The Godfather Trilogy Remixed for Perfection

Posted August 13, 2008 02:28 PM by Josh Dreuth


The upcoming Blu-ray release of 'The Godfather Collection: The Coppola Restoration' will feature not only a restored and remastered video presentation, but also a new 5.1 soundtrack mix thanks to the folks at POP Sound. Paramount tasked the company to remix the legendary films in order to bring the sound quality up to today's standards. Moksha Le Blanc, POP Sound Executive Producer for Home Theater, commented, "There was a lot of clean up to get it to sound fluid in transitions-the original mono tracks were rough, with rough transitions. There was a lot of de-humming and de-clicking, as well as time alignment issues to deal with." He continued, "Essentially Paramount wanted it to sound like it had been released yesterday and we came close to achieving that." The project, which ended up taking eight months to complete, used the original mono track as well as the original multi-track music scores to recreate the mix from the bottom up. Additionally, areas where the original soundtrack was lacking were approved upon. One scene is particular was originally ADR'ed (automated dialogue replacement) due to a noisy dolly during filming. The results were less than satisfactory, so the the team adjusted it to be less obvious. 'The Godfather Collection' is set to be released on September 23rd, day-and-date with the DVD re-release.
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News comments (36 comments)

jurassic_pork

Aug 13, 2008

sweet give me more reasons to be happy about my pre-order

SBrooks1

Aug 13, 2008

Argh!!! I'll be on my honeymoon when these come out.

Can't wait to see and hear them when I get back!!

UKTruBlu

Aug 13, 2008

NOW THERE'S A SET OF MOVIES TO GET EXCITED ABOUT.

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Scooby Blu

Aug 13, 2008

Feeling even BETTER about my pre-order on this as well !

jlawc

Aug 13, 2008

Awesome: Godfather, the Matrix and Band of Brothers, going to be an expensive Fall/Christmas...

I actually went to a seminar of Walter Murch about a year ago. As he was leaving he said the real
reason he was in LA was to do the re-recording mixing on the trilogy. So i knew then they were doing
a full new remaster of the audio and complete new picture transfer. He actually said that the entire
original negative of godfather 2 didn't even exist anymore. He said during editorial they just didn't
keep a good cutting room. So I'm looking forward to seeing on blu how good they remastered the
picture from a positive dupe-or even a release 35mm print. We'll just have to see.

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Lucy Diamond

Aug 13, 2008

WoW...guess I'm buying the Godfather!!!

HD Man

Aug 13, 2008

Just another reason to make sure this boxset belongs in your collection!! Can't wait...

surfdude12

Aug 13, 2008

crap, i was going to wait for the purchase, but this is making it REAL HARD not to pre-order!!!

Marine Mike

Aug 13, 2008

I would add this to my pre-order list as well, but then my wife wouldn't have anything left to give me for Christmas! This will be a great Christmas present for me this year.

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davcole

Aug 13, 2008

I know it might upset the purist but i'm happy with the news!

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DAMNSAM77

Aug 13, 2008

man I wanna preorder this so bad, I guess I will just have to wait until the last minute to preorder it, my home theater construction is draining every penny I have left, so I stopped buying BDs this month through October until the theater is finished, but this BD purchase will have to be an exception.

RickD

Aug 13, 2008

Great news! I hope they include the original soundtrack for the purists out there.

demoni

Aug 13, 2008

Let's just hope they include the original mono track as well... just in case the new surround mix sounds bad.

KretzJ

Aug 13, 2008

Purists can play the original DVD releases...

I'm just fine with the newly remastered versions on Blu-Ray. I own the original DVDs so now I will have both.

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Irrob

Aug 13, 2008

I was excited about this release. Now I'm very excited.

DrXym

Aug 13, 2008

The remastered DVD 5 disc set is already for sale on Europe and has been for several months. You can find it for around £18 or €25 on Amazon.co.uk or Play.com.

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wnicholas76

Aug 13, 2008

Paramount keeps getting better and better with The Godfather movies! I'm even more excited about adding the movies to my collection! It's like this for all of us: If The Godfather Trilogy is not in your Blu-ray collection, then you don't have a Blu-ray collection!

CptGreedle

Aug 13, 2008

I might have to rent this just to see what all the hype is about. And with a restored and remixed
audio track, I am very excited to take a look.

