Woochifer
03-03-2007, 02:02 PM
Last week, Warner Home Video reps had their annual chat room Q&A with Home Theater Forum (see link below for a transcript). A LOT of activity that they got planned for 2007 and 2008. Aside from its own library, Warner also owns the rights to the pre-1970 (?) MGM film library as well as the RKO library, so they got a very large catalog of potential releases.
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/chat/warner07.txt
It seems like an annual ritual, but Warner does plan to get the long-overdue special edition of Blade Runner out "before the holiday season." Their reps said that this would include a "final cut" of the movie, along with previous versions (including the now-maligned theatrical cut, which has been unavailable on home video for years). I'll believe it when I see it, but it looks like a definitive DVD version of this classic will finally come out this year.
Warner also indicated that they are (finally) working on a special edition of Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior, but did not give an estimated release date. This title remains a movie-only edition that came out with Warner's earliest DVD releases, which typically had no anamorphic enhancement and used the lower 384k bitrate DD soundtracks. This is long overdue for a great movie, since so many of Warner's other catalog titles have since received the special edition treatment.
Some other highlights (among many) that I found noteworthy ...
- Orson Welles' The Magnificent Ambersons and Journey Into Fear due out in 2008
- 100th anniversary commemoration in honor of John Wayne, include new SE of Rio Bravo and 6 new DVD titles featuring The Duke
- new boxed sets of Judy Garland/Mickey Rooney, and pre-code "forbidden" Hollywood titles
- SE of The Candidate in progress
- 10th anniversary SE of LA Confidential due this year
- 80th anniversary SE of The Jazz Singer due this year
- 35th anniversary SE of Deliverance due this year
- more HD-DVD and Blu-ray announcements coming soon
- Warner is in active negotiations to release the Golden Harvest titles and "should have good news soon." This is HUGE for Hong Kong film fans!
- New Clint Eastwood discs possibly announced next year
Lots of other news is in the chat transcript.
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/chat/warner07.txt
It seems like an annual ritual, but Warner does plan to get the long-overdue special edition of Blade Runner out "before the holiday season." Their reps said that this would include a "final cut" of the movie, along with previous versions (including the now-maligned theatrical cut, which has been unavailable on home video for years). I'll believe it when I see it, but it looks like a definitive DVD version of this classic will finally come out this year.
Warner also indicated that they are (finally) working on a special edition of Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior, but did not give an estimated release date. This title remains a movie-only edition that came out with Warner's earliest DVD releases, which typically had no anamorphic enhancement and used the lower 384k bitrate DD soundtracks. This is long overdue for a great movie, since so many of Warner's other catalog titles have since received the special edition treatment.
Some other highlights (among many) that I found noteworthy ...
- Orson Welles' The Magnificent Ambersons and Journey Into Fear due out in 2008
- 100th anniversary commemoration in honor of John Wayne, include new SE of Rio Bravo and 6 new DVD titles featuring The Duke
- new boxed sets of Judy Garland/Mickey Rooney, and pre-code "forbidden" Hollywood titles
- SE of The Candidate in progress
- 10th anniversary SE of LA Confidential due this year
- 80th anniversary SE of The Jazz Singer due this year
- 35th anniversary SE of Deliverance due this year
- more HD-DVD and Blu-ray announcements coming soon
- Warner is in active negotiations to release the Golden Harvest titles and "should have good news soon." This is HUGE for Hong Kong film fans!
- New Clint Eastwood discs possibly announced next year
Lots of other news is in the chat transcript.