Universal To Celebrate 100 Years in 2012 (1 Viewer)

I just noticed a posting of a memo from Ron Meyer at Universal Studios, discussing next year's centennial of the studio:


"As many of you already know, Universal will mark its 100th Anniversary in 2012. This is a proud and exciting moment for our company, which celebrates the studio’s rich history and cultural impact. In January, we’re going to be unveiling an extensive year-long campaign that includes a significant restoration commitment for some of our most beloved films, fan engagement through special events, a home entertainment offering, theme park activities, promotions, and fun social media and web outreaches. All of this is designed to connect a new audience to our extraordinary library of films, as well as bring these memories back to longtime movie lovers. Part of our centennial celebration includes the launch of a new audio visual and print logo which we will unveil early next year..."

The memo goes on to say more nice things, but this seems to be appropriate for those of us here.

I have already heard murmurs elsewhere that Universal plans to release Blu-ray editions of Jaws and E.T. next year. I have to wonder about the other movies they mean.

Should make for an interesting year in any case...

Schindler's List perhaps? Maybe the Monster films? I'm having a bit of a brain lapse but I can't think of any other Universal movies I want on blu-ray although I'm pretty sure there are others.

Hopefully some more Hitchcock finally makes it out.

Hopefully their "commitment to restoration" means actual restoration and not DNR-laden rush jobs (no need to name names).

Hopefully it means releasing some of their earliest films for the first time -- those that are 100 years old or close to it, like John Ford's Straight Shooting (1917). Now that really would be celebrating a century of filmmaking.
Universal, show me something interesting.
Something I can't see already by pulling it off the shelf.

How about some of their early horror films like Frankenstein and the Bride of. The 1941 version of the The Wolf Man looks great on blu-ray and I'm glad it was included as a BRD extra with the Hopkins remake.

I just looked up the 2010 Wolfman and I can't see the Blu Ray of the 1941 version amongst the extras. What I do see is a streaming version whose certificate expired on June 30 2011. Any different?

Also Digital or streaming copies are no good outside America, it seems. A forthcoming Disney(Lady & the Tramp) gives the option of not having to take a copy and save a few bucks which I opted for. Warners have been putting Digital copies with their DVD extras on Blu Ray. I actually tried an experiment and copied the digital file with the DVD file and got a good copy of the Digital one and no sound on the DVD file. It was not possible to separate the files as they came up in one stream and the running time of the both versions combined. Another mystery.

I'm seeing encouraging signs that UK BD releases, as part of the celebrations, of To Kill A Mockingbird and All Quiet On The Western Front may be coming soon.

I wonder if the celebration will include Paramount films that they own or if it will be strictly Universal.

Any way you cut it, they almost have to do better than 20th Century Fox's 100th anniversary 2 years ago. That was a bunch of hype over nothing.
Universal films that I would like to upgrade.
1. Most Hitchcock, but especially Vertigo & Rear Window
2. Touch of Evil
3. To Kill a Mockingbird
4. Double Indemnity
....but like several of the above comments, I would most desire some catalog titles that have not been released yet.
How about a Veronica Lake / Alan Ladd set that could include (This Gun For Hire, The Glass Key, & The Blue Dahlia)???....or how about a third W.C. Fields set?

Eric Peterson said:

Any way you cut it, they almost have to do better than 20th Century Fox's 100th anniversary 2 years ago. That was a bunch of hype over nothing.
Universal films that I would like to upgrade.
1. Most Hitchcock, but especially Vertigo & Rear Window
2. Touch of Evil

Click to expand...

Regarding the Hitchcock films, I hope they release them slowly on Blu-ray, making sure they do a good job of each title like they did with Psycho. If they just release 3 or 4 titles in all of next year that would be fine, so long as they are all well done. Look at the Hitchcock DVDs, it took until the red velvet MASTERPIECE COLLECTION, that was released in late 2005, for them to do the films right (by DVD standards). A lot of the early Hitchcock DVDs were rubbish, especially the Australian ones that were often full frame or pan and scan
Regarding Touch of Evil. If you are desperate for that on Blu-ray, get the Masters of Cinema edition, that was released this week:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Touch-Evil-Masters-Cinema-Blu-ray/dp/B005DDIUYM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1321452924&sr=8-1
It is on 2 discs and has 3 different versions of the film, including full frame versions (even though I think the film is meant to be 1.85:1):
http://eurekavideo.co.uk/moc/catalogue/touch-of-evil/

