Any Progress on certain 'Classics': Grapes of Wrath, Bringing Up Baby... (1 Viewer)

[Joel Vardy]

I'm looking for concrete information -- and if not available speculative rumors on the following titles (several have been anticipated for 2003):

- Grapes of Wrath (out before '04?)
- Bringing up Baby (was rumored for '03 - now MIA)
- Treasure of the Sierra Madre (was rumored for '03?)
- Yankee Doodle Dandy (another '03 rumor)
- Schindler's List (dropped out of '03 condideration?)
- African Queen (any news on Paramount's plan?)
- Around the World in 80 Days (still in '03 plans?)
- Mutiny on the Bounty (1935 release w/Clarke Gable)
- The Jazz Singer ('03 or '04?)
- King Kong (1933 pushed out to '04 or beyond?)
- Star Wars OT (nevermind )

The following are definitely scheduled for this year:

- Giant (definitely coming in June..)
- Raiders of the Lost Ark (definitely coming in Nov..)

Some of these titles are out everywhere but R1 (African Queen for instance) . I'd like to keep track of them. Many were speculated for this year but for various reasons have gone MIA. Anyone?

Joel

 

[David Lambert]

Fox VP Peter Staddon posted about Grapes of Wrath last month:




If you do a search you'll find plenty of posts supporting the ideas that King Kong has definately been delayed until 2004 (in order to do the best possible work), and as for S's List it was always a rumor and never an announcement. Further, Spielberg has PLENTY of releases this year and would probably like to save one for next year. But the real topper is that Universal is up for sale, and their best catalog titles will probably be held back until after a sale has been completed.

 

[Joel Vardy]

Thanks, Dave. I guess the 'sands are ever shifting' about many of the titles -- though it looks pretty good for Yankee and Treasure before the year's end. I wouldn't want to eliminate '04 as an eventfull DVD year so there will be plenty to occupy us over the next 18-24 months or so... .

Joel

 

[Patrick McCart]

Eighty Days and Jazz Singer will need special attention for DVD.

The Vitaphone Project will be participating in some aspects of the DVD production. The sound will be coming from mint condition Vitaphone discs with digital restoration done on the sound. The picture should be coming from an original silent apature source, rather than a sound-on-film source. Lots of Vitaphone supplements should be on the disc, too.

Eighty Days literally has hundreds of reels of supplementary footage in the Library of Congress archives. The collection consists of outtakes, screen tests, deleted scenes (including an alternate prologue and two Eddie Fisher musical numbers!), foreign language clips, behind-the-scenes footage, premire footage, and promotional materials. The film has definately lost a lot of its charm due to poor presentation on video (the DVD would be the first-ever OAR presentation on home video)...but could gain a new following because of the DVD. The 30fps negative was supposedly unrestorable, but WB has had a "limited" cleanup to the negative. The DVD was rumored to be coming sooner, but I think two reels of the 30fps negative were still beyond help. I'm hoping that they can find separations or other materials to be able to make a 100% 30fps transfer of the film.

Besides supplements, if done right... Eighty Days could have reference quality sound. Todd-AO 70mm sound has such a rich quality that really can't be compared (well, perhaps to Cinerama) to anything else.

 

[oscar_merkx]

that sounds like 80 days will be an excellent release on dvd then