"Club Penton" - Ask questions to Hollywood insider "Penton-Man"

[blu2]

Originally Posted by Maxpower1987

Just a quick heads up:

Could everybody go out an buy a copy of A Passage to India. It has been painstakingly restored at great cost to the studio and the sales it has been seeing aren't going to help the case for other David Lean classics like Dr. Zhivago or Lawrence of Arabia get moved up the schedule any time soon.

Also it is an absolutely amazing movie one of Lean's best, so everybody go out and buy it!

Approximately how many copies did Sony expect to sell?

[neo_reloaded]

Originally Posted by Chaka

I don't know. I think both of you might be making a radical generalization. Casablanca or Maltese Falcon both would do really well if it actually benefitted being on blu-ray. People have lived with black bars on the top and bottom and rationalized it, I am sure they can accept bars on the side for such classics.

I sincerely hope I am wrong. Just from here and time on AVS, there are always complaints about black bars, small packaging issues, "what's the point of getting an old film in HD", etc. And sales for classic films haven't been stellar, showing that it's more than just a few dissident voices on the forums.

I know for a fact that Casablanca would look beautiful on Blu-ray. I have the HD DVD version and it is stunning. I can't wait until it's released both to personally own it (I'm trying to sell off the remaining HD DVDs, but can't part with some like Casablanca and Forbidden Planet until Blu-rays are released), and to see how it is received.

There is a market for HD classics. It's just that the people interested aren't buying into Blu-ray yet because the number of classics out there is so small. And then studios are less likely to put more out because of lack of sales of the few token ones they have released. It's a chicken and the egg-type problem.

Eventually, enough classics will be released to push things to critical mass where the holdouts start adoping BD, but it could be slow. I feel WB is doing the best job at taking chances and appealing to this crowd - their new rule of all special edition re-releases coming to BD as well starting mid-2008 is going to be fantastic. Disney is going to start doing their platinum titles on BD as well, which will help.

[lgans316]

Originally Posted by Maxpower1987

Just a quick heads up:

Could everybody go out an buy a copy of A Passage to India. It has been painstakingly restored at great cost to the studio and the sales it has been seeing aren't going to help the case for other David Lean classics like Dr. Zhivago or Lawrence of Arabia get moved up the schedule any time soon.

Also it is an absolutely amazing movie one of Lean's best, so everybody go out and buy it!

Being an avid movie lover and as a token of appreciation for the efforts put by SPHE I will definitely pick a copy of Passage to India. Thanks for the heads up.

[wallendo]

Originally Posted by Maxpower1987

Just a quick heads up:

Could everybody go out an buy a copy of A Passage to India. It has been painstakingly restored at great cost to the studio and the sales it has been seeing aren't going to help the case for other David Lean classics like Dr. Zhivago or Lawrence of Arabia get moved up the schedule any time soon.

Also it is an absolutely amazing movie one of Lean's best, so everybody go out and buy it!

I preordered it from Amazon, and it is sitting on my shelf waiting for a day when I have enough time to watch it.

I found out about it from blu-ray.com. If I had not frequented this forum, I would not have known about it (and not bought it). I haven't seen much advertising for this. Did Sony do a lot of promotion for this that I don't know about?

[doctorsteve]

Originally Posted by WickyWoo

I've been waiting a long time for this,where's that banhammer.......

I don't want to live in a world were even Penton can be banned...

[WickyWoo]

I don't want to live in a world were even Penton can be banned...

Smilies dude, smilies

[mhafner]

Pentonman, do you have any information about DNR and "The Golden Compass"? Did New Line apply any again (as they did before with "Pan's Labyrinth")?

[AaronSCH]

Regarding Sony's restoration of "A Passage to India:"

Originally Posted by BluDomain

I did, and I agree. I could only find it on Amazon. Retail buyers evidently didn't think it would make a splash on their shelves. Still, at $19.95 on Amazon it was a steal.

However, E.M. Forster isn't everyone's cup of tea. Inspite of the Oscar Nominations and being critically acclaimed "A Passage To India" didn't fare that well at the box office either at $26 Million.

Maybe Sony should consider that other multi-million profit makers allow them to subsidize less profitable endeavors that puts the "art" into cinema.

