East of Eden, Rebel Without a Cause: SE, James Dean box announced (1 Viewer)

[Patrick McCart]

http://www.thedigitalbits.com/#mytwocents

All three James Dean films in a box set, with Rebel Without a Cause being a new 2-disc SE. The existing Giant: 2-disc SE is also included.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Great News!

 

[Todd Robertson]

Ahhhh.....East Of Eden. I can't wait for this collection!!

 

[Michael Elliott]

Selling my GIANT and REBEL discs as I type this. All of these great releases through May and we've still got seven months left in the year!!!

 

[Joe Karlosi]

More popular "A" titles to buy! I'll be there!

 

[AlexHL]

Great scoop, another great set!

 

[oscar_merkx]

keep them coming

 

[David Levy]

So so so sweet!

I have Giant, but i'll pick up East Of Eden and the new Rebel Without A Cause for sure!

 

[MarcoBiscotti]

Hah, I've been waiting for this!!




Glad I didn't pick up Giant last month at the video store... I had it in my hands but ,uckily, there was a dent in the packaging. :}


Will EOE be a 2-disc S.E. as well?

 

[Herb Kane]

Here are the details:
----------------------



FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PRESS RELEASE ATTACHED


A Legend in His Time and Ours…



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Complete James Dean Collection



The Complete Motion Picture Legacy

Available on DVD May 31

East of Eden

(DVD Debut)

Rebel Without a Cause

(Debut of Two-Disc Special Edition DVD)

Giant

(Two-Disc Special Edition)




DVDs Headline James Dean 50th Anniversary 2005 Yearlong Multifaceted Global Celebration

Burbank, Calif. February 8, 2005 – On May 31, Warner Home Video will celebrate the iconic film star, James Dean with the release for the first time ever of his complete motion picture legacy. A DVD Gift Set will include East of Eden (available for the first time on DVD), Rebel Without a Cause (new two-disc Special Edition) and Giant (two-disc DVD Special Edition).

The DVDs are filled with special features including new documentaries, commentaries, deleted scenes, Behind the Scenes segments, screen tests and more. The Complete James Dean Collection will be available for $69.92 SRP. East of Eden, Rebel Without a Cause and Giant will also be available individually for $26.99 SRP.

When James Dean died in a car crash in 1955, he was mourned throughout the world with mass hysteria that had never before been experienced. One of Hollywood’s most spectacular stars, with the briefest of careers, 50 years later he remains an internationally compelling force, an iconic image, and a cult favorite of timeless fascination.

Born February 8, 1931 in Marion, Indiana, James Byron Dean moved to Los Angeles with his parents when he was five, but was sent back to Indiana at the age of nine to be raised by an aunt and uncle in a Quaker community when he lost his mother to cancer. He developed a love of performing by giving speeches at the local church on the evils of alcohol and began acting in high school plays. Returning to L.A. after high school, his career began with a few small parts in movies and commercials. Unable to land more substantial movie roles, a frustrated Dean moved to New York to study under Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio. After rave reviews for his work in a Broadway production of "The Immoralist," he returned to Hollywood. Dean got his big break in 1955 when he was cast in the Elia Kazan production of John Steinbeck's East of Eden. Shortly thereafter came Dean’s first starring role, the one which fixed his image forever in American culture -- that of the brooding red-jacketed teenager Jim Stark in Nicholas Ray's Rebel Without a Cause.

It was less than two weeks after he completed filming his third and final feature film, Edna Ferber's Giant, that Dean’s Porsche Spyder collided with another car in Cholame, California on September 30, 1955. In 1956 Dean became the first actor to receive a posthumous Academy Award® nomination when he was nominated for his work in East of Eden. He then received a second Best Actor nomination the following year for Giant.

