Caligula: The Ultimate Cut 4K UHD (1979/2023) Tiberius Film

[dallywhitty]

Tiberius Film are releasing Caligula: The Ultimate Cut in a 4-Disc (UHD+3×BD) Limited Edition mediabook February 2025. The original unrated version of the film is included on Blu-ray.

Caligula 4K Blu-ray Tiberius

[Show spoiler]

40 years after the first release of one of the most controversial films of all time, Penthouse Films International presents a completely new version. An unprecedented amount of never-before-seen footage makes the still-shocking cult classic appear in a new light. The notoriously decadent and scandalous film is finally presented as it should always be seen.

After the murder of Emperor Tiberius, Caligula, who is striving for power, is appointed the new Emperor. With the help of his sister Drusilla and his wife Caesonia, he begins to disintegrate the Roman Empire from within. Decadence and debauchery now prevail at the Imperial Court. When the almost insane Caligula appoints himself a god, resistance finally forms.

Technical specifications:
Language / sound: German DTS-HD MA 5.1, English DTS-HD MA 5.1
Image format: 2,00:1 (2160p/24 4K), 2.00:1 (1080p/24 HD), 1.85:1 (1080p/24 HD)
Subtitle: German.
Running time: 178 minutes

Bonus material:
- The World of Caligula - A video featurette with film scholar Prof. Dr. Marcus Stiglegger (exclusive)
- Audio commentary with Caligula expert Alexander Tuschinski (exclusive)
- Audio commentary with film journalists Christoph N. Kellerbach and Kevin Zindler (exclusive)
- German cinema trailer for Caligula (Original VHS Version and HD re-edit)
- German cinema trailer for Tinto Brass' Salon Kitty in HD
- Behind the Scenes
- Behind the scenes of the production (about 80 min)
- North American Bonus Footage
- Cut and alternative scenes of the US version (about 31 min)
- US cinema trailer (1: 45 min) | US teaser trailer (1: 07 min) | US R-Rated Trailer (1:00 min)
- Hundreds of Behind the Scenes photos of the production in 16 picture galleries
- The Making of Caligula Documentary (62 min) & Featurette (10 min)
- John Steiner: My Holiday in Rome - Featurette (24 min)
- Caligulas Pet: In conversation with Lori Wagner - Featurette (26 min)
- Tinto Brass: The Orgy of Power - Featurette (35 min)
- BD-Rom features with Penthouse articles - Original screenplay - Press releases - Biographies and much more.

Tiberius Film

[dlh]

According to the specs and listed special features on their homepage, I am going to speculate, that the set will feature the following:

1x UHD of the Ultimate Cut (new disc)
1x BD of the Ultimate Cut (new disc)
1x BD of the Original Uncut Theatrical Cut (probably a re-pressing of the old disc from 2018)
1x BD with additional special features (probably a re-pressing of the old disc from 2018)

If this happens to be true, it would mean, that the disc with the Preview Cut (along with some special features like audio commentaries by McDowell and Volkman and deleted scenes) is missing.

[dallywhitty]

Originally Posted by dlh

1x UHD of the Ultimate Cut (new disc)
1x BD of the Ultimate Cut (new disc)
1x BD of the Original Uncut Theatrical Cut (probably a re-pressing of the old disc from 2018)
1x BD with additional special features (probably a re-pressing of the old disc from 2018)

This is about what I expect, too, although I would hope that the BD of the uncut original isn't just a repressing of the 2018 release. I've made Tiberius aware of the editorial shortcomings of the existing HD master and they said they'd look into it. I'm gonna e-mail them again over the weekend asking about things like the faulty 5.1 track on the original, as well as some clarity on which cuts are actually being included.

EDIT: Found an article on Film Diest and at the very end, it says: "On February 6, 2025, "Caligula - The Ultimate Cut" will also be released by Tiberius as a Mediabook edition. It includes a 4K UHD and Blu-ray, the original "Caligula" version from 1979 on Blu-ray, as well as a DVD with bonus material."

