DVD Talk Forum - Warner Brothers 85th Birthday - You Must Remember This

“You Must Remember This: The Warner Bros. Story” - New Documentary Is Centerpiece Of Warner Home Video’s Year-Long Celebration Of Studio’s 85th Anniversary

(February 5, 2008 – Burbank, CA) – On April 4, 1923, four brothers from Youngstown, Ohio (Harry, Albert, Sam and Jack L. Warner) officially incorporated their new motion picture company which to this day continues to entertain the world with great films.

Throughout 2008, Warner Home Video (WHV) will celebrate Warner Bros. (WB) Studios’ 85th anniversary with an initiative that will debut more than 50 new-to-DVD feature films along with its centerpiece, “You Must Remember This: The Warner Bros. Story,” an illuminating new documentary produced, written and directed by award-winning filmmaker and Time magazine Senior Film critic Richard Schickel. Clint Eastwood narrates.

As part of the partnership with American Masters, “You Must Remember This: The Warner Bros. Story” will be broadcast nationally as a three-part special in September 2008.

Susan Lacy, the creator and executive producer of “American Masters,” which is produced by Thirteen/WNET New York, noted "Given our long co-producing relationship with Warner Bros. -- on such projects as George Cukor, Gene Kelly, Judy Garland and John Ford/John Wayne - it is thrilling and appropriate that American Masters can bring ‘You Must Remember This: The Warner Bros. Story’ to PBS."

“PBS’ ‘American Masters’ is acclaimed for its exceptional documentaries illuminating our collective past, whether through individual achievements, or in this case, through the vision of a film studio,” said John F. Wilson, Sr. Vice President and Chief TV Programming Executive, PBS. “Exploring this impressive body of Warner Bros. films to more fully understand America’s unique place in history will be a wonderful and entertaining journey for our viewers.”

The DVD debuts in September. Simultaneously, a 550-page full-color companion book -- written by Schickel and George Perry, with an introduction by Eastwood -- will be published worldwide. George Perry is the former The Times of London film critic and is the author of many books on film.

In the documentary, Schickel chronicles the history of Warner Bros. in an unprecedented way, using excerpts from hundreds of Warner Bros.’ films to illustrate how many of the studio’s films have served as a mirror of the values, mores and attitudes of the eras in which they were produced.

“This documentary is definitely in Richard’s DNA. His fascination with Warner Bros. goes back to his boyhood in Milwaukee where the only theatre in town was owned by Warner,” said George Feltenstein, Senior Vice President, Theatrical Catalog Marketing, and Warner Home Video. “It’s a groundbreaking work that, rather than dealing with executive intrigue, contract disputes or casting couch adventures, focuses on the studio’s films as a microcosm of America’s cultural and social history. It’s a unique cinematic achievement which has never been attempted on this level ever before - for this or any studio.”

To help celebrate the 85th anniversary year, from the vast WB library among the industry’s most celebrated movies, more than 50 are being restored for their DVD release this year including: “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 Match,” “Virginia City” and “Watch On The Rhine.”

New special editions of Warner Bros. Pictures favorites including “Bonnie and Clyde,” “Cool Hand Luke,” “Gypsy,” “Risky Business,” and “Splendor in the Grass” are also set for the anniversary year celebration. A number of other new-to-DVD special editions and thematic box sets drawn from Warner’s classic MGM and RKO collections will also be part of this anniversary slate.

Each quarter of 2008 will be marked with the release of several timeless collections, such as Frank Sinatra, Dirty Harry, Gangsters, Super Heroes, Musicals, Westerns, Oscars and more.

On August 31, the Hollywood Bowl’s “Big Picture” night will honor the studio’s magnificent movie music legacy with a special Warner Bros. musical concert to be held at the famed 18,000 seat amphitheatre. The Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, led by one of Hollywood’s foremost composers, David Newman, will perform music to accompany pivotal and well-known scenes from classic Warner Bros. films.

More about the Schickel Documentary

Clint Eastwood, who has worked with Richard Schickel on a number of projects, will narrate the documentary. The creative force behind many earlier works about Warner’s talented stars and directors, Schickel now takes on the task of telling the studio's entire history, with each sequence underscoring the crucial roles Warner Bros. and its films have played in portraying our society, a role the studio still plays today, some 85 years after its incorporation.

Through the use of rare archival interviews, some of which have not been seen for decades, as well as a great deal of newly photographed material, Schickel celebrates the colorful legacy of Warner Bros. throughout the decades, featuring cleverly assembled film clips from literally hundreds of films. Each of the documentary's hour-long sequences focus on a specific period in the studio's history, from the silent movie days and the development of sound, the depression, WWII, the advent of television, the onset of new technologies, and even the broadening and diversification of media companies in recent years.

