http://commanderbond.net/Public/Stories/2878-1.shtml
Just as mum has been the word on Casino Royale, it has been similarly
quiet on the James Bond DVD front. With word coming last year that MGM
had hired Lowry Digital to remaster nine 007 films, very little has
been revealed about these new releases. While the DVDs are certain to
contain new supplementary material to top the previous "Special
Edition" releases, most of the information regarding these upcoming
releases has been of a technical nature.
In a November article from Sound and Vision Magazine, John Lowry
himself confirmed all 20 Bond films would be getting a makeover and
was quizzed on what fans can expect from these brand new releases...
Q: Can you tell me what movies you're working on at the moment?
John Lowry: We are doing work for four major studios, but I can't talk
about most of those yet. We are working on Aliens of the Deep for Jim
Cameron. The other work that I can talk about is on three James Bond
movies that are in various stages of restoration.
Q: Which ones?
John Lowry: On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Diamonds Are Forever, and
we're finishing up some work on Goldfinger.
Q: The picture quality of the previous DVD releases was disappointing.
John Lowry: These are stunning — they'll blow your socks off. We're
doing all 20 James Bond movies — nine with 4K scanning, the others in
high-definition.
Q: Do the nine include all the Sean Connery ones?
John Lowry: I believe they're all in that group, yes. They wanted the
older films to be restored as well as they could be. But keep in mind
that Dr. No was a relatively low-budget film, made with no concept
that this would lead to the parade of films that followed. So it was
shot in a hurry and has some real challenges, like hairs in the film
gate. By the time we got to the third and fourth Bond movies, the
quality had improved immensely — very professional by the time of,
say, Thunderball.
Q: Describe the differences we'd see between the previous Bond DVDs
and the images you're creating now.
John Lowry: The major difference we get using high-definition scanning
and processing is the higher resolution that migrates to the DVD. It
breaks the rules, but it works. You Only Live Twice was one of the
films we worked on to demonstrate the process to studio executives. We
scanned and enhanced the material, and then reduced it to DVD
resolution to show the folks at MGM what the DVD would look like.
Comparing that with the prior results — it was like a brand-new movie.
It has to do with whether you process at high-def or you process at 2K
or 4K and then reduce to high-def. Certainly the best results we get —
for HDTV broadcasting and future high-def DVDs — are on things we
process at a higher resolution. The fine detail does migrate down to
the next level, without question.
Lowry was also quizzed on a fanboy's dream: the potential re-releasing
of the Bond films in theatres. Whilst the response was not overly
positive - "I haven't heard anything, but I do know that when these
are finished, we could have some stunning theatrical prints," said
Lowry, citing You Only Live Twice as one highlight - Lowry emphasised
that as digital cinema becomes more of a reality, the process of
re-releasing older films will become much cheaper for distributors.
To read the interview in its entirety, head on over to Sound and
Vision Magazine.
To stretch your memories back even further, early last year,
DVDAnswers.com got their hands on two prototype packaging arrangements
for the series. While there's all likelihood what we'll end up with
will be a totally different arrangement, the prototype sets are unlike
anything you're likely to have currently sitting on your DVD shelf.
Word is the original plan was to release the new DVDs to coincide with
the theatrical opening of the next James Bond film at the end of 2005.
However, with Casino Royale now due to hit screens in late 2006, fans
can expect a slightly longer wait to see all 20 films unlike they've
never been seen before.
Stay tuned to CBn for all the latest on the upcoming DVD releases.
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