Warner Brothers Archive Collection Blu-rays

[EddieLarkin]

Holy crap, when was JLU announced? People have been asking for that for years!

[captveg]

Holy crap, when was JLU announced? People have been asking for that for years!

At the Warner Archive Comic Con panel last month. They said they are targeting a November release.

[EddieLarkin]

Donen's Deep in My Heart, 10th Nov

[domino harvey]

They're really just going title by title thru that last Musicals box, huh?

[Jakamarak]

Does anyone have any idea what's up with the Astaire/Rogers musicals? In 2009 George Feltenstein, senior VP at Warner Home Video, did an interview in which he suggests one or more or all would be coming to blu in 2010. It's five years later and nothing. The same interview suggests that upgrades are in process (and certainly some of TCM's showings of these films are cleaner than the DVDs).

I wonder if they overestimated interest in these titles on DVD and that gave them cold feet about HD. My guess is the spectacular Astaire Rogers Ultimate Collector's Edition must not have flown off the shelves. When I purchased Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 of the budget TCM sets, I was amazed not to find flip discs inside. I was expecting those or something like the WB Noir collection with two films crammed on the same side of a disc. However, the TCM sets appear to have the exact same discs as the single releases and the collector's releases of the same titles -- same transfers, same extras. They're an incredible bargain. Perhaps those TCM sets were a way for WB to dump a bunch of unsold product.

These Astaire/Rogers films would be excellent candidates for WB's Archive Collection. Maybe I'm delusional, but I feel almost all of the Astaire/Rogers RKO titles would sell better than Deep In My Heart! I would be happy with even one -- especially if it was The Gay Divorcee. But I imagine they'll have to release Top Hat and Swing Time and perhaps even Shall We Dance? first.

[Jameson281]

Does anyone have any idea what's up with the Astaire/Rogers musicals? In 2009 George Feltenstein, senior VP at Warner Home Video, did an interview in which he suggests one or more or all would be coming to blu in 2010. It's five years later and nothing. The same interview suggests that upgrades are in process (and certainly some of TCM's showings of these films are cleaner than the DVDs).

I wonder if they overestimated interest in these titles on DVD and that gave them cold feet about HD. My guess is the spectacular Astaire Rogers Ultimate Collector's Edition must not have flown off the shelves. When I purchased Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 of the budget TCM sets, I was amazed not to find flip discs inside. I was expecting those or something like the WB Noir collection with two films crammed on the same side of a disc. However, the TCM sets appear to have the exact same discs as the single releases and the collector's releases of the same titles -- same transfers, same extras. They're an incredible bargain. Perhaps those TCM sets were a way for WB to dump a bunch of unsold product.

These Astaire/Rogers films would be excellent candidates for WB's Archive Collection. Maybe I'm delusional, but I feel almost all of the Astaire/Rogers RKO titles would sell better than Deep In My Heart! I would be happy with even one -- especially if it was The Gay Divorcee. But I imagine they'll have to release Top Hat and Swing Time and perhaps even Shall We Dance? first.

I'm sure Feltenstein would love to release the Astaire/Rogers films. My guess is that since they are RKO films, and that library is in rough shape, that they would require a lot of work (and money) to make them Blu-ray ready. (I seem to recall a lot of fans griping about the DVDs). So that might account for the delay.

[Noiradelic]

Top Hat and maybe a couple of others will presumably get mainline releases. Warner is extremely slow upgrading pre-1960 films to Blu. No Bogie/Bacall BDs yet either, though The Big Sleep is rumored to be coming.

[Ribs]

Warner's put up a survey asking to choose three from a list of titles to gauge interest for a potential release: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/?sm=I38p ... sG5p5kGg==" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[feihong]

Good to see The Big Sleep up there in demand. Don't know why they haven't released the film yet.

Only after I completed the survey did I stop to think that I should have written in Mildred Pierce.

[Ribs]

Well, I voted for Michael Collins, so I've done my good deed for the day I suppose.

[Gregory]

They really think they need to gauge the interest in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, which they already stated was slated for release in 2014?

[swo17]

Wrote in the Busby Berkeley Collection.

[connor]

Wrote-in On Dangerous Ground.

[feihong]

Aw, man, I should have thought of On Dangerous Ground, too.

I checked Michael Collins instead. That was, in retrospect, kind of short-sighted.

[Caligula]

Asked for the rest of the Bogart/Bacall films and the Astaire/Rogers films

[knives]

Greed write in which I would think is the most obvious thing in the collection.

[Jonathan S]

Greed write in which I would think is the most obvious thing in the collection.

Or indeed any of the major MGM silents that Warner haven't even released on DVD - The Crowd, The Wind, etc.

[FrauBlucher]

I voted several times. I wrote in for Key Largo and then A Day at the Races.

I'm not really sure why they need a survey for The Big Sleep, Now Voyager, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf and She Wore a Yellow Ribbon. Aren't these all iconic in their own right, as well as no brainers for upgrades and besides, way more interesting than many of the upgrades WAC have already released.

[knives]

Yes, I nearly did The Wind which has probably been more obscured over time, but Greed is such a glaring and awful omission. I hope at least they farmed it out to a good company.

[Noiradelic]

Decoy, from the 4th noir set? The random title generator at work again! That's so off the wall I gotta vote for it. Wrote in Straight Time.

[perkizitore]

I asked for The Crowd, but I am really curious how many people asked for The Devils.

[Altair]

I voted for Dark of the Sun although I wish I could include the proviso that it is the uncut version... Also, On Dangerous Ground for the write-in selection.

[cdnchris]

Man, I was confusing On Dangerous Ground with On Deadly Ground and wondering what the hell was wrong with you all.

I must say I'm a little bummed by the lack of support for Strange Brew.

[jazzo]

My write in vote went to Nancy Savoca's Dogfight from 1991, a tiny little gem that I seem to wind up watching almost annually.

[captveg]

The Big Sleep (1946)
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
The Devils (1971) (Write-in)