Blu-Ray Best Of The Best - for discussing releases only

[dvdmike]

Mike i'd be more concerned at the fact you actually want that piece of trash Natural Born Killers to be re-released.

I love NBK I saw it in the cinema at 13 and own the Pioneer Laser disc box set, it will also look great in HD with all the grain and filters pushed to the max

[Lyris]

I guess but where is The Matrix and V for the fanboys @??

Teh Blu-ray doesn't have the powarr for those!

[JP]

Just reading that Warner have also announced they are sponsoring 9 different major promotions with Amazon & Best Buy over 2008 which are broken into different genres.

The planned 2008 slate itself is broken up into NINE different promotions: Oscars, Gangsters, Sinatra, Dirty Harry, 85 Years of Superheroes, Westerns, Musicals, Horror and Holiday. Warner revealed that Best Buy and Amazon.com are set to be the studio's official retail partners for these promotions.

Starting in the 1st Quarter, the Oscar and Gangster promotions will include the Bonnie and Clyde: Ultimate Collector's Edition (available on DVD, Blu-ray and HD-DVD) and the Bonnie and Clyde: Special Edition, along with such titles as the Goodfellas: Special Edition, the Heat: Special Edition, the Once Upon a Time in America: Special Edition, the Departed, the TRUE ROMANCE: SPECIAL EDITION, the Film Noir Classics Collection: Volumes 1-4, the Warner Bros. Tough Guys Collection, the Warner Gangsters Collection (featuring titles like Public Enemy, Little Caesar, etc) and more.

The Sinatra and Dirty Harry promotions will debut in the 2nd Quarter. Sinatra will include the Sinatra mini-series, along with the four box sets we mentioned yesterday (The Early Years, The Golden Years, the Sinatra & Kelly Collection and the Rat Pack: Ultimate Collector's Edition - the Rat Pack: UCE will include "first-run" stamps, a music CD and other rare collectibles). The Dirty Harry promotion will include the Dirty Harry: 2-Disc Special Edition, the Magnum Force: Deluxe Edition, The Enforcer: Deluxe Edition, the Sudden Impact: Deluxe Edition and the Dead Pool: Deluxe Edition. All five films will also be included in a Dirty Harry: Ultimate Collector's Edition box set (available in DVD, Blu-ray and HD-DVD), which will also feature the Clint Eastwood: Out of the Shadows bonus disc.

The 3rd Quarter will offer Superhero fans something exciting: a Batman Begins: Limited Collector's Edition Gift Set on DVD and Blu-ray Disc, as well as a Batman Anthology box set of all the feature film titles on Blu-ray Disc. These are obviously timed to coincide with the DVD and Blu-ray release of The Dark Knight. Additional superhero releases are TBA. The 3rd Quarter will also offer several Western releases, including a How the West Was Won: Ultimate Collector's Edition and a How the West Was Won: Special Edition, along with such titles as The Searchers, The Wild Bunch, The Cowboys, an Errol Flynn Westerns Collection and a Western Classics Collection. Finally, the 3rd Quarter will see a Music promotion featuring new special editions of An American in Paris and Gigi, as well the debut of the Classic Musicals from the Dream Factory: Volume 3 box set, featuring Hit the Deck, Kismet, Deep in My Heart, Broadway Melody of 1936/Broadway Melody of 1938, Born to Dance/Lady Be Good and Nancy Goes to Rio/Two Weeks with Love.

Rounding out 2008, the 4th Quarter will see the debut of a new DVD Horror collection with titles featuring Boris Karloff, Peter Lorre and others, as well as more horror releases from Val Lewton and Joel Silver's Dark Castle label, re-promotion of Kubrick's The Shining and a number of new Raw Feed direct-to-DVD and Blu-ray titles, including Otis: Uncut. The 4th Quarter will also see a Warner Bros. Holiday Collection and A Christmas Story: Ultimate Collector's Edition.

