Release Dates & Specs for First Wave of Criterion Blu-ray Discs

The Criterion Collection has posted details for their first five Blu-ray Disc titles. 'The Third Man' and 'The Man Who Fell to Earth' are set for release on November 18th, while three more titles - 'Bottle Rocket,' 'Chungking Express,' and the critically acclaimed 'The Last Emperor' - arrive one week later on the 25th. The films will be presented in their original (or director approved) aspect ratios in new high definition digital transfers, featuring lossless audio mixes. Each title will also contain a wealth of extra features. 'The Third Man' (1949) will featured a restored high definition transfer in 1.37:1, and an uncompressed mono soundtrack. Extra features include: Video introduction by writer-director Peter Bogdanovich Two audio commentaries: one by filmmaker Steven Soderbergh and screenwriter Tony Gilroy, and one by by film scholar Dana Polan Shadowing "The Third Man" (2005), a ninety-minute feature documentary on the making of the film Abridged recording of Graham Greene's treatment, read by actor Richard Clarke "Graham Greene: The Hunted Man," an hour-long, 1968 episode of the BBC's Omnibus series, featuring a rare interview with the novelist "Who Was the Third Man? (2000)," a thirty-minute Austrian documentary featuring interviews with cast and crew The Third Man on the radio: the 1951 "A Ticket to Tangiers" episode of The Lives of Harry Lime series, written and performed by Orson Welles, and the 1951 Lux Radio Theatre adaptation of The Third Man Illustrated production history with rare behind-the-scenes photos, original UK press book, and U.S. trailer Actor Joseph Cotten's alternate opening voice-over narration for the U.S. version Archival footage of postwar Vienna A look at the untranslated foreign dialogue in the film A booklet featuring an essay by Luc Sante 'The Man Who Fell to Earth' (1976) will feature a high definition digital transfer approved by director Nicolas Roeg, and an uncompressed stereo soundtrack. Extra features include: Audio commentary by Roeg and actors David Bowie and Buck Henry New video interview with screenwriter Paul Mayersberg Performance, video interviews with actors Candy Clark and Rip Torn Audio interviews with costume designer May Routh and production designer Brian Eatwell Audio interview from 1984 with author Walter Tevis, conducted by Don Swaim Multiple stills galleries, including Routh's costume sketches; behind-the-scenes photos; and production and publicity stills, introduced by set photographer David James Gallery of posters from Roeg's films Trailers Booklet featuring an essay by critic Graham Fuller 'The Last Emperor' (1987) features a high definition digital transfer approved by cinematographer Vittorio Storaro, and a stereo track in DTS-HD Master Audio. Extras include: Audio commentary by director Bernardo Bertolucci, producer Jeremy Thomas, screenwriter Mark Peploe, and composer-actor Ryuichi Sakamoto The Italian Traveler: Bernardo Bertolucci, a 53-minute film by Fernand Mozskowicz, tracing the director's geographic influences, from Parma to China Video images taken by Bertolucci in China The Chinese Adventure of Bernardo Bertolucci, a 52-minute documentary that revisits the film's creation A 47-minute documentary featuring Storaro, editor Gabriella Cristiana, costume designer James Acheson, and art director Gianni Silvestri A 66-minute documentary exploring Bertolucci's creative process and the making of The Last Emperor A 30-minute interview with Bertolucci from 1989 A new interview with composer David Byrne A new interview with Ian Buruma examining the historical period of the film Theatrical trailer Booklet featuring an essay by critic David Thomson 'Chungking Express' (1994) features a restored high-definition digital transfer, as well as a remastered lossless soundtrack supervised by director Wong Kar-wai. Extras include: Audio commentary by noted Asian cinema critic Tony Rayns U.S. theatrical trailer New and improved English subtitle translation Booklet featuring a new essay by critic Amy Taubin and excerpts from a 1996 Sight and Sound interview with Wong by Rayns 'Bottle Rocket' (1996) features a new, restored transfer supervised by direct Wes Anderson and a lossless soundtrack. Extras include: Commentary by director/co-writer Anderson and co-writer/actor Owen Wilson The Making of "Bottle Rocket": an original documentary by filmmaker Barry Braverman featuring Anderson, James L. Brooks, James Caan, Temple Nash Jr., Kumar Pallana, Polly Platt, Mark Mothersbaugh, Robert Musgrave, Richard Sakai, David and Sandy Wasco, Andrew and Luke and Owen Wilson, and Robert Yeoman The original thirteen-minute black-and-white Bottle Rocket short film from 1992 Eleven deleted scenes Anamorphic screen test, storyboards, location photos, and behind-the-scenes photographs by Laura Wilson Murita Cycles, a 1978 short film by Braverman The Shafrazi Lectures, no. 1: Bottle Rocket Booklet featuring an essay by executive producer James L. Brooks, an appreciation by Martin Scorsese, and original artwork by Ian Dingman
Source: Criterion Collection Blu-ray Titles | Permalink	Relevant for:

lildon24  » Aug 15, 2008	Show comment Hide comment
Let me be the first to read it By the way, i dont know none of those films and i think im gonna pass

gamma626  » Aug 15, 2008
I'm a little disappointed that Bottle Rocket doesn't have lossless but oh well... I'm sure that there is a reason for that.

