After Oz etc what other classic back catalogue titles are Warner Bros planning for Blu Ray releases?

There's a few firmly rumored ones floating around, namely something with Errol Flynn in black & white (Sea Hawk? Captain Blood?) and The Maltese Falcon.

Rumored (but looking very likely) for 2010:

• Dr. Zhivago
• The Maltese Falcon
• Dial M for Murder
• A Star is Born (1954)
• The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
• Forbidden Planet

A Marx Bros. and Errol Flynn title have been mentioned, but unclear if they're on tap for 2010.

Using "on or before 1970" as classic, these are rumored for 2010:

Where Eagles Dare
Kelly's Heroes
A Star is Born
Grand Prix
Mutiny on the Bounty (both the 1935 and 1962 versions, reportedly?)
Dial M for Murder (!!!)
Forbidden Planet
Doctor Zhivago
Treasure of the Sierra Madre
The Maltese Falcon
Ben-Hur


Confirmed:

The Green Berets
The Music Man

*Cough* *Cough* Strangers On A Train *Cough* *Cough*

North by Northwest.

Citizen Kane, duh.

What more could be added to The Maltese Falcon that wasn't already in the DVD. I LOVE LOVE LOVE The Maltese Falcon btw...

About 600 lines of resolution.

Im curious as to why Dial M for Murder would come out before some other Hitchcock titles. That's always been a lesser known work compared to other films he's made.

I would love a Ben-Hur gift set.

As long as they keep releasing 'em at Target or Wal-Mart in "regular" versions I'll be happy.

To be fair, though, it's arguably the Hitchcock that has the highest marquee value of the films of his that Warner can release, and off the top of my head, it's one of the more recent ones they can release and they only other one that's in color. Maybe all of that is a factor.

The other Hitchcocks in the Warner library are Strangers on a Train, Foreign Correspondent, Suspicion, The Wrong Man, Stage Fright, I Confess, and Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Dial M for Murder wouldn't be my top pick of those, but hey, I'll take Grace Kelly in high-def!

Warner only has the rights to around seven or eight Hitchcock titles (they may have lost the rights to Foreign Correspondent as it is officially OOP).

With North by Northwest out, really the only three truly stand-alone marketable titles are Dial M, Strangers on Train and Suspicion.

my bad. I thought they had the rights to alot more. Now Dial looks like the correct choice! =)

I thought I read somewhere that King Kong was rumored. Does that ring a bell for anyone?

It was one of those Warner titles (along with Forbidden Planet, Grand Prix and Excalibur) that was always rumored for 2009, but it started to fall off the map around mid-year. It may or may not show up in 2010; Warner hasn't talked about it for a while.

Smartass

Would they be thinking of releasing the 3D version perhaps?

I've wondered that as well.

Dr Z and Ben Hur would be magnificent in HD and I would love to get a Wizard of Oz or Gone with the Wind type set.

Give me The Time Machine please.

I think Zhivago was confirmed for next year, along with Caddyshack and The Exorcist.

I'd personally love to see all those titles (Forbidden Planet, in particular) on Blu. I'm also wondering when Warner'll get around to releasing Citizen Kane on Blu.

Citizen Kane needs to be redone, because Lowry's digital restoration removed too much of the grain. One scene even had rain removed because the software thought it was noise or grain. It was one of Lowry's first titles, and they hadn't found the right balance yet.

I don't know if they have to go back and re-transfer it from scratch, or if it's just a matter of redoing the digital work. In any case, they may be targeting a 2011 release since they love anniversaries.

Unfortunately the original print was destroyed in a fire at the Orson Welles house in the late sixties. I am not sure, but I believe the last DVD was struck from a safety master of the film. Perhaps there is still a camera negative print in some film can lying around unnoticed somewhere.