Upcoming Sergio Leone BDs from Leone Film Group - any info?

[Funktion]

I just noticed a number of Sergio Leone films are available to pre-order at Amazon.it, to be release by Leone Film Group.

Among them are:
Once Upon a Time In America (C'era una volta in America)
Once Upon a Time in the West (C'era una volta il West)
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo)
For a Few Dollars More (Per qualche dollaro in più)
Duck, You Sucker! (Giù la testa)
The Colossus of Rhodes (Il Colosso di Rodi)

Does anyone have any info on these releases?

[rezpekt]

I was wondering the same. I had ordered (previous releases of) "Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo" and "C'era una volta il west" among other titles a month ago, but these two never shipped and appear to be out-of-print now.

Also strange that "Per un pugno di dollari" is not included in the new editions (old one still in print).

[JohnCarpenterFan]

A Fistful of Dollars was distributed by a completely different company from the rest which explains its absence.

I think these will just be repackages of the older editions (which are all flawed). I think 4K remasters have been made for a few of them but they were performed by Ritrovata and look dreadful, at least in regards to color timing/contrast.

[Funktion]

Originally Posted by JohnCarpenterFan

I think these will just be repackages of the older editions (which are all flawed)

It may be so for the others, but I'm particularly curious about Once Upon a Time In America, because both editions previously available in Italy were from Warner, so I'm doubting this will be a simple repackage.

It would be great if these new editions would be improvements, or at least have added special features, but considering the price and lack of info, they probably won't.

[barrett75]

we're trying to get more infos but nobody talks! the curious thing is that, as far as i know, all these movies were re-mastered in 4k (same as TGTBTU)... let's see what happens

[Funktion]

Originally Posted by barrett75

we're trying to get more infos but nobody talks! the curious thing is that, as far as i know, all these movies were re-mastered in 4k (same as TGTBTU)... let's see what happens

Please let us know if you hear anything.

I also tried contacting the publisher through their social media channels, but I doubt I'll get a reply.

[AlexIlDottore]

Originally Posted by barrett75

we're trying to get more infos but nobody talks! the curious thing is that, as far as i know, all these movies were re-mastered in 4k (same as TGTBTU)... let's see what happens

Thanks for this

[JohnCarpenterFan]

Originally Posted by barrett75

we're trying to get more infos but nobody talks! the curious thing is that, as far as i know, all these movies were re-mastered in 4k (same as TGTBTU)... let's see what happens

Looks like you're right, there's footage out there of all the listed films in remastered form except Once Upon a Time in the West, but it's stated that it was restored recently in collaboration with Cineteca di Bologna, although the running time for showings is only 167 minutes which is shorter than the length of the Italian director's cut which has never been released on Blu-ray.

I hope they are the remasters even though Bologna have drastically altered the look so everything they do looks exactly the same. There are programs out there capable of removing Ritrovata's bullshit colors and contrast which makes them reference quality. Just a shame that the fans are the ones that have to do it.

Shots from For a Few Dollars More:

[Funktion]

I updated my original post to add that The Colossus of Rhodes (Il Colosso di Rodi) will also be re-released.

And so far, I've been unable to get a reply from the publisher as to what these releases will include.

[Member-167298]

Lee Van Cleef looks like a wax statue!

[JohnCarpenterFan]

The Blu-rays of virtually all Leone's films spit on his legacy. The only one that doesn't is Ripley's restored version of A Fistful of Dollars.

I own a few other of the Italian Blu-rays and they are all disgraceful.

Examples:

For a Few Dollars More:

Missing opening card about the bounty hunters
Contains day-for-night scene which hasn't been corrected
Slightly censored

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly:

Missing lots of frames

Duck, You Sucker!:

Horrible Ritrovata restoration
Incomplete title sequence
Contains random frames from one scene in another
Audio suddenly changes from English to Italian

I'm working on creating English-friendly custom versions of all Sergio Leone films in the best quality possible, aside from AFOD for reason mentioned and OUATITW because none of the Director's Cut scenes are available in HD.

Very sad to see that 4K restorations which haven't been released have also been ****ed around with by Ritrovata who seemingly take pride in destroying the integrity of all the films they get their hands on. Now it seems as if they will be involved in the Arrow 4K restorations of Argento's Phenomena and two other titles (likely Inferno and The Bird with the Crystal Plumage).

[djvaso]

The Colossus of Rhodes
I don't have any pieces of information about new Blu-ray but it seems that previous German and Italian release are same in terms of AV quality. Picture is good but final scenes have some scratches, audio is out-of-sync in the middle of the movie for a minute and musical score is quite ruined.
http://www.gentedirispetto.com/forum...-di-Rodi/page2
Other titles
I recently saw For a Few Dollars More and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly on Rai Movie channel. They have Leone Film Group and restoration info intro but they were in standard definition.