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Croweyes1121

Aug 13, 2008

DrXym: No, thanks. I find the PAL speed-up issue intolerable. I'll be waiting on a release at the proper speed...and in HD no less. What's the point of the new video and audio restoration when the UK DVD release 1) speeds up the film 2) can't make the films look anywhere near as good as Blu-ray and 3) can't make the films sounds anywhere near as good as Blu-ray? Waste of money IMO.

DR BLU NEO

Aug 13, 2008

Paramount is finally realizing blu-ray recordings demand the best audio. Why? Audio can a movie twice as good. I truly believe the quality of audio (or uncompressed) is the most important factor in a blu-ray movie. If a blu-ray movie doesn't come with at least uncompressed audio, I'm not buying it.

A blu-ray movie with COMPRESSED audio is simply a standard DVD with blu-ray packaging. Why buy it?!?!

ibeetle

Aug 13, 2008

I hope the original mono has been given the same attention, level of detail and remastering that the 5.1 is being given.
Disney has done it with some of their classics releases. Even Capital Records included both mono and stereo remastered sound couple of years back with the release of the American Beatles album releases in a couple of box sets.
I know it is cleaned up. I know it is getting better, but I still prefer movies that were filmed in mono presented that way.
Include 5.1 for those that want it. That is great. However, include the original soundtrack the way the film was made.
You would not colorize Psycho; why sterolize a mono sound?

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kamphausd1

Aug 13, 2008

Don't worry ibeetle, I'm sure it has. They mention in the article about the restoration in the american cinematrographer magazine that the original analog monoraul track has been cleaned up and restored as well, along with the new dolby trueHD track, so all pursits (myself included) and film archives can now play the movie with it's original sound. And that's another great bonus as well, because aside from cleaned up and restored picture, that's another thing that the DVD set was lacking. And the reason I really prefer the mono (aside from being a purist) is because it has all the original gunshot sounds, as opposed to the 5.1 where they all sound artificial and sound like pop guns. 5.1 tracks always seem to have that problem when it comes to gunshots.

ECWaenigma

Aug 13, 2008

Not the biggest GF fan, but it's nice to see hard work on important titles.

jmartinez

Aug 13, 2008

i've never really sat down and watch the GF series but like ECW said its nice to know their putting some hard work for the BD release of GF

Sith

Aug 13, 2008

My ps3 can't wait....

ZMan

Aug 14, 2008

Now I'm really glad I have this on pre-order

Living Near Shamu

Aug 14, 2008

I only liked GF1 & 2 and I watched all 3 recently (it was like a 10 hr marathon, lol) so I'll prob just rent them. However, they don't say if its going to be uncompressed or TrueHD Dolby, right? I only see 5.1 mix so hopefully they won't do DD+

pacificvibes

Aug 14, 2008

WOW I cannot wait for Christmas this year. Its going to be HUGE!!!!!!

GreatWhite83

Aug 14, 2008

Bye, Bye Warner, Hello Paramount. Another studio putting in alot of money and effort, I hope Paramount makes money like Lionsgate. I'm sure with the Godfather, Transformers, Top Gun having lossless audios they will.

Minimejer05

Aug 14, 2008

Nice news. Thanks

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audioquest

Aug 16, 2008

Finally, a Blu-ray disc that's actually worth buying.

mills1955

Aug 17, 2008

Honestly... I would wonder if the God Father Family, the movie that tied all 3 films together, is in the wings for a future release in Blu Ray. If I recall correctly, it was 10 or 11 hours long, and had a lot of restored footage. I really enjoy that version as I felt it explained more, and it is the perfect rainy day movie.

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BluMood

Sep 03, 2008

The more work that takes place in both PQ & AQ the better. Blu-ray is an audio-video perfectionists format. It's a movie COLLECTORS format. I never see 80% of what comes out on rentals anyway even on Blu-ray. As great as Blu-ray is if the movie is a turd to begin with you just can't polish a turd. The Godfather movies are movies that will live forever and deserve the upmost attention. Give it the Bladerunner treatment the FIRST TIME. Give us a really good reason to past down our DVD's to our goofy low tech family members. (Uh..Sorry Uncle Bob)

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