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New "TITANIC" DVD in 2005 - Page 2

post #51 of 74
2/12/05 at 7:13pm
I remember seeing the trailers for this in the summer of 1997, and thinking "Wow, that looks interesting."

However, by the time the film came out, I was swept up in the anti-Titanic backlash that seemed to be going around my college - a good friend of mine would wear his 'The Boat Sank, Get Over It" shirt proudly, and I remember being relieved that my girlfriend had already seen it with her family, so I wouldn't have to suffer through it.

Eight years later, after the hype, I look forward to finally seeing this. And even if the film does suck, the fact that it's a Cameron film on DVD usually means there'll be interesting extras...
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post #52 of 74
2/12/05 at 7:18pm
The film does not suck. Enjoy.
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post #53 of 74
2/12/05 at 7:45pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by B.G. JackONeill
I know this chick who saw it in the theaters 24 times (i kid you not)
That's nothing. I worked at a movie theater when Titanic was out. There was a lady who saw it every single day for the entire theatrical run of the film. That's at least 6 months. And I do mean EVERY FUCKING DAY. That's almost 200 viewings and I'm sure she wasn't the only one. THAT'S why the movie made so much fucking money.

There is something very basic that Cameron hit upon and it entranced millions of people. This was no fluke; it takes real skill to be able to do something like that. It has action, drama, romance, suspense, comedy, tragedy and cool visuals. He hit all the right buttons and reaped the rewards.

Personally I think it's okay film. More of a guilty pleasure kind of thing. Something I'll see once or twice a year when I'm feeling mushy; but I'll be picking up the dvd because of the special features.
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post #54 of 74
2/25/05 at 10:52pm
From The Digital Bits's "Rumor Mill," courtesy of the Estimable Bill Hunt:

Quote:
Finally today, let's talk about the BIG Fox title you probably want to know about. No, not Episode III (although you can likely expect that to hit DVD in time for the holidays). We're talking about James Cameron's Titanic. Our industry sources have confirmed that a SERIOUS special edition is currently being worked on by Fox. You can expect it to follow a similar pattern to New Line's Lord of the Rings films on DVD -- a 2-disc version and a more elaborate 4-disc edition. Both will feature a sparkling new anamorphic widescreen transfer of the film. Among the many extras you can expect are lots of deleted scenes and tons of "behind-the-scenes" material. Watch for it to be announced later this year for release in the 4th Quarter. As expected, it'll be released by Paramount here in the States, and Fox internationally.
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post #55 of 74
3/16/05 at 5:50pm
It's offical:

http://dvdanswers.com/index.php?r=0&...6155&n=1&burl=
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post #56 of 74
3/16/05 at 5:59pm
Wow this sounds like its going to be a really special set.
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post #57 of 74
3/16/05 at 7:01pm
I need this about as much an album from Celine Dion.
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post #58 of 74
3/16/05 at 7:09pm
The full ditty from Bill Hunt, who personally kibitzed with Cameron on a few other tech-issues:

Quote:
(LATE UPDATE - 3/15/05 - 5:30 PM PST)

Well... I've just gotten back from Paramount and 20th Century Fox's special press event this afternoon in Beverly Hills. Director James Cameron and producer Jon Landau were on hand (as were Paramount CEO Rob Friedman and Fox chairman Jim Gianopulos) to announce the DVD release of the long awaited Titanic: Special Collector's Edition. As we first reported here at The Bits in February, there will be two versions... a 2-disc release and a 4-disc release, both of which will street on the same day in October. The exact street date and SRP are both still TBA (Paramount will release the discs in the U.S. and Fox will release them internationally on the same day). Just so you all can relax, the 2-disc version will basically be identical to the first two discs of the 4-disc release, so there's no need to buy both. If you buy the 4-disc release, you'll get ALL the extras and supplemental content available. Longtime readers of The Bits will be pleased to know that Van Ling, a regular collaborator with Cameron on his past DVD releases, has been tasked with supervising the production of this new edition.