[Funktion]

Originally Posted by djvaso

The Colossus of Rhodes
I don't have any pieces of information about new Blu-ray but it seems that previous German and Italian release are same in terms of AV quality. Picture is good but final scenes have some scratches, audio is out-of-sync in the middle of the movie for a minute and musical score is quite ruined.
http://www.gentedirispetto.com/forum...-di-Rodi/page2
Other titles
I recently saw For a Few Dollars More and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly on Rai Movie channel. They have Leone Film Group and restoration info intro but they were in standard definition.

Thanks for the info.

[SymbioticFunction]

I've been meaning to pick up the Colossus of Rhodes purely to help complete a set on my favourite director's shelves, but trouble is, it's not an especially good film imho. Honest question, are people buying the film because they really like it or merely because it was Leone's first credited directorial work? IMO, there's no trace of the Sergio Leone style that we love and is therefore an extremely indifferent film, thoughts?

[Funktion]

While part of the reason I want it is to add to my Sergio Leone collection, I actually quite enjoy it. Even without Sergio Leone's name attached, I would like to have it in my collection.
Then again, I'm a sucker for Peplum films, the crazier (more based on mythology, and less grounded on reality) the better.

I would love to have decent versions on Blu-Ray of both The Colossus of Rhodes, and Mario Bava's Hercules In the Haunted World.

[Baron Blood]

Originally Posted by JohnCarpenterFan

Looks like you're right, there's footage out there of all the listed films in remastered form except Once Upon a Time in the West, but it's stated that it was restored recently in collaboration with Cineteca di Bologna, although the running time for showings is only 167 minutes which is shorter than the length of the Italian director's cut which has never been released on Blu-ray.

I hope they are the remasters even though Bologna have drastically altered the look so everything they do looks exactly the same. There are programs out there capable of removing Ritrovata's bullshit colors and contrast which makes them reference quality. Just a shame that the fans are the ones that have to do it.

Shots from For a Few Dollars More:

What the hell?
Those are from a upcoming Blu ray?

Can you elaborate on Ritrovata's manipulation, CFan?

[Bates_Motel]

Originally Posted by JohnCarpenterFan

The Blu-rays of virtually all Leone's films spit on his legacy. The only one that doesn't is Ripley's restored version of A Fistful of Dollars.

I own a few other of the Italian Blu-rays and they are all disgraceful.

Examples:

For a Few Dollars More:

Missing opening card about the bounty hunters
Contains day-for-night scene which hasn't been corrected
Slightly censored

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly:

Missing lots of frames

Duck, You Sucker!:

Horrible Ritrovata restoration
Incomplete title sequence
Contains random frames from one scene in another
Audio suddenly changes from English to Italian

I'm working on creating English-friendly custom versions of all Sergio Leone films in the best quality possible, aside from AFOD for reason mentioned and OUATITW because none of the Director's Cut scenes are available in HD.

Very sad to see that 4K restorations which haven't been released have also been ****ed around with by Ritrovata who seemingly take pride in destroying the integrity of all the films they get their hands on. Now it seems as if they will be involved in the Arrow 4K restorations of Argento's Phenomena and two other titles (likely Inferno and The Bird with the Crystal Plumage).

The Italian Mondo version of TGTBTU is the best available. I did a recut using the American theatrical and English soundtrack and saw no missing frames, other than the fact that the Tuco fight sequence was cut differently and a few shots vary between the two versions.

And no color grading software can fix the MGM 4K TGTBTU. You can get close on a lot of scenes, but with the clipped whites and gamma so badly off, you can't recover that information. And shots like the final shot, which looks 100x better on the Mondo, aren't fixable, because there's not enough color information left in the image.

[Funktion]

I supposed no one managed to get any further info about these releases?

Since my original post, I kept trying to find some info, I emailed the label, and I even tried pestering them on social media, but I got... nothing.

[AlexIlDottore]

[RDA]

Those back cover images are from Amazon. Back covers for the other 4 films have not been added there yet. Eagle Pictures are distributing these 6 new blu-ray releases and they have specifications for all of them on their website: http://www.eaglepictures.com/prossimamente-he.

Hopefully the back covers will be added to Amazon soon to confirm the specifications, but the 2 back covers on Amazon mirror the information for the 2 blu-rays on the Eagle Pictures website, so it looks like only 4 of the 6 blu-rays will be English friendly.