PowellPressburger  » Aug 16, 2008
World and eclectic Cinema for the Matrix generations on Blu-Ray. I will be buying Third Man, Man who Fell to Earth, and The Last Emperor.

apollo92178  » Aug 16, 2008	Show comment Hide comment
what the hell!! Whose gonna this stuff anyway? Bring on movies or series we all been craving!!!

fragile-reality  » Aug 16, 2008
Ineteresting. I was just going to buy Chungking Express on dvd. Guess I'll wait till the Blu comes out.

Octavio  » Aug 16, 2008

Now, this is REAL cinema. Finally the masterpieces are going Blu! I was getting tired of so many foolish pop corn flicks being released on Hi-Def, while only a handful of art house films have gotten that treatment. I wonder if criterion will add subtitles in other languages different than english or if they will stick to their policy of "only english subs" like they do with their DVD's? Adding subs in the languages of the countries included in the region "A" (spanish, japanese, french, portuguese, korean, mandarin, cantonese, thai, etc.) will make Criterion titles far more marketable worldwide.

nathanp  » Aug 16, 2008
I'm gettin em all! CRITERION IS KING!

Drewza89  » Aug 16, 2008
The Third Man is one of the greatest movies of all time. I'll definitely be replacing my DVD for the Blu-ray.

The Shrike  » Aug 16, 2008
You guys are ******* stupid. These movies are great, and I will buy them all. Sorry it's not Shrek 2 or whatever weak-*** piece of **** movies you inbreds want.

diamondfoxxx  » Aug 16, 2008
Will definitely pick-up The Last Emperor.

Branden  » Aug 16, 2008
i'm glad to see criterion finally join the party. now bring on wes anderson!

RedIsNotBlue  » Aug 16, 2008	Show comment Hide comment
Hmmm. Why does every other movie that gets Dolby Digital gets slammed and not these?

pro-bassoonist  » Aug 16, 2008
Indeed, more serious cinema on the way. Pro-B

greyrocket  » Aug 16, 2008	Show comment Hide comment
never heard of one of these movies but more blu yeah

Bobby Henderson  » Aug 16, 2008

I'm wondering about some specific details about "The Last Emperor" BD. In the movie's original 1987 release, some theaters showed the film via 70mm 6-track Dolby Stereo mag-stripe prints. It seems odd that the audio format would be lossless DTS-HD stereo. The other issue is whether Vittorio Storaro will have the original 2.35:1 anamorphic Technovision imagery cropped to a 2:1 aspect ratio (as has been done for much of his DP work on DVD). I'm hoping for a great looking 2.35:1 image and 5.1 (or 4.1) discrete surround.

hostelmovies  » Aug 16, 2008	Show comment Hide comment
These should cost a cool $100 each knowing Criterion.

Deciazulado  » Aug 16, 2008
^^ The MSRP is $39.95

the Bass Mechanic  » Aug 16, 2008

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Now, now, no need for insults. I love all kinds of movies and am even interested in a couple of these. Some people like different movies, but there is not need to rag on these movies if they are not your cup of tea! I'm not sure about "Bottle Rocket" (I know, I haven't seen it (yet), but I don't get out as much as I used to), but am definetly interested in "The Last Emperor" and "The Third Man". I have a few Criterion DVD's ('Silence of the Lambs', 'The Seven Samurai', and 'The Seventh Seal' among others) and look forward ot their Blu-ray releases as well. As for pricing, I sincerly doubt they will be $100 (OK, there are one or two that might be close to that), they will be priced higher that most BD's, but most of them should be in the $30-$60 price range, and that's retail, not MSRP. As for specs, they have always used the best possible source material, so if a 6 track mag stripe (discrete LF,CF,RF,LFE, SuR(mono),LFE,.. not Dolby Surround, which is a 4-2-4 2ch matrix encode/decode) exists, then it will be 4.0ch at least, if not 4.1ch or 5.1ch; regardless of what these early news briefs state. I always take these news briefs with a grain of salt, especialy if they are this far out from the release date. There should be updates to the specs as the Blu-ray.com staff gets them.

the Bass Mechanic  » Aug 16, 2008

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Now, now, no need for insults. I love all kinds of movies and am even interested in a couple of these. Some people like different movies, but there is not need to rag on these movies if they are not your cup of tea! I'm not sure about "Bottle Rocket" (I know, I haven't seen it (yet), but I don't get out as much as I used to), but am definetly interested in "The Last Emperor" and "The Third Man". I have a few Criterion DVD's ('Silence of the Lambs', 'The Seven Samurai', and 'The Seventh Seal' among others) and look forward ot their Blu-ray releases as well. As for pricing, I sincerly doubt they will be $100 (OK, there are one or two that might be close to that), they will be priced higher that most BD's, but most of them should be in the $30-$60 price range, and that's retail, not MSRP. As for specs, they have always used the best possible source material, so if a 6 track mag stripe (discrete LF,CF,RF,LFE, SuR(mono),LFE,.. not Dolby Surround, which is a 4-2-4 2ch matrix encode/decode) exists, then it will be 4.0ch at least, if not 4.1ch or 5.1ch; regardless of what these early news briefs state. I always take these news briefs with a grain of salt, especialy if they are this far out from the release date. There should be updates to the specs as the Blu-ray.com staff gets them.

iwanttobeabmoviestar  » Aug 16, 2008
but will last emperor be the longer cut?

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