A Few Words About A few words about...™ Spartacus -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[OliverK]

Doubtful.  While a proper investment for the copyright owner, this would be ridiculously expensive for any entity with limited license for distribution. Keep in mind that this is not only large format, but the equivalent of two films. RAH

This is unfortunately true for several large format films that have been released as similarly flawed Blu-Rays or not released at all.

 

[movienut1]

Can the brilliant results that Criterion achieved with their DVD edition of "Spartacus" not be replicated to some degree in a Blu Ray release? The "50th Anniversary Edition" Blu Ray actually looks worse on a giant home theater front projection system, than an upconverted screening of the Criterion standard DVD.

 

[Kevin EK]

Spartacus could indeed be done in brilliant fashion on Blu-ray, but unfortunately that does not seem to be an option for the forseeable future.
I too have held on to my Criterion SD DVD for just this reason.

 

[Jon Lidolt]

So Universal is celebrating it's hundredth anniversary. Hurray! And they're still popping out sub-standard discs of many of their top titles. I too would love to have a quality Blu-ray edittion of Spartacus and was hoping the anniversary would prompt them to redo the film which is arguably the crown jewel of their catalogue. But no, not a word. You'd think they'd be ashamed of themselves, especially since the producer and star of this epic is still with us.

 

[Kevin EK]

To be fair, the Blu-ray of Spartacus is not a part of the 100th Anniversary. They just plan to repackage what they already released rather than making a new disc. You could certainly argue that if they're going to correct what went wrong with Out of Africa, it's inexplicable why they wouldn't do this one as well. My belief is that it would be a lot more work that they are not committed to doing.

OTOH there's clearly a lot of work going on with the other titles.

 

[FoxyMulder]

Originally Posted by Kevin EK /t/300552/a-few-words-about-spartacus-in-blu-ray/240#post_3889549
To be fair, the Blu-ray of Spartacus is not a part of the 100th Anniversary. They just plan to repackage what they already released rather than making a new disc. You could certainly argue that if they're going to correct what went wrong with Out of Africa, it's inexplicable why they wouldn't do this one as well. My belief is that it would be a lot more work that they are not committed to doing.

OTOH there's clearly a lot of work going on with the other titles.

This is why i intensely dislike whoever is running Universal studios and their video department, Spartacus is a film that deserves to have money spent on it and they knew this was their 100th anniversary year, if studio's don't want to spend a tiny amount of money ( in relative terms ) on new 4K/8K film scans then perhaps they shouldn't bother releasing any older titles at all, that's if they think DNR and EE added to old masters are substitutes for a quality new film scan, too much short term thinking these days and not enough long term plans, they would make the money back long term and preserve their film library better by restoring older films that need restored ( now rather than wait ) and making new 4K or 8K scans ( 35mm - 70mm ) now will give us, the film fans, the very best picture quality possible and ehance Universal's reputation among the videophile community.

I know from the Jurassic Park poll i did late last year that some reviewers and the owners of this site do not agree with my views on Universal but i also know that many other people do agree, if Sony can do 4K scans and then farm some of their releases out ( think Fright Night ) then i can only hope that Universal do the same at some point in the future.

Wrong thread to talk about Fright Night but that's how you do justice to an older title, new 4K scan, original artwork on the cover and isolated audio score and the 5.1 remix is subtle and sounds very clear and open and does not try and bulldozer the original mix by adding sounds that were not there or boosting the bass in an artificial manner, although i do wish all discs contained the original sound mix as well as any remix, i really do not care for extra content that i will hardly ever watch, a few deleted scenes, some bloopers, original theatrical trailers and perhaps some commentaries is enough for me.

Spartacus is a classic that deserves a new 8K film scan, the restoration work is as far as i am aware complete and all it needs is a new film scan that would be relatively cheap to do ( five figure sum ) so why Universal don't do it is a mystery and i can only conclude that penny pinching bankers now run some/most of these studio's.

 

[Robert Harris]

Originally Posted by FoxyMulder /t/300552/a-few-words-about-spartacus-in-blu-ray/240#post_3889738
This is why i intensely dislike whoever is running Universal studios and their video department, Spartacus is a film that deserves to have money spent on it and they knew this was their 100th anniversary year, if studio's don't want to spend a tiny amount of money ( in relative terms ) on new 4K/8K film scans then perhaps they shouldn't bother releasing any older titles at all, that's if they think DNR and EE added to old masters are substitutes for a quality new film scan, too much short term thinking these days and not enough long term plans, they would make the money back long term and preserve their film library better by restoring older films that need restored ( now rather than wait ) and making new 4K or 8K scans ( 35mm - 70mm ) now will give us, the film fans, the very best picture quality possible and ehance Universal's reputation among the videophile community.

