During an extended interview with French site Ecranlarge.com, Eric Legay, marketing director for Universal France, revealed some of the catalog movies that the studio intends to release on Blu-ray in 2011, which prominently include the Jurassic Park trilogy and Brian DePalma's Scarface, along with some westerns and more Hitchcock.
The studio will also release some westerns on Blu-ray, including Winchester 73, Shenandoah and High Plains Drifter (apparently one of two movies starring Clint Eastwood that the studio plans to release this year).
Universal will also continue releasing Alfred Hitchcock movies on Blu-ray, but Legay noted that the flow of titles might be limited by the need to remaster them with the same level of quality as Psycho.
Thanks to forum member "Jerome."
Update (6/6/11): As confirmed elsewhere on Blu-ray.com, Scarface will hit Blu-ray on September 6th. Click here to read more about the different versions of the Blu-ray.
Amen to that; Scarface is one of my top 3 fave movies of all-time and I've been waiting for it since day one. Please make it sooner rather than later and in North America too!!!
PS: I'm hoping for Rear Window or Vertigo to be among the '11 BD slate, though one of them is likely to be The Birds as that was announced a while back.
Thank you Universal Studios. Catalogue titles do quite well on Blu-Ray provided the restoration and necessary preparations are followed through. You'll have lots of support if TLC is applied to all.
Can someone please slap me because I think I may be dreaming Scarface and Jurassic Park Trilogy and Star Wars all in the same year can this get any better?
Finally, the last two films (Scarface & JP1) that have been on my dream BD list. Starwars was the third. The dream isn't fully over though. I'd love to see Jurassic Park 1 on Blu-ray 3D.
I would much rather see the stream of Hitchcock films come slowly and see Universal remaster them right than have them rush and release them all too soon.
@aggienader08: save the Bond comments for MGM-related news. Universal has nothing to do with Bond.
Excellent news regarding JP! I have the trilogy on DVD, but I'm sure it will look amazing on Blu-ray. As for Hitchcock, Rear Window, pretty please? lol
Great news if all the Hitchcock titles get as much care as Psycho did. Jurassic Park is great news as well. Scarface needs to come with the Howard Hawks Scarface movie as a bonus. Much better movie IMO.
How weird is that i was just logging on to blu-ray.com thinking ''i hope theres some news about jurrassic park'' as its top of my wish list for 2011 and here it is...!! awesome now ill be logging on every day waiting for the release date... haha
@rmainhammer: Should have directed your comment at Farid too; Lawrence of Arabia is a Sony title.
It's good that Universal is finally getting off their lazy bums on catalog BDs, but they can't even release all their HD DVD titles on BD. Where's The Sting? Or The Deer Hunter (without the "stretched PAL-speedup" audio track of the StudioCanal BDs)?
I was wondering what was taking so long with Scarface. I figured the next Hitchcock title we get will either be Vertigo or Rear Window since both were restored in the 90's.
Oh, Universal, and while you're at it, perhaps you could do the new Miramax a favor by shipping them your European 1080p master of Shakespeare In Love? The Alliance Canada 1080i version just isn't the same thing.
Winchester 73 on Blu? I really never thought I'd see the day. What a delightful surprise. The original Jurassic Park is a must ... not a great flick ... but it's bound to be an amazing sonic experience. But, yes, the big question remains: where is Jaws???
And for the guy who commented on Bond (even though it's MGM), take a look at Bill Hunt's column this morning: Bond 23 now has a release date (11/9/2012), with Sam Mendes officially directing; the rest of the Bond BDs should come out between now and then.
Since they seem to be re-releasing the old HD-DVD titles, they could announce The Sting and Being John Malkovich as well.
By the way: great annoucement for these titles. Always good to have some Hitchcock. Vertigo is the one I'm most eagerly waiting for.
There is always someone that complains about the releases. Studios can only release some many at a time. This is great news that they released Scareface and the Jurassic Park Trilogy. Relax and Jaws will be released soon. Also I hope they release the Jurassic Parks individually as well as the set.