As part of the year's overall slate, more than 50 new-to-DVD feature films will be restored and released from the Warner catalog alone, including such titles as All This and Heaven Too, The Beast with Five Fingers, Black Legion, Brother Orchid, Deception, Flamingo Road, Gold Diggers of 1937, Inside Daisy Clover, Kid Galahad, Lady Killer, The Mayor of Hell, Night Nurse, None But the Brave, Pete Kelly's Blues, San Antonio, Thank Your Lucky Stars, Three on a March, Virginia City and Watch on the Rhine.

Other titles set to be given special edition treatment this year are Cool Hand Luke, Gypsy, Risky Business, Splendor in the Grass and others yet to be announced. Additional thematic box sets will be drawn from Warner's classic MGM and RKO collections. It was also revealed that a collection of Natalie Woods titles is in the works.

Several special events will be held throughout the course of the year, including an August 31st Warner Big Picture night at the Hollywood Bowl, celebrating the studio's musical legacy. The highlight of the year's events will be the broadcast and DVD release of Richard Schickel's 5-part documentary series You Must Remember This: The Warner Bros. Story on the history of the studio, narrated by Clint Eastwood. The broadcast version will debut in September, as part of PBS's American Masters series, and a 550-page companion book (by Schickel and The Times of London film critic George Perry) will be released as well. As part of last night's event, Schickel gave the media a 10-minute sneak peek at a portion of his documentary series examining Warner films in the context of World War II.

The studio also revealed during the event that last year's Blade Runner: Five-Disc Ultimate Collector's Edition and Harry Potter: Years 1-5 - Limited Edition Collection were tremendously successful releases, generating more than $20 million in combined sales in the 45-day holiday period alone.

In terms of new titles in the year ahead, you can obviously look forward to the DVD and Blu-ray debut of such theatrical release films as The Dark Knight, Speed Racer, Get Smart, Where the Wild Things Are, 10,000 B.C. and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Price, later in 2008 and early 2009.

Finally, studio reps revealed that 4 major catalog titles (The Wizard of Oz, Gone with the Wind, Woodstock and North by Northwest) are all soon going on moratorium. The good news is, each will reappear in 2009 in day-and-date DVD and Blu-ray Disc releases, complete with stunning new high-definition restorations to celebrate their own individual anniversaries.

We'll post details about the specific Blu-ray Disc catalog releases planned as part of Warner's 2008 slate soon, so keep checking back. And watch for additional titles to be announced by Warner in the months ahead.

I think I spot a True Romance: Special Edition on the way for a certain somebody on here.

I'm more interested in the Once Upon a Time in America: Special Edition personally but it goes to show that the big sweeping press statements aren't the best for getting info like this.

I'm hoping that Amazon will have these at around 50% again as I'll be picking a few up if they do.

The Digital Bits

[Angry the Clown]

I guess but where is The Matrix and V for the fanboys @??

Warner typically stage these types of press events once or twice a year - one usually to highlight select releases for the year ahead, and one dedicated to fourth quarter releases. Everything announced yesterday (and they announced more for DVD than they did Blu) is all part of a genre themed promotion that the studio will be running with Amazon and Best Buy throughout the year in celebration of their 85 years in the business. Each quarter for the year will see a new promotional theme from gangsters to westerns to musicals to superheroes?

Many catalogue titles people are waiting to see announced (Matrix and so forth) are unrelated to those specific genre based 85th Anniversary promotions that was the focus of yesterday?s event. As a result Warner?s general catalogue slate for 2008 on Blu-ray will gradually be announced as the weeks and months go on as normal.

Areadvd.de recently published a list of Warner's planned releases on Blu-ray in Germany between now and the end of June and the list included various HD DVD leftovers like V for Vendetta, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and so on. I'd certainly expect to see those before the end of the Summer at he latest. I think the Matrix may be left until Autumn/Christmas if they?re looking to give the summer to Batman releases however (I?m sad not to see a 15th Anniversary releases for 'Mask of the Phantasm' incidentally).

