USHE Press Release: JAWS (Blu-ray) (Plus restoration details) (1 Viewer)

[TravisR]

Forgive the off topic but

PS nice to see a fellow Studio 60 fan. I have fond memories of my two or three set visits.

That backstage set had to be one of most amazing sets ever created for TV.

 

[WaveCrest]

Definitely interested in this Blu-ray release, because of the documentary The Shark is Not Working being included as an extra.

 

[haineshisway]

On another board, the usual suspects are already complaining based on a screen cap - but no one is quite certain what the screen cap is taken from. I think we can probably surmise it was NOT taken from the new Blu-ray since it's not coming until August or whenever and no one has seen it or has a copy this early. It's so reprehensible.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

On another board, the usual suspects are already complaining based on a screen cap

uh boy, here we go...it starts already.

Thanks for the heads up, Bruce. Looks like we are in for months of
agonizing complaints over screen caps that will mean absolutely nothing.

 

[Paul_Warren]

Tremendous work here from Universal the level of commitment is obvious & I look forward to seeing ET & the Hitchcocks receive at the bare minimum a similar level of love/care/attention shown here.
If Universal did all of this for Jaws the lack of such behind the scenes detail on Jurassic Park1 BD is all the more obvious IMO..........

 

[haineshisway]

uh boy, here we go...it starts already.
Thanks for the heads up, Bruce.  Looks like we are in for months of
agonizing complaints over screen caps that will mean absolutely nothing.

I just couldn't believe it - funnily, it's the same two or three people who do this repeatedly. They rarely have actually seen the disc they are criticizing, which is galling. But, I think I'm just going to avoid those boards like the plague, because otherwise it's just too tempting to be a bad boy
Thankfully, it doesn't happen here. Of course, they criticize this board for that reason

 

[MattAlbie60]

Does anyone know how long THE SHARK IS STILL WORKING originally ran? My only "this is too good to be true" fear is that it's some shorter, edited version of the original piece, and now we'll never see the original piece. That's based on nothing but equal parts speculation and neuroses, however

Forgive the off topic but That backstage set had to be one of most amazing sets ever created for TV.

It was a working movie palace. Probably the biggest bummer of the show getting canceled was that building (or the inside of it, at least) getting disassembled. They need to be giving tours of it. Or screw it - just set another show there. You're right, it was gorgeous.

 

[Bryan^H]

http://www.cinemaretro.com/index.php?/archives/68-Major-New-Documentary-on-Jaws-Exclusive-Interview!.html
It's a 3 hour movie. However, a 100 minute version exists. I fear we may be 80 minutes shy of perfection.

 

[Charles Smith]

If I recall correctly the Laserdisc set included a soundtrack CD and a novelization (book) of the film. I'm glad they're including the full 2-hour version of the Laurent Bouzereau doc that appeared in the Laser set (but omitted from the 25th Anny. DVD). Other than this, I don't know what else might be omitted for this new Blu-ray. That new feature-length doc might make up for any missing material IMO.

The soundtrack CD was the same content as the original LP -- not from original tracks, but an arranged-for-LP modification. (A "real" soundtrack CD with all the actual tracks was released a decade or so ago, and it's stunning.) The book was the then-current paperback edition of Peter Benchley's novel. There was no novelization of Jaws.

I still love my collectible LDs, but I'm sad to say it's probably time to let this one go, and reclaim its coveted two linear inches of shelf space. It was an impressive CAV set, and like you said, for a while it had the only complete version of the documentary. But unlike the REALLY superb sets (e.g. My Fair Lady, Sound of Music, the Pioneer Special Editions), which included much more of additional value, that's all there is. Now that I think about it, I guess I'll be saying the same about the E.T. set. And yes, that makes me a little sad.

 

[Mark-P]

Thank God Steven Spielberg has the clout to get his own films properly restored! In the restoration video embedded in this thread, they say that of the 100 films Universal is putting out this year, 13 of them are getting extensive restorations. Does anyone know which 13 they are referring to?
Thanks

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Does anyone know which 13 they are referring to?

All Quiet on the Western Front
The Birds
Abbott and Costello's Buck Privates
Dracula (1931)
+ the Spanish-language Dracula
Frankenstein
Jaws
Schindler's List
Out of Africa
Pillow Talk
Bride of Frankenstein
The Sting
To Kill a Mockingbird

 

[TonyD]

Ordered. I forgot about that laser box and that I actually have it.

 

[Bryan^H]

I pre-orderd too. I love the box art. The image and colors are simply iconic (red, white, and blue). The original dvd art didn't do it justice. It was too dark, and over saturated. Universal nailed it this time around. This is how it should always look:

1975 the year of the FIRST summer blockbuster.

 

[NY2LA]

Forgive the off topic but That backstage set had to be one of most amazing sets ever created for TV.

