"The Robe" has been in development forever, will it look that much better than the version we have? I love '50s epics, but "The Robe" is a bit boring. "The Egyptian" first, please.
"A Tree Grows In Brooklyn" would be greatly appreciated. It was supposed to be a released a few years back but was pulled, supposedly for legal reasons involving the Kazan estate, if I remember correctly.
I find the list more than a bit disappointing, since excepting "Diary" (and maybe "S&SF", I don't know about that one) and the already discussed "Man-Hunt", these are re-issues. I'd rather see more films never released to DVD before.
Speculation was they were trying to use new digital techniques to transfer more of the film from the negative. The problem with the current DVD is that it was made from a preservation that relied very heavily on optically derived separations, because the negative is in very poor condition.
If they can get more of the image off the negative and correct the colour, then instantly the image should look better than the grainy mess presented on teh current DVD.
Ideally they'd release it on two discs with the non-CinemaScope version as well.
A friend who works for the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences says they are currently doing restoration work on The Robe. If they are working on it NOW then it looks like an Easter 2009 release is a probability.
You're welcome, here is another one that is a little bigger:
As you can see they kept the OAR, no cropping to 2.35.
Another positive is that some of the outdoor scenes are really grainy and while the compression for broadcast airings was not able to faithfully reproduce that grain I hope that the master looks even better and that this quality will show up on Blu-Ray at some point in the future.
Was it on HD? I remember it on Sky Classic Movies at the start of the year, correct aspect ratio, but with dim mono sound for some reason. I may have missed the HD, as I don't get Sky Movies anymore.
Sky are still showing it regularly in HD but sadly, in mono sound. Unfortunately if Fox release it on Blu-ray in the US I'm not going to be able to play it here in the UK.
In Germany we already have a company that sells players where you can switch region codes before turning on the player. It is a shame that some studios still stick with region coding in such a small market and even for catalog titles (Fox).
Too bad about the sound, maybe this is one of the reasons that there still is no DVD.
I'm wondering why there hasn't been a dvd release of POOR LITTLE RICH GIRL which is one of the best of the Shirley Temple vehicles. It wasn't in any of the Shirley Temple boxed sets and is pretty much the only major Temple-starred Fox film that hasn't appeared on DVD.