Schickel engagingly retraces the legendary insights and demystifies the myths of some of Hollywood’s most magnificent productions such as “The Jazz Singer,” “The Adventures of Robin Hood,” “Casablanca,” “Yankee Doodle Dandy,” “To Have and Have Not,” “A Streetcar Named Desire,” “Giant,” “Bonnie and Clyde,” “The Exorcist,” “All The President’s Men” and the Batman and Harry Potter films; and talent from the likes of legends such as Bette Davis, Errol Flynn, Humphrey Bogart, Edward G. Robinson, Paul Newman, James Dean, Doris Day, James Cagney, Joan Crawford, Paul Newman, Warren Beatty, Clint Eastwood, Robert Redford, Dustin Hoffman, Robert DeNiro, Barbra Streisand and George Clooney. As the films from Warner Bros. studios have served as a roadmap and mirror of our social history, “You Must Remember This: The Warner Bros. Story” is sure to be viewed as an entertaining and unique roadmap to the colorful history of Hollywood and filmed entertainment.

For more information about Richard Schickel and his work, visit Home :: Richard Schickel

Q1 - Oscars and Warner Gangsters

• Bonnie and Clyde UCE, Special Edition
• GoodFellas: Special Edition
• Heat: Special Edition
• Once Upon a Time in America: Special Edition
• True Romance: Special Edition
• Film Noir Classics Collection: Volume 1
• Film Noir Classics Collection: Volume 2
• Film Noir Classics Collection: Volume 3
• Film Noir Classics Collection: Volume 4
• Warner Bros. Tough Guys Collection (6-Pack)
• Warner Gangsters Collection (6-Pack)

Q2 - Sinatra and Dirty Harry

• 2 New-To-DVD Frank Sinatra Box Sets:

“The Golden Years” & “The Early Years”

• The Man with Golden Arm
• None But the Brave
• Some Came Running
• The Tender Trap
• Marriage on the Rocks
• Double Dynamite, Step Lively
• It Happened In Brooklyn
• The Kissing Bandit

• New WHV 3-Film Box Set:

Sinatra & Kelly Collection

• Take Me Out to the Ball Game
• On the Town
• Anchor’s Aweigh

New “Rat Pack Ultimate Collector’s Edition” with exclusive “first-run” stamps, a music CD, and rare collectibles

• Ocean’s Eleven
• 4 for Texas
• Robin and the 7 Hoods
• Sergeants 3

All five Dirty Harry films in an Ultimate Collector’s Edition

• Dirty Harry 2-Disc Special Edition (1971)
• Magnum Force Deluxe Edition (1973)
• The Enforcer Deluxe Edition (1976)
• Sudden Impact Deluxe Edition (1983)
• Dead Pool Deluxe Edition (1988)
• Bonus Disc Clint Eastwood: Out of the Shadows

Q3 – Superheroes, Musicals, Westerns

• “Batman Begins Limited Edition Gift Set”
• “Batman Anthology BD”
• “How The West Was Won UCE”
• “How The West Was Won Special Edition”
• “How The West Was Won HD-BD”
• “Errol Flynn Westerns”
• “Western Classics Collection”

”Classic Musicals From The Dream Factory Volume 3

• Hit The Deck
• Kismet
• Deep in My Heart
• Broadway Melody of 1936/ Broadway Melody of 1938
• Born to Dance/Lady Be Good
• Nancy Goes To Rio/Two Weeks With Love

Q4 - Horror/Sci-Fi and Holiday

• A new classic DVD Horror collection starring Boris Karloff and Peter Lorre among others
• “Warner Bros Holiday Collection”
• “A Christmas Story Ultimate Collector’s Edition”

With operations in 90 international territories, Warner Home Video, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company, commands the largest distribution infrastructure in the global video marketplace. Warner Home Video's film library is the largest of any studio, offering top quality new and vintage titles from the repertoires of Warner Bros. Pictures, Turner Entertainment, Castle Rock Entertainment, HBO Home Video and New Line Home Entertainment.

“American Masters” is produced for PBS by Thirteen/WNET New York. This acclaimed series, now celebrating its 22nd season, has become a cultural legacy in its own right. The “American Masters” film library is one of the most highly honored in television history with profiles of more than 140 artistic giants. In addition to eight Peabodys, an Oscar, a duPont-Columbia and two Grammys, “American Masters” has won 18 Emmys, including Outstanding Primetime Non-Fiction Series for 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003, and 2004.

“American Masters” is made possible by the support of the National Endowment for the Arts and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Additional funding for “American Masters” is provided by Rosalind P. Walter, The Blanche & Irving Laurie Foundation, Jack Rudin, The Marilyn M. Simpson Charitable Lead Trusts, The André and Elizabeth Kertész Foundation, and public television viewers. More information about “American Masters” can be found at: Thirteen / WNET New York - Homepage.

PBS is a media enterprise that serves 355 public noncommercial television stations and reaches more than 75 million people each week through on-air and online content. Bringing diverse viewpoints to television and the Internet, PBS provides high-quality documentary and dramatic entertainment, and consistently dominates the most prestigious award competitions. More information about PBS is available at PBS, one of the leading dot-org Web sites on the Internet.

**To support Warner Bros. Entertainment’s commitment to the environment, Warner Home Video has used recycled materials wherever possible in the contents of this press information kit.**