[nekromantik]

Originally Posted by dallywhitty

This is about what I expect, too, although I would hope that the BD of the uncut original isn't just a repressing of the 2018 release. I've made Tiberius aware of the editorial shortcomings of the existing HD master and they said they'd look into it. I'm gonna e-mail them again over the weekend asking about things like the faulty 5.1 track on the original, as well as some clarity on which cuts are actually being included.

EDIT: Found an article on Film Diest and at the very end, it says: "On February 6, 2025, "Caligula - The Ultimate Cut" will also be released by Tiberius as a Mediabook edition. It includes a 4K UHD and Blu-ray, the original "Caligula" version from 1979 on Blu-ray, as well as a DVD with bonus material."

Yeah I doubt they will redo the uncut disc. If they were that bothered they would have after it was originally released

[drush9999]

May have to get the German release, assume it's FSK18 though so harder to import from ze germans.

[nekromantik]

Originally Posted by dallywhitty

This is about what I expect, too, although I would hope that the BD of the uncut original isn't just a repressing of the 2018 release. I've made Tiberius aware of the editorial shortcomings of the existing HD master and they said they'd look into it. I'm gonna e-mail them again over the weekend asking about things like the faulty 5.1 track on the original, as well as some clarity on which cuts are actually being included.

EDIT: Found an article on Film Diest and at the very end, it says: "On February 6, 2025, "Caligula - The Ultimate Cut" will also be released by Tiberius as a Mediabook edition. It includes a 4K UHD and Blu-ray, the original "Caligula" version from 1979 on Blu-ray, as well as a DVD with bonus material."

Originally Posted by drush9999

May have to get the German release, assume it's FSK18 though so harder to import from ze germans.

Only thing you will gain over umbrella is different extras

[drush9999]

Originally Posted by nekromantik

Only thing you will gain over umbrella is different extras

Tiberius won't have borked audio and a replacement program to worry about though

[nekromantik]

Originally Posted by drush9999

Tiberius won't have borked audio and a replacement program to worry about though

We'll it's not out until February by then all new orders and replacements for umbrella will be done

[Ron242]

@Dallywhitty:

This is great news! The bonus material is what I expected. I don't believe in a revision of the unrated version, but I still want the set because of the mediabook and the new German dubbing.

[Ron242]

It doesn't look bad! Well, the bonus material doesn't offer much new, but I'm pleased that it will be a mediabook.

[Filmmaker]

No original version on 4K? Effectively a useless disc for those of us who own the Umbrella disc, unless they give it substantially superior encoding.

[Ruined]

Originally Posted by Filmmaker

No original version on 4K? Effectively a useless disc for those of us who own the Umbrella disc, unless they give it substantially superior encoding.

Or fix the sound on the unrated cut if Umbrella doesn't

[Filmmaker]

Originally Posted by Ruined

Or fix the sound on the unrated cut if Umbrella doesn't

A fair point. Hopefully, it’s not going to be one of these “sold out before street date” titles that are beginning to define our hobby these days because I’m definitely going to need verification from two or three buyers, who have it in hand, of legitimate improvements to the TC before I buy this for a third time.

[ksc2303]

Originally Posted by Filmmaker

No original version on 4K? Effectively a useless disc for those of us who own the Umbrella disc, unless they give it substantially superior encoding.

It would be nice to know more about the source of the scan used on the FR/DE/AU discs of the theatrical cut. If there could be a decent 4k disc created from it. I'll be upgrading my Umbrella set if anyone releases the theatrical cut with better audio (and ideally include the mono). Considering Tiberius could potentially be the source of the botched 5.1 I'm gonna wait for confirmation or first hand impressions before ordering their release.

[dlh]

The following special features are only available in German:

- The World of Caligula - A video featurette with film scholar Prof. Dr. Marcus Stiglegger (exclusive)
- Audio commentary with Caligula expert Alexander Tuschinski (exclusive)
- Audio commentary with film journalists Christoph N. Kellerbach and Kevin Zindler (exclusive)
- German cinema trailer for Caligula (Original VHS Version and HD re-edit)
- German cinema trailer for Tinto Brass' Salon Kitty in HD

The old disc featured no English subtitles for those. Would not bet that they haved added subtitles by now. But I am still a bit confused, if they will re-author the discs and maybe fix/add something. It is pretty strange, that Tiberius confirmed a bonus dvd. The old release from 2018 had most of the special features on a bonus blu-ray.