Details of The Complete James Dean Collection Films

East of Eden (1955) – Based on John Steinbeck’s novel and directed by Elia Kazan, East of Eden, unavailable on VHS since 1995, is the first of three major films that make up James Dean’s movie legacy. The 24-year old idol-to-be plays Cal, a wayward Salinas Valley youth who vies for the affection of his hardened father (Raymond Massey) with his favored brother Aron (Richard Davalos). Playing off the haunting sensitivity of Julie Harris, Dean’s performance earned one of the film’s four Academy Award nominations. Among the movie’s stellar performers, Jo Van Fleet won the Oscar® for Best Supporting Actress.


DVD Special Features Include:

Disc One:

New Digital Transfer from Restored Picture and Audio Elements
Soundtrack Remastered in Dolby Digital 5.1
Commentary by Richard Schickel
Theatrical Trailer
Languages: English & Francais
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
Disc Two:

All-New Documentary East of Eden: Art in Search of Life
Forever James Dean documentary
1955 New York Premiere Footage
Screen Test Footage
Wardrobe Tests Gallery
Deleted Scenes
Set Design Test Footage

Rebel Without a Cause (1955) – In one of the most influential performances in movie history, James Dean plays Jim Stark, the new kid in town whose loneliness, frustration and anger mirrored those of postwar teens – and still reverberates 50 years later. Natalie Wood (as Jim’s girl Judy) and Sal Mineo (as Jim’s tag along pal Plato) were Academy Award nominees for their achingly true performances. Director Nicholas Ray was also an Oscar nominee for this landmark chosen as one of the all-time Top 100 American Films by the American Film Institute.

DVD Special Features Include:

Disc One:

Commentary by Douglas L. Rathgeb, Author of The Making of Rebel Without a Cause
Theatrical Trailer
Disc Two:

Two Documentaries

All-New Rebel Without a Cause: Defiant Innocents
James Dean Remembered
Three Behind the Cameras Segments from the Warner Bros. Presents TV Series including the "Drive Safely" public service announcement.
Natalie Wood
Jim Backus
James Dean
Screen Test Footage
Wardrobe Test Footage
Deleted Scenes (without sound)

Giant (1956) – Based on Edna Ferber’s best-selling family saga about a Texas family of ranchers and oilmen, Giant stars Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson and Dennis Hopper. In his final film role, Dean stars as wrangler turned oil baron Jett Rink. Directed by the legendary George Stevens, this sprawling epic received ten Academy Award nominations including a Best Actor nod for Dean. Giant held its place as Warner Bros.’ top-grossing feature film for more than 20 years following its initial 1956 release.


Two-Disc DVD Special Features include:

Commentary by filmmaker/Stevens family archivist George Stevens Jr., screenwriter Ivan Moffat and critic Stephen Farber.
Nearly 3 hours of new and vintage documentaries in which stars, filmmakers and Texans who took part in the location shooting recall their experiences:
George Stevens: The Filmmakers Who Knew Him
Memories of Giant
Return to Giant
New York premiere TV special
Hollywood premiere and project kickoff newsreels
2 Warner Bros. Presents behind the cameras featurettes
Breathtaking, all-new digital transfer from Revitalized Picture and Audio Elements
Photo and Document Galleries
Extensive production notes, director filmography and introduction by George Stevens Jr.
Feature film available in English and French (dubbed in Québécois); subtitles available English, French and Spanish.

To coincide with the 50th anniversary of Dean’s death, there are events being planned throughout the year as outlined on the attached schedule. Additionally, James Dean, an in-depth, photographic biography of the star will be published in May by DK Publishing. Written by renowned movie star biographer George Perry, this candid portrait tells the story of the making of an American icon, uncovering new details about the man behind the legend, with in-depth commentary from his closest friends and family, including his cousin and executor of his estate, Marcus Winslow, and best friend and roommate William Bast.


Also in commemoration of the anniversary, WHV will re-price James Dean, the dynamic biopic of the meteoric star whose troubled life echoed his gut-grabbing performances in East of Eden, Rebel Without a Cause and Giant; starring James Franco (Spiderman 2). The DVD will sell for $14.98 SRP.