Oh, yeah! I was also on the West Wing sets, but Studio 60 was way cool - it was almost all in the one stage, including basement and upper floors. Spent a lot of time in the control room with Tim Busfield (who was also directing) and the main floor. You know the exterior was all around the Hollywood Palladium with a matte topper and the building nextdoor. There was one day that involved a very close encounter with Matt 6 feet from Harriet. Didn't watch Friends often but got to like MP and really like SP. I think network killed it by moving it all over the schedule and taking it off so often.
Back to topic, Notice that Uni has NOT strayed very far from the original Key Art for Jaws, in pretty much every release. That artwork was on the paperback almost a year before the movie came out (but I bet after the movie sale) and the original one sheets looked like the book cover on a dark blue background. Anyone remember who the artist was?

 

Im anxiously awaiting the Birds BluRay. I might get the Frankenstein films depending on the supplements. As for Jaws, this is a MUST. Pre-ordered already. I wonder if they are cramming it all on one disc or 2...I didnt see anything written anywhere

 

Im anxiously awaiting the Birds BluRay. I might get the Frankenstein films depending on the supplements. As for Jaws, this is a MUST. Pre-ordered already. I wonder if they are cramming it all on one disc or 2...I didnt see anything written anywhere

 

Im anxiously awaiting the Birds BluRay. I might get the Frankenstein films depending on the supplements. As for Jaws, this is a MUST. Pre-ordered already. I wonder if they are cramming it all on one disc or 2...I didnt see anything written anywhere

 

[ScottHM]

Jaws? Never seen it, so I'll probably pass.

Originally Posted by Radioman970 /t/319941/ushe-press-release-jaws-blu-ray-plus-restoration-details#post_3915033
Impossible NOT to buy this.

 

[NY2LA]

Does anyone know how long THE SHARK IS STILL WORKING originally ran? My only "this is too good to be true" fear is that it's some shorter, edited version of the original piece, and now we'll never see the original piece. That's based on nothing but equal parts speculation and neuroses, however

Actually I wouldn't be surprised. I think the original was about two hours.

It was a working movie palace. Probably the biggest bummer of the show getting canceled was that building (or the inside of it, at least) getting disassembled. They need to be giving tours of it. Or screw it - just set another show there. You're right, it was gorgeous.

Okay well I can explain that it was all on a stage at Warners - entirely a set, that had only the slightest resemblance to a theatre. I remember looking at it knowing it was supposed to be an old theatre but didn't look much like one - but from my days at Studio 54 and Xenon, the Ed Sullivan, an old former RKO on upper Bway where Love, Sidney was shot, and the former Aquarius/Earl Carroll Vanities nee Nick on Sunset - I know that you can "adapt" nearly all the atmospheric and functional theatricality out of a theatre. If it makes you feel better, you know movie and TV sets (like the Kodak Theatre) are built to look good on camera and don't look nearly as good in person - this set was definitely like that. I think it was in one of the old West Wing stages, directly across from where Friends (previously Full House) was. The exterior was simply the Hollywood Palladium with matte work from the marquee up. The side entrance and building across the street were shot pretty much as they are.
Sorry for the sidebar... to compensate:
Soo... moments I can report from the TSISW doc... they even got into some of the more quotable lines and characters. Someone on the island made up t-shirts that say "a whaaaaa?" - the goofy townie's reaction to Dreyfuss' line about the shark species. The local actress (who I always thought looked more like a grandmother than the mom of little Alex Kitner) says hundreds of people have asked her to slap them, and she won't do it anymore. Some of the cast have aged enough to be almost unrecognizable. Oh, and what happened to the sharks and the boat... The sharks of course were badly damaged by the salt water, so very little of them survived, but what was left of the Orca boat ended up unassumingly in the Cabot Cove bay on the USH backlot. That was the Amity background for the Jaws attack on the studio tour. The Orca was not put there for that reason, it was just another unrecognizable prop. At some point the Orca was disposed of, because very few people on the lot (including Steven) knew what it really was.
For years the studio tour has passed an outdoor prop storage area where a wrought iron elevator car sat among the other stuff, very familiar to people who have seen Universal's record breaking roadshow hit from 1967 that ranks only a couple titles behind Jaws. The tram also went right past a bridge built for Shirley MacLaine to get pushed off of into a heated lake for a 1969 musical. The bridge was altered for Weird Science and later for the "red sea" effect on the tour, but on a lunch hour from some shoot there, I was able to find enough parts of it that are still identical to what i saw the night before on the DVD.

 

[TonyD]

Jaws? Never seen it, so I'll probably pass.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Radioman970 /t/319941/ushe-press-release-jaws-blu-ray-plus-restoration-details#post_3915033
Impossible NOT to buy this.

I don't understand.