My Fair Lady and Little Big Man Heading to Blu-ray (Updated)
Posted August 14, 2011 05:02 PM by Webmaster
In an early announcement to retailers, Paramount Pictures has revealed that it will release on Blu-ray George Cukor's My Fair Lady (1964), starring Audrey Hepburn, Rex Harrison, and Stanley Holloway, and Arthur Penn's Little Big Man (1970), starring Dustin Hoffman, Faye Dunaway, and Martin Balsam. Street date for Little Big Man is November 8th. Street date for My Fair Lady is November 15th.
My Fair Lady
Audrey Hepburn has never been more "loverly" than in this breathtaking musical extravaganza that won 8 Academy Awards in 1964, including Best Picture. In this beloved adaptation of the Broadway stage hit, Hepburn plays a sassy, working class London street vendor, whom an arrogant professor (Rex Harrison) attempts to turn into a sophisticated lady through proper schooling. But, when the humble flower girl blossoms into the toast of London's elite, her teacher may have a lesson or two to learn himself. Hepburn's performance, style, and sweet spirit have made My Fair Lady a timeless classic.
Update: Paramount's Blu-ray presents the film in its original aspect ratio of 2.20:1 with 7.1 DTS-HD Master Audio sound. The disc also contains a number of supplemental materials, including:
Audio commentary
Rex Harrision radio interview
Alternate Audrey Hepburn song takes
Featurettes from 1963 and 1964
Poster art & lobby cards gallery
Trailers
Little Big Man
In this sweeping epic that swings from high comedy to drama, Dustin Hoffman gives a "virtuoso performance" (Hollywood Reporter) as the 121-year old sole survivor of Custer's Last Stand. Narrating his colorful life story, he tells about everything from his adoption by Cheyenne Indians to his marriages and friendships with Wild Bill Hickok. His tall tales indicate he just may be one of the biggest liars who roamed the West. Oscar-winner Faye Dunaway, Chief Dan George, Martin Balsam and Richard Mulligan co-star.
Fabulous news about My Fair Lady. Shot in "Super Panavision 70", it should look stunning on blu-ray. The Sound of Music (also shot in 70mm) is one of my very favorite blu-rays - let's hope for an equally great presentation!
I'm excited about Lady. I believe that the title is a CBS title, like Dexter or Better off Dead, and is released through Paramount. All of the previous bonus features were owned by Fox or Warner Bros, so it'll be interesting to see how they play out. Also, I'm hoping that they used a good source for this. Lady could be spectacular with the right attention, or it could be fairly mediocre. I know Robert Harris did a restoration on it....maybe he knows what's going on! Personally, I'm surprised it's not coming out the same day as Breakfast at Tiffany's considering it's the same studio and actress.
HOLY SH%T!!!!!!!!!!!!
thank you Paramount, thank you paramount!!!!!!
you may be finally getting decent as a bd studio.
lots of good catalogs lately
still patiently waiting for my most wanted Paramount release--Sabrina.
great to see the Hepburn catalog FINALLY breached.
(by Paramount I mean)
More Audrey on blu is good news indeed! I just completed an Arthur Penn film fest two weeks ago (would love to see MICKEY ONE in high-def) and was lamenting the fact that LITTLE BIG MAN looked like crap on dvd.
Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww YEEEAHHHHHHHHHHH The incredible Audrey in another Blu ray release . Please keep them coming . This will look so awesome in Blu . Hope i can change the soundtrack to Audrey singing and not ms.Andrews This is shot in 70 mm as stated by member blu-seven so one can only hope and think it should look better than the average classic. O man I m so stoked. Love this lady . Can't wait for Roman and even more so for Wait Until Dark . But a good day for sure a must day one buy.
This is excellent news. Ihope they include several soundtracks. The song lyrics have been cleverly adapted in several languages for the foreign dubs (rather than left to subtitles).
One of my favorite musicals finally coming to BD. My Fair Lady is a masterpiece and I hope Paramount release it with stellar picture and sound and plenty of bonus features!!! Excellent News!!!
Great news, and around the same time as West Side Story! Just hope now Paramount remembers that they still haven't released Sunset Blvd yet, just to name a few. But keep 'em coming!
@RONDALLAS the singing was done by Marni Nixon not Julie Andrews. Andrews portrayed Eliza in the Broadway musical but did not perform the songs on the film.
<<So Paramount now has the rights to My Fair Lady? Why did WB lose them? >>
Warner had a timed limited license to release the film on DVD, it has now reverted back to its owners paramount
@4000dvds2many and zoodermin Duhhhhhhhhhhh! I'm 100% wrong . Thanks for the info . I forgot Rex Harrison wanted Julie for the lead because they did the Broadway thing together. My total bad .
P.S. Thanks both for not insulting me either .
Apparently the home video rights were purchased by Paramount from CBS, who financed the photographic restoration by Harris and Katz. Blu-Ray is, without a doubt, the ideal medium for this movie, provided the authoring does not screw up the sound!
Little Big Man is my favourite Arthur Penn movie, and its hi-def incarnation is, needless to say, well regarded and welcome!
This is my most awaited Blu-ray of all time. What a joy this will be. i'll be pre-ordering from day one.
Now, please, can we have Sabrina and Roman Holiday? pleaseeeeeeeeeeee
And, if anyone of any importance is reading this, can i please have the following titles transferred to blue: Enchanted April, Bread and Tulips, A Good Woman, A Month By The Lake, Talk To Her, The Sea Is Watching, The Sea Inside ... and every Zhang Yimou film ever made :-)
Great to have MFL on BD. Too bad that Paramount, the least BD friendly/committed studio, is releasing it. I expect a so-so transfer and lots of complaints about the (lack of) special features. It will deserve better.
Just remember Paramount, "the difference between a lady and a flower girl isn't how they behave... but how they are treated!" So PLEASE, treat this blu-ray like a lady... treat her right! This is not a film that deserves a lackluster release so that we are forced to double-dip later.
Interesting that Paramount holds the rights to this now. WB had a very nice supplemental package, so hopefully Paramount can obtain some of that material & also mint a nice transfer out of this. Maybe produce some new material that would be in HD? We'll see.
thruly a great musical. About the bonus-features: I hope there will be more included than right now is listed here. The movie deservs it. Otherwise I can live with my 2-Disc DVD edition by Warner.
