Hitchcock on Blu-ray? (1 Viewer)

[Dale MA]

Yeah, it's being directed by Martin Campbell and is due for release in 2011: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0884788/

 

[Craig Beam]

I'll buy pretty much any Hitchcock title on blu, but I'm really hoping Vertigo shows up sooner rather than later...

 

[Matt Butler]

Originally Posted by Jim_K ">[/url]

The Birds huh? Wasn't aware of that.

Now who said Hollywood was devoid of original ideas.
[/QUOTE]
Oh dear god why?!

Didnt they learn anything from remaking Psycho?!

*sigh*

 

Two classes of excitement for me, not including North by Northwest, which I can't wait for, and have on pre-order.

Phase 1) Vertigo, Psycho, Rear Window

Phase 2) The Birds, Marnie

That first group are the ones, along with The Birds (thanks to the remake) we're most likely to see; its just taking so long for them to be announced. North by Northwest was announced deep back into 2008, and its coming out at the end of 2009... What does that say for when we'll see the titles they've already announced, like Ben Hur and Lawrence of Arabia... Let along those they haven't, like Psycho...

Ben

 

[Brian Borst]

Originally Posted by Ben Cheshire


That first group are the ones, along with The Birds (thanks to the remake) we're most likely to see; its just taking so long for them to be announced. North by Northwest was announced deep back into 2008, and its coming out at the end of 2009... What does that say for when we'll see the titles they've already announced, like Ben Hur and Lawrence of Arabia... Let along those they haven't, like Psycho...

Ben

It doesn't really say anything, giving that you're talking about three different studios here. And I still prefer that they postpone a release to work on it than to respect the release date whatsoever. Of course Psycho will come eventually, there's no doubt about that. It's just a matter of when, I wouldn't worry.

 

[Brandon Conway]

And when it comes to Universal, they are still seriously behind the other studios with their catalog releases because of their late start into BD. The still have 100+ films they released on HD-DVD that they haven't yet released on BD.

 

[ReggieW]

Some good news here:

http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content/id/71380/itv-blu-ray-4-classics-in-october.html

It looks like ITV is releasing "The 39 Steps" on Blu-ray in the UK on Oct 12 with a few other classics. Hopefully, it'll be region free since I believe this is a public domain title in North America.

On a side note, It's cool to see Hamlet (1948) and Henry V (1945) are being released on Blu as well. Also, The BFI (whose discs have all been locked to "b" thus far) will be releasing The Leopard (1963).

It looks like classics are making it to Blu at a faster rate in the UK market than here in the states. I was impressed with ITV's Black Narcissus and Great Expectations, so I really look forward to picking these up.

 

[John Hodson]

No, it's not true to say that the BFI's BD releases are locked to region 'B'; there are several that are region free. Henry V has been recently restored, BTW, and should look fantastic on Blu-ray.

 

[ReggieW]

Thanks for the correction John.

It just seems that the titles I'm personally interested in (Salo, Saturday Night SundayMorning, etc) from the BFI are all locked, so I incorrectly assumed that all of their BD's were locked to "B".

 

Originally Posted by Brian Borst

It doesn't really say anything, giving that you're talking about three different studios here.

I hope you're right Brian.

 

[Brandon Conway]

Originally Posted by ReggieW

Some good news here:

http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content/id/71380/itv-blu-ray-4-classics-in-october.html

It looks like ITV is releasing "The 39 Steps" on Blu-ray in the UK on Oct 12 with a few other classics. Hopefully, it'll be region free since I believe this is a public domain title in North America.

On a side note, It's cool to see Hamlet (1948) and Henry V (1945) are being released on Blu as well. Also, The BFI (whose discs have all been locked to "b" thus far) will be releasing The Leopard (1963).

It looks like classics are making it to Blu at a faster rate in the UK market than here in the states. I was impressed with ITV's Black Narcissus and Great Expectations, so I really look forward to picking these up.

Most. if not all of these titles are probably being prepped for BD in the US by Criterion.

Part of the reason the UK is getting classics on BD sooner through such distributors as BFI is that BFI is a charitable organization dedicated to promoting world cinema. The US really doesn't have something so able to disregard realities of turning a profit.

 

uote:

Originally Posted by Brandon Conway

Part of the reason the UK is getting classics on BD sooner through such distributors as BFI is that BFI is a charitable organization dedicated to promoting world cinema. The US really doesn't have something so able to disregard realities of turning a profit.

Really interesting point, Brandon. Still, via ports the rest of the world might sometimes be able to benefit? Depending on the international rights situation. Or can the US and Asia only benefit via region free players?

 

[benbess]

Well, our first Hitchcock film on blu is North by Northwest. Does anyone know what has been done for this transfer, and who is in charge? I think I read somewhere that they scanned the original elements at 8k, which seems like a good thing. Here's hoping this will be a knockout like some other classics from the 50s like South Pacific and Sleeping Beauty...

What's the next title to get the blu treatment, do you think? Vertigo? Rear Window? Psycho?

 

[Martin Teller]

39 Steps comes out in region B next month

Originally Posted by benbess

What's the next title to get the blu treatment, do you think? Vertigo? Rear Window? Psycho?

 

[Brandon Conway]

Originally Posted by Ben Cheshire


Really interesting point, Brandon. Still, via ports the rest of the world might sometimes be able to benefit? Depending on the international rights situation. Or can the US and Asia only benefit via region free players?

Often it takes a company like Criterion for the US to benefit. I'd say the chances of Criterion releasing a film like The 39 Steps on BD is a lot higher than, say, Fox releasing Sunrise on BD.

 

[benbess]

Brandon: I think you have a point. And the Criterion DVD releases of Hitchcock from about 5 years ago were excellent. I wonder if, just maybe, when they did those masters for those DVDs if they did them all the way to 1080, and then downscaled them (or whatever it's called) for DVD. In that case, maybe if Criterion could get the rights again, even if for a few years, they could without that much added expense release some fine blu-rays of early Hitchcock films from the 30s and 40s...

 

[Craig Beam]

Originally Posted by benbess

Brandon: I think you have a point. And the Criterion DVD releases of Hitchcock from about 5 years ago were excellent. I wonder if, just maybe, when they did those masters for those DVDs if they did them all the way to 1080, and then downscaled them (or whatever it's called) for DVD. In that case, maybe if Criterion could get the rights again, even if for a few years, they could without that much added expense release some fine blu-rays of early Hitchcock films from the 30s and 40s...

Given that MGM/Fox released new DVD editions of REBECCA, SPELLBOUND and NOTORIOUS just a year or so ago, I'd be shocked if they gave them to Criterion for blu-ray. THE 39 STEPS and THE LADY VANISHES might be a different story, however...

 

[Brandon Conway]

Originally Posted by Craig Beam

THE 39 STEPS and THE LADY VANISHES might be a different story, however...

Especially since they had a DVD re-release of The Lady Vanishes just a couple years ago, along with The 39 Steps getting a BD release in the UK. It's possible.

 

Psycho will probably be released next year for its 50th Anniversary. The current dvd is good, but not great. There are a few places where the audio is out of sync...but the sound is better than the old dvd.

 

[Brandon Conway]

Good point, Eric. Make it happen, Universal!