Rumor Mill stuff -- Universal preparing Blu catalog titles including THE BIRDS, TO KILL A...

Count me in for:

American Graffiti

Babe

Billy Madison

The Birds

Dazed and Confused

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Happy Gilmore

To Kill a Mockingbird

On the fence about A Beautiful Mind and Ray.

Great news regardless.

Fast times at ridgemont high, on blu ray finally !!!

Count me in for The Birds. I hope they're planning on doing all-new transfers, though...I've had my fill of ten-year-old recycled product.

I'd definitely pick up American Graffiti, The Birds and Fast Times At Ridgemont High.

This would be fantastic!  Maybe there's something big I'm overlooking, but this pretty much sounds like every iconic not-yet-on-Blu title Universal has from the past 35 years that isn't a Spielberg movie.

Great news *IF* the quality is there, but so far, Universal's track record w/ catalog titles has been very spotty to say the least.

And of course, at least for some of us, there's always the concern whether some (or all?) of these will end up exclusively on their BD/DVD flipper format.  I sure hope the ones I want are not exclusively flippers.

_Man_

I'm still waiting on Notting Hill, they did an HD-DVD so I would think they have a transfer ready to slap on a Blu-Ray disc.

Ugh.  I hadn't thought of that...  Hopefully, these being classic movies, we won't get flipper discs.

The Birds.  And still no Vertigo????  Damn it, Universal! 

Quote:

Originally Posted by robbbb1138 

This would be fantastic!  Maybe there's something big I'm overlooking, but this pretty much sounds like every iconic not-yet-on-Blu title Universal has from the past 35 years that isn't a Spielberg movie.

There are a couple MIA titles in that vein that spring to mind.....................

Was hoping for a larger slate of Hitchcock titles and at least 1 Spielberg but still I'll pick up The Birds, Dazed & Confused and probably American Graffiti and Fast Times.

I guess Universal is going for the "horror" titles in Hitchcock's pantheon first before getting to the 1950s masterpieces like Vertigo, Rear Window, and The Man Who Knew Too Much. I certainly would have reversed the releases though, of course, I'm thrilled to get Psycho.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MattH. 

I guess Universal is going for the "horror" titles in Hitchcock's pantheon first before getting to the 1950s masterpieces like Vertigo, Rear Window, and The Man Who Knew Too Much. I certainly would have reversed the releases though, of course, I'm thrilled to get Psycho.

I would hope that Universal does special editions on Vertigo and Rear Window, as they are doing with Psycho.  The list of Blu-ray titles that is going around the net will be more or less bare-bones and any extras would be only from previous releases.  Their idea is to up their title count for Blu-ray.  I am kind of disappointed that they are not doing something a little more special with The Birds, but that my happen in the future, it the re-do ever happens.
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by MattH. 

I guess Universal is going for the "horror" titles in Hitchcock's pantheon first before getting to the 1950s masterpieces like Vertigo, Rear Window, and The Man Who Knew Too Much. I certainly would have reversed the releases though, of course, I'm thrilled to get Psycho.

As long as it's treated with care, any Hitchcock on Blu-Ray is welcome. Although I have heard The Man Who Knew Too Much needs to be restored. When HDNet Movies did a Hitchcock marathon a few years ago including most of his VistaVision films, this was the worst-looking one.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MattH. 

I guess Universal is going for the "horror" titles in Hitchcock's pantheon first before getting to the 1950s masterpieces like Vertigo, Rear Window, and The Man Who Knew Too Much. I certainly would have reversed the releases though, of course, I'm thrilled to get Psycho.

Perhaps their thought process was to do the horror Hitch films first.  However, they may have moved The Birds to the front of the pack in order to be prepared for a tie-in to the new The Birds film that (at this point) is still in limbo.  Either way, I'll be glad to get it.  

They'd better not screw up "To Kill a Mockingbird", "The Blues Brothers", or the Hitchcock titles, that's all I have to say. 

Holy Crap, was just over at Digitalbits, and saw that they have confirmed all of that and more, for the end of this year and early next year, what the hell happened, did they realize what thy had in the film archive that they own. the only problem is it's Universal and they have been hit or miss on a lot of catalog releases, sad to say that but it's true, all the BD java crap, or features that no one wants, hey how about a pristine presentation of said title, you know perfect picture, loss-less sound, you know perfect sound, all bonus features on all previous releases, and not PIP format, presented in HD where possible, and if you want to sweeten the pot, extras with a reason to be there, that are worth watching more than once. but if all the transfers are solid, this will be a hard year on the bank account.