I have only seen parts of the 1st Jurassic Park and nothing from the 2nd and 3rd so maybe I'll get this if the price is right. Scarface I would like to see in HD but, I can't get that excited about it. I like the movie but not enough to purchase it. I'm more excited about the previous news of Universal releasing Dazed and Confused. Can't wait!
Don't mind me but I will wait until there is an official U.S. news release. This wouldn't be the first time that Jurassic Park has been announced for high-def release by some foreign employee only to have it prove to be premature.
Can't wait for the Jurassic Park movies. I somehow never got around to getting them on DVD, and then once HD came along I knew I should just be patient. Glad to see it has paid off!
And I'm always down for upgrading more Hitchcock titles.
Fox is giving us Star Wars, Disney's giving us The Lion King and The Incredibles, and now Universal announces Jurassic Park! What a year this is going to be for Blu-ray!
Umm bit bored of the jurassic park films these days, only the first one was really good the sequels were a tad average. Defo for scarface though, i was only thinking about that for a future release the other day!
First time I have commented on the news feed, could not hold back! Best news! Scarface, one of my favourite films of all time, and the Jurassic Park trilogy! All we need now is the original Indiana Jones trilogy and 2011 will be the best Blu year!
I'll get really excited when I know they have spent the effort on some great mastering on these blu's. I also agree with the other comments about the whereabouts of ROOSTER, LEBOWSKI and J A W S!
yea, let's get an OFFICIAL U.S. release from the "powers that be", and/or a valid Date, other than just a foreign report of "2011". Good news, but nothing official isn't really that much to get excited about.
Hope there's separate releases of the JP movies. I'm getting sick of studios only putting out box sets and forcing people to pay for rubbish movies in order to get the good ones (Aliens, Back to the Future, etc)
Jurassic Park - Day One without a doubt. I hope you can get it as a standalone too. And yeah, hurry up with Jaws! My Blu Ray shelf looks positively naked without it!!!
This is freakin awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Awesome news. I'm in for both of these!!!! Finally some of the top Universal titles, plus more classics. I wish Universal would release a few of their musicals though.....like Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Xanadu, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Sweet Charity, The Pirates of Penzance and Flower Drum Song!
I hope they release "ROPE" and "Strangers On A Train" two excellent Hitchcock films, though I fear they might be over looked as far as the video quality goes.
Alfred Hitchcock's 'Vertigo' (1958) should not have to be restored again. Universal totally restored it, color-corrected it, frame by frame, over 10 years ago.
I'd want all three Jurrassic parks, the first film is a classic, the sequels are under appreciated, Lost world is a good, darker take on the first film and part 3 is a fun adventure movie with alot of cool parts (plus the return of sam neil and laura dern!)
I can't wait for JP4 and I can't wait for this bluray set
YES!! Winchester 73 is one of my favorite Jimmy Stewart movies. Cannot wait! Obviously Jurassic Park is an obvious buy....this is great news. Coupled with the Star Wars preorder, 2011 is proving to be quite the year for BluRay!
As much as an Indy set would make 2011 the greatest year in the historyof mankind, I would have to think that George will be focused on the star wars release and therefore indy would likely be a 2012 release. Also with indy 5 a possibility in the next 3-4 years It would make more sense to save the bluray release of the orginals to coincide with that
I want all of the movies announced above but am really excited to see some more Jimmy Stewart movies. Hopefully The Spirit of St. Louis will come out soon too!
JP is one of my most anticipated Blu-Ray releases so i'm thrilled by this news. Avatar can go away and cry, THIS is an all-time great blockbuster. I hope the movie gets a top-to-bottom remaster though, as the DVD has always looked a little milky to me. Universal have mixed results in transfers for their classic releases, but Spielberg's presumed involvement in the transfer gives me hope.
It's...it's....it's a dinosaur, in HD. Can't wait to get the Jurassic Park Trilogy. Be nice to see some an extended version of Jurassic Park /// I enjoy the movie but it just ends so abruptly.
I think a lot of people here overlooked the word French in all of their excitement. Also the fact that these are what they "intend" to release this year. I personally intend on losing 50 pounds this year, but it's not going to happen. Give us an official statement Universal. One in the US as well please.
