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Is Sony reissuing "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Bridge on the River Kwai"?

#1
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12/29/06 at 7:59pm
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Hey... I just saw my distributor is listing 2-Disc Collector's Editions of those two great David Lean classics on March 20th.

Any word on whether these are just re-packagings the old two-discers? Or should I be biting at the bit to have remastered discs of these films; with the quality of the SuperBit plus the proper disc split, Lawrence would be the must-buy disc of the year.

EDIT: Dangit! It always bums me out to have typos in the thread title.
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#2
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12/29/06 at 8:16pm
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Re: Is Sony reissuing "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Bride on the River Kwai"?

I have not heard of any remastering of these titles so I bet they're simply re-packagings. But I would LOVE to be wrong.

DVD & Blu-ray - It's all about the movies!
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#3
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12/29/06 at 8:21pm
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Re: Is Sony reissuing "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Bride on the River Kwai"?

Lawrence is coming out on Blu sometime this year if that's what you're asking?
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#4
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12/29/06 at 8:51pm
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Re: Is Sony reissuing "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Bride on the River Kwai"?

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#5
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12/29/06 at 9:58pm
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Re: Is Sony reissuing "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Bride on the River Kwai"?

The Superbit release of Lawrence of Arabia should have been a 3-disc Superbit Deluxe plain and simple.

If they do release a new edition, can I hope for a Peter O'Toole & Omar Sharif commentary?

It'd be really great if they could get O'Toole's involvement in the extras. He seems much more in the public eye these days with all his new films and awards, so hopefully he'll add to any new set.

"Here's looking at you, kid."
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#6
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12/29/06 at 10:04pm
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Re: Is Sony reissuing "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Bride on the River Kwai"?

I would love for the Superbit transfer with the proper Intermission end point for Disc One...then I would buy.
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#7
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12/29/06 at 10:16pm
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Re: Is Sony reissuing "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Bride on the River Kwai"?

Here in Toronto, I've noticed both HMV and BestBuy have the 2-disc limited edition releases of these titles "on sale" for $29.99 or less. It's not exactly a bargain price by today's standards, but still, I've never seen these editions so cheap or in such mass quantities. Makes me wonder if they're trying to clear out the old versions and if the new releases might be more than a straight reissue...

My DVD Collection:
http://adam-santangelo.dvdaf.com/

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#8
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12/29/06 at 10:34pm
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Re: Is Sony reissuing "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Bride on the River Kwai"?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Adam Santangelo
Here in Toronto, I've noticed both HMV and BestBuy have the 2-disc limited edition releases of these titles "on sale" for $29.99 or less. It's not exactly a bargain price by today's standards, but still, I've never seen these editions so cheap or in such mass quantities. Makes me wonder if they're trying to clear out the old versions and if the new releases might be more than a straight reissue...

I noticed that too, I was tempted to pick up LOA while christmas shopping purely for the extras but my better judgement prevailed. I still think that this release has gone down in history as one of the all-time botched dvd release, along with the original star wars films. They tried to undo the damage with the superbit release, and it certainly did to a degree, but a proper all-purpose release is sorely needed. This should have been a 3-disk set from the beginning, with all the proper picture info and colouring--its a shame that you have to buy two different releases and shell out about 50 bucks just to get a good set of this film, and even then things are not perfect.

I would be ecstatic if there was a new, proper release on the way but really i think this is just a new pressing of the previous out of print set. You might remember that for a period the SE of Fight Club was also out of print, replaced with the single-disk edition--companies do this type of thing occassionally to increase demand/profit.
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#9
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12/30/06 at 1:23am
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Re: Is Sony reissuing "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Bride on the River Kwai"?

FWIW, TCM is airing LOA at 12noon today (EST) and they've been advertising it as being "remastered" etc., but whether that's just the same source material they always use when they show LOA, or a harbinger of a brand new DVD release is anybody's guess.
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#10
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12/30/06 at 11:50am
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Re: Is Sony reissuing "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Bride on the River Kwai"?

I imagine the "remaster" is RAH's from a few years back. Which is wonderful, of course. I happened to catch a few moments of this on TV while channel-flipping this afternoon and it did look remarkably good, even on standard definition television.
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#11
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12/30/06 at 12:16pm
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Re: Is Sony reissuing "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Bride on the River Kwai"?

mike kaminski, can you elaborate on why the Lawrence of Arabia DVD's are so inadequate? I have never really heard this before. In complete agreement concerning the original Star Wars DVD release!
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#12
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12/30/06 at 4:55pm
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Re: Is Sony reissuing "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Bride on the River Kwai"?

