duff beer

Dvd

rdclark

I'd be very surprised if anything has been decided yet. Work is proceeding on the remastering, I've read, but release schedules are all about marketing. It's hard to imagine that there won't be some sort of coordination with the release of the next film, which is still a long way off.

If I were in charge, I'd probably stick with the box set approach, rather than 20+ individual releases. That's not what I'd prefer as a consumer, of course, but it makes more sense from a marketing standpoint. This time, though, I'd go ahead and do one for Connery, one for Moore, and one for Brosnan/Lazenby/Dalton, and just adjust the manufacturing runs accordingly.

RichC

Mike Lowrey

Sounds like a good idea to me. It'd be better than the way they've packaged the previous box set releases.

duff beer

Hey now don't put Lazenby's with Brosnan/Dalton...
He's more like Connery.

grim_tales

I know Licence To Kill is a Dalton movie, I was referring to it as one that got censored by the MPAA (a la Brosnan's Goldeneye/Tomrrow Never Dies).

Uncut prints of these films must exsist somewhere.

rdclark

I'd buy that, too. And it would let you keep the movies in strict chronological order, the other main beef with the previous boxes.

Either way would work for me, and either way would yeild two boxes of 7 and one box of 6. In fact, the third box could have an empty space for "Casino Royale."

Your way is better!

RichC

grim_tales

OK, sorry I'm sure I read the DVDs were due this year but it would make sense to tie them in with the movie.
December 2006 is ages off

Josh Z

Like most of the Bond films, Goldeneye suffers from having too much content crammed onto the same disc as the movie. The digital compression quality is quite poor by current standards. A remaster would be very welcome.

Josh Z

From a marketing perspective, the way MGM sorted the original boxes was a very smart move, because each box contained a mix of desireable "A" titles with some of the "C" and "D" entries from the series that fans might not buy otherwise. Honestly, if they did separate boxes for Connery and Moore, how many fans would bother to buy the Moore box? On the other hand, you put Moonraker in the same box with Dr. No, and you've just conned some poor sap into buying Moonraker.

Mike Lowrey

Hey, I liked Moonraker!

Mike Lowrey

Well, in that case, you think these new ones might be 2-discers? Isn't the current Die Another Day a 2-discer?

nightmaster

I'm hoping and somewhat expecting the next remasters to be released in HD-DVD.....if not, I'd pass until they come about in that format. When I dip again, it'll be a dip worth scooping up for a long, long time, considering the prices the Bond titles were at the time I put together my collection.

rdclark

Sure, and it allowed them to not have to think about how many to manufacture of each box. The three sets appear to have sold out more-or-less simultaneously, so the strategy seems to have worked.

Will it work twice? Or have they created more market resistance among peiople who wouldn't consider a 20-title double-dip?

A little market research might allow them to arrive at a good estimate of how well three chronological sets would sell, and then manufacture proportionally. I can tell you they're never going to get me to buy the Moore titles again under any circumstances, and if that means I have to live with the existing versions of the other titles, so be it. On the other hands, I would buy a remastered Connery box if the sound and image and extras were a reasonably significant upgrade.

I bet I'm not alone.

RichC

counpk39

Has anyone factored in the MGM - Sony merger? That could possibly complicate things too. Before the merger, MGM had some 1,400 employees. Now, only 250 will continue to be employed by Sony. I'll keep my fingers crossed though...

duff beer

Fuck MGM for that, if they do that for the new dvds then i'll simply rip out all the Connery's and put them in a box and buy that and if they don't allow that then i'll steal it, hey i gave them a chance to pay for it fuck i'll even leave money on the table so i don't feel guilty.

UAIOE

Talk about a crime against humanity.

"I believe he's going for re-entry"



Depending on how well the new movies look/fair on these new disc, i'm really only in the market for 3 Bond movies.

I wasn't a fan of the "Mix the good stuff with the crap" like in the boxsets that came out a few years ago, but i do agree it makes sense from a marketing POV.

emhello

Yeah they'd better not try mixing those sets up again to force you to buy all the crap movies. I didn't bite the first time, and I certainly won't the next time. I'll burn copies of the damn things if I have to. If they release them individually, then I'll buy them.

grim_tales

Die Another Day is the one movie that won't be remastered or re-released again (so I've heard).
Do you think its likely the Brosnan films will be resubmitted to the MPAA? Uncut versions of Goldeneye/TND would have gotten a R in the US, using the PG-13 prints seems more likely.

Mike Lowrey

Excuse my ignorance, but why is it any business of BBFC on how these MGM films are editted?

Quoting the MI16 Bond website, there is just something very wrong with the bolded statement.

This is why on most R1 DVDs, the studios usually state that the extras are 'Not Rated". I mean, what on Earth could possibly NOT pass censorship laws on DVDs of Bond films? Some secret BS about MI-6 or whatnot?

grim_tales

I don't know but the UK DVDs were cut by the BBFC (about 10s for Goldeneye I think) when submitted as according to them some stuff was too brutal for a 12 rating.
The US/European DVD of GE restores the BBFC cuts but the films are still edited slightly, to get a PG-13 rating.