Thank you. I agree. I definitely plan on picking up this title but it was not the right film to properly gauge interest in the films of David Lean or other classic cinema. I would have picked up "Bridge on the River Kwai," "Lawrence of Arabia" or "Dr. Zhivago" immediately upon release. The Sony folks had to have known they were releasing a limited interest title. The two Best Buys in my area didn't even have it on the shelf. That's not good to build awareness for the 'brick and mortar' consumer. I will place an order since the next few weeks have pretty light release shedules for me.

[Objectivity]

Originally Posted by neo_reloaded

I know for a fact that Casablanca would look beautiful on Blu-ray. I have the HD DVD version and it is stunning. I can't wait until it's released both to personally own it (I'm trying to sell off the remaining HD DVDs, but can't part with some like Casablanca and Forbidden Planet until Blu-rays are released), and to see how it is received.

There is a market for HD classics. It's just that the people interested aren't buying into Blu-ray yet because the number of classics out there is so small. And then studios are less likely to put more out because of lack of sales of the few token ones they have released. It's a chicken and the egg-type problem.

Casablanca is one of my favorite movies and I would buy it in a heartbeat. But, I would buy it feeling it wouldn't be much of an upgrade over the special edition I currently have.

What else can be added to that version? It has the great documentary, two commentaries (if memory serves), the complete radio performance, and even an episode of the 1970s TV show. (This is all from memory, so I could be off).

The only benefit to a Blu-Ray edition, is the improved picture quality, and that should be enough in most cases. In regard to Casablanca though, so much was made regarding the picture quality with the SE, I think most people will perceive it as the difference between 98% and 100%.

I'd like to see Singin' In The Rain in blu-ray, or any of the Technicolor classics. They get a knock today for being too cartoony, but in the truest fidelity, I think that could work in its favor.

[neo_reloaded]

Originally Posted by Objectivity

Casablanca is one of my favorite movies and I would buy it in a heartbeat. But, I would buy it feeling it wouldn't be much of an upgrade over the special edition I currently have.

What else can be added to that version? It has the great documentary, two commentaries (if memory serves), the complete radio performance, and even an episode of the 1970s TV show. (This is all from memory, so I could be off).

The only benefit to a Blu-Ray edition, is the improved picture quality, and that should be enough in most cases. In regard to Casablanca though, so much was made regarding the picture quality with the SE, I think most people will perceive it as the difference between 98% and 100%.

I'd like to see Singin' In The Rain in blu-ray, or any of the Technicolor classics. They get a knock today for being too cartoony, but in the truest fidelity, I think that could work in its favor.

What people imagine the improvement will be is quite different than what the actual improvement is in reality.

Black & white films look gorgeous in HD. The detail in Casablanca is stunning.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by mhafner

Pentonman, do you have any information about DNR and "The Golden Compass"? Did New Line apply any again (as they did before with "Pan's Labyrinth")?

Sorry, I have no information regarding the technical aspects of that film or the subsequent Blu-ray production, in fact I missed it altogether when it hit the theaters.

All I can share with you are some interesting asides.
One being that New Line essentially bet the farm (with financial investment) on the box office success of the picture…….and lost. Some say that was the beginning of the studio to be eventually absorbed into WB.

The other interesting aside is that Anne Coates cut the film (or I guess more accurately, was one of the Lead Editors for the project).
Who is Anne Coates ?

She is an amazing woman that continues to cut film into her eighties! (born in the 1920’s).
She cut Lawrence of Arabia. To hear her tell stories of that experience is truly riveting. One of my favorite is that when she was commissioned to cut a test scene of Albert Finney and screened it for David Lean, he remarked “that is the first piece of film I have seen that was cut exactly the way I would have cut it.”

[WickyWoo]

Penton hit your PMs please

(No, nothing catastrophic, calm down)

[dialog_gvf]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

All I can share with you are some interesting asides.
One being that New Line essentially bet the farm (with financial investment) on the box office success of the picture…….and lost. Some say that was the beginning of the studio to be eventually absorbed into WB.

The Golden Gate Compass, huh?