I know from the Jurassic Park poll i did late last year that some reviewers and the owners of this site do not agree with my views on Universal but i also know that many other people do agree, if Sony can do 4K scans and then farm some of their releases out ( think Fright Night ) then i can only hope that Universal do the same at some point in the future.

Wrong thread to talk about Fright Night but that's how you do justice to an older title, new 4K scan, original artwork on the cover and isolated audio score and the 5.1 remix is subtle and sounds very clear and open and does not try and bulldozer the original mix by adding sounds that were not there or boosting the bass in an artificial manner, although i do wish all discs contained the original sound mix as well as any remix, i really do not care for extra content that i will hardly ever watch, a few deleted scenes, some bloopers, original theatrical trailers and perhaps some commentaries is enough for me.

Spartacus is a classic that deserves a new 8K film scan, the restoration work is as far as i am aware complete and all it needs is a new film scan that would be relatively cheap to do ( five figure sum ) so why Universal don't do it is a mystery and i can only conclude that penny pinching bankers now run some/most of these studio's.

Actually, all that Spartacus would need is a 4k scan from a 65mm interpositive. Very little color correction beyond tweaking what is already there.

RAH

 

[FoxyMulder]

Originally Posted by Robert Harris /t/300552/a-few-words-about-spartacus-in-blu-ray/240#post_3889745
Actually, all that Spartacus would need is a 4k scan from a 65mm interpositive. Very little color correction beyond tweaking what is already there.

RAH

I stand corrected and it would be great if they did it, ( not holding my breath ) i'd love to see the Criterion commentary ported over too.

 

[Kevin EK]

I would be happiest to see Criterion issue a Blu-ray of their excellent edition of Spartacus, but it just is not on the horizon. Another item on my wish list.

 

[OliverK]

I would be happiest to see Criterion issue a Blu-ray of their excellent edition of Spartacus, but it just is not on the horizon. Another item on my wish list.

As RAH has said a 4k scan of the 65mm IP would be needed. What Criterion had/has was good for a DVD but not good enough for a Blu-Ray release.

 

[Kevin EK]

Thank you Oliver.

I meant that I would be happiest to see Criterion issue a Blu-ray of their edition, using a new transfer and including all of their excellent supplements.
Unfortunately, this scenario is not likely to happen given the financial and rights issues.
So I live with the existing SD DVD, which at least has those supplements and the best transfer we have available.

 

[ShellOilJunior]

SPARTACUS is "rumored" for 2012 release by Criterion. Several months ago a photo of a CC document was leaked. Some Criterion fanatics zoomed in and some of the handwriting looks to be Spartacus.
http://www.criterionforum.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=11855&p=375415&hilit=spartacus#p375415

 

[Kevin EK]

It's been rumored for a while, but the costs that would be involved are enough to make it extremely unlikely, unfortunately.

 

[Vincent_P]

Why would it be more costly than any other 4K scan that Criterion has done?
Vincent

 

[Robert Harris]

Originally Posted by Vincent_P /t/300552/a-few-words-about-spartacus-in-blu-ray/270#post_3893585
Why would it be more costly than any other 4K scan that Criterion has done?
Vincent

65mm film element.

 

[Yorkshire]

I don't suppose there's any chance at all...

...I mean even the slightest glimmer of hope that maybe they've...

...no, probably not.

I was just wondering.

http://www.amazon.com/Spartacus-Blu-ray-DIGITAL-UltraViolet-Douglas/dp/B00GSNXODS/ref=sr_1_2?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1385131611&sr=1-2&keywords=spartacus

Steve W

 

[Reed Grele]

This is interesting. Can anyone expound?

 

[Peter Apruzzese]

Just another re-release of the last version, they're dropping the 1960s packaging and highlighting the UltraViolet digital version.

 

[Paul Rossen]

I don't suppose there's any chance at all...

...I mean even the slightest glimmer of hope that maybe they've...

...no, probably not.

I was just wondering.

http://www.amazon.com/Spartacus-Blu-ray-DIGITAL-UltraViolet-Douglas/dp/B00GSNXODS/ref=sr_1_2?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1385131611&sr=1-2&keywords=spartacus

Steve W

Probably just another repackaging by Universal. If they ever decide to redo Spartacus I'm sure we will all know about it months prior to release.

 

[Ed Lachmann]

Just wondering why it was possible for Criterion to release this brand new deluxe MAD MAD WORLD not long after a pretty decent looking BD hit the market just about a year go? How was it possible for Fox to fix and rerelease a brand new replacement for their substandard release of PATTON? I mean, how is it so "impossible" that we can even hope for a new SPARTACUS when a perfectly beautiful restoration already exists. Aren't they are doing a large format 4K scan for the upcoming 3,000 unit only TT release of KHARTOUM? Besides, anyone who bought the Universal BD abortion would toss it in the trash in a second if a decent BD were made available. This negative reasoning just makes no sense to me at all. I'm just angry because I was actually expecting that we would see it in the next few months.