Warner Home Entertainment will bring Ice Station Zebra to Blu-ray this July. Director John Sturges' Academy Award-nominated adventure stars Rock Hudson (Pillow Talk), Ernest Borgnine (The Wild Bunch), Patrick McGoohan (The Prisoner), and Jim Brown (The Dirty Dozen) as soldiers involved in a treacherous military rescue operation.
From Warner's official synopsis:
"The U.S. nuclear sub Tigerfish churns toward the North Pole. Its mission: rescue the imperiled members of weather outpost Ice Station Zebra. On board are Cmdr. Ferraday (Hudson) and his crew, several unexpected arrivals with secret orders, and enough suspicions, suspense, and twists to make Ice Station Zebra an engrossing espionage thriller."
The technical and supplementary specifications are still unknown for Warner's Blu-ray.
Ice Station Zebra streets on October 9th and is available for pre-order.
This certainly came out of the blue. I didn't think the movie was that popular to warrant WHV giving this a deluxe HD remastering job since WHV didn't exactly rush the DVD right out of the starting gate back in the day. It must have sold extraordinarily well.
This was released to Cinerama theaters at one time despite not being made for it. There were other "fake" Cinerama releases in the '60s like It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World and others.
To all here: My mistake. I was not aware of the full history Ice Station Zebra. But my other question still stands, "what's wrong with Smilebox?" In a fully darkened room, it is the closest most of us will ever come to experiencing what Cinerama was all about. That's my opinion as someone who saw and loved Cinerama films in real Cinerama theatres as a youngster.
It'll probably just port over the old special features as per previous catalog titles, but it would be nice if they included the promotional featurette in its original fullframe version rather than the cropped widescreen version they included on the DVD.
Replying to reidw, there's nothing wrong with Smilebox when it's applied to the correct films. The Smilebox version of "How the West Was Won" looks much better than the rectangular version. Two other true Cinerama/Cinemiracle films, "This Is Cinerama" and "Windjammer", have been announced for September 17th in the Smilebox format, and I'll be making a Day One purchase of both. The only remaining films that would benefit from Smilebox are "The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm", "Cinerama Holiday", "Seven Wonders of the World", "Search for Paradise" "South Seas Adventure" and a couple of Russian films---assuming that mastering materials are available.
Ice Station Zebra replaced 2001 in Cinerama while 2001 was still doing well. Too bad, considering that Zebra didn't need or deserve to be on the big curved screen.
ISC doesn't need Smilebox, but the one 70mm Cinerama that does is 2001. This is the way we 2001 devotees saw it originally and it is a very different experience that way. I saw it that way 8 time over many years. As with real Cinerama, it is the only way to see it as it was meant to be seen.
Alas, Ice Station Zebra is only historically significant for the cast, not the story.
It would be interesting to see 2001 in Smilebox. I, too, saw it multiple times at a Cinerama theater (including the premier evening...still have my program book). The current BD is quite good, but this would be a cool (if unlikely) option. This film should have gotten the "book treatment".
I'll pick up ISZ; didn't see it first run but always kinda liked it. Anybody remember a TV movie called World War Three? Rock Hudson as the prez with a show-down in the arctic. Brian Keith as the Russian leader. Reminded me just a little bit of ISZ.
To me ISZ is a guilty pleasure -- I watch it each and every time it's on. It's not a masterpiece, but neither are about 99% of the films being released today (I can think of about one so far this year -- the rest are all popcorn movies).
But the headline is wrong -- it says "Warner Home Entertainment will bring Ice Station Zebra to Blu-ray this July" and then finishes with "Ice Station Zebra streets on October 9th." Um, if I'm not mistaken, October 9th is not in July, unless they are mucking about with the calendar again.
@corockymtnhi: So you like Smilebox for real Cinerama films only? Makes sense to me. It might also make sense for Todd-AO which also had a curved screen. Around the World in 80 Days (1956) comes to mind. So far I don't feel that Todd-AO has been given a proper treatment in any transfer although a few have been quite good.
@hendersd: Was 2001 real Cinerama? I don't remember it that way. Wasn't it another hybrid?
Getting back ISZ, I consider the film forgettable except for one scene, the confrontation with the Russians on the polar ice. There is almost no colour, minimal sound and almost no action. Just the two sides staring at each other in a game of international "chicken". It is a perfect metaphor for the Cold War.
IZS was screened in cinerama theatres in the UK and it looked great. I am very pro smile box and I feel that it should be offered on movies like this as a option. One movie I really want after Lawrence of Arabia is The Right Stuff a truly great American Bio Pic, come on Warner lets get the 70mm out on this one, but on the flat.
The reason I love this film some much is that this is a Alistair Maclean story. Hope we also will see the others movies made from his books coming to blu-ray. Like: Fear is the key, Satan Bug, Breakheart pass, Pupet on a chain, bear island, AND When Eight bells toll.
