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Very happy about Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf!!! \:D/
Wexler's black and white photography should look brilliant.

I guess that puts a kibosh on The Crowd and The Wind to ever appear on blu from Warner....

Ashirg wrote:I guess that puts a kibosh on The Crowd and The Wind to ever appear on blu from Warner....

Why?

First look at Friedkin's Sorcerer:
http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Sorcerer-Blu-ray/68651/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

stroszeck wrote:First look at Friedkin's Sorcerer:
http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Sorcerer-Blu-ray/68651/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

By 'first look' you mean of the cover, not a review?

Horrible cover for such a great film. Still, an unexpected but welcome upgrade from Warner's

perhaps this has been covered, but this is a very long thread.

the Warner blu-ray of Leone's "Once upon a Time in America" is out of print -- are we to presume this is because the newly-discovered and -restored longer cut (closet to five hours IIRC) will be released in the future?

jonah.77 wrote:perhaps this has been covered, but this is a very long thread.

the Warner blu-ray of Leone's "Once upon a Time in America" is out of print -- are we to presume this is because the newly-discovered and -restored longer cut (closet to five hours IIRC) will be released in the future?

Yes. I'm pretty sure it was confirmed as coming later this year somewhere.

FrauBlucher wrote:Blazing Saddles 40th Anniversary edition

Apparently it's the same (very good) source master, but it remains to be seen if they re-encode it like they did with The Road Warrior. Audio should be lossless now, too.

As much as I don't like WB and their never-ending double dips, the plus side of them going back to earlier catalog titles is the addition of lossless audio tracks. I may pick this one up when its price drops very low.

It's always a bit the same : it's nice if you don't already own the previous release.
And Warner, it's of course always a good way to keep a release with a higher price point, compared to an older one now available for $5.

I'd rather they focus their energy on new-to-Blu releases, but I'm not as down on them revisiting a film after the 7-8 year cycle. Now, the 4-5 year cycle of Anniversary releases for their Super-A-List titles does irk me more (Wizard of Oz, Gone with the Wind, etc.)

Tightrope (1984) - June 10th
Black Beauty (1994) - June 17th

domino harvey wrote:Can a fairly well organized petition encourage Warners to release their Hammer holdings on Blu?

I signed. I'm hoping it works.

Signed, hoping for the best.

So, any word on The Big Parade? Did it sell enough to get us more silent films on blu?

Warner Brothers may be losing the rights to several of those titles. The Hammer library was purchased a few years back by Exclusive Media. From their website:

Many Hammer library titles are currently licensed. These distribution rights will gradually revert to Exclusive Media and will be relicensed by the international sales arm of the company. Please check this section periodically for updates.

http://www.exclusivemedia.com/company/library" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

While I would love to see more Hammer on blu in the US, it does seem kind of pointless for WB to go through the motions when all they'll include is maybe a trailer (if lucky) - compared to the great work that Studio Canal is doing in the UK (like including the deleted Dracula death scene). WB's current release schedule seems to lean towards re-releases or giant idiotic boxsets (with pencil sharpeners and such). Perhaps the petition will prove that there is a market for these in the US and give them editions comparable to the UK - but we shall see (I think licensing these out to Criterion/Shout would be optimal, but....)

In other Warner discussion: Did they kill off their Looney Tunes/Tom and Jerry blu series? Rather than include the "controversial Tom & Jerry cartoons," they decided to quit altogether? Stupid.

Minkin wrote:In other Warner discussion: Did they kill off their Looney Tunes/Tom and Jerry blu series? Rather than include the "controversial Tom & Jerry cartoons," they decided to quit altogether? Stupid.

Looney Tunes Vol. 3 is still forthcoming.

Tom & Jerry Vol. 2 is apparently indefinitely delayed because one high executive in legal refuses to let it be released with those two films, while the video department refuses to release it without them since they saw the backlash trying to do that got them. So, not gonna happen as long as that executive is with the company.

The dudes over on the Home Theater Forum gave Warner Brothers an open invite to discuss their catalogue titles and the lack of output. Let's see if WB takes them up on this offer. In my estimation they have fallen well below Sony and Fox when it comes to catalogue releases. Especially the neglect of the classic hollywood genre.

I'd love to ask them if they've reconsidered their decision to cancel their planned Blu upgrades of the Astaire-Rogers films after Feltenstein got freaked out by some dirt on a floor in Top Hat that was visible in high-def and if that was indeed the reason that release never materialized.

FrauBlucher wrote:The dudes over on the Home Theater Forum gave Warner Brothers an open invite to discuss their catalogue titles and the lack of output. Let's see if WB takes them up on this offer. In my estimation they have fallen well below Sony and Fox when it comes to catalogue releases. Especially the neglect of the classic hollywood genre.

Fox I can see. But Sony? The company that releases nothing themselves and licenses perhaps 20 titles a year at their current pace?

And I wouldn't wait for Warner to answer that thread. There's basically zero positive outcome for them to do so.