I'd like to think that come Christmas Warner might consider the market suitable to finally put Casablanca, Adventures of Robin Hood, Forbidden Planet, Grand Prix and others onto Blu-ray as well. They sold so poorly on HD DVD they've continued to hold them back on Blu-ray.

[Angry the Clown]

Just reading that Warner have also announced they are sponsoring 9 different major promotions with Amazon & Best Buy over 2008 which are broken into different genres.

[FONT=Verdana]I think I spot a True Romance: Special Edition on the way for a certain somebody on here.

I'm more interested in the Once Upon a Time in America: Special Edition personally but it goes to show that the big sweeping press statements aren't the best for getting info like this.

I'm hoping that Amazon will have these at around 50% again as I'll be picking a few up if they do.

Most of those announcements are to be taken as DVD releases and promos, John. The only 100% Blu-ray related titles named yesterday were the Batman Anthology, Batman Begins, The Dirty Harry Collection and Bonnie and Clyde (as well as their 2008 theatrical titles and 2009 classics obviously). I believe, from another report of yesterday's announcements, that How the West was Won will also hit Blu-ray, and I personally have a sneaking suspicion that Gigi, An American in Paris, Risky Business and the new edition of A Christmas Story will come day and date with their new DVD counterparts too (perhaps Cool Hand Luke and Gypsy as well).

For DVD they are basically re-promoting existing releases in with some of these new releases as part of their genre based anniversary promotions which is why True Romance, Once Upon a Time in America…etc are named (and I suspect the handful that are also already on Blu-ray as well as DVD like The Departed, Goodfellas…etc, will be re-promoted too).

First Quarter = January through to the end of March. If those other titles were Blu bound so soon we'd know about them by now - indeed they'd have been confirmed as hitting Blu-ray yesterday (and would have to hit HD DVD as well) but alas, they were not.

[ne0star]

Just got an email from dvd.co.uk to say my Ratatouille And Pixar Shorts has been dispatched. Really looking forward to that. Doubt it will be here for the weekend though

[JP]

Had an email from them too!!

[JP]

Further updates from Warner on some of their upcoming BD releases. And for the people who want it The Matrix Trilogy is on it's way this year.

08Q1

• Bonnie and Clyde: Ultimate Collector's Edition

08Q2

• Dirty Harry: Ultimate Collector's Edition Box Set (Dirty Harry, Magnum Force, The Enforcer, Sudden Impact, Dead Pool, and Clint Eastwood: Out of the Shadows)

08Q3

• An American in Paris
• Batman Anthology
• Batman Begins: Limited Collector's Edition Box Set
• Gigi
• How the West was Won
• The Dark Night

08Q4

• A Christmas Story: Ultimate Collector's Edition
• Otis: Uncut

2008

• The Adventures of Robin Hood
• Casablanca
• Clash of the Titans
• Excalibur
• Forbidden Planet
• Heat
• Grand Prix
• The Matrix Trilogy
• Mutiny on the Bounty
• V for Vendetta

2009

• Ben-Hur
• Gone With the Wind
• North by Northwest
• The Wizard of Oz
• Woodstock

As you can see, those missing Warner titles which have been released on HD DVD but not Blu-ray are still coming - including 'The Matrix' trilogy.

Warner is discovering that many catalog titles don't have transfers which are good enough for Blu-ray release, including 'Clash of the Titans' (which has been delayed for restoration) and 'Heat' (which Michael Mann has just agreed to supervising a new 1080p transfer). Rest assured, Warner will continue to scrutinize every release to ensure it looks and sounds as good as possible before being released to the public.

Speaking of audio, Warner has heard your cries, and they will start releasing all high definition titles with lossless audio. Obviously, the switch to Blu-ray exclusivity makes this move easier, as the format has much more storage and bandwidth.

