MGM Press Release: BOND 50 (Blu-ray) (1 Viewer)

[Kevin EK]

Let's just say that the participants were quite candid about the production of those three movies, and the folks at EON were not pleased at the results. They're entertaining to hear, but I don't think the producers found it as amusing as the public. Think of it as an example of what would happen if Sylvia Anderson were to do commentaries for every episode of Space: 1999 Series One...

 

[Richard Kaufman]

I could sell my three Criterion laser discs (with rare commentaries) of Dr. No, Russia, and Goldfinger and buy a ... Bond 50 set?

 

[Kevin EK]

I wouldn't sell those laserdiscs if I were you. Unless they really do port over those commentaries.

 

[MattAlbie60]

But the problem is that if they do port over those commentaries, the laser discs will probably become worthless. Choose wisely!

 

[Douglas Monce]

Of course, just to really kick up the dust here - they COULD throw in the great commentaries done for the Criterion laserdiscs of Dr. No, From Russia With Love and Goldfinger.  Who wants to lay odds on that idea happening?  50 to 1, anyone?

I think those commentaries are likely the property of Criterion. I doubt MGM own the rights to them.
Doug

 

[marsnkc]

Let's just say that the participants were quite candid about the production of those three movies, and the folks at EON were not pleased at the results.  They're entertaining to hear, but I don't think the producers found it as amusing as the public.  Think of it as an example of what would happen if Sylvia Anderson were to do commentaries for every episode of Space: 1999 Series One...

I have the lasers but never had time to listen to the commentaries. I remember hearing at the time that Broccoli was upset at Young and company for basically laying claim to the franchise's success. Is this part of what you're alluding to?
A very public war of words existed between Young and Broccoli over this. Young (rightly) boasted in later years that he helmed the first Bond with Dr. No, the best one with Russia, and the most successful with Thunderball, though, in a magnaminous moment, he attributed three reasons for the success of Bond: Sean Connery, Sean Connery, Sean Connery!" Not a bone for either of the men responsible for bringing the projects to fruition!
Broccoli answered this by describing the director's reaction to the news that he and Saltzman had chosen Connery for the part. Broccoli, pretending to be Young, puts his face in his hands and cries, "Oh, disaster, disaster, disaster!"

 

[Kevin EK]

Doug, you're absolutely right that those commentaries belong to Criterion. But I figure that if the famous Criterion Halloween commentary could be obtained for later DVDs and Blus, the Bond people could similarly purchase the these three lost commentaries and include them. It would be a pretty cheeky move, but I'd applaud it. Not particularly likely, in any case. My 50 to 1 odds were a failed joke - the real odds are more like 50,000 to 1...

Andrew, you're on the money. Young's comments at the beginning of Dr. No talk about how he had to talk them into getting a real secret agent theme into the movie since in his opinion, Broccoli and Saltzman wanted to stay with calypso music or use "Under the Yum Yum Tree" as the music for James Bond. The commentary just gets better from there.

 

[Nelson Au]

I still have those 3 laserdiscs safely tucked away! I haven't heard those commentaries in a long time, but I didn't think at the time they were that negative or made EON look bad. But I was a lot younger and naive then.
I've been meaning to pull those discs out and digitize them.

 

[brioni]

It was reported that Cubby objected to a 180 odd comments across the 3 titles so I expect the EON estate will continue to up hold their stance on them. At one point Hamilton even uses the word “faggot”. Its a shame as there is an hilarious tale from Young about how he accidently dyed his hair green prior to auditioning Daniela Bianchi.

I would have thought this boxset would be region free though since it is likely going to be identical as far as contents go worldwide.

I really really hope so, but it has not been the case so far. That’s why i’m waiting for more details to come out because being a UK customer, the US versions will probably appeal to me more, as did the UE DVDs. This is mainly because the original mono tracks were admitted for R2 and continue to be for the blu’s. The 5.1 remixes were not faithful enough for my ears and in some cases the SFX added were downright moronic. Take Thunderball: the discrete sliding door behind the bank frontage was replaced with sounds of large mechanical cogs?! Yeah cos no ones gonna hear there’s a secret door now? What makes people think they can do better than what the film makers done originally? Thankfully i think its been taken out of the Blu ray edition but there are problems everywhere – eg. you can no longer hear Connery slamming the door before Goldfinger’s titles start. Shocking, positively shocking.
Also captions were another issue on R2 DVD’s as they were horribly generated by the players, i don’t have all the current blu rays so I don’t if that’s still the case. The R1’s were burnt in- maintaining the directors vision.
On the plus side the image is pristine- all that dirt and debris has vanished and the resolution amped up but some of those random faint vertical lines still bother me. They were apparent on the YOLT UE and still noticeable on occasion in Thunderball’s blu.
I really hope they revisit Goldeneye, because as it was proven on these forums, somehow Lowry got hold of the incorrect print. Certainly the title sequence proved this as some of the text was repositioned nearer the centre of the screen- as it was for the P&S version. Ooops.
The last consideration will be getting the majority of films in their complete version. This is where i suspect the UK version will almost win out because presumably the US version of Casino Royale is still heavily cut? And presumably Die Another Day is still cut in the US? (Although only 7 seconds). Even then Casino is cut in the UK
for 13 seconds which makes things a real pain. I would feel i’d need to buy the box or Casino as a single from Australia to truly make the collection complete. I might be able to live without Jinx moaning!
However having said all this- if they are locked, that gives me another headache!