Cameron and Landau (pictured above) revealed some details about the DVDs during the press conference, and I was able to get additional information during the Q&A session that followed their presentation. Both versions will feature the original theatrical cut of the film, which Cameron considers to be his 'director's cut.' He's just supervised and approved a new high-definition transfer of the film, so you can expect it to be presented (at long last) in anamorphic widescreen on the DVDs. Both DVDs will feature Dolby Digital 5.1 EX audio (DTS MAY be included as well, but this has yet to be decided - it's an issue of how much content needs to be included on the discs, and how much room will be available once all the extras are finalized). As with the recent 4-disc Lord of the Rings DVDs, the film itself will be split over the first two discs to allow for the highest possible video and audio quality. I was also able to learn that the film discs will likely include multiple audio commentary tracks - certainly one with Cameron, but also separate tracks with various crew members and possible a cast commentary as well.

In terms of bonus features, the film discs will offer a special 'branching' option (similar to what Fox has used on its complete season sets of The X-Files) that allows you to jump out of the film at various points (when an icon appears on screen) to view footage that was deleted from that particular point in the film. Some 58 minutes of deleted scenes will be available in all. Keep in mind, this will NOT be edited back into the film. The deleted scenes will be offered separately on the discs (in addition to their accessibility via the branching feature while viewing the film). The deleted scenes will reportedly have special video lead-ins and optional Cameron commentary that explains why the footage was cut. The deleted material is reportedly fairly substantial and will include a number of nice character moments with Jack and Rose, as well as additional less important (but historically accurate) footage. Cameron is currently making the creative decisions necessary to 'finish' this footage in order to bring it up to release quality (including any visual effects that might need to be completed, as well as supervising sound mixes and scoring the material).

Other extras you can expect on the new DVDs include a wealth of rare behind-the-scenes footage from the Lightstorm vaults -- 2 full discs' worth. This will include time-lapse footage of the massive set and studio construction, new and vintage cast and crew interviews and other never-before-seen material. Nearly 400 hours of behind-the-scenes footage was shot during the production of Titanic in all. Another long-time Cameron collaborator, Ed Marsh (who shot much of this footage originally), is sorting through it all to produce a definitive, feature-length documentary on the making of the film, taking you from the very beginnings of the idea with Cameron pitching the concept to the studio, through all of the stress, angst and criticism generated by the production, to the film's eventual release and massive worldwide success. Along the way, you'll hear from literally everyone involved in the production, including all of the major cast and crew. Both Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio have agreed to participate in the DVD production, for interviews and possibly commentary, if schedules permit. By the way, you should already be familiar with Ed Marsh's work -- he's the man who created the outstanding Under Pressure: Making The Abyss documentary on Fox's previous The Abyss: Special Edition (both the laserdisc and later DVD).
(continued below)
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post #59 of 74
3/16/05 at 7:12pm
Part II:

Quote:


After the press conference, I had the chance to speak with Cameron directly for a few minutes. Asked about his take on the looming format war between HD-DVD and Blu-ray Disc, Cameron said that he'd seen demonstrations of both formats, and has looked at each critically with an eye toward spotting artifacts and other quality related issues. He's impressed with both HD-DVD and Blu-ray, and feels that it's a bit of a wash in terms of which format has the technical edge. Although Cameron is looking forward to a future high-definition release of Titanic (and the new transfer of the film was done in HD), he's not planning an HD release anytime soon. This new SCE will be standard DVD only. When asked if he has a preference for either HD-DVD or Blu-ray, he wisely noted that he's letting the industry and the market decide which format will prevail, although he does hope that a single, unified format will be adopted by the industry sooner rather than later.

Interestingly, Cameron also said that there were two main reasons why it took so long for a special edition DVD of Titanic to happen. The first is that the previous movie-only version is still selling quite well (meaning there was no urgent economic pressure to get a more elaborate version done before this). The other is that the process of making the film was such a grueling experience that most involved needed to leave the project behind for a few years in order to feel the desire to revisit it again for a worthy special edition. That said, Cameron and Landau have been planning this new edition for nearly two years, and have put a great deal of thought into what they want to include for the film's many fans.

