200 motels

[deleted]

Note here: The following is my response to the same question posted at the "200 Motels" thread.

I went to the 2nd screening of "Baby Snakes" at the Aero Theatre back at the end of August & got to meet Gail Zappa. After the film, she did a short Q & A session and I asked her about the situation with "200 Motels". According to her, she & the Zappa Family Trust STILL DOESN'T HAVE the rights to the film. And as of this writing, unless something has changed on that, not only is she STILL having problems getting said rights back, but she also "can't find either a 35 OR 16mm print" of the film altogether !
Not to doubt Gail's words (and yes, she did say that those IDIOTS at United Artists DID DESTROY the Video Master sometime back in the '70s), but I seriously think that Sony (who recently bought MGM/UA) still has the film NEGATIVE and, at least, one 35mm "studio" print in their vaults - about 9 years ago, MGM/UA released the movie not only on VHS, but Laserdisc as well (and yours-truly has an LD copy to boot), so I'll bet 2-to-1 they gave her a load of B.S. on lack of said prints above. Of course, that's just my own opinion - Gail wasn't too sure WHO actually still owns the film, be it Sony, Murakami Wolf/Bizarre Prod., etc.
Even more surprising - Gail also said that in the Zappa vaults, there's a version of the film's soundtrack "that's never been used OR heard" !
So, unless something finally gets resolved & Gail gets the rights back, we probably won't get "200 Motels" on DVD anytime soon, unfortunately.