Khartoum (1966) (Sandpiper Pictures) - November 1st, 2022

[MifuneFan]

Sandpiper Pictures will be releaing the film Khartoum on Blu-ray on November 1st. THe film was previously relased by Twilight Time.

Khartoum

Director Basil Deardon (The Assassination Bureau, Sapphire) brings pomp, spectacular set pieces and breathtaking Ultra Panavision ® 70 cinematography courtesy of Ted Scaife (The Dirty Dozen) to Khartoum, one of the last great productions in the waning days of the roadshow.

Charlton Heston (Ben-Hur, The Ten Commandments, The Hawaiians) stars as General Charles Gordon, a veteran British soldier enlisted to save the city of Khartoum from the divinely inspired annihilation of its inhabitants by Muhammad Ahmed, “The Mahdi” portrayed by Laurence Olivier (Marathon Man, Hamlet). The supporting cast includes Ralph Richardson (Long Day’s Journey Into Night), Michael Hordern (Alexander the Great) and Richard Johnson (The Haunting).

Details

Year: 1966
Run Time: 136 Minutes
Video: Color
Aspect Ratio: 2.76:1
Sound: Stereo
Subtitles: Optional English
Cast & Crew
Director: Basil Deardon (Dead of Night, The Blue Lamp)
Charlton Heston (Soylent Green, The Omega Man)
Laurence Olivier (Sleuth, The Boys from Brazil)
Richard Johnson (The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, Zombie)
Ralph Richardson (Doctor Zhivago, Time Bandits)
Alexander Knox (Wilson, The Longest Day)
Johnny Sekka (The Message, TV's Babylon 5)
Michael Hordern (Where Eagles Dare, Barry Lyndon)

[SuperDevilDoctor]

This is a solid, well-made military/historical epic.

[Fang Zei]

I saw this back in 2012 at AFI Silver as part of a 70mm film series they were doing.

As far as I know, this was the last of the dozen or so films shot in Ultra Panavision until Tarantino dusted off the lenses for Hateful Eight.

[Hammerlover]

I'm guessing this will be the transfer as the Twilight Time release.

[vista-vision]

A smilebox version would be nice like with How the west was won but is probably asking too much
simulated Khartoum smilebox scene here:

KHARTOUM opening in Ultra-Curve. - YouTube

[Dailyan]

Originally Posted by Hammerlover

I'm guessing this will be the transfer as the Twilight Time release.

It most likely will. I’m not surprised that a label like Kino hasn’t tackled it for a remaster just due to it’s 65mm elements (it’s at an industry requirement that 65mm-shot films have to be scanned at 8K minimum). I believe the current master is from a 65mm element but it’s big issue is that it’s littered with scanner noise.

[uncledougie]

If someone gets this new release, it would be nice to hear if there’s any difference or improvement on the older Twilight Time release, which looked quite good. Presume it’s still in mono. Any supplements of note?

[James Luckard]

Originally Posted by uncledougie

If someone gets this new release, it would be nice to hear if there’s any difference or improvement on the older Twilight Time release, which looked quite good. Presume it’s still in mono. Any supplements of note?

It's unlikely there will be any improvement. I bought their reissue of The Russia House, to compare it to the TT release. Same video master, they just squished the video file down and compressed it to fit on a single-layer disc.

[TravisTylerBlack]

Originally Posted by uncledougie

If someone gets this new release, it would be nice to hear if there’s any difference or improvement on the older Twilight Time release, which looked quite good. Presume it’s still in mono. Any supplements of note?

Sorry to bump an old thread but wanted to note that every release of this title on blu has featured 2.0 stereo, not dual mono. Somewhat irksome how neither official site review (Twilight Time/Eureka) bothers to clarify exactly what type of “2.0” mix is included.

[DarknessBDJM]

So disappointing there's no new master. I mean it's nice that the movie will be available to more people (I have the Twilight Time release), but this and Zulu have had multiple releases with old masters that should have new 8K scans given their large format negatives.
I can just imagine how good those would look in the UHD format or even a new standard bd-50 with a high as possible bit-rate (given the length of the films).
The King and I and Carousel are another two with old as heck masters that deserve new 8K scans given their large negative formats.