[SpaceDog]

Originally Posted by Maxpower1987

Just a quick heads up:

Could everybody go out an buy a copy of A Passage to India. It has been painstakingly restored at great cost to the studio and the sales it has been seeing aren't going to help the case for other David Lean classics like Dr. Zhivago or Lawrence of Arabia get moved up the schedule any time soon.

Also it is an absolutely amazing movie one of Lean's best, so everybody go out and buy it!

Done. Don't know when I'll be able to actually watch it though.
Grab the 40% off coupon at Borders and get it!!!

One thing though, it's not THAT easy to find at B&M. Neither Best Buy nor Target I went to had it in stock.

[Alan Gordon]

Though I've been mostly holding off on catalog right now (due to the amount of D&D releases I'm behind on and other monetary demands), I ordered "A Passage To India" last night with Narnia. I planned on getting it, but I was planning on waiting until later in the year.

That being said, as far as sales not being very good, I've never heard of this movie before. I would have pre-ordered BOTRK right off (due to the fact that I've never gotten around to seeing it), and I probably would have pre-ordered LoA as well (not that I'm in a hurry to see it again, but I would probably go ahead and get it), but I just wasn't in a hurry to see a film I know absolutely know nothing about... so I don't really think comparing sales for one film should really prove anything about the possibility of low sales for the others.

I would have LOVED it had Sony made up a Blu-ray trailer and put it on the Playstation Store to give (those like me) a look at what the film is like.

~Alan

[Ben]

Originally Posted by Geoff Gibson

Based on the recommendations in this thread I just ordered "A Passage To India" -- and "The Searchers" which is one of my favorite movies and was beautiful on HD-DVD.

Good call... if I remember correctly, The Searchers was one of David Lean's favourite films and was a huge inspiration to him. It directly influenced his epic landscape style on Lawrence, Kwai, Zhivago and A Passage to India.

[Polyh3dron]

Originally Posted by Objectivity

Casablanca is one of my favorite movies and I would buy it in a heartbeat. But, I would buy it feeling it wouldn't be much of an upgrade over the special edition I currently have.

What else can be added to that version? It has the great documentary, two commentaries (if memory serves), the complete radio performance, and even an episode of the 1970s TV show. (This is all from memory, so I could be off).

The only benefit to a Blu-Ray edition, is the improved picture quality, and that should be enough in most cases. In regard to Casablanca though, so much was made regarding the picture quality with the SE, I think most people will perceive it as the difference between 98% and 100%.

I'd like to see Singin' In The Rain in blu-ray, or any of the Technicolor classics. They get a knock today for being too cartoony, but in the truest fidelity, I think that could work in its favor.

I had the HD DVD version of Casablanca, and rest assured, it looks amazing.

[Mr. Cinema]

Originally Posted by Maxpower1987

Just a quick heads up:

Could everybody go out an buy a copy of A Passage to India. It has been painstakingly restored at great cost to the studio and the sales it has been seeing aren't going to help the case for other David Lean classics like Dr. Zhivago or Lawrence of Arabia get moved up the schedule any time soon.

Also it is an absolutely amazing movie one of Lean's best, so everybody go out and buy it!

As of this post, A Passage to India is #27 on Amazon's top selling BD list. It's #277 including DVD/BD together. Sounds like word has gotten out on buying this title.

[Objectivity]

Originally Posted by Polyh3dron

I had the HD DVD version of Casablanca, and rest assured, it looks amazing.

I have no doubt that it is. That really wasn't my point.

I'm just saying that the previous DVD special edition was so hyped for how great it was and the one before that was hyped as well (she's wearing pants not a dress!!) that I just wonder how much "greater" it can be.

If I'm thinking that and I'll buy it no matter what, how much of a selling job needs to be done to convince people to upgrade again.

The best approach I can think of is a whole campaign for classic films saying "as clear and crisp as the day it was released" and give it some sort of seal of perfection.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by WickyWoo

Penton hit your PMs please

(No, nothing catastrophic, calm down)

Yikes.
At first I thought you were PMing me that my neighbor’s house was on fire.
He’s an avid gamer that owns the Xbox 360, the PS3 and a Wii.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OF8Vke38yk