On an interesting side note, Cameron also spoke about his passion for 3-D filmmaking. He and fellow director George Lucas are spearheading an effort to get movie theaters around the world to upgrade not only to digital projection, but also to add the capability to exhibit films in 3-D format. In fact, Cameron and Lucas are hosting a demonstration of the 3-D process for theater owners at the ShoWest convention in Las Vegas this week (in addition to CG-animated 3-D films, Lucas's people have reportedly developed a way to render 3-D versions of existing 2-D films). Cameron says that this is the main reason he's waited so long to begin production on his next major theatrical film - a live action version of the Japanese anime Battle Angel Alita. Cameron plans to shoot the film digitally in 3-D format. What's more, he says that Lucas and other filmmakers (like Robert Zemeckis and possibly Peter Jackson too) are also planning to shoot 3-D films in the future. They expect that the availability of good 3-D feature film content will drive interest in the 3-D experience theatrically, and that in turn could fuel demand for bringing the 3-D process into the home as well. Cameron noted that both HD-DVD and Blu-ray Disc (and current DVD as well) could be adapted to deliver 3-D footage, but that the main obstacle to high-quality 3-D at home is the low refresh rate of current TV monitors. Displays offering much higher rates (96Hz) will be needed in the future to show flicker-free 3-D images in your living rooms.

So there you have it. All the available details regarding the forthcoming Titanic: Special Collector's Edition and some other interesting stuff too, all straight from The Man himself. I have to tell you, I really enjoyed the opportunity to speak with Cameron in person. He's clearly very thoughtful and savvy in terms of the latest developments in film and video technology, and I found him to be both genuine and personable. I look forward to having the chance to speak with him at greater length in the future. I also chatted with Ed Marsh for a few minutes about his currently on-going work on the DVDs. You can expect to hear more from him here at The Bits in the months ahead as well.

Just so you know, there's no cover art available yet for these DVDs, and all of the specific disc specs are still being worked out. You can be sure that we'll get them to you as soon as they're finalized by the studio. I hope you've all enjoyed the report.

Until tomorrow... stay tuned, DVD faithful!

Bill Hunt, Editor
The Digital Bits
billhunt@thedigitalbits.com

Hunh. Hadn't figured on DiCaprio and Winslet doing terribly much in the way of promoing this new release, but what the hell. Maybe some full-frontal Kate this time? You know the footage exists, Jim.

At least Cameron and/or Fox are pulling out the gelt to drop a feature-length doco in the set, rather than the non-"Play All" featurette crap that's often done (i.e., the Minority Report disc, a far FAR cry from Bouzereau's long-form Jaws, CE3K, and Hitchcock stuff).

Arguably, it's still tres chichi to hate on Cameron, but this one sounds worth it (coming from the guy who thinks Solaris is the best Jim-disc he owns).
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post #60 of 74
3/16/05 at 7:31pm
If this isn't in DTS, then I could care less. I already have the old bare-bones DVD which sports dolby 5.1. Since I didn't really like the film in the first place, I'd only use the DVD to tweak my home theater during the sinking scenes.
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post #61 of 74
3/16/05 at 7:37pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Leto II
Arguably, it's still tres chichi to hate on Cameron, but this one sounds worth it (coming from the guy who thinks Solaris is the best Jim-disc he owns).
Uhh... you don't own ALIENS?
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post #62 of 74
3/16/05 at 9:11pm
Sure do...it's that the Soderbergh/Jim track -- "Two white guys talking about film" -- is pure, mainlined Cameron heroin.

The guy should do more.
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post #63 of 74
7/2/05 at 6:10pm
Package art for both the 2-disc and 4-disc versions:

http://www.dvdanswers.com/index.php?...6155&n=1&burl=
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post #64 of 74
7/27/05 at 9:25pm
Now there are reports there will be only one Three Disc set.
Curioser and Curioser.
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post #65 of 74
7/29/05 at 1:42am
What was supposed to be on that 4th disc anyway? It sounds like the 3 disc is going to have all the content. Was the 4th disc perhaps like, the soundtrack or something? I've noticed that some "Deluxe Edition" releases just stuff the soundtrack disc in there as an extra. If that's the case, I won't miss it; 3 discs will do nicely.
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post #66 of 74
7/29/05 at 6:57am
Normally i dont by a film for the special features but this time I am goning to. This is great news, as much as i lambasted the historical faults in a recent thread i love this film and am looking forward to a decent dvd treatment.
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post #67 of 74
7/29/05 at 6:44pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by MrMushnik
What was supposed to be on that 4th disc anyway? It sounds like the 3 disc is going to have all the content. Was the 4th disc perhaps like, the soundtrack or something? I've noticed that some "Deluxe Edition" releases just stuff the soundtrack disc in there as an extra. If that's the case, I won't miss it; 3 discs will do nicely.

