When will GWTW get the REAL "Special Edition" treatment by New Line? (1 Viewer)

[Charles Ellis]

Considering the bang-up job New Line did with "Lord Of The Rings", why hasn't New Line/Warner Bros. ever tackled its most illustrious title "Gone With The Wind" with a special edition DVD with commentaries, interviews, documentaries, etcetera? For heaven's sake, Ted Turner OWNS the damn film and has always claimed to be its biggest fan! So why the shoddy bare-bones GWTW DVD we have now?

My idea: like what was done for "Kane", "Zhivago" and others in the big Warner/Turner/New Line catalog, GWTW calls for a multi-disc set like "Lords Of The Rings". First, the film itself should be on two discs with the overture, en'tracte and end title music. As for extras: the Turner-produced documentary "The Making Of A Legend"; along with trailers from each of the film's various re-releases; interviews with surviving cast members (Olivia DeHavilland is a must!); COMPLETE versions of all the screen tests made by Selznick and George Cukor, especially the "Scarlett" wannabees (e.g. Paulette Goddard, Susan Hayward, Joan Bennett, Tallulah Bankhead, Lana Turner); original Technicolor costume and makeup tests (they DO exist, owned by the Selznick estate); Walter Plunkett's costume sketches, William Cameron Menzies' production storyboards; all newsreel footage from the 1939 and 1961 Atlanta premieres, newsreel footage from the Academy Awards; commentaries from film scholars and GWTW experts like Herb Bridges; galleries for various stills and GWTW memorabilia (one of the FIRST films to have major merchandising!).

Well, that's MY idea for a long-overdue GWTW Special Edition!

 

[Patrick McCart]

Never will you see New Line Home Entertainment do an SE.


They only released it in 1997 because Turner owned the company at the time...and Turner owned GWTW via the MGM catalog (pre-1986).

Warner Home Video currently controls the home video rights, thus would do the SE.


Not too long ago, they found some lost footage such as outtakes ans stuff...so they'd likely do an SE very well. Also, Lowry Digital Images is interested in doing a 2K restoration from the Technicolor separations.

I'd gladly buy an SE...the current DVD isn't the best.

 

[JohnRice]

Which is a good thing. Despite their undeserved "Best Studio" title, New Line has almost zero commitment to catalog titles.

 

[Dave H]

Funny how I was just thinking about this the other night. I haven't seen the current version, but putting a four hour movie on one disc - especially in the earlier days of making DVDs - doesn't sound good.

 

[James Reader]

The UK release is by Warners and is a DVD-10 with approx. two hours on each side (no supplements that I'm aware of) - is this not how the R1 release was presented?

 

[oscar_merkx]

let's hope that GWTW gets the SE treatment it deserves

 

[Alistair_M]

I think a special edition will be coming.

The region 2 release is a digitally restored release (unlike the Region 1) and was done by the same folks that did the Citizen Kane restoration. I'm sure that region 1 will get a release of the restored release and its bound to be a special edition with commentaries and docs. I haven't bought any version of GWTW because I am waiting for a special edition.

The fact that no one has heard of a special edition in the works suggests it won't be coming soon but my guess is that it will be this year. Can't wait - it will be a must buy!

 

[Jeff Kleist]

I'm sure that region 1 will get a release of the restored release

Actually, Lowry said in his HTF chat that this was a PAL specific restoration, and that they'd have to do it again

 

[Charles Ellis]

I'm bringing this thread back because I've heard that Warners is actually doing a multi-disc SE for the 65th Anniversary this December.....

 

[Jeff_HR]

I'm curious about about how the Technicolor color will be presented. I believe that Mr Robert Harris commented about how the Technicolor color would not be what the public would expect if the SE were released with the Technicolor color done the way it was originally supposed to look. I'm sure there are expects out there who know one hell of a lot more about this than I do.

 

[oscar_merkx]

how many discs will be used for GWTW ? and how many for the supplemental features ?

Who will likely be used for the commentaries ?

Cheers

Oscar

 

[Brian W.]

They didn't specify it was coming this year, but they did say in the last Warner chat that they were working on it. One would assume it was coming this year, since it's the 65th Anniversary.

Ben: Any plans for a GONE WITH THE WIND Special Edition or a DVD release for
WATERLOO BRIDGE starring Vivien Leigh and Robert Taylor?

Warner Bros.: Tomorrow is another day, and YES, GWTW will arrive in a Special
Edition featuring an All-New transfer produced through our ULTRA-RESOLUTION
process. The results should be mind-boggling. We're working on it now. No plans
for WATERLOO BRIDGE right now.

 

[Joe Caps]

Great news about Gone With the Wind.
However, too bad about no Waterloo Bridge. Face faacts, there aren't that many major Vivien Leigh films ans Waterloo is one of them.
Another major Leigh film that is a no show is Caesar and Cleopatra. It looks great on VHS (through mgm). Mgm seems to release everything, but this has not appeared on dvd.

 

[Larry Sutliff]

. Face faacts, there aren't that many major Vivien Leigh films ans Waterloo is one of them.

Personally, I'd rather see the original 1931 WATERLOO BRIDGE released to DVD. Directed by James Whale, and starring Mae Clarke, it's far superior to the later version. But both films would make an ideal double feature. Even though Universal made the original, WB now owns the rights.

 

[Robert Crawford]

To each his own, I prefer the 1940 release and in any case, I wouldn't call either version far superior to the other one.





Crawdaddy

 

[Brian W.]

I just wonder if any of the rumored deleted footage is going to be on the SE of GWTW. When the GWTW museum opened in Marietta, Georgia, a couple years ago, supposedly they were showing deleted and alternate scenes from the film, as well as screen tests. The owner of the museum's collection was James Tumblin, the now very wealthy former head of Universal's makeup department, who allegedly received the footage many years ago from one of the cameramen who worked on GWTW. Supposedly Tumblin was in negotiations with Warner on using the footage in some way.

But Tumblin got pissed off at the city of Marietta, claiming they were cheating him out of profits from the museum, and withdrew his collection only a year after the museum opened. Another collector now has his stuff in there, but what this means, if anything, for the prospects of the deleted footage on DVD, or if the deleted footage ever even existed, I couldn't tell you.

 

[Chad R]

Mr. Tumblin is not held in highest esteem among the GWTW community. Many of the items in his collection have not stood up to scrutiny as being authentic, and his claims of deleted footage have never been substantiated since he never allows anyone to actually see it--it wasn't shown at the museum in Marietta that I know of.

His claims of being the former head of Universal's make-up department is also suspect (there's no record of him having worked on any film), which gives some insight as to this man's validity.

 

[Brian W.]

Yes, I was wondering that, too, because I looked him up on Internet Movie Database -- he's not listed.

I have also heard rumors that some of his items are reproductions... but there's no denying he owns a lot of authentic ones as well, since I've found articles about him buying GWTW memorabilia at auctions for large sums of money. I know he was having some kind of a feud with the owners of the website ScarlettOnline, which is now defunct.

I tried to find something about him or his collection on the Internet since he removed it from the museum, but came up with nothing.

 

[Brad M]

I've heard about the deleted scenes as well but was under the impression that it was destroyed in a fire. It's probably just my memory playing tricks on me but I thought I'd just throw it out.

 

[RafaelPires]

I was really expecting a release of Waterloo Bridge, if not in 2004 at least in 2005. But that answer in the WB chat, teared up my expectations. I have it on VHS, but it's so worn out.
I just love this movie as much as Random Harvest and A Woman's Face, all of them MGM titles from the 40's that haven`t seen the light of day on DVD yet. And I wonder if they will ever see.