 

[FoxyMulder]

Originally Posted by brioni /t/317593/mgm-press-release-bond-50-blu-ray/120#post_3889815
It was reported that Cubby objected to a 180 odd comments across the 3 titles so I expect the EON estate will continue to up hold their stance on them. At one point Hamilton even uses the word “faggot”. Its a shame as there is an hilarious tale from Young about how he accidently dyed his hair green prior to auditioning Daniela Bianchi.
I really really hope so, but it has not been the case so far. That’s why i’m waiting for more details to come out because being a UK customer, the US versions will probably appeal to me more, as did the UE DVDs. This is mainly because the original mono tracks were admitted for R2 and continue to be for the blu’s. The 5.1 remixes were not faithful enough for my ears and in some cases the SFX added were downright moronic. Take Thunderball: the discrete sliding door behind the bank frontage was replaced with sounds of large mechanical cogs?! Yeah cos no ones gonna hear there’s a secret door now? What makes people think they can do better than what the film makers done originally? Thankfully i think its been taken out of the Blu ray edition but there are problems everywhere – eg. you can no longer hear Connery slamming the door before Goldfinger’s titles start. Shocking, positively shocking.
Also captions were another issue on R2 DVD’s as they were horribly generated by the players, i don’t have all the current blu rays so I don’t if that’s still the case. The R1’s were burnt in- maintaining the directors vision.
On the plus side the image is pristine- all that dirt and debris has vanished and the resolution amped up but some of those random faint vertical lines still bother me. They were apparent on the YOLT UE and still noticeable on occasion in Thunderball’s blu.
I really hope they revisit Goldeneye, because as it was proven on these forums, somehow Lowry got hold of the incorrect print. Certainly the title sequence proved this as some of the text was repositioned nearer the centre of the screen- as it was for the P&S version. Ooops.
The last consideration will be getting the majority of films in their complete version. This is where i suspect the UK version will almost win out because presumably the US version of Casino Royale is still heavily cut? And presumably Die Another Day is still cut in the US? (Although only 7 seconds). Even then Casino is cut in the UK
for 13 seconds which makes things a real pain. I would feel i’d need to buy the box or Casino as a single from Australia to truly make the collection complete. I might be able to live without Jinx moaning!
However having said all this- if they are locked, that gives me another headache!

The USA version of Die Another Day is now uncut on blu ray, as far as Casino Royale goes, do what i did and import the Australian version, thats fully uncut, i see you are thinking about that, it's worth it, you can just sell the boxset version and put that Australian version in the box.

I tend to agree with you regarding re-mixes, always include the original mix.

 

[brioni]

Another thought on the bonus material: As well as more deleted scenes, I hope they can include some more screen tests such as Lazenby's, Brosnan's in 86, Craig's and Sam Neill's plus the various girls. Only stills have been shown so far and a tiny bit of Neill's on the Daylights making of.

 

[Sam Favate]

Not sure if this has been mentioned here, but here's some sad news:

Bond DVD restoration expert, John D. Lowry, dies age 79

http://www.mi6-hq.com/news/index.php?itemid=9986&t=mi6&s=news

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Oh my goodness! This is awful news. Very sad.

I met Mr. Lowry several years ago and found him to
be a very personable individual.

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/a/live-chat-with-john-lowry-december-16th-2002

 

[Kevin EK]

There's a thread running about John Lowry's passing. I was surprised to see it hadn't generated much attention, but I hope this may bring it to more people's attention. Thanks for mentioning it here - it's certainly appropriate, given how much work he did on the Bond films in the last 10 years.

 

[brioni]

RIP John.
There's some more articles here on his work:
FILM; 600 Macs, 4,000 Lines, One Giant Leap for DVD's
Bond By Lowry Digital
Creating the Video Future
Restorer of the /Star Wars Trilogy/ and /THX 1138/: John Lowry

 

[Richard Kaufman]

I wasn't aware of the variations between the regional releases of the Bond films. Is there a good listing of the differences and which releases are preferable someplace?

 

[marsnkc]

I wasn't aware of the variations between the regional releases of the Bond films. Is there a good listing of the differences and which releases are preferable someplace?

Me neither. Calling Brian and Malcolm........

 

[brioni]

The site I use before buying anything is dvdcompare.net:
Casino Royale 2006 Bluray

 

[FremenDar]

Makes me wonder if the Original Audio Tracks will receive a lossless version instead of only the remixes receiving the particular treatment. Guess this means I'll sell all of the OO7 EON Blu-rays I own barring Casino Royale (2006) as it's from Taiwan which is the R rated version. Will these be the same exact discs or will there be added content?

 

[Osato]

I still have those 3 laserdiscs safely tucked away! I haven't heard those commentaries in a long time, but I didn't think at the time they were that negative or made EON look bad. But I was a lot younger and naive then.
I've been meaning to pull those discs out and digitize them.

It's been a while (1-2 years) but I was able to find the Criterion laserdisc commentaries online. I downloaded them and then was able to sync them up with the blu ray of the film. The timing between the blu ray and the laserdiscs was a bit off, but it worked pretty good.
I think the site that I downloaded them from is no longer there. However they may be out there somewhere...
Looking forward to more information on the Bond 50 blu ray set. I preordered it from Amazon right away. So glad that all of the Bond films are finally going to be on blu ray!!