Planet of the Apes (1968) Restoration details.

the news of this makes me happy i have held out on the blu ray, is there a future release pending?? only time and Fox knows

Probably will be released to tie in with the "reboot" of the franchise next Summer.

Interesting article.  Thanks for sharing Steve.

I recently bought the Blu-ray box set on a nice low price deal from FoxConnect, put the first movie in to sample, and was shocked by its appearance.  My first thought was, "this must be what everyone has been talking about with regard to Patton, etc."  It looked to me like pure video.  I hadn't done my homework on this one beforehand.   (Still haven't.)  Between that and those horrible rubber (?) "buttons" in place of conventional plastic hubs, I came this close to saying the hell with it, returning the set, and getting the DVDs.  Then I figured it just wasn't worth the trouble.  So, was I seeing the picture quality right, or do I need to go back for a second look? 

Did they find an additional 8 seconds of extra footage and will use that to anchor yet another re-release of the series? I always thought there should've been MUCH more that could have been added to the recent BD box set to make it a more attractive release. I don't know but it feels like each one of the films needs to be a fully-loaded SE. They "find" an extra bit or two of footage for ONE of the films but there's nothing for the other ones?

I'm interested, but I actually thought Fox did a pretty good job on the Blu-Ray that exists now. Not at all like the Patton and Predator UE DNR monstrosities.

Hmmm...I wonder why they would not have scanned at at least 4k if they were going to go through all that trouble.

I always thought the current Blu-ray of PLANET OF THE
APES looked fantastic.

Not especially keen on having to buy it yet again, though

if offered up as a single serving rather than another complete

set I suppose that I can't complain.

This one of my all-time favorite films and it's certainly in 

very capable hands with Shawn Belston.  Fox has certainly

shown they can do stunning work with their restorations and

digital cleanups.  I have high hopes for PLANET OF THE APES.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scorpio 

Hmmm...I wonder why they would not have scanned at at least 4k if they were going to go through all that trouble.

This was my thought as well. I thought, in 2010, 4K workflow had become standard for digital restorations.

This restoration has been going on for a few years. I was able to see the partially restored print at an Eastman House screening.

Very odd, I think the current blu looks fantastic! What more could they do with this title?

One area that could be improved on is the 5.1 audio remix. The DVD's 35th Anniversary 5.1 remix had a great true stereo music score which had distinct separations and sounded very clean. In comparison, the BluRay 5.1 tracks (and the 1st letterboxed DVD release) both sound more like a mono track perhaps with some added processing to help spread it out over the six channels.  Of course, the inclusion of the original mono track is still a must, but if you are a fan of Jerry Goldsmith and/or the Apes soundtrack, give the 35th Anniversary DVD another listen...

Well, of course.  I JUST finally pulled the trigger on the 40th Anniversary set. 

I thought the current Blu looked just about perfect for a late 60s film.  I like the idea of this movie being preserved on a regular basis, but there are so many other movies where the effort would be better spent.  At least it means we could be looking at a re-do of Predator in about 3 years.

Interesting article Steve but add me to the I'm happy with the current Blu-ray crowd.  The current Blu set is the last time I'm buying these films.

One a side note, I didn't know about the reboot until now so I'm intrigued.  Hope it turns out better than Tim Burton's remake.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chas in CT 

I recently bought the Blu-ray box set on a nice low price deal from FoxConnect, put the first movie in to sample, and was shocked by its appearance.  My first thought was, "this must be what everyone has been talking about with regard to Patton, etc."  It looked to me like pure video.  I hadn't done my homework on this one beforehand.   (Still haven't.)  Between that and those horrible rubber (?) "buttons" in place of conventional plastic hubs, I came this close to saying the hell with it, returning the set, and getting the DVDs.  Then I figured it just wasn't worth the trouble.  So, was I seeing the picture quality right, or do I need to go back for a second look? 

I got mine cheap from DD ages ago.  And I hate those buttons too.  Haven't even watched any of them since I'd planned to pick up a nice multi disc case for storing those.  I jsut kind of forgot about it. 

I won't rebuy if it looks half decent. 

I watched parts of the first film last night, and I guess everyone's right, it really is okay -- even if I still have a bit of a strange reaction to it.  I examined it up close as well as from my normal viewing distance, and found it much more satisfying up close (like, only inches away).  FYI, I sit just barely within the standard recommended distance for the screen size, and I'm going to try to tighten that up a bit, but this doesn't seem like a typical too-far-to-appreciate-1080p deal.  With this movie, from farther back I'm losing some sense of "film", and this is the only Blu-ray where I've had that happen.  But I will make my peace with it.  And I, too, hope to not feel the need to buy these again. 

Good idea there about getting a multi-disc case.  It's also the first time I really feel that's necessary.

still haven't sat down to watch any of the films in their entirety yet, but when I first got the set I extensively A/B'd it with the anamorphic DVD set and the practical differences were distressingly minimal. This was with a 1080p front projector (Sony VW 50 at the time) on an 8' wide screen.

Because of this thread, I pulled the set out again the other night (God, the design of this set is so annoyingly form over function- wish these studios would let people that actually use these things regularly design the packaging). This time I'm watching on a Pioneer (JVC RS2 clone). It's a very underwhelming image with what looks like too much filtering/DNR. It may not be Patton bad, but when the camera is stationary and a figure moves, I can see the slur of detail that is usually a tell-tale sign of DNR.

Also, if you check out the scene with Zira, Cornelius, and Taylor- right after Taylor reveals that he can write, there is some faint vertical striations throughout the frame . It's VERY faint- but this could be one reason why the image was as filtered as much as it is.

I don't know how good this film is capable of looking, but the current disc just isn't anything special. The improvement going from the anamorphic DVD set to this, is nowhere near as huge a leap as going from the non-anamorphic first release to the 16:9 remaster.

But I also have to laugh (nervously) when I hear Fox touting how many man hours they've put into restoring something. I always flash back to  the restoration demo on Blood And Sand, a beautiful looking film that is a real eye-sore on DVD. You can see in the split screen demo how much detail is lost in the image after they get through 'fixing' it. It's appalling, really.

WHAT.

I just bought the damn Blu-Ray boxed set not that long ago.

Okay, at least I'm not the only person who might be totally nuts. 

(Thank you, Paul Scott.) 

Well, I'm very happy to hear about this.  "Planet of the Apes" has been my favorite film since I saw it in its original 1968 release when I was a kid.  I wasn't at all satisfied with its Blu-ray release from Fox.  While most of the film looks OK, it isn't the kind of job that has been performed on the sixties Bond movies, but apparently Fox has corrected that, but as mentioned above, the current 5.1 audio remix is hardly that.  Fox has the stereo recording masters to the classic Jerry Goldsmith score and could easily do a true 5.1 remix that would rival their 4-channel stereo soundtracks from their fifties and early sixties CinemaScope films.  Also, Fox promised an isolated score track and it WAS NOT delivered for the original film (all the sequels on Blu-ray have this feature, though).  "Planet of the Apes" also deserves a couple new commentary tracks, especially one devoted to the score and its importance.  Hopefully Fox is preparing all this for a new Blu-ray Edition to tie in with the release of the reboot/prequel "Rise of the Apes" in June 2011.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

 

I hope soon, as I have held off buying the current set...or maybe I should get the set and add this film when it comes out? So confused!