El Cid, The Fall of the Roman Empire on Blu-ray in Germany

Posted May 13, 2009 05:10 AM by Juan Calonge

German studio Spirit Media has announced the Blu-ray release of two remarkable historical epic films: 'El Cid' and 'The Fall of the Roman Empire', with a release date of August 21. Both films will feature 1080p VC-1 video and DTS-HD Master Audio tracks for both English and German. Each will contain nearly two hours of bonus features.

There is no information yet as to whether the releases will be locked to region B or not. They are distributed by Koch Media, which usually hasn't applied region locking to its titles so far.

In the USA, The Weinstein Company holds the rights to both films.

Extras for 'El Cid' include:

Three original trailers
Picture gallery
Hollywood Conquers Spain: 'El Cid'
A Visionary Producer in Hollywood: Samuel Bronston
Miklós Rózsa, Master of Film Music
The Preservation of a Legend: Gerry Burne on the Restoration of a Classic
11 filmographies

Extras for 'The Fall of the Roman Empire' include:

Original trailer
German trailer
Picture gallery
The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire: a Historical Analysis
Dimitri Tiomkin: the Score for the Roman Empire
12 filmographies
Encyclopædia Britannica documentaries

Both titles will come in three-disc sets, where only the first one will be a BD. The second disc will be a DVD with the bonus features, and the third will contain a digital copy of the film, with separate files optimized for PSP, Blackberry, and iPod/iPhone.

'El Cid' and 'The Fall of the Roman Empire' were the two movies Western veteran Anthony Mann directed for Samuel Bronston, the producer who built a huge studio in Spain where he made historical epics, avoiding the escalating costs of moviemaking in Hollywood. 'The Fall of the Roman Empire' was shot in Ultra Panavision 70 and used "the largest set ever built", but its failure at the box office brought down Bronston's own production empire.

Source: Cinefacts | Permalink |

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News comments (8 comments)

spidey3

May 13, 2009

WHERE IS BEN HUR;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

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bluskies

May 13, 2009

I think the annoucement of both of these titles is a very good thing (IF they are region free!) I have been waiting and waiting for Weinstein here in the U.S. to get off their butt and issue them in Blu-ray but they only seem to want to issue their horror stuff.

As to Ben-Hur, that is to come from Warner Bros. and I believe they said we won't be seeing this year because an entirely new restoration has to be done.

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rkolinski

May 13, 2009

I really hope that both of these releases are region free too! I own both of them as part of the Miriam Collection releaes and would love to see both of them on BLU!

eChopper

May 13, 2009

PLEASE GOD DONT LET THEM USE THE SH*THOUSE MASTERS USED BY THE RECENT MIRIAM DVD

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bluskies

May 13, 2009

eChopper, are you kidding?! El Cid was GORGEOUS on DVD (the Miriam one). As close to HD as a DVD will ever get.

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donaldheil

May 13, 2009

I think eChopper is right. "The Fall of the Roman Empire" Miriam Collection seems to have passed through heavy noise reduction. BUT I must add that the chinese version that was available before that one (the only one released then) have the same problem. So I'm eager to hear news about the picture quality of those blu ray releases.

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pro-bassoonist

May 13, 2009

Excellent news -- the more classics are brought to Blu-ray, the better!

Pro-B

eChopper

May 14, 2009

to be fair El Cid on Miriam is the best its looked on optical disc . And we cant expect Weinstein to spend a million on the OCN and do it perfectly with modern digital tools. Maybe Obama can allocate some TARP funding to 70mm restorations??