Ask questions to The Digital Bits team (Bill Hunt, Jeff Kleist et.al.)

[Batman1980]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Star wars coming in 2011 has been public for months.......

Yes but it was always unofficial until Georgie Porgie himself confirmed it.

[MerrickG]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Star wars coming in 2011 has been public for months.......

Sansweet hinted it but never officially confirmed. Afterall, it was also presented early last year that Indiana Jones was coming to bluray and it never happened.

[Indyjones]

Originally Posted by merrick97

Sansweet hinted it but never officially confirmed. Afterall, it was also presented early last year that Indiana Jones was coming to bluray and it never happened.

Indy has been hinted at even earlier than that - since the blu release of KOTCS.

Regarding SW, has there been any word as to what work actually has gone into the blu release, as far as restoration - both video and audio? Or is this something we really won't find too much about until it gets closer to release?

[Jeff Kleist]

Sansweet hinted it but never officially confirmed.

If an exec sits someplace like Wondercon and says that, it may as well be.

Based on various TV broadcast versions, what they have should already be up to snuff

Sansweet hinted it but never officially confirmed. Afterall, it was also presented early last year that Indiana Jones was coming to bluray and it never happened.

Well, that was before they were making a fifth one

[MerrickG]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Well, that was before they were making a fifth one

When did this become official? I figured Shia's negative comments from the last film pretty much did it in.

[Jeff Kleist]

When did this become official? I figured Shia's negative comments from the last film pretty much did it in.

Spielberg wants to do it, Ford wants to do it, they're writing scripts that hopefully will include as little of Shia as possible

[MerrickG]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Spielberg wants to do it, Ford wants to do it, they're writing scripts that hopefully will include as little of Shia as possible

I seem to recall that the original plan was to make him sort of become the star.

Lets hope not. Shia's best movie was I, Robot.

[johndoyle123]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Are you asking about classics as in old movies or just general catalog?

Paramount is not in the best of financial shape at the moment. There is more catalog but it keeps moving around, some if it is out in other territories already.

well mostly there big classic titles like :

once upon a time in the west
breakfast at tiffanys
rosemarys baby
harold and maude
sunset blv
chinatown
ten commandments
indiana jones
e.t.c

also stuff like

-terms of endearment
-ordinary people

they have some of the greatest films ever stored in there little vault
but most of those have been rumored for release at some point or another

i presume it is 100 percent that we WILL get them eventually , but its just a case of waiting for the right time?

it would just be nice to get 1 or 2 before the new year

like i moan about sony because they have some amazing films but at least they will release them it,s just because they put so much care into it that it takes a lot of time.

im looking forward to from sony :

- from here to eternity
- on the waterfront
- it happened one night
- lawrence of arabia
-guns of the navarone
- das boot
etc

best regards
jon

[DetroitSportsFan]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Spielberg wants to do it, Ford wants to do it, they're writing scripts that hopefully will include as little of Shia as possible

[Vincent Pereira]

Originally Posted by merrick97

I seem to recall that the original plan was to make him sort of become the star.

Lets hope not. Shia's best movie was I, Robot.

HOLES is a really good movie.

Vincent

[Vincent Pereira]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Spielberg wants to do it, Ford wants to do it, they're writing scripts that hopefully will include as little of Shia as possible

IMO Shia was the least of CRYSTAL SKULL's problems.

Vincent

[Jeff Kleist]

IMO Shia was the least of CRYSTAL SKULL's problems.

Most of the other problems were giving into George's insistence on aliens, and the inability of Commies to be nearly as awesome as Nazis

[MerrickG]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Most of the other problems were giving into George's insistence on aliens, and the inability of Commies to be nearly as awesome as Nazis

Ummm, giant ants?

[Simplayer]

Originally Posted by merrick97

Ummm, giant ants?

Monkeys? Fridges?

[Vincent Pereira]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Most of the other problems were giving into George's insistence on aliens, and the inability of Commies to be nearly as awesome as Nazis

But are they really "aliens"? I thought they were more "inter-dimensional beings" explained by string theory.

Also, are you sure 'George' insisted on Commies as opposed to Nazis? I could have sworn I read somewhere that, after SCHINDLER'S LIST, Spielberg had pledged to never make light of Nazis again on film like he did in the earlier INDIANA JONES films...