Additionally, any Warner catalog title you hear that is receiving 4k restoration will get a Blu-ray release. Warner spent years mastering their catalog at 1080i, and they are now having to do new masters in order to get a perfect transfer. Some catalog titles will receive 4k restoration (four times the size of 1080p), and any title you hear receiving this treatment will get a Blu-ray release

Remember, these are just a taste of what's coming from Warner this year, and there is still a bunch of titles planned for release that they are holding under their jacket, not to mention all the new release titles. But even with the list we have today, its shaping up to be a great year for Blu-ray fans.

EDIT:
Forgot the link!
Updated Warner Release Slate for 2008 and Beyond

I'm sure I'm not the only who's relieved to hear that Warner are taking full advantage of the benefits of Blu-ray in both audio and video departments in the releases.

I'm a little surprised as I imagine the 4k remastering for titles that are already 1080i isn't exactly cheap or quick but I suppose they aren't just doing it for the BD releases as it'll also preserve the filmsfor the future too.

[Number45]

HD V for Vendetta? Drool...

[JP]

Does anybody know what titles have been announced previously as getting the 4k treatment as it'd be nice to know what else in on the way to Blu-ray?

If the treatment given to Blade Runner is anything to go by the quality should be outstanding.

[Angry the Clown]

Does anybody know what titles have been announced previously as getting the 4k treatment as it'd be nice to know what else in on the way to Blu-ray?

Blade Runner, Bonnie and Clyde, Cool Hand Luke, Magnum Force and Sudden Impact are the most recent ones I know of – as noted in a few articles published last summer.

Anything of a three-strip Technicolor source goes through Warner’s patented ‘Ultra Resolution’ process as well, which is where each of the three b&w camera negatives is scanned (they did many of these at 2k if memory serves, but I think they’ve done all Technicolor movie scans at 4k since Wizard of Oz in 2005).

I wish 2001: A Space Odyssey had received a high resolution scan as, whilst good, the HD release is most certainly not as good as I feel it should have been. All the Kubrick discs have notable flaws of some sort, which is most disappointing. I do hope their move to Blu sees an end to all their DNR nonsense.

Incidentally, I don't know why Blu-ray.com only singled out 4k restorations as titles guaranteed to come to Blu (or why they still list Dark Knight as a Q3 release. It will be Q4). That site is lifting the Warner news via way of Bill Hunt at The Digital Bits, and quite rightly Hunt notes that Warner is hoping that as of the summer all future special editions of catalogue titles new to DVD will be released on Blu-ray on the same day - so 4k isn't necessarily the lone indicator of things to come here.

I’m excited to see How the West Was Won, Gigi and An American in Paris confirmed by The Bits. News of the remaining HD DVD classics yet to come to Blu being closer than I thought is also music to my ears.

Like I said before, today's '2 Cents' does a better job summing up the additional Warner news than Blu-ray.com managed... http://www.thedigitalbits.com/#mytwocents

[dvdmike]

Warner released some amazing dvds why are they so anti grain and detail ?
See the Matrix and V made it now also Heat !!!! now I am happy

[Lyris]

They also made some really weird-looking ones, like the UK version of Zodiac which looked hideous. Bafflingly enough it looked like it had heavy grain reduction artefacts even on the lighter shots... despite being shot digitally.

[JP]

Had just been reading The Digital Bits and he does appear to have been in discussions with them.

Yeah, I wasn't really suggesting that a list of previously announced 4k titles was a way to find something which was close to a full catalogue release list but there are some catalogue titles which I'd really like to get hold of and I was hoping to find some clues if it had been announced for the 4k treatment.

I do get the feeling that Warner are quite rightly treating their catalogue titles with the emphasis some of them deserve.

I'm really interested to see just how well the Technicolor films come out of the other side. I'm really looking forward to see how good The Wizard of Oz looks when it's released.

[dvdmike]

They also made some really weird-looking ones, like the UK version of Zodiac which looked hideous. Bafflingly enough it looked like it had heavy grain reduction artefacts even on the lighter shots... despite being shot digitally.

I thought it was a Digital/35mm mix ? may be wrong tho.
They have dropped far since the days of the Crossing Guard etc