In a sad turn of events, Shout! Factory’s Werewolf box set has been canceled. Back in August, word came from the company that the set was being delayed to 2010 due to music right issues. However, it doesn’t look like those rights were worked out and they have indeed caused the entire release to be abandoned. It’s a shame that an entire set had to be canceled due to two artists holding out but it looks like those bootlegs of TV broadcasts are going to be the only way you’ll be able to relive the series.
According to the webmaster of the Werewolf Yahoo Group, “The Shout Factory had to cancel the release because of two artists (which will remain unnamed) that would not play ball. Sony does not have the individual audio tracks, so they were unable to replace the songs, as the audio was mixed together. The two songs were featured over dialogue scenes that could not be cut. The Shout Factory’s only option, even after spending a lot of time and money on it, was to cancel it and give the title back to Sony. If Sony had the audio tracks, it would have been easy to replace the two songs.“