Which universal films would people like to see on Blu-ray?
All Quiet On the Western Front and To Kill A Mockingbird would be obvious choices for the studio to issue on its 100th birthday, and I'm sure they will.
But I am mostly curious about the early history of Universal, the silents and early talkies that started the company going. Except for their classic horror films, Universal has pretty much buried its years of innovation and discovery in the vaults. The studio began in 1912, so let's see films they released between 1912 and 1929, and the early pre-code talkies. It makes no sense to celebrate a century of filmmaking without beginning at the beginning.
I'd also love to see those great B westerns Universal produced in the 1950s, part backlot and part scenery in vivid dye-transfer color that have never been released domestically (region 2 doesn't count for most people in the USA).):

I'd be shocked if The Sting wasn't one of the films that comes to Blu-ray in 2012. I have the HD-DVD and am glad to have it, but it would only make sense for a film this honored to be given a Blu-ray release.

100 years, is a lot of ground to cover in a one year celebration, and in my own opinion if it was to be done correctly, keep this in mind, do not count the Paramount back catalog, even though there are films in there that need to be presented correctly.

That said, my biggest concern is the hit miss ratio that Universal has done, releases that just were not up to standards, “ahem Spartacus anyone” or any number of other releases that have been discussed as not quite hitting that mark.

So short list off the top that needs released and released correctly in the next year,

Cape Fear 1962
Babe: Pig In The City
Jaws
Schindler’s List
Duel
1941
To Kill A Mockingbird (Criterion)
Touch Of Evil (Criterion)
The Sting
Spartacus (Criterion)
All Quiet On The Western Front (Criterion maybe??)
Arabian Nights
Smokey And The Bandit
The Deer Hunter
Harvey
My Little Chickadee
Pillow Talk
Imitation Of Life 34/59
Streets Of Fire
The Birds
Dracula 1931
Frankenstein 1931
The Mummy
The Invisible Man
Bride of Frankenstein
Phantom Of The Opera 1943
The Wolf Man
The Creature From The Black Lagoon (3D)
Revenge Of The Creature (3D)
The Creature Walks Among Us
Halloween III (what happened to this ?)
Brazil (Criterion)
They Live

Brides Of Dracula (Hammer)
Phantom Of The Opera (Hammer)
Curse Of The Werewolf (Hammer)
Dracula 1979

Complete Walter Lance Archive on Blu chronological (give Woody the same push every other toon gets.
As for the other side, Universal/MCA TV has so many classic series that were stalled or never done in HD yet so a suggestion

Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Season One, Season Two, Season Three, Season Four, Season Five: Blu Ray

Kevin EK said:

I just noticed a posting of a memo from Ron Meyer at Universal Studios, discussing next year's centennial of the studio:
"As many of you already know, Universal will mark its 100th Anniversary in 2012. This is a proud and exciting moment for our company, which celebrates the studio’s rich history and cultural impact. In January, we’re going to be unveiling an extensive year-long campaign that includes a significant restoration commitment for some of our most beloved films, fan engagement through special events, a home entertainment offering, theme park activities, promotions, and fun social media and web outreaches. All of this is designed to connect a new audience to our extraordinary library of films, as well as bring these memories back to longtime movie lovers. Part of our centennial celebration includes the launch of a new audio visual and print logo which we will unveil early next year..."
The memo goes on to say more nice things, but this seems to be appropriate for those of us here.
I have already heard murmurs elsewhere that Universal plans to release Blu-ray editions of Jaws and E.T. next year.  I have to wonder about the other movies they mean. 
Should make for an interesting year in any case...

Click to expand...

The release of Jaws and ET seems to be almost a fact (according to The Digital Bits).
I have to say Meyer's statement does sound promesing. If he's right, we should start hearing about it on January (it seems like they don't plan on releasing any big movies the first two months of the year or the announcement should have happened already). Considering their blu-ray release history, whatever they do is going to feel like a big celebration. I mean, for us old-film lovers, "Psycho" is about the only thing they've done (talking about pre-1960 movies, the ones I'm interested in). We'll see.
I would certainly love to get "All quiet on the western front" on blu-ray, and that movie certainly has "prestige" and "anniversary celebration" written all over it. I guess they'll do a sampling of everlasting home-video favorites. Possibly "Touch of evil", "To kill a mockingbird", "The sting", "Winchester 73" and some Hitchcock. Maybe some Douglas Sirk too. I would say no Paramount titles, MLamarre, but who knows. I'm afraid I wouldn't expect much originality Richard W. I would love to se some off-the-beaten-path stuff too.

here's 2 musicals

How about SWEET CHARITY and a TODD-AO release of AIRPORT.

And some Universal Swashbuklers

Some More

These swashbucklers must have been campy fun even when they were new.
Come on, Universal, bring 'em out.