Either way, I can buy aliens (or "inter-dimensional beings" or whatever) and Commies- what bothered me was how damn lazy the bulk of the film felt, not the fantastical story points. I was really liking the whole early section at the University that Jones taught at- the whole 50's vibe and the references to his father and Marcus really had some dramatic weight, and I loved the fight in the soda shop and flight through campus set-piece- but once the film went to South America it just completely fell apart for me. My negative reaction really had nothing to do with fantastical plot-points or Shia, it was just that the bulk of the film felt very lazy to me. And to waste Cate Blanchett- a TERRIFIC actress IMO- is unforgivable. She simply had NOTHING whatsoever to work with here. It was just a very limp and forgettable film.

Vincent

[Jeff Kleist]

But are they really "aliens"? I thought they were more "inter-dimensional beings" explained by string theory.

If you watch the extras, Spielberg talks about how George insisted on aliens, then he finally came up with the dimensional idea, and everyone was so sick of arguing they just went "fine".

I was really liking the whole early section at the University that Jones taught at- the whole 50's vibe and the references to his father and Marcus really had some dramatic weight, and I loved the fight in the soda shop and flight through campus set-piece- but once the film went to South America it just completely fell apart for me. My negative reaction really had nothing to do with fantastical plot-points or Shia

Pretty much it did start out great yeah. I did enjoy the truck chase and the quicksand scene. I hated Shia before this movie once he started popping up in everything under the sun with the same performance, and I wish Spielberg would stop having the man crushes on mediocre actors like Shia or Dakota Fanning and putting them in everything. I hope he takes his money and goes away for 5-6 years and learns to act like Leo did.

[Oliver K]

Originally Posted by garyrc

It would have killed them to put it on two disks? I would have been willing to pay the extra 69 cents, or whatever, to reimburse them for an extra disk, packaging and freight.

Have the MBAs Jeff talked about completely taken over the asylum?

Hopefully, they won't try to put all 212 minutes of Ben-Hur on one BD. Last time (DVD) they used two disks, and threw in two more for special features.

Does Hamlet have an intermission so that a break for changing discs would come naturally?

Regarding Ben Hur the bitrate would not be as much of a problem as the area to be encoded is about 20% less when they go with the 2.76 aspect ratio plus the movie itself is about half an hour shorter.

Still I would prefer to have an intermission break for Ben Hur where we HAVE to get up and change from Disc one to disc two. Imo that would be a nice touch for every movie that had an intermission theatrically

[SpaceDog]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

I hope he takes his money and goes away for 5-6 years and learns to act like Leo did.

Leo has always been a great actor. He was nominated for an Oscar for one of his earliest film roles - and to my knowledge has never had a period where he wasn't working. Just because some people don't like Titanic does not make him a bad actor.

I doubt Shia will ever improve.

[Bobby Henderson]

Originally Posted by Oliver K

Does Hamlet have an intermission so that a break for changing discs would come naturally?

Yes. And this is part of why I am so often annoyed by Warner Brothers' "let's squeeze the living crap out of the bit rate just to see how low we can go" policy of video encoding.

The freaking director's cut versions of the Lord of the Rings trilogy of movies were divided between 2 DVD discs -and those movies had shorter running times than Branagh's Hamlet. Some other notably long movies have been divided across 2 discs. The DTS DVD version of Dances With Wolves, Once Upon A Time In The West 2-disc DVD and The Godfather Part II DVD are a few that immediately come to mind.

Also, look at the target audience of Hamlet. Fans of Shakespeare are probably going to be much more tolerant of an intermission and break across 2-discs than the action movie fan who insists everything be stupidly crammed into one platter.

BTW, movies with long running times are forced at a certain point to have an intermission. Standard 35mm projection platters can hold around 3.5 hours worth of film. The theatrical DTS system is limited to roughly 200 minutes (100 minutes worth of audio per CD-ROM) without changing any discs. DTS' newest systems, particularly the hard disc equipped XD-10 and XD-20 processors, don't have those limits. Digital cinema doesn't either. However, the human bladder absolutely does have a limit. Most people need some sort of break after about 2.5 hours. That break could be urgently needed if the viewer drank one of those tanker trunk sized drinks from the snack counter.

[MerrickG]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

If you watch the extras, Spielberg talks about how George insisted on aliens, then he finally came up with the dimensional idea, and everyone was so sick of arguing they just went "fine".

The way George described it, it actually made sense to want Aliens given that he was going for the 50s sci-fi vibe.

Can't say it worked too well.

Honestly, it wasn't TERRIBLE it just seemed WAYYYYY too cartoony for me.