To Mr. Robert Harris: 10 films you’d like to have restored! (1 Viewer)

[marcco00]

also, i can understand why the industry would reward him with a best picture oscar and

an irving thalberg award, he was a huge cash cow with one box office hit after another at

that time.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Robert:

I'm assuming you had a hand in THIS remastering effort.

Could you give us any insights into how extensive a project it was?

And...does this qualify as a full-blown "restoration?"

 

[dana martin]

Robert:

I'm assuming you had a hand in THIS remastering effort.

Could you give us any insights into how extensive a project it was?

And...does this qualify as a full-blown "restoration?"

no that requires two hands, one for the Church Key and one for the bottle, but being a perfectionist, he probably already had the required tools at the beginning of the project.

 

[PMF]

Robert:

I'm assuming you had a hand in THIS remastering effort.

Could you give us any insights into how extensive a project it was?

And...does this qualify as a full-blown "restoration?"

Some uses of fine grain elements, perhaps?
But, yes, this edition has caused of a lot of Brew-ha-ha.

 

[Robert Harris]

Robert:

I'm assuming you had a hand in THIS remastering effort.

Could you give us any insights into how extensive a project it was?

And...does this qualify as a full-blown "restoration?"

I’m very pleased with the final mastering. Wonderful grain. It was a return to the original 18th century casks, with the full support of the brewery.

Fine product.

. Right up there with Founders Porter.

 

[dana martin]

Some uses of fine grain elements, perhaps?
But, yes, this edition has caused of a lot of Brew-ha-ha.

as long as no one starts complaining that to them that it just doesn't looks Amber enough, I think we will be alright

 

[Worth]

I don't know, I'm seeing a lot of teal in that packaging.

 

[Bill Fisher]

i was hoping for restorations (better ones) of some UA epics like HAWAII and EXODUS that got meh jobs with Twilight Time.

 

[Vincent_P]

I’m very pleased with the final mastering. Wonderful grain. It was a return to the original 18th century casks, with the full support of the brewery.

Fine product. View attachment 81526 . Right up there with Founders Porter.

Founders brews some AMAZING beers. I discovered them myself this past summer. Once Covid subsides, I hope to visit their brewery in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Vincent

 

[Flemming Kristensen]

I recently once again saw Where Eagles Dare in my little cinema. I can revisit this each year, but why oh why haven't this got the royal treatment yet? I remember I saw it as a child in Copenhagens largest cinema as a 70mm Roadshow version, which it seems was not shown in the US.

Edit: Shown in 70mm i US here:

“Where Eagles Dare”: The 70mm Engagements

Do you have any knowledge mr. Harris, whether we'll see a restoration/remaster of this classic anytime soon?

This is from a danish cinema museum website about the history of the 70mm version.

"Ørneborgen" - 41 års Jubilæum 1969 - 2010

www.biografmuseet.dk

 

[Robin9]

i was hoping for restorations (better ones) of some UA epics like HAWAII and EXODUS that got meh jobs with Twilight Time.

United Artists is owned by MGM. MGM's attitude concerning restorations is well-known and much despised. When Twilight Time announced they were not continuing their relationship with MGM, they gave as a main reason the low quality of the masters provided to them.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

MGM has a significant problem in that they have a lot of assets and very little operating income. They’re more of a holding company than an active production entity at this point. Their business model these days is essentially to leverage the intellectual property rights they have to make deals with third party financiers for funding and deals with other studios to handle production and distribution. They just don’t have the money to do a complete overhaul of their digital assets, and unfortunately, the marketplace has changed so dramatically with the decline of physical media and the explosion of new content that the ability to recoup that kind of investment is very questionable. It’s an unfortunate situation.

 

[Angelo Colombus]

It's a shame MGM/UA did nothing for The Alamo's 60th anniversary.

 

[Stephen_J_H]

MGM has a significant problem in that they have a lot of assets and very little operating income. They’re more of a holding company than an active production entity at this point. Their business model these days is essentially to leverage the intellectual property rights they have to make deals with third party financiers for funding and deals with other studios to handle production and distribution. They just don’t have the money to do a complete overhaul of their digital assets, and unfortunately, the marketplace has changed so dramatically with the decline of physical media and the explosion of new content that the ability to recoup that kind of investment is very questionable. It’s an unfortunate situation.

Which is why they're trying to sell again: https://variety.com/2020/film/news/mgm-holdings-sale-james-bond-1234868114/

 

[John Morgan]

What has been posted are the original continuity sheets

If you could present them in 4k, I'll buy them.

 

[John Morgan]

Here's one that rarely if ever gets mentioned. Maybe the source material is hopeless. Don't know. All public domain versions are atrocious:

Our Town (1940)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032881/fullcredits?ref_=tt_ov_wr#writers

Lovely production, un-improvable cast, Aaron Copeland music, Thornton Wilder wrote the screenplay of his own stage masterpiece. Yes, the ending was lightened up a bit from the play. But it still packs an emotional wallop even though the sight and sound of any home video version I have seen is a real struggle to get through. Can anything be done to make this wonderful film at least watchable?

I believe the camera negative is at UCLA.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Which is why they're trying to sell again: https://variety.com/2020/film/news/mgm-holdings-sale-james-bond-1234868114/

The problem with that is gonna be, whoever buys it in all likelihood won’t be buying it with the goal towards preserving the library. It’s not a sound investment for that purpose; the cost of fresh scans of everything, much less full blown restorations, is so much more than what anyone can recoup on the market, which suggests to me at least that the physical assets won’t be the reason for the sale. MGM has tried rebooting their dormant properties hoping to strike franchise gold (like their “Robocop” remake) but the audience demand hasn’t been there. They’ve got 50% ownership of Bond with limited or no control over what Bond films get made and how often; all things Bond go to Eon/the Broccolis for final say. That’s not to say Bond isn’t valuable, but buying MGM for Bond doesn’t yield the same result as Disney buying Marvel; there isn’t likely to be a multimedia Bond universe coming from that property.

All of that’s to say, even if MGM sells and even if it goes to someone with deep pockets that genuinely cares about the library, I don’t think it’s going to make a difference on what happens with the vast majority of their holdings.

 

[B-ROLL]

. They’ve got 50% ownership of Bond with limited or no control over what Bond films get made and how often; all things Bond go to Eon/the Broccolis for final say. That’s not to say Bond isn’t valuable, but buying MGM for Bond doesn’t yield the same result as Disney buying Marvel; there isn’t likely to be a multimedia Bond universe coming from that property.

Shirley you can't be serious

 

[Bill Fisher]

Wow, Steinberg! Doom and gloom. There's more love out there for vintage
movies than you think.

 

[Robert Harris]

Wow, Steinberg! Doom and gloom. There's more love out there for vintage
movies than you think.

Vintage films and classics have value, but when attached to that library, become an extremely problematic investment. Minimal preservation or restoration, and a problematic inventory, could mean a half billion dollar investment to make the titles in a database viable for distribution.

Any entity seriously considering a purchase, should be extremely concerned about what physical assets come with the deal, and spend well on due diligence.