Finally. The announcement comes in Criterion's December newsletter. They just say that we'll see these reissues sometime in 06. Sorry if this has been posted.

So, it's just reissues then, no extra stuff tacked on?

Reissue is major news for all three discs.

Seven Samurai - has a very nice new print
Yojimbo and Sanjuro suffered from serious dvd authoring errors.

Hopefully, we'll get Stephen Prince commentary tracks on Yojimbo and Sanjuro and the relevant chapters from It's Wonderful to Create for all three films.

A re-issue generally entails extra stuff tacked on. A re-issue means a new DVD version, not simply a reprint of the existing DVD.

Great. been holding off for a new transfer on Yojimbo.

cool, i was wondering what the deal with these was! thanks

Hopefully Criterion will follow their excellent Throne of Blood disc, and allow us the option of whether or not to watch the film with the "new and improved"(often worse) subtitles, or the original subtitles the film was issued with.

For some bizarre reason they've abandoned this approach after that disc, and I know quite a few people, myself included, who really dislike their newer translations - especially on Ikiru, which just wrecks that otherwise fantastic film(at least "wrecks" it versus the power it had with the original subtitles).

If we have a choice, then everybody is happy.

But not having them is a dealbreaker for me - I'd rather watch my original, non-anamorphic, bad quality Yojimbo than a Yojimbo with great picture quality and a lesser subtitle translation.

I love these films (well, at least "Seven Samurai" and "Yojimbo..." I've never seen "Sanjuro,") but I've been holding off on these discs for quite some time in the hope of a reissue. Fantastic news.

I've been holding off for Seven Samurai, in hope of this, so, this is terrific news.

Part of me says 'yay!' and the other is wishing they would go forward with new titles... I want as many Criterions on DVD before they abandon the format for HD.

Damnit, the one I care most about is High and Low. They said they would reissue that one a year ago, and still nothing. *sigh*

Yojimbo is the only one I'd dbl-dip for.

I'm fine with the other two.

If the improvements are good enough, I'd double dip. I love all three of those films.

I just picked up the 4 movie set at the DDD 20% off sale. Oh well. If the reviews of the reissued discs are good enough, I'll sell the originals and pick up the reissues. Who knows how long it'll be.

Finally!

I've been waiting years for a reissue before I buy Seven Samurai. Hopefully they can fix the compression issues.

Are they going to have new spine numbers or keep the number from the original releases?

I'll be double dipping for Yojimbo and Sanjuro for anamorphic transfers but Seven Samurai, I'll have to wait and see what other special features are added.

I'll be getting these for sure... Extra's or not!!!

Here is how it is written in the newsletter...

great news....i need to sell my other copies

Finally thank God.

Actually, I just checked my email and was heading over here to post about this. Do you guys think there will be another boxed set? If not, do you think the current one, which will definitely go OOP, will hold any extra value? A lot of people seem to be Criterion completists, so if this boxed set went OOP and wasn't replaced by a new one, I could see it becoming a popular item. I fairly certain it doesn't, but if the box has it's own spine number (a'la the Bergman Trilogy, etc), this will be even more true.

-JP

Excellent news. It will be interesting to see what ends up coming out.

the box does not have its own number...but i do hope it goes up in value....at least enought to pay for the new disc

Keep the spine numbers is my guess. They've been the same whenever there's been an identical reissue.