The African Queen coming to blu-ray? (updated)

[tazber]

Posted: 10/23/09 at 6:30am

This site that I got this from doesn't report on rumors unless they have a significant chane of being true. This would be a major release as it's never been on dvd.

"There's absolutely no official confirmation as yet, but we have it on good authority that Paramount is perhaps weeks or months away from announcing a Blu-ray Disc release of The African Queen. This long-sought-after title has yet to even have a DVD release, so this news is welcome for all classic cinema fans. We'll let you know if anything comes down the pipe...."



Very exciting!!!!!!!!




Link

Updated On: 12/9/09 at 06:30 AM

[bschneid76]

Posted: 10/23/09 at 7:44am

I hope this happens. There are many films that need to be released for the public to see and this is definitely on the top of the list. I hope if there is a release they have restored it, as the VHS copy I've seen is in horrendous condition. Plus, you have 2 outstanding performances by Hepburn and Bogart. Truly one of the great pieces of film ever.

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 10/23/09 at 8:00am

Ted Turner suggested (some year's back), that they remake it with Julie Andrews and Jack Nicholson. I might have liked that. I've never been a fan of this classic, I guess because I don't like Katharine Hepburn. It was my late father's favorite film.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 10/23/09 at 9:28am

Well it would be ABOUT TIME! However, the only thing that worries me about that article is that it's not a Paramount film, it's Twentieth Century Fox.

[best12bars]

Posted: 10/23/09 at 9:48am

There's some weird stuff going on with the studios trading their back-catalogue titles lately.

"My Fair Lady," a Warner Bros. film, previously released on Warner Home Video, is now suddenly a Paramount catalogue title. They just released a brand new (far inferior) DVD of it. (For those who own it, keep the Warners release!)

But this is nothing new. Most of Paramount's old classics (Cary Grant, W.C. Fields, Mae West, Marelene Deitrich, all the Hope and Crosby movies, etc.) were bought by Universal years ago and were released on Universal DVD. Still, when the movie starts, you'll see the old Paramount Logo.

Turner (aka Warner Home Video) owns the old MGM and RKO libraries, in addition to their own catalogue. They have (by far) the biggest back-catalogue of classic films. Five times as many as any other studio.

But the deals continue to be made, and titles come and go between the studios (like "My Fair Lady"). And some slip into Public Domain (meaning anybody, including you and me, can release them).

[Roscoe]

Posted: 10/23/09 at 11:02am

"we have it on good authority that Paramount is perhaps weeks or months away"

They basically have no reliable information at all, do they, other than that it might happen at some point in the future.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 10/23/09 at 11:22am

The African Queen coming to blu-ray? Aren't Tyler Perry's movies already out on Blu-Ray?

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 10/23/09 at 11:24am

Joe, Madea goes to Jail is NOT on Blu-Ray and that pisses me off!!

[tazber]

Posted: 10/23/09 at 11:28am

I know Roscoe, and I said that in my initial post.

I also said that they never publish rumors unless they are thisclose to being true. I've never read anything on that site that hasn't come to fruition.

So, take it as you will.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 10/23/09 at 12:24pm

Sorry, taz, meant no disrespect to you. I'm just expressing some doubt as to whether or not this AFRICAN QUEEN thing is actually going to happen, rumors like this seem to pop up every year or so, and the wording of the rumor was almost comically evasive, I thought.

[tazber]

Posted: 10/23/09 at 1:12pm

Oh I know, Roscoe. I've been waiting for this forever too. It's one of those absolute classics (merited or not) that I have never seen. And I love Hepburn!

Here's hoping.

[Pgenre]

Posted: 10/24/09 at 3:39pm

John Huston?

KILL ME NOW!

::insert catty/witty John Waters dig on Huston::

P

P.S. Even classic crap deserves to be on DVD! Bogart and Hepburn? COME ON - I'm there, in spite of turgid Huston.

[fflagg]

Posted: 11/11/09 at 2:55pm

AFRICAN QUEEN is available as a bootleg DVD.

The reason that the film is not on DVD is due to the fact that 4 people share in rights ownership [this was told to me by one of the people who manage the estate of the late screenwriter].

I do not know who the 4 people are: the estates of Bogart? Hepburn? Huston? Is it Lauren Bacall's fault? :)

[Gavin Rehfeldt]

Posted: 12/9/09 at 11:28am

This just makes me want Ken Russel's The Boyfriend on DVD more and more... and, what do you know, Heaven Knows, Mr. Alisson made it on to DVD. That's basically a John Huston direccted African Queen remake.

[tazber]

Posted: 12/9/09 at 11:35am

Well that was phantom post of mine that bumped this thread. Let's try again:

"Looks like the magic date for Paramount's long-awaited Blu-ray Disc release of The African Queen is 23 February. We're still awaiting a formal announcement from the studio - we'll keep you updated as more info comes our way...."




Link

[romantico]

Posted: 1/11/10 at 5:12pm

Paramount has just announced John Huston's The African Queen for DVD and Blu-ray Disc release on 3/23, fully-restored with a new 4K HD transfer from the original three-strip negative and approved by the film's original cinematographer! Yes, the FINAL missing entry of AFI's 100 Greatest Movies list arrives in multiple versions, including a single-disc DVD (SRP $19.99), a single-disc Blu-ray (SRP $26.99) and also Limited Edition DVD (SRP $34.99) and Blu-ray (SRP $43.99) box sets. All of them will feature the new Embracing Chaos: Making The African Queen documentary, featuring interviews with Martin Scorsese and many others. The box sets also include an "audio disc recording of the original Lux Radio Theater broadcast of The African Queen, a reproduction of Katharine Hepburn's out-of-print memoir The Making of The African Queen or How I Went to Africa with Bogart, Bacall and Huston and Almost Lost My Mind, a Senitype film frame reproduction and postcard reproductions" of images from the film.

http://www.thedigitalbits.com/

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 1/11/10 at 5:45pm

I've never seen it, but am still highly amused by Carol Channing deciding my name was Gary Cooper, and that she loved me in the African Queen with Katharine.

[tazber]

Posted: 1/12/10 at 6:35am

Official artwork