Devil's Backbone and Hellboy II Blu-ray tidbits

[Suprmallet]

A friend of mine at DVD Review UK, Rosie Fletcher, sent me a link to her interview with Guillermo Del Toro, and he had a few words about upcoming Blu-ray releases:

"It’s only recently I have supervised my second major high definition transfer to Blu-ray. The first one was Pan’s Labyrinth and the second one was the transfer of The Devil’s Backbone, which I’m checking right now. Essentially they are piling up the same extras, just cramming them in. I think the Blu-ray format can allow for much more and we’re trying to explore it a little bit now with the Hellboy 2 Blu-ray edition. I think the format is incredibly generous. It allows for a lot of flexibility. "

So Hellboy II is coming to Blu-ray too, and it sounds like it's going to be a packed disc. And finally, could we be seeing further Del Toro titles in high definition?

"Hopefully, I’ll have time in the future to revisit things like Cronos and hopefully Mimic and make those changes." He told us.

Full blurb at http://www.dvdreview.co.uk/

I can't wait for Devil's Backbone, or really, anything by Del Toro. One of my favorite current directors.

[droidguy1119]

It'd be nice to see a Mimic Director's Cut SE.

[Artman]

Eh, I thought Mimic was on Disney's list for later this yr... but it doesn't sound like it's been worked on. Hmm...

[Matthew Ackerly]

Nice - I love The Devils Backbone - that will be mine

[Hammer99]

Wonder if he approved the DNR on Pan's, or if that was added after he was finished.

[Suprmallet]

I'd like to know that, as well.

[Mr. Cinema]

http://www.releaselists.com/BLURAYNorthAmerica.html

September: Mimic

I hope that's true.

[Yavin]

http://www.releaselists.com/BLURAYNorthAmerica.html

On a small tangent here, September is going to hurt my wallet, with Iron Man, Knocked Up, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Ronin, and The Mist all being released in that month! Oh, and The Dark Knight on December 9th!

[Josh Z]

Wonder if he approved the DNR on Pan's, or if that was added after he was finished.

According to a Video Watchdog article from a few months back, Del Toro approved the American HD master for Pan's Labyrinth. I'll see if I can dig up the exact quote later tonight.

Update: Found it. Video Watchdog #135, Dec 2007.

In writing about the Region 3 DVD set from Korea:

While the packaging and perks make the Korean set a tempting purchase, it shouldn't be anyone's choice in terms of its transfer, which is much too dark and compares poorly with the look of the film as seen in the accompanying trailer. Asked about this edition, del Toro reported to VW "I had no control over the Korean transfer" - and it shows.

About the later Region 2 DVD:

The 1.85:1 transfer here is a noticeable improvement, sharp and dramatically colorful with an improved DD 5.1 mix, but the density of blacks remain a problem. Last March, prior to the Region 1 disc's release, del Toro agreed with this assessment in correspondence: "The detail in the blacks in the UK transfer seemed a bit 'compacted,' but I did an HD transfer for them that I think is better. I admire Navarro's sense of light and was amazed - when I did the final color correction - by how much detail is in the blacks and how far I could push them. He has a great eye. In the same spirit, the Dolby mix in the R1 DVD has a 'scaled down,' fully atmospheric mix in which we try and reproduce the immersive quality of the mix for home theater. I believe the perfect transfer will be the Region 1 DVD."

It should go without saying that the studio uses the same master for both DVD and High-Def.

No specific mention of DNR, of course, but he did seem to have oversight of and approve the American video master.

[gorgo99]

Ooh, I thought it would be quite some time before we could get "The Devil's Backbone"... getting that for sure!