolchak357]

No, my question is: "Does the release of BSD mean that Shadow and Johnny Mnenomic and similar tables are possible?" (By similar I mostly mean also made in the 1990s) (I hope you're right that Marvel and Disney tables are impossible! )

Shadow and JM are possible but as Espy said, probably need a kickstarter.
No love for the Disney licensed pins? You don't want Tron, Indiana Jones, or Star Wars?
I'm not a huge fan of Marvel pins either, but Spider-Man is pretty fun.

 

[Kolchak357]

Think they will edit out the girl moaning as she is being bitten by Dracula ( multipliers raising ) ? I'm thinking along the lines of Scared Stiff here and maybe we'll only here the moans in the pro version.

They should keep it in. Moans are up for interpretation in my book.

 

[Firefox2000]

Looking forward to getting my teeth into this one.

 

[Rich Lehmann]

"Bram Stokers" and "Dracula" are both public domain. There are no actors likenesses on the machine. None of the images or audio is from the movie. What licensing is anyone talking about?

 

[DanBradford]

Gary Oldman's voice is used throughout the game, for starters.

 

[David T. Melnick]

Bsd

Gary Oldman's voice is used throughout the game, for starters.

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Is Oldman the old guy in the picture FS sent to us?

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

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Is Oldman the old guy in the picture FS sent to us?

It is Gary Oldman in full Drac makeup on the backglass. Plus there's a couple of other actors there too, though since I've not seen the movie I don't recognize which characters they are.

 

[Kratos3]

No Keanu Reeves or Winona Ryder, though. I believe there are plastics with them that can go over the slings, but obviously not for this table.

 

[Espy]

"Bram Stokers" and "Dracula" are both public domain. There are no actors likenesses on the machine. None of the images or audio is from the movie. What licensing is anyone talking about?

They would need the rights for the movie the pin is based on, but I don't believe there are any actors to license.

Gary Oldman's voice is used throughout the game, for starters.

Is it definitely him and not a soundalike?

 

[Lord Boron]

It's definitly Gary Oldman. In fact he recorded lines specificly for the table. I also believe Anthony Hopkins may be in the backglass.

 

[xNiCeGuYx]

Yes, Anthony Hopkins is in the backglass.

 

[invitro]

"Bram Stokers" and "Dracula" are both public domain. There are no actors likenesses on the machine. None of the images or audio is from the movie. What licensing is anyone talking about?

Hmm... if BSD is actually unlicensed, everything makes sense!

Here is the backglass:

That's identifiably Anthony Hopkins as Van Helsing, or at least I think it is. That's unidentifiably (?) Gary Oldham as Dracula. I suppose the woman is a Winona Ryder stand-in. I haven't seen the movie, so I can't really tell who is who.

Here's the playfield, and what a lovely playfield it is:

Is that Oldham or an Oldham stand-in or something else? I suppose the woman is a Ryder stand-in.

I notice the TM above the "Dracula" on the backglass. But it's not on the same image used in the movie posters, so I suppose it's a WMS trademark? I don't really get trademark/copyright law.

On the other hand, this is from Kevin Martin's (brilliant as always) rulesheet at http://www.ipdb.org/rulesheets/3072/DRACULA.HTM :

"Bram Stoker's Dracula is a trademark of Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc."

Someone mentioned the blank slingshot plastics. This is from http://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=3072 :

"Also pictured in this listing is a game with prototype stacked slingshot plastics showing Keanu Reeves & Winona Ryder's characters on them. According to designer Barry Oursler, these plastics were removed prior to production because the actors [or perhaps only Winona Ryder] would not sign a release to use their images. However, we have been told Williams did not remove these plastics from the butyrate sheets that held the full set of playfield plastics if someone was to buy the plastics separately. Thus, while these 'prototype' plastics may not have left the factory on any game, it would have been easy to obtain them and retro-fit them onto a game."

And more detail on Ryder & Reeves from http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Pinball/BramStokersDracula :

"Adapted Out: Mina Murray and Jonathan Harker do not appear in the game, as neither Winona Ryder nor Keanu Reeves would allow their likenesses to be used. Prototype playfield plastics with their characters appear in promotional material, however, allowing aftermarket retailers to sell them to collectors."

Here is a previous TPAfans post with some license comments:
http://digitalpinballfans.com/showthread.php/1529-Bram-Stoker’s-Dracula

Someone says "there's the likeness of six actors on the table: Anthony Hopkins, Gary Oldman, Winona Ryder, Keanu Reeves, Tom Waits and Sadie Frost." This appears to be false since Ryder & Reeves are not there. Perhaps the other four are, though.

I will quickly note that the claim that the movie was not a hit appears to be false; from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bram_Stoker's_Dracula#Box_office (the budget for the movie was about $40M, per this source):

"The film opened at #1 at the box office with $30,521,679. It dropped off in subsequent weeks, losing 50.8% of its audience after its first weekend in release and exiting the top five after 3 weeks. It became a box office hit, grossing $82,522,790 in North America and becoming the 15th highest grossing film of the year. Outside North America, the film grossed another $133,339,902 for a total worldwide gross of $215,862,692, making it the 9th highest grossing film of the year worldwide."[SUP]

I can't find anything definitive on if Oldham did voice work, but if he did custom work for the table, he might be listed in the DMD credits.

Well, I think BSD is definitely licensed to some degree.[/SUP]

 

[DanBradford]

I'm surprised they didn't go for a Ron Jeremy license, as the dude in the coffin looks just like him.

 

[Fungi]

That's good stuff invitro, thanks for that.

 

[Rich Lehmann]

They are neither the actor nor the stand-in because they are not photographs. Any recreation of an actor needs to be okayed by their agents, every single image. It is why comic books now all do photo-realism and dont have any expression because the agent may think it looks bad. There is little reason why the original table would pay rights, it was likely done as cross-promotion because the studio would own the title font and any audio from the film, if it is infact Gary Oldman's voice.

I remember when the film came out there were legal disputes over whether they could trademark/copyright "Bram Stoker's Dracula" since both "Bram Stoker" and "Dracula" were both public domain. If writing the author's name made it a new original property. Which is why Mary Shelly's Frankenstein did it as well. But I think it was ruled that it did not.

The table has nothing trademarkable other than the Dracula font. The back glass has a bit, like the design of the old Dracula on the right but that would just be dealing with the studio not the actors. Gary Oldmans voice would also be the studio, Oldman would have no say in how they use it for promotion or merchandising. But if it is his voice he will likely get a residual check.