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The rest of Universals '07 slate...no Hitchcock? (1 Viewer)

Thane101

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What do you suppose the chances are of other studios releasing Hitchcock titles in HD. If we don't get the Universal line-up, it would be nice to get something like North By Northwest in HD (possibly in BR?)
 

Douglas Monce

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Warner owns North by Northwest so it would likely be on both HD DVD and Blu-ray.

Doug
 

Jason Roer

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Well - it would come out on HD and then there would be some sort of vague floating date when it's supposed to, maybe, possibly, at some point, come out on BD. :)

Cheers,

Jason
 

Adam Gregorich

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On the HD DVD of Blood Diamond (July 3rd street) one of the web features is an online poll where they give you a movie genera and ask which movie you would like to see. North By Northwest is a choice in either the classic or the suspense category. I would imagine that means they are thinking about it.
 

Ron-P

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How about Jurassic Park? Where's that? That would make for one most excellent hi-def disc.
 

Brandon Conway

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Spielberg has a lot of control over when his titles get released, so don't expect the following on HD anytime soon:

Universal - Jaws, E.T., 1941, Always, Duel, Jurassic Park, The Lost World, Schinder's List, Sugarland Express

DreamWorks (via Paramount) - Saving Private Ryan, Amistad, Minority Report, War of the Worlds, A.I.: Artificial Intelligence, Catch Me If You Can, The Terminal, Munich

Warner - Empire of the Sun, Poltergeist (SE coming next year for DVD according to recent chat; HD day-and-date?), The Color Purple (I'd expect this one first, as Warner can just port over the 2-disc with a HD transfer), Twilight Zone: The Movie (DVD finally arriving this year)

Sony - Hook, Close Encounters of the Third Kind

And, of course, the Indiana Jones films need Lucas' say as well.
 

Douglas Monce

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Yes but the only problem with North by Northwest is that when it was "restored" for DVD a few years back it was only scanned in at NTSC resolution. So I believe it would have to be rescanned and gone through the whole Lowry process again. and I'm not sure how much is left of the negative. I know it was in very bad shape when they worked on it before.

Doug
 

Douglas Monce

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Universal could technically release Duel, Jaws,and 1941 with out Spielberg's approval as they are owned by Universal outright. Everything else done under Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment company are owned by Spielberg and Universal has a distribution deal. Having said that I doubt Universal would release the early films with out Spielberg.

Doug
 

Tim Glover

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With Paramount releasing a new version of Hitchcock's To Catch A Thief on sd-dvd recently, I was sure hoping we'd get a HD DVD version around the same time? Here's hoping...:)
 

Brandon Conway

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True. Jaws seems to be the only one of those three that would have any chance of really selling on HD, and like you said, they'd probably want Spielberg to sign off on it, though I suspect it will simply be the same as the recent 30th Anniversary DVD.
 

Paul Arnette

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Tim, I actually just bought that edition of the film on SD DVD recently. I don't have high hopes for it being released in HD anytime soon. However, if it is, I will be because I bought the SD release. ;)

Actually, the whole classics on HD thing is really depressing me at the moment. They're not selling well on either format. I'm actually very disappointed that certain titles like Casablanca, Excalibur, and Mutiny on the Bounty are not on BD, as I would prefer to own them in that format. However, I haven't had any luck selling my HD DVD copy of Excalibur, so the market must really be small indeed.

Incidently, given the Blockbuster news and the fact that I truly believe that optical on HD's success, even in niche terms, requires one format, I am going to be passing on all Universal releases for the time being in the hopes they will turn neutral soon. At this point, I have more than enough of a backlog of movies to watch, and I figure it is time to 'put my money were my mouth is' in that regard.
 

Douglas Monce

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Might have been because the ownership of dreamworks was up in the air at the time that film was made. Not really sure though.

Doug
 

Douglas Monce

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I think relative to the size of the HD market, films like Casablanca are probably selling about the same numbers as they are on SD. Again relative to the size of the market.

Doug
 

Paul Arnette

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Well, if that is the case, then why the hesitency on Warner Bros. part to release these non-IME classics on BD or any new ones on either format? The only thing I can come up with is that because the size of the market is so much smaller, they must not be able to justify the production cost involved.
 

Cees Alons

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The market is still very small, but the smarter ones of the studios are building a "library", and the stock (with diversity) to offer when more consumers are buying HD players.

They can only produce so and so many titles in a given period. And, indeed, the current profit won't justify too zealous schemes.


Cees
 

Paul_Scott

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the glass masters for blu-ray alone are twice the cost of the gm's created for HD DVD.
Also, based on previous VS numbers, classic titles didn't sell at a 2:1 rate on Bd- some sold less than on HD DVD.

I can fully understand why Warner isn't busting its nuts trying to get these out on that format.
 

Douglas Monce

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I agree that they may feel that the market is just to small at this point to justify releasing very many classics. Having said that Warners has released quite a few classics and in fact just released Rio Bravo which I would put into the classic category by age if nothing else. This film along with Forbidden Planet, Grand Prix, The Searchers, Casablanca, Bullitt, The Adventures of Robin Hood...I mean this is a fairly respectable list of classics for the first year of a new format.

Doug
 

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