Any insider news about a possible 50th Anniversary edition of 7th VOYAGE OF SINBAD? (1 Viewer)

[Dick]

Now that we've gotten the colorizing of Harryhausen's early Columbia titles out of the way, can we hope for a restored edition of SINBAD? By restored I mean: fully saturated and accurate colors and sharp-as-a-tack picture from the original negative. I am hoping Ray has already done a commentary for this one, and that some fine supplementary material has been dug up and/or created.

Hopefully Columbia has already employed him to do a commentary for JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS also, though hopefully we won't have to wait another five years for an anniversary edition of that. He did a commentary for the Criterion CAV laser release, but as that has not been ported to a DVD (yet), it remains a collector's item at this point. I'd love to see Sony release the movie as Harryhausen intended it - with several sequences darkened down that were meant to be day-for-night but which have appeared as bright as day in all video incarnations except the Criterion laser disc.

Anyway, 7th VOYAGE has always been and will always be my favorite of his films, as it so lovingly and perfectly combines the opulence of bygone Baghdad with mysticism, superstition, romance, magic, a worthy villain, a gloriously evocative score and the animator's best creations (especially the cyclops). For this eight-year-old sitting in a huge theater in New York, nothing could ever eclipse it (and hasn't) as the most memorable and astonishing fantasy of all time. I just hope I can see it looking as good again as it did in 1958 before I pass on... Please, Sony?

 

[JulianK]

Completely agree, Dick.

I think the signs are positive.

Columbia clearly thinks there's still mileage in their Harryhausen titles. The remake of Clash of the Titans will raise the stakes, and provide a good excuse to re-visit the catalogue.

If Columbia do re-release the catalogue, there's a good chance they'll add new content (and release them on Blu-ray, too). They've done this for some of their recent re-releases (The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, for example).

The sad recent losses of Kerwin Mathews and John Philip Law should be a wake-up call for Columbia to act now if they want to document these films for posterity (if, indeed, they haven't already done so).

Ray Harryhausen and producer Charles H. Schneer are both 87, and obviously not getting any younger!

 

[Craig Beam]

Oooh, I'd bite. Love this film (particularly Bernard Herrmann's score).

 

[SilverWook]

It would be nice if they could finally port over that stereo track the old Pioneer Special Edition Laserdisc had.

 

[Akon84]

this is a great film to continue, hopefully things are looking up.

 

[oscar_merkx]

Count me in

 

[John Sparks]

Four years ago, there was a book signing of Ray's latest "The Art of Ray Harryhausen" near my home.

I knew his producer and was able to have Ray stop by my home and see my home theater (den) dedicated to his movies and creatures.

I have all his original movie posters from all his movies on the walls and he was quite taken with my den.

Got a nice pic of him and I in the den, surrounded with the posters.

"7th Voyage of Sinbad" is my favorite movie and was my first movie poster purchase.

We need this film and the remaining on BD NOW!!! I don't want a SE on DVD, just the movie in all its BD glory!!!

 

[mike kaminski]

I would definitely get this. I mean if 20 Million Miles to Earth can get a deluxe release, I don't see why one of his best and most popular titles shouldn't. At least the current disk is decent enough, one of my favorite films is One Million Years BC and thats only a barebones disk, thanks to Fox.

 

[Jack Theakston]

I don't think it's gonna happen. If Sony hasn't announced it by August, I don't think it's going to be on the slate.

And for the record, the farther away they keep that terrible stereo remix away from the film, the better. It compromised Bernard Herrmann's score terribly.

 

[SilverWook]

I wasn't aware it was a remix? In any case, the only stereo aspect seemed to be the music. (All dialog and sound FX came out of the center channel only.) Does a true stereo recording exist or not?

And what about the stereo track for Mysterious Island?

 

[Jim_K]

I think studios these days are more focused on new movie tie-ins more than anniversaries, that said unless there's a new Sinbad movie in the works I'm not holding my breath for remastered Harryhausen fantasy flics.

I'd love a restored 7th Voyage, Jason and the Argonauts, Mysterious Island, etc specially on Blu-ray and would buy them anniversary edition or no anniversary, doesn't matter to me.

Maybe the Clash of the Titans remake in 2010 will spur Columbia to redo these to piggy-back on the marketing campaign.

 

[Joe Caps]

Jack Theakston. Why was the stereo remix terrible. and How di it compromise bernard Herrmanns score.

Just for the record, I am the one who did that stereo remix.

 

[Jack Theakston]

Joe, no offense to you personally, but I didn't like the fact that it down-mixed certain instruments and brought up others. Why?

I also don't like the fact that when the LD first came out, there was no effort made to explain that it was a remix. As seen above, everyone now thinks that mix was original. And as we know, the original release of SINBAD never had a stereo release.

 

[Joe Caps]

What mix down of instruments. the tracks I used were a combination of two elements.

1. the two channel stereo soundtrack album, there was NO WAY to change this mix at all - and why would I?

2. three channel stereo music units. again, none of these is multi track so there is NO WAY to change balance of instruments.

Also, the final reel beginnning with the end of Death of the cyclops is orignal MIXED four channel stereo and NOT a remix by me. Apparently some locations had limited stereo showings of this film, but there were very few prints.

 

[Jack Theakston]

One only has to flip between the LD's stereo and the original mono track to hear the difference. You are aware that the stereo soundtrack album is made of different takes than those used in the film, right?

I'm not familiar with the three-tracks music sessions from 7TH VOYAGE, but why would they have recorded the music stereophonic when the film was going to be mixed down mono in the end? It would make more sense to do as Columbia did on a number of their films and record the soundtrack on three track with the appropriate instruments separated by track.

And I skirted around it with my post above, but I'll ask the question again directly-- why did certain people responsible for this mix claim that it was an original mix made for the film (which is total BS)?

 

[Ronald Epstein]

I have some news.

The studio is aware of the anniversary and I would suspect fans of the
film should not be disappointed.

 

[Jim_K]

Fantastic! Hopefully 7th Voyage fans who have adopted Blu-ray won't get the shaft.

 

[Joe Caps]

Jack Theakston -
another claim made by you
"you are aware that the album used different takes than the fil"

great - where does such information come from ?

Hardly likely because if it was different takes, the music would not be dead on in sync as it is.

Another statement - why would Columbia record music in stereo if the film was to be mono?

Part of that you answered yourself. a few original release print were in stereo in big cities to promote the film.

Also, almost all studios were recording all of their music tracks in stereo (usually in three track) by the early fifties.

 

[oscar_merkx]

Wow that's awesome news.

My Blu Ray shopping list is becomer better and better

 

[Jack Theakston]

Untrue. There were many productions that didn't give stereophonic sound a second thought because it just wasn't going to happen. And yes, I'm aware of bi and trinaural recordings. They don't count, unless you take them and remix them into a stereophonic soundtrack.