KEY EVENTS IN THE YEAR-LONG COMMEMORATIVE TRIBUTE TO JAMES DEAN


2005 MARKS THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF DEAN’S DEATH

February 2005:

Launch of Warner Bros.’ year-long global tribute to James Dean, with a press conference at the Warner Bros. Burbank lot on February 8th

Unveiling of James Dean Fest signature branding of all Anniversary activity

Commemorative tribute trailer dedicated to James Dean’s WB motion picture legacy to be screened and released. Trailer will appear on multiple DVDs manufactured and distributed by Warner Home Video from May 1 to February 1, 2006
Unveiling of trailer/promo from new feature-length documentary, James Dean: Forever Young, narrated by Martin Sheen

May 2005:

World Premiere of James Dean: Forever Young at the Cannes Film Festival in conjunction with digital premiere of East of Eden, Rebel Without a Cause, and Giant.
Variety to publish a stand-alone edition devoted to the 50th anniversary, headlined "Cinema’s First Rebel."
June 2005:

"James Dean Fest" promotion, to be staged in Fairmount and Marion, Indiana, June 3-5 with an anticipated audience of 200,000 – 250,000.

U.S. digital premiere of James Dean: Forever Young and James Dean motion picture legacy, billed as the world’s largest digital "drive-in".

Commemorative concert featuring major music artists (to be named)
September 2005:

Anniversary of Dean’s tragic death

 

[Scott Merryfield]

It's too bad that Giant did not get an anamorphic transfer this time. I will definitely pick up East of Eden, though.

 

[David Coleman]

I'm all over EAST OF EDEN when it comes out!!

 

[PaulP]

Awesome, can't wait to see the cover art!

 

[Ruz-El]

I'll grab this as I never bought Giant. Is it confirmed that Giant is the same disc? It is advertising all new digitally remastered picture and sound elements. Did Warners upgrade it?

 

[Sean A]

I would assume it's the same DVD that come out a year or so ago (was it 2003?)

The audio/video on that version was the best I've ever seen for "Giant", and I've owned it on VHS, Laser Disc, Canadian DVD, and saw it when it was reissued to theaters in 1996 for the 40th Anniversary

 

[Brian PB]

Word is that George Stevens, Jr. (the director's son) was dissatisfied with the cropping of his father's film from 1.66:1 (the OAR) to 1.77:1 for the briefly available anamorphic 2001 Canadian release (See Stuart Galbraith's HTF review).

The 2-disc Warner special edition was released in 2003, and won't be altered for the forthcoming box set.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

There is nothing preventing Warner from releasing a 1.66:1 anamorphic transfer... except ignorance.

 

[Dane Marvin]

Okay then... so all three of these are Two-Disc SEs? There are two discs worth of features listed on East of Eden, anyway. Excellent. Warner continues its full-scale assault on my wallet.

 

[Roger Rollins]

That statement is ignorant....

WB doesn't "own" all of GIANT. George Stevens Jr. has a large chunk of it, and he controls everything about how it is released. So "ignorant" is to make assumptions that it would be a cake walk for Warner to make this film look great. They'v got two strikes against them.....a faded negative made in 1956, a year famous for bad EK negs...and the fact that George Stevens Jr. is very involved in every aspect of how this film is released and presented.

While GIANT on DVD looks better than it did on TV, LD or VHS, it is still ultimately a dissapointment.

Without Stevens to meddle in, I'll bet EDEN & REBEL will look terrific...

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Warner does not release any of their 1.66:1 aspect ratio films anamorphically on DVD. They are one of the few studios that continue with this practice. George Stevens, Jr. has nothing to do with this policy.

1.66:1 non-anamorphic transfer look terrible on most 16x9 monitors, since the image is both window-boxed and letterboxed. An anamorphic transfer would preserve the aspect ratio desired by the film maker, yet allow the image to be displayed properly on 16x9 displays. Also, the affects on 4x3 displays are virtually unnoticable.