VPD's Close-Up newsletter has pics (no specs) of the cover art... they do look like repackagings. Kwai looks identical to the previous 2-discer, and Lawrence has the old RAH Collector's Edition cover art in a normal keep-case.

There's no specs, tho, so anything is still possible...
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#13
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12/30/06 at 7:24pm
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Re: Is Sony reissuing "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Bride on the River Kwai"?

I'd love for a reissue of Kwai that fixes the obnoxious overlong layer change.
"Victims? Don't be melodramatic. Tell me, would you really feel any pity if one of those dots stopped moving forever? If I offered you twenty thousand pounds for every dot that stopped, would you really, old man, tell me to keep my money...or would you calculate how many dots you could afford to...
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#14
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12/30/06 at 9:47pm
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Re: Is Sony reissuing "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Bride on the River Kwai"?

Saw these in London Drugs tonight. They're just reissues of the original 2-disc versions. I concur with the idea that a 3-disc Soperbit Deluxe version was needed for LoA. I guess we'll just have to wait for the inevitable BD release.

\"My opinion is that (a) anyone who actually works in a video store and does not understand letterboxing has given up on life, and (b) any customer who prefers to have the sides of a movie hacked off should not be licensed to operate a video player.\"-- Roger Ebert

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#15
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12/31/06 at 3:45am
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Re: Is Sony reissuing "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Bride on the River Kwai"?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Eric Gripp
mike kaminski, can you elaborate on why the Lawrence of Arabia DVD's are so inadequate? I have never really heard this before. In complete agreement concerning the original Star Wars DVD release!

The original two-disk version had a botched picture. Basically, the entire film was mis-timed, resulting in inaccurate colours, most notable due to the sometimes pink-tinted sand, as well as sky issues. Its not all that noticeable when you are watching the film but a comparison reveals a pretty big difference in colour. On top of this there was an error with some sort of enhancement software in the authoring stage which resulted in edge-enhancement over top of the already-enhanced picture, or something like that, so theres all kinds of artifacts. The release was such a botch that Robert A Harris rectified it by releasing the Superbit version, accurately re-colouring it and with optimal picture fidelity. Unfortunately this release is missing the great extra features from the first release, so you have to have both to get the true package.
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#16
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1/2/07 at 5:50pm
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Re: Is Sony reissuing "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Bride on the River Kwai"?

Check out the comparison at DVDBeaver.com (direct link). The RAH release is the Superbit version which is #3 in the set of screen shots.

DVD & Blu-ray - It's all about the movies!
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#17
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1/15/07 at 10:52pm
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Re: Is Sony reissuing "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Bride on the River Kwai"?

When the bluray/hd-dvd version is released, it would be nice if it included that extra bit of dialogue between Lawrence and Allenby in the balcony scene. Mr. Harris wanted to include it when they did the initial restoration, but couldn't because the voice double for Allenby didn't match well and they ran out of time before they could find another actor.

As far as I know, the extended scene wasn't included in any of the DVD releases.
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#18
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1/16/07 at 5:55pm
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Re: Is Sony reissuing "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Bride on the River Kwai"?

Now I'm seeing alternate (and superior) cover art in the newest Close-Ups catalog... it looks like Sony is re-releasing a bunch of classic titles with new packaging. It's still uncertain whether the contents vary. The suspense!
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#19
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1/17/07 at 12:14pm
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Re: Is Sony reissuing "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Bride on the River Kwai"?

Strictly a re-packaging, according to DVD Times.
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#20
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1/17/07 at 4:39pm
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Re: Is Sony reissuing "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Bride on the River Kwai"?

When they put it out in Blu-Ray, I pray that they include the longer Allenby balcony scene, if not integrated into the film, then at least as a bonus feature. I've got the script and it's a brilliant scene, and I'd love to see it as filmed.
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#21
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1/17/07 at 6:27pm
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Re: Is Sony reissuing "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Bride on the River Kwai"?

I own the R4 2-disc collectors editions of both these films, and I have to say they are awesome for such old films. Granted Kwai has more film artifacts, but the movie is now 50 years old so who can complain. I'd love to see Lawrence in HD.
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#22
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1/17/07 at 6:34pm
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Re: Is Sony reissuing "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Bride on the River Kwai"?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Darren Gross
When they put it out in Blu-Ray, I pray that they include the longer Allenby balcony scene, if not integrated into the film, then at least as a bonus feature. I've got the script and it's a brilliant scene, and I'd love to see it as filmed.
I've read the whole scene as well, and I agree that it would be great to see the entire scene. The way the film cuts into the scene now, it does seem a bit abrupt- it's obvous that there was something going on previous to what we're shown.