I like Scarface and will most definitely pick it up as long as they do a good transfer, but man I'm sick of seeing every wannabe 'gangsta' running around thinking that Scarface is some superhero or something these days...
Some great announcements! Hopefully they take the time to remaster "Scarface" properly, as it has always looked pretty weak. But since this is Universal we're talking about, I'm not getting my hopes up.
Jurassic Park, cool! I have never seen it. I love westerns, I wonder which ones. A lot of older popular things finally making to blu-ray. Blu-ray is the new standard, DVD now is the same as VHS and will soon die.
Can't wait for Scarface. Was thinking about it the other day and how I can't wait for the movie to come out on Blu-ray. Definitely looking forward to this more than anything.
JP1 for me for sure. I liked it enough that I'd get the whole trilogy if necessary. I was in high school on Oahu when they filmed JP and I remember that big storm. Once the winds of Hurricane Iniki topped 110mph school was canceled.
Jurassic Park in 24-bit/48khz 6.1 lossless would be AWESOME. Also, can't wait to see Vertigo come out on bluray since they did such an amazing job on the restoration for the DVD release a few years ago.
Hopefully they use better packaging for Jurassic Park than they did for BTTF. BTTF was like cheap junk packaging compared to the Alien Anthology and Deadwood sets.
This is good news. I've been waiting a long time for the first Jurassic Park and Scarface. While they're at it, they should also restore and release on BD the original Scarface from 1932. The Clint Eastwood film I most want from Universal is play misty for me. I would most love to see the Hitchcock films the birds (already on preorder), vertigo, rear window and rope.
In any case this should be a year to look forward to as far as Universal classics go. (Don't forget to kill a mockingbird is coming soon to BD).
I'll take Jurassic Park Trilogy. No thanks for Scarface. Most overrated gangster movie and not even De Palma's best film. And happy for more Hitchcock on BD.
Great news! More Hitchcock, James Stewart and Clint Eastwood are very welcome for me. Will pick these up without hesitation. Will pick up Jurassic Park trilogy as well, providing it gets a reasonable price, and may get Scarface while I'm at it. Will be nice if the original Scarface got a BD release as well. Bring them on, Universal! Though I would like to advise Universal to try not to tamper with the transfers too much by not applying too much edge enhancement and DNR. While Psycho's transfer wasn't bad, I believe it still lacked a faithful, filmic transfer and seemed like it may have been tampered with a little. So please, Universal, don't spend more time than is needed on these transfers!
Am I the only one excited about the politically charged, antiwar Shenandoah? Jimmy Stewart was great in that. I think the DVD is effectively out of print. TCM sells it, but you can't get it brand new directly from Amazon.com.
Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of other titles to be excited about too.
The first Jurassic Park movie--yes. The other 2--garbage. I hope they split them up for individual sale. There have been many trilogies that I am adamant of owning only the first movie. This is one of them.
Jurassic Park is a big deal. Winchester '73 is a surprising announcement. Love that movie, but the DVD looks excellent. High Plains Drifter is a nice announcement, though - the DVD transfer is very weak.
I love Scarface, too, but I have seen it so many times that I doubt I need to upgrade. I just never have the urge to watch it anymore.
Other Hitchcock releases remastered at the same level as Psycho? I hope the transfers are BETTER than Psycho. If that release taught us anything it's Universal can competently put together a decent HD transfer. It still looks too digital for a 1960s film. Now it'd be great if someone can tell them to loose the DNR and Edge Enhancement for a more film-like presentation. That would be THE answer to my prayers. Seriously.
He's informed far in advance of the US releases by his US counterparts.
As I'm French, here are some additional details.
Plans are to release all the Eastwood titles on Blu-ray (they've got 7 or 8 of them) but only one or two will get the light of day in 2011.
Scarface is scheduled for May-June.
His explanation for the Gladiator situation (Universal handles the title for Europe) is both clueless and quite comical: the original Blu-ray was outstanding, some vocal fans complained about the changed colorimetry for the scenes in the "director's cut" and put the blame on DNR, so they had to ask Ridley Scott to go back to the source material and the "current" Ridley Scott had changed his mind on colors and the new version is conform to his current tastes...
