re: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly Announced in Region B - now in Region A as well
From the Criterion forum: They seem to have done a new HD master for TGTB&TU -- the version that's been showing on HDNet over the past year or so is supposedly a marked improvement over earlier HDNet broadcasts -- so maybe they've revisited the earlier titles as well.
The first two in the Dollars Trilogy are already out there in Italy, thought this comment from a happy punter (on the Sergio Leone Board) would be of interest:
Great news, received both fod and fafdm on blu ray today (from Italy). Picture quality is outstanding! Unreal to see these in high-def! (both have been meticulously restored for this release), fod has english audio, but fafdm does not. Fafdm is uncut though, all the little trims in the us version are here in restored 1080p, so in my opinion, MGM/sony has no excuse to release the cut version when it comes out in North America.
FOD has pal extras, most of which I can't play, however, it has an original italian trailer (which looks beautifully restored and is in 1080p) that is all all outtake/alternate take footage, similar to the one discussed in the FAFDM thread recently - very cool to see new FOD footage in that trailer!
FOD also has a lot of paper extras in the package, lobby cards, an interview booklet and some reproductions of old publicity materials - unfortunately for me it's all in italian, but at least I can enjoy the photos
FAFDM is pretty bare bones in terms of extras, but it would allow me to play the "restoration featurette" (in italian) and I must say from the spiltscreens of the footage (before and after) they've done an amazing/painstaking job restoring it.
