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Twilight Time joins forces with Sony Pictures to release BD editions of classic Columbia Titles (1 Viewer)

Ronald Epstein

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TWILIGHT TIME joins forces with

SONY PICTURES HOME ENTERTAINMENT

to release Blu-ray editions of classic Columbia titles

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA (September 1, 2011) — Specialty label TWILIGHT TIME has struck a deal with Sony Pictures Home Entertainment to license and release classic films from the Sony-owned Columbia Pictures library in high-definition Blu-ray editions. In line with TWILIGHT TIME’s innovative limited series concept, just 3000 units of each title will be produced, aimed at the collector/classic film aficionado market, and available exclusively online through www.screenarchives.com, the nation’s largest independent distributor of specialty soundtracks. The November 8th Blu-ray debut of director Cy Endfield’s and special effects master Ray Harryhausen’s 1961 science fiction/fantasy classic, Mysterious Island, will be followed by a new release on the first Tuesday of each month. Scheduled follow-up on December 13th is the original Fright Night (1985), the horror/comedy cult favorite written and directed by Tom Holland and starring Chris Sarandon and Roddy McDowall. TWILIGHT TIME—the label that has made a recent splash in the classic film home video pond with the release of such titles as The Kremlin Letter, Violent Saturday, and The Egyptian—is the brainchild of 30-year Warner Bros veteran Brian Jamieson and filmmaker/music restoration specialist Nick Redman. In his long tenure at Warner Home Video, Jamieson initiated and oversaw countless legacy restorations, including the films of Stanley Kubrick, Samuel Fuller’s The Big Red One, and Sam Peckinpah’s The Wild Bunch. Redman, a film historian and Oscar nominee for his 1997 documentary, The Wild Bunch: An Album in Montage, is also a prime mover behind Twentieth Century Fox’s pioneering series of limited edition soundtracks, the inspiration for TWILIGHT TIME’s release model. TWILIGHT TIME, Jamieson explains, is motivated by a desire “to optimize the film enthusiast’s dream, providing long sought-after collectible and fully restored titles, in their original aspect ratios, all manufactured to the highest quality available, and at an affordable price.” Unlike movies-on-demand offerings, each TWILIGHT TIME release is a BD or DVD (not a DVDr) properly pressed from a restored transfer. Each is accompanied by a collectible 8-page booklet complete with original essay, stills, and poster art. And each TWILIGHT TIME disc provides, whenever possible, that extra most coveted by cinemusic enthusiasts: an isolated score. Mysterious Island offers a particularly high incentive along these lines, featuring music by pantheon composer Bernard Herrmann. Grover Crisp, Sony Pictures Entertainment's Executive Vice President for Asset Management, Film Restoration, and Digital Mastering, is enthusiastic about his studio's new partnership with the label. “Our collaboration with Twilight Time will allow us to make available for Blu-ray release some of our library's most collectible titles in a way fans have been asking for: restored and re-mastered with attention to detail and quality.” And Jamieson concurs: “Sony and Twilight Time,” he says, “will be serving both the collectible drive of film aficionados, and, in a larger sense, the cause of cinema literacy.”
 

Robin9

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I'm sure we can all offer ideas about which movies from the Columbia catalogue would be most welcome on Blu-ray. I wonder if Twilight Times' ideas will be the same as ours. OK: the floor is open. Any suggestions? I'll start proceedings with Pal Joey , Picnic, Oklahoma Crude and Lost Command.
 

Jeff Robertson

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I've never heard of Twilight Time.


First Lionsgate and now some other company releasing Sony's catalog titles? I would feel more confident if Sony themselves put these out. It will be way too easy to screw-up Mysterious Island if left in the wrong hands.


I suppose at this point in the game Sony feels it is better to let other entities take over the less popular titles?!? A shame because I thought Mysterious Island was every bit as good (if not better) than Jason and The Argonauts.
 

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Originally Posted by Jeff Robertson

I've never heard of Twilight Time.


First Lionsgate and now some other company releasing Sony's catalog titles? I would feel more confident if Sony themselves put these out. It will be way too easy to screw-up Mysterious Island if left in the wrong hands.


I suppose at this point in the game Sony feels it is better to let other entities take over the less popular titles?!? A shame because I thought Mysterious Island was every bit as good (if not better) than Jason and The Argonauts.


Twilight Time has released some Fox titles with great results. Here was their last Fox Blu-ray:

[url=http://www.hometheaterforum.com/t/313127/the-egyptian-blu-ray-review]HTF review of the Egyptian on Blu-ray


Robert Harris' A Few Words About The Egyptian on Blu-ray


Matt has reviewed some of their DVD titles recently too, most recently The Flim Flam Man on DVD:


Also, if Grover Crisp is looking forward to it that is good too.
 

Brandon Conway

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Originally Posted by Jeff Robertson


First Lionsgate and now some other company releasing Sony's catalog titles?




I believe it's Image Entertainment, not Lionsgate, that has been releasing some Sony catalog titles. By all reports these have been solid releases.
 

mdnitoil

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I have absolutely zero interest in this as I'm not a Blu guy, but questioning how Twilight Time will handle these films shouldn't even be a consideration. At the end of the day, it isn't they who are overseeing the transfers, etc. They will simply take what Sony gives them and then create a decent package to present it.
 

Mark Collins

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Picnic Suddenly Last Summer From Here to Eternity this is fantastic news!!!!! So many titles!!! The Frank Capra Movies you could go on and on. The first 3 would be my top choice's then It happened one Night Mr Smith Goes to Washington Bell Book and Candle. From Fox I'd Cimb the Highest Mountain ......BTW Peyton Place Song of Bernadette and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea all aired on HBO HD
 

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Originally Posted by Dave B Ferris

Here's hoping the Boetticher/Scott westerns are included in this program!

I second that request for the Boetticher/Scott westerns on BD!
 

Jim_K

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I'd much rather have Man From Laramie than the Boetticher/Scott films (which I also would like)


I'm very happy for Mysterious Island coming out, not excited over the prospect of having to pay through the nose for these Columbia titles though.


I'll resist the urge to rattle off a list of titles I'd like to get on Blu-ray.
 

ahollis

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Originally Posted by Brandon Conway




I believe it's Image Entertainment, not Lionsgate, that has been releasing some Sony catalog titles. By all reports these have been solid releases.



It is Image, but the titles are re-releases of previous Blu-ray that went OOP. I am happy that we will get 12 new Sony Blu-ray catalog titles a year, but I do have some reservations of where, not only Sony, but also other companies are going with their older titles.
 

ahollis

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Originally Posted by Timothy E


I second that request for the Boetticher/Scott westerns on BD!




[SIZE= 16px]There are only 12 a year, let's spread it around. How about Oliver, Lord Jim, Nicholas & Alexandra, and Funny Girl. [/SIZE]
 

MatthewA

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Originally Posted by ahollis





It is Image, but the titles are re-releases of previous Blu-ray that went OOP.


Actually, the only Image/Sony release that was a reissue of an OOP Sony disc was The Deep. Everything else is new to Blu-Ray.
 

Charles Smith

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Yeah, my wallet just let out the most pathetic little cry upon hearing this otherwise wonderful news.
 

Adam Gregorich

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Originally Posted by Mark-P

Oh, great. More $40 limited edition Blu-rays.


If it comes down to $40 for a movie you really want or not being able to get it since its not going to sell enough to be worth a large studios time, I'd gladly spend the $40.
 

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