I strongly suspect that they planned to have the film itself on two discs and extras on two discs . Then they decided that the film would probably take up one and half discs and decided that by putting some extras on the second film disc, they could fit the extras onto three discs and save on the packaging and distribution.
They also might have decided there was no point to a 2 DVD edition anyway. The people who wants the extras will buy the bigger set, and those who don't care about the extras would stick with their one disc edition.
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post #68 of 74
7/30/05 at 8:36am
I'll probably pick this one up for the wife (I refused to buy the previous DVD edition for her because it's non-anamorphic which makes it look like ass on an 80" 16:9 screen.). I'm glad Cameron is finally getting on the anamorphic bandwagon after all these years. Has anyone else noticed that all of his DVD releases have been non-anamorphic except for the two Terminator movies and Aliens? And I'm guessing the only reason Aliens was released in anamorphic format is because the rest of the Alien series was simultaneously released that way. I really respect Cameron's use of technology in his films, which makes it all the more puzzling that he didn't push for anamorphic presentation on his DVDs. I've read that his reasoning behind this was because most DVD players' down-conversion of anamorphic material for 4x3 TVs degraded the picture too much. Since there weren't enough widescreen displays in consumers' hands at the time, they decided to cater to the lowest common denominator leaving people who DID own widescreen TVs shit out of luck. By this reasoning, they should have released his movies in Dolby Pro-Logic too, since most people at that time didn't own Dolby Digital equipped home theater systems either. Now I wonder how long we'll have to wait for an anamorphic Abyss and True Lies to come out.
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post #69 of 74
8/1/05 at 4:21pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ktak
I really respect Cameron's use of technology in his films, which makes it all the more puzzling that he didn't push for anamorphic presentation on his DVDs. I've read that his reasoning behind this was because most DVD players' down-conversion of anamorphic material for 4x3 TVs degraded the picture too much. Since there weren't enough widescreen displays in consumers' hands at the time, they decided to cater to the lowest common denominator leaving people who DID own widescreen TVs shit out of luck. By this reasoning, they should have released his movies in Dolby Pro-Logic too, since most people at that time didn't own Dolby Digital equipped home theater systems either. Now I wonder how long we'll have to wait for an anamorphic Abyss and True Lies to come out.
I think the reason some of Cameron's films are non-anamorphic DVDs probably has little to do with Cameron himself and more to do with the fact that Fox was a notoriously lousy DVD producer when the format first came out. Unlike Warner Brothers who were anamorphic from day one, Fox, (like Criterion for some odd reason.) didn't go anamorphic for awhile.
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post #70 of 74
8/1/05 at 5:39pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by MrMushnik
I think the reason some of Cameron's films are non-anamorphic DVDs probably has little to do with Cameron himself and more to do with the fact that Fox was a notoriously lousy DVD producer when the format first came out. Unlike Warner Brothers who were anamorphic from day one, Fox, (like Criterion for some odd reason.) didn't go anamorphic for awhile.
Yeah, except Paramount released TITANIC on R1 DVD, not Fox. And Fox started releasing anamorphic DVD's shortly before TITANIC's DVD release (their first was the ALIEN LEGACY set in 1999.) Interestingly, Cameron's THE ABYSS was released non-anamorphic by Fox a year later, even though they had switched over to a more anamorphic-friendly release strategy. Sounds to me like it was more of a Cameron issue than a Fox issue.
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post #71 of 74
8/1/05 at 9:08pm
But will this set include footage of Cameron's Oscar win, when he asked everyone to observe a minutes silence, before blurting out "Lets party!!" after only 30 seconds? Idiot.

Titanic is a good film. I just don't like it. Its story and characters are paper thin, the dialogue is hilariously awful ("My fiance, MY FIANCE!!") and its tendency to hit us over the head with stuff (poor people: good, rich people: bad) is vaguely distasteful. The one thing it did do that was good was show that women with curves like Kate Winslet are pretty damn sexy, something that is often forgotten in Hollywood movies.
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post #72 of 74
8/4/05 at 2:51pm
yes, I will buy this, and why not? it's a pretty good movie.
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post #73 of 74
8/6/05 at 6:35am
Can you tell the difference?


Original



Revision


Is there no end to your madness Cameron?!
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post #74 of 74
8/6/05 at 1:12pm
I guess someone has to take the blame for how fucked-up this DVD is turning out to be.
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