Will EL CID, THE FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE, and 55 DAYS AT PEKING ever get a proper restoration and h (1 Viewer)

[OliverK]

Is it really your mission to question everything I post? Seriously? I said specifically that THIS transfer for THIS film (55 Days) is from the 8-perf Technirama camera negative. If you don't understand that perhaps someone else can explain it to you, but your agenda with me is not good, sir, and I wish you'd stop.

Please go back and reread my post that contains no negative comment whatsoever on what you posted but a comment on others that you wrote were thinking this was from a 70mm negative. While we do not always agree I think that we do on 55 Days which I own and like a lot. I will leave it at that.

 

[Rob_Ray]

Based on the comments here I took a gamble and made my first purchase from Amazon France. DVD Beaver said it was region free. My Amazon order says it's region B. I have a region one bluray player. Will this BluRay play in my machine?

 

[Alan Tully]

Based on the comments here I took a gamble and made my first purchase from Amazon France. DVD Beaver said it was region free. My Amazon order says it's region B. I have a region one bluray player. Will this BluRay play in my machine?

Yeah, you're safe. Everyone says it's region free, including this very good review at DVD Beaver.

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film4/blu-ray_reviews_61/55_days_at_peking_blu-ray.htm

 

[OliverK]

Based on the comments here I took a gamble and made my first purchase from Amazon France. DVD Beaver said it was region free. My Amazon order says it's region B. I have a region one bluray player. Will this BluRay play in my machine?

I posted about the disc in another thread that has since been moved to another subforum so you probably did not read that post. I have players that I can set to region A and B and it does also play when the player is set to your region. This is a great looking Blu-ray, you won't be disappointed!

By the way: With Blu-ray the regions as mentioned on the discs are A, B and C:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Blu-ray_regions_without_key.svg

 

[DP 70]

I hope to get this next week and I remember seeing this in NFT 1 in 70mm in the late 70s, looks to be a great BD.

 

[Doug Bull]

I've just ordered the upcoming British Blu-ray version of Peking.
The price difference was too big to ignore.

I just hope that the video/sound quality is the same. (the terrible cover is not that important to me)

Doug.

 

[t1g3r5fan]

I wonder if a stateside release of 55 Days and Circus World is coming in the near future; I'm asking that out of curiosity - I assume that Anchor Bay would likely handle the release if it were come to pass here.

 

[RichMurphy]

I wonder if a stateside release of 55 Days and Circus World is coming in the near future; I'm asking that out of curiosity - I assume that Anchor Bay would likely handle the release if it were come to pass here.

I am wondering the same thing. Do any of the "industry insiders" here have any advance scoop? I am holding off ordering the Anchor Bay British releases because of this, as well as waiting for confirmation about picture and sound quality.

 

[Douglas R]

I wonder if a stateside release of 55 Days and Circus World is coming in the near future; I'm asking that out of curiosity - I assume that Anchor Bay would likely handle the release if it were come to pass here.

The UK 2011 Anchor Bay releases of EL CID and FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE bear a Weinstein licensing logo. Don't know if Weinstein still hold US rights - someone said, somewhere, that they no longer do.

 

[ahollis]

The UK 2011 Anchor Bay releases of EL CID and FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE bear a Weinstein licensing logo. Don't know if Weinstein still hold US rights - someone said, somewhere, that they no longer do.

Supposedly they still do.

 

[DP 70]

I got 55 Days at Peking this morning and had a quick look and was very impressed.

 

[Ed Lachmann]

I sure hope that EL CID and FOTRE might someday soon get the deluxe treatment that both CIRCUS WORLD and 55 DAYS have gotten. The latter two look simply fantastic, among the most beautiful BDs in my entire collection and SO much better than the former two, which were much more popular.

 

[OliverK]

I sure hope that EL CID and FOTRE might someday soon get the deluxe treatment that both CIRCUS WORLD and 55 DAYS have gotten. The latter two look simply fantastic, among the most beautiful BDs in my entire collection and SO much better than the former two, which were much more popular.

Unfortunately the popularity for El Cid and Fall was their downfall as for that reason some "experts" quickly produced the existing substandard masters for Weinstein that are now all over Europe. They are effectively blocking all the big Western European countries against better efforts that also would have to make their money back with no big studio to pick up the tab. So unless for example the film foundation steps in we might have to wait some time for the two "bigger" Bronston titles to get a proper Blu-ray release.