Here

I didnt mean the extras for the Bond films are cut. But DVD extras have to be classified by the BBFC too I'm sure.
But the whole package will get one rating lumped together. One example is LOTR: the extras were slightly cut so that the Extended DVD could remain a PG. The film was uncut.

Legolas

If they're not gonna release a movie in 2007, they could use that year for the DVD re-releases.

Mike Lowrey

That's just sad. And to think that the "International versions" (ie. European versions) of films are usually the more brutal or risquette than the editted US versions. eg. The Highlander series. The US aired versions were probably in the 42-44 minute range, the international uncut versions ran about 48-49 minutes. Same thing with the Farscape episodes. The eps on the DVDs are nearly 50 minutes. I doubt they were anywhere near that long as other Sci-Fi Channel shows only run 42 minutes per episode.

grim_tales

When I say LOTR I mean the first movie, Fellowship.
To be fair it was almost certainly the distributors who saught out a PG cert for that DVD so went through the BBFC to do that. The other DVDs (film/extras) were uncut with 12 certs (both were 12 Advisory in the cinema).
Another big no-no for the BBFC is if something is against UK law (cruelty to animals or indecent pictures of children)

I hope thats right

Cameron

From Jeremy.L at HTF

Hey Everyone,

I don't know about you guys but news on these Ultimate Edition's have been pretty dry lately, until now.

Sir Roger Moore is currently in negotiations with MGM Home Video/Sony to record audio commentaries to his seven 007 films in the up and coming Ultimate Edition James Bond DVD series, according to reports on his official site.

His PA Gareth Owen told the site: "it is planned to record the commentaries during September for the disc's 2006 release".

John Lowry talking about film restoring:-

Describe the differences we'd see between the previous

Bond DVDs and the images you're creating now.
The major difference we get using high-definition scanning and processing is the higher resolution that migrates to the DVD. It breaks the rules, but it works. You Only Live Twice was one of the films we worked on to demonstrate the process to studio executives. We scanned and enhanced the material, and then reduced it to DVD resolution to show the folks at MGM what the DVD would look like. Comparing that with the prior results — it was like a brand-new movie. It has to do with whether you process at high-def or you process at 2K or 4K and then reduce to high-def. Certainly the best results we get — for HDTV broadcasting and future high-def DVDs — are on things we process at a higher resolution. The fine detail does migrate down to the next level, without question.

The rest of the John Lowry article is at mi6.co.uk, same with the info on the Roger Moore Commentaries.

By the way does anyone know more information on whether The Spy Who Loved to Goldeneye, will get the 5.1 track re-done as well?

I had this piece of info on wordpad about Mi Casa that I copy and pasted from the net last year, I'll try to find the source again.

Walking into the living room (Studio A), the lights dimmed as the instantly recognizable James Bond logo appeared on the screen with the time code scroll information above the picture. The real treat began as the familiar sounds of the Paul McCartney-penned tune “Live and Let Die” began to fill the room. Biles leaned to me and whispered, “We were able to use the original, never before heard George Martin quad mix of this song for the DVD.” As the bombastic horns sound, the power of one of the most classic pop songs ever comes over me in a full sonic assault in 5.1 surround. Not only could you hear and feel the impact of this surround mix.

Can't Wait.

Now I can only hope that some more isolated scores come out, like Michael Kamen's Licence to Kill & Marvin Hamlisch's The Spy Who Loved Me, both never got a proper or complete score release on CD. The David Arnold Score on the Tomorrow Never Dies DVD with 5.1 was great!

another good read coming from Nelson Au in that same thread

In 1991, Criterion had released Dr. No, From Russia With Love and Goldfinger on laserdisc with their usual SE treatment that no one else had done yet. They were original aspect ratio (British AR of 1.75) and remastered and were the best home video versions at the time. And they indeed had audio commentaries,

Dr. No had an audio commentary hosted by Bruce Eder while FRWL and Goldfinger was hosted by Steven Jay Rubin. The commentaries were taken from interviews over the years with director Terence Young, director Guy Hamilton, writer Richard Maibaum, editor Peter Hunt, and production designer Ken Adam. They were most insightful and candid. I have not listened to them in a long time since the DVD's were released.

When these LD's first came out, EON asked that the commentaries be removed from subsequent releases. So Criterion released the commentaries separately on audio CD at the time and the later LD's had the commentaries removed. The story I heard at the time was that EON did not like certain comments as they could have reflected badly on the production. But I felt they were quite insightful and straight forrward for the most part. It's a shame because the commetaries on the DVD's are missing some great stuff. Peter Hunt on a new editing style, and Ken Adam on his really cool use of design and materials on a very tight budgeted Dr. No. Definitely a very good set of commentaries, edited very well and contain some very good information. I think the offending comment was just one short one, that's my guess.

There are also what has become standard stuff that is expected, photos of the production and trailers and isolated music and effects tracks. Also included are TV commercials that spoof Bond. Great stuff if you have it.

DJariya

That's great news, but I have all the 007 movies on DVD already. Thus, I would be very hard pressed to spend several hundred more dollars to upgrade. The Moore commentaries are enticing since he probably has alot to say from his experiences on Bond.

If Sony can somehow get Sean Connery to do some commentaries on his films, then I may be even more enticed.

For now, I'm going to have to wait and see what they add to these movies.