When the HD disc is put together, I hope they give Mr. Harris an opportunity to reinstate the whole scene, like he has wanted to do for so long.

Should we start writing letters to Sony now? It couldn't hurt!
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#23
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2/27/07 at 11:33am
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Re: Is Sony reissuing "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Bridge on the River Kwai"?

So let me get this straight: this new LoA is a reissue of the 2001 two-disc LE release, and does NOT have the 2003 RAH Superbit video? Do I have that right?
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#24
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2/27/07 at 12:01pm
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Re: Is Sony reissuing "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Bridge on the River Kwai"?

The new street date is 5/8/07. Here's what Sony says is included. It's apparent that the Superbit version is not part of this release.

SPECIAL FEATURES:
• "DVD-ROM Features: Archives of Arabia: Historic Photographs That Take You Behind-the-Scenes Part 1 & Part 2, Journey with Lawrence: Interactive Map of the Middle East"
• "Four Original Featurettes: Maan, Jordan: The Camels are the Cast, In Search of Lawrence, Romance of Arabia, and Wind, Sand and Star: The Making of a Classic"
• "Subtitles: English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Korean, Thai"
• A Conversation with Steven Spielberg
• Advertising Campaigns
• Animated and Interactive Menus
• Audio: English 5.1 (Dolby Digital) and 2-Channel (Dolby Surround)
• Digitally Mastered Audio & Anamorphic Video
• Exclusive Documentary: The Making of Lawrence of Arabia
• Original Newsreel Footage of the New York Premiere
• Scene Selections with Motion Images
• Talent Files
• Theatrical Trailers
• Widescreen Presentation

Announce Date: 2/26/2007
Order Date: 4/5/2007
Street Date: 5/8/2007
Rating: PG
Run Time: 226
Screen Format(s): Anamorphic (2.20:1)
Language(s): English: 5.1
Subtitle(s): Chinese (Mandarin Traditional), English (US), French (Parisian), Korean, Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish (Latin Am), Thai

Rich Gallagher

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#25
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2/27/07 at 1:03pm
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Re: Is Sony reissuing "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Bridge on the River Kwai"?

Did the SuperBit LoA have picture issues as well, or am I misremembering that?

"How wonderful it will be to have a leader unburdened by the twin horrors of knowledge and experience." -- Mr. Wick

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#26
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2/27/07 at 1:58pm
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Re: Is Sony reissuing "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Bridge on the River Kwai"?

While the authoring is obviously different, they still could be utilizing the Superbit transfer for this release, since it is by far the best one they have to date. In addition to the huge picture improvements, the Superbit also had a far superior soundtrack (in both DD and DTS) taken directly from the restoration elements. The 5.1 track on the original disc was a remix, with incorrect edits made in the score at a few points.

If they DO make use of the Superbit transfer as the basis for this release, with the disc break actually at the intermission, I could see upgrading for the supplements. If it's a rehash of the older transfer then it's a waste of time.
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#27
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3/1/07 at 8:54am
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Re: Is Sony reissuing "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Bridge on the River Kwai"?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Aaron Silverman
Did the SuperBit LoA have picture issues as well, or am I misremembering that?

No, you are not. There is still the presence of DVNR dirt removal. I dread to think that this was applied in the original telecine session and that we will probably have to live with it.

Steve Pickard

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#28
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5/1/07 at 1:17pm
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Re: Is Sony reissuing "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Bridge on the River Kwai"?

Since we're pretty close to the release date now and 'The Caine Mutiny' has just been confirmed as an updated transfer, has anybody seen any reviews or been able to snag early copies of these two?
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#29
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5/1/07 at 4:25pm
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Re: Is Sony reissuing "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Bridge on the River Kwai"?

My source at VPD says Lawrence is cancelled.

Maybe because they wanted to upgrade the transfer?
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#30
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5/1/07 at 4:28pm
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Re: Is Sony reissuing "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Bridge on the River Kwai"?

Here's hoping they'll go back and do a 1080p transfer from 70mm elements for the inevitable BD release.

\"My opinion is that (a) anyone who actually works in a video store and does not understand letterboxing has given up on life, and (b) any customer who prefers to have the sides of a movie hacked off should not be licensed to operate a video player.\"-- Roger Ebert

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