 

[Douglas R]

Unfortunately the popularity for El Cid and Fall was their downfall as for that reason some "experts" quickly produced the existing substandard masters for Weinstein that are now all over Europe. They are effectively blocking all the big Western European countries against better efforts that also would have to make their money back with no big studio to pick up the tab. So unless for example the film foundation steps in we might have to wait some time for the two "bigger" Bronston titles to get a proper Blu-ray release.

Good point but as EL CID and FALL haven't had Blu-ray releases in the US, hopefully they may receive new versions for that market. I'm sure Twilight Time would love to do them if the could.

 

[OliverK]

Good point but as EL CID and FALL haven't had Blu-ray releases in the US, hopefully they may receive new versions for that market. I'm sure Twilight Time would love to do them if the could.

The US and Japan are the two remaining markets that seem to have the biggest potential although I am not sure if Japan hasn't already seen a release of El Cid and Fall.

In the US it probably depends on Weinstein- if they still hold the rights they are unlikely to contribute any funds towards new masters. They were even so bold to screen their subpar digital version of El Cid in a cinema so at least at some point they thought it was good enough.

 

[McCrutchy]

The US and Japan are the two remaining markets that seem to have the biggest potential although I am not sure if Japan hasn't already seen a release of El Cid and Fall.

They have:

El Cid:

http://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B0076DL27O/

The Fall of the Roman Empire:

http://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B0076DL26U/

both from Paramount Japan.

Paramount Japan also appears to have the rights for 55 Days at Peking, but so far, they have only released it on DVD. Circus World was released by Japanese label Tohokushinsha on DVD in 2003.

 

[Douglas R]

So who paid for Pinewood to provide new HD masters? Presumably it must have been the current owners of the Samuel Bronston films who then licensed 55 DAYS AT PEKING and CIRCUS WORLD to the various European distributors. Surely they would have done the same for EL CID and FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE?

It would be interesting to know who actually owns the films. For many years they were owned by P.C. Films Corporation which was a company set up by Bronstons's creditors (Du Pont and various) but around about 2006 record producer David Wishert thought ownership of the films had been acquired by a French consortium. Given the history of the films and being out of the hands of a studio, it's remarkable that the original elements appear to have survived.

 

[OliverK]

So who paid for Pinewood to provide new HD masters? Presumably it must have been the current owners of the Samuel Bronston films who then licensed 55 DAYS AT PEKING and CIRCUS WORLD to the various European distributors. Surely they would have done the same for EL CID and FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE?

It would be interesting to know who actually owns the films. For many years they were owned by P.C. Films Corporation which was a company set up by Bronstons's creditors (Du Pont and various) but around about 2006 record producer David Wishert thought ownership of the films had been acquired by a French consortium. Given the history of the films and being out of the hands of a studio, it's remarkable that the original elements appear to have survived.

It is not quite clear who or what entity owns the movies now but I can tell you that all of the existing HD and beyond masters for the 4 movies you mention have been done on behalf of two licensees. They are Weinstein and another company that from what I gather may not be very keen on being in the public eye so I will not name them here.

 

[RolandL]

It is not quite clear who or what entity owns the movie now but I can tell you that all of the existing HD and beyond masters for the 4 movies you mention have been done on behalf of two licensees. They are Weinstein and another company that from what I gather may not be very keen on being in the public eye so I will not name them here.

So, are you saying that a new HD master has been done for FOTRE, or just mentioning that the current Blu-ray was "done on behalf of two licensees"? I would love to see one from 65mm negative in 2.76:1 AR.

 

[OliverK]

So, are you saying that a new HD master has been done for FOTRE, or just mentioning that the current Blu-ray was "done on behalf of two licensees"? I would love to see one from 65mm negative in 2.76:1 AR.

I was speaking about all 4 movies, two were done on behalf of Weinstein (unfortunately in very low quality) and two on behalf of another company.

Fall in its original width would certainly look fantastic but it might be necessary to bring it to the US to seek a cost effective 65mm scanning solution for it that could then also result in a 4k DCI and a release in an upcoming 4k format to cover all possible revenue streams - not easy for over 3 hours of 65mm negative!

From what I can see Dave Strohmaier is doing quite well finding partners for scanning his rare 70mm cinerama prints so maybe there is hope that this could be done despite the unfortunate rights situation and the limited budget that has to come with it.