(The 2018 release also featured a German audio commentary by Alexander Tuschinski for the preview cut. He provided two audio commentaries for the release.)

[Ron242]

@dlh:

I think it's very unlikely that anything on the set will be re-authored. I rather expect a reprint of the 2018 discs. The only reason why I will buy the set is the new German dubbing and the mediabook. However, this is unlikely to be of interest to international customers.

[IDidItForTheGold]

Originally Posted by dlh

The following special features are only available in German:

You're not missing out on much with most of these.

Originally Posted by dlh

- The World of Caligula - A video featurette with film scholar Prof. Dr. Marcus Stiglegger (exclusive)

Marcus Stiglegger is, for some reason, the go-to guy for 99.9% of these sort of niche releases. As a consequence, there is very little to gain in terms of original research or profound insights into the making of the film and you could basically get the same info by reading the film's wikipedia page (though IIRC there was no outright false info in this featurette, which in a film like Caligula *is* quite a feat - Unobstructed View, take note!)

Since we're dealing with current year film scholarism, there was also the obligatory reference at how ahead of its time this was for subverting gender roles (or some fashionable blather along those lines).

Originally Posted by dlh

- Audio commentary with film journalists Christoph N. Kellerbach and Kevin Zindler (exclusive)

Excellent stuff, if you want to listen to a duo of semi-literate dweebs squeal and giggle like little school girls at the sight of sexual activity for 2.5 hours straight.

Hard pass.

Originally Posted by dlh

- German cinema trailer for Caligula (Original VHS Version and HD re-edit)

Ok, the old German trailer is really, really cool and artsy. Way better than the US trailers.

Originally Posted by dlh

- German cinema trailer for Tinto Brass' Salon Kitty in HD

This inclusion just smells of despair...

Originally Posted by dlh

- Audio commentary with Caligula expert Alexander Tuschinski (exclusive)

This is the only Germany-exclusive bonus feature worth a damn (except for the trailer perhaps) and a true treasure trove of info. There are commentaries for both theatrical and the so-called "pre-release" version, both of them German only, unfortunately. While there is quite a bit of overlap between the commentaries, both are essential listening for Caligula fans. A shame that by the looks of it, Tuschinski won't contribute to this new edition (can't blame him though after the absolute ****ing over he got). Would've been cool if the b&w workprint made an appearance. Or at the least put Tuschinski's Mission Caligula on the disc as a reminder of what could have been.

[dallywhitty]

Thanks for the thoughts, gents. As a a stinky-british who only speaks English, the German extras are of no use to me. Dunno how much I can say publicly, but having been privy to discussions about potential new extras, it's a shame nothing came to fruition.

At this point, the only thing that'll make me consider picking this up is if Tiberius have addressed the issues with the OG cut. Like I said, I'm gonna e-mail them again this weekend with various queries, so hopefully we'll know more soon.

[PullBackCamera]

Originally Posted by dallywhitty

FYI: The German UHD has been announced for February 2025 and is available to pre-order via Tiberius Film's site.

Ha - I like that they've listed Nergovan as the director of the Ultimate Cut! (If only Criterion had taken a similar approach to Pat Garrett we might have avoided a lot of back and forth...)

Lacking Io Caligula, but cheaper than the Umbrella. If they can fix the credits + audio on the theatrical and offer stronger encoding than the Umbrella then this would be the one to beat. Still, it's a shame we're not getting a UHD of the original - a feature of all these revisionist-type projects seems to be that the original cut gets neglected.

Edit: Looking at ordering this, but Tiberius' website wants to double-charge on the VAT. It adds 20% UK VAT to the order (correctly) - but does so without first removing the German sales tax. If you're in touch with Tiberius maybe you could point this out to them?

[dallywhitty]

Originally Posted by PullBackCamera

Looking at ordering this, but Tiberius' website wants to double-charge on the VAT. It adds 20% UK VAT to the order (correctly) - but does so without first removing the German sales tax. If you're in touch with Tiberius maybe you could point this out to them?

Will do!