"Ray" on the French schedule
There are also 15 other catalog titles scheduled this year for France.
@ dwight, I don't care what reason is given for the Gladiator revision. Fact is the studios deserve a kick in the rear for not changing the ID number of the package. It has led to nothing but confusion for sellers and buyers alike. I recently had a clerk tell me that there have been no changes to Gladiator. He had checked the packaging/ID# on his computer and was positive that he was right.
With regard to JP, I do hope the discs are available separately. I'm interested in I and II but not III. The third film was a disaster. Even Macy couldn't save it.
Winchester 73 is the best news of the lot, Scarface is welcome too but that was always coming given its popularity. Excited about Hitchcock too but hopefully they get them right.
Yay, so excited for Scarface. We need more movies that glorify psychotic misogynistic incest-obsessed drug addicts. Especially since a whole generation of teens and twenty somethings completely missed the point of the film.
And missed the point of the Joker in the Dark Knight.
JURASSIC PARK TRILOGY! Can't wait to get a hold of that. But Universal, please do not use the Back to the Future Trilogy packaging on Jurassic Park... worst design ever.
I would think Spielberg would be involved with Jurassic Park somehow since I know he has the controlling rights to the releasing of his films. I want a complete remaster of it. The effects will hold up well. They still look a lot better than a lot of what is released today.
Despite it having anything whatsoever to do with Oliver Stoned, Scarface is still one of those movies i can't help but watch any time I stumble across it flipping through the channels. My love for the movie has absolutely nothing to do with why today's hip-hop culture has embraced it, (just wanted to emphasizre that). I just hope they finally give it the treatment it deserves, meng. The DVDs looked terrible, and it always looks horrific on TV, even on HD channels. Looking forward to the JP triliogy as well. I like them all, with 2 being the "weakest link".
FINALLY! The one and only movie, my single most anticipated Blu-Ray release, to see and hear the dinos in full glorious HD and full sound. Oh my god, this is the best news so far this year.
Yes, 'Scarface' and 'Winchester 73'. Hopefully 'Play Misty for Me' and how about 'The Glenn Miller Story', 'Flower Drum Song', 'ET' (Original Cut) and of course ' Jawssssssssssssssssssssss !!!!!!
I signed up for this website just to say how happy I am this movie is finally coming out on blu-ray. It is my favorite movie all time. I thought this year would suck but now it just got a hell of lot better.
I hope universal doesn't do the same with jurassic park trilogy as they did with gladiator.
They first released gladiator with poor PQ and a few months later they re-released it as
a 10th anniversary edition with better PQ.
There are really only two or three people on this thread that "get it". As someone pointed out, not only is this the FRENCH release of these films, this is only INTENDED. As in "my intended and I are going to be married in the fall." How many of these weddings get canceled long before the pre-nups are signed? Hell, even when stuff is announced here in the U.S. if can get canceled (although, to be fair, it's usually Sony that does that :>)
And one more dose of reality -- let's assume, for a moment, that all of these releases translate into U.S. versions. EVENTUALLY. IOW, if they do manage to come out in Europe some time this year (read: perhaps by the fall) we're still talking another six months or more before we see them here. So 2012 by the earliest (assuming the world hasn't already ended).
So -- everyone stay calm. I want all of these as much as anyone (and, yes, I want ALL the Hitchcock, all the Bond, heck, I want everything and I want it NOW). But just keep your expectations low. If you are pleasantly surprised, so be it.
I'm a little ashamed to admit that I look forward to showing my kids Jurassic Park for the first time. I really want to hear that low rumble as the T-Rex approaches and the water in the glass vibrates. I'm also looking forward to the T-Rex screaming out in 5.1 uncompressed surround. Why am I ashamed to admit this? Because I secretly want to scare the bejezus out of my 3 yo so she comes running to Daddy's arms. Twisted, I know.
p.s. My 10 yo son is going to LOVE this movie! :-)
H3LLS TO THE FUCK YEA SON! .. cant WAIT for Jurassic park,been waiting since day one of blu-rays exsistance lol.
and scarface is def a welcome addition to my library -
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