James Bond 007 in 4K UHD

[stonesfan129]

I believe the original 20 Bond films were remastered by Lowry Digital back in 2006 (whenever the Ultimate Edition DVD sets came out) in 4K. But I thought it was only 11 or 12 films that had actual 4K masters. There has been debate as to whether or not these sources are what they used for the Blu-rays. Thunderball, for example, has vertical scratches and gate hairs that are visible on some beach scenes that are not on the DVD. I am not sure if it's just that the lower resolution on the DVD hides it, but a few other films have the same issues with the vertical lines. So it's got people questioning what they used for sources. Some others like The Spy Who Loved Me look fantastic on Blu-ray and I guess that one MGM/UA did use a 4K source (this title was not remastered by Lowry).

I believe they would have to go back and redo all the original 20 films in HDR as none of them were mastered that way by Lowry or MGM/UA back in 2006. I have heard that OCNs for quite a few of these films are in bad shape, how the 3-track mags for the audio are missing in some cases...

Now that Amazon owns the rights to the films, I wonder if they will even see the value in future physical releases. I was really surprised MGM didn't release 4KBDs of the original 20 films back in 2022 for the 60th anniversary. It's probably all down to an aging audience, people have already bought these films multiple times (VHS, Laserdisc, twice on DVD, Blu-ray), the whole politically-correct issues with the films... And the cost.