NEW DIRECTORS CUT

[Novecento]

Oooops...needs more work:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/aug/03/sergio-leone-once-upon-time-america?newsfeed=true

Any delays for further restoration are good delays

TV5monde also did an interview with James Woods recently (in broken French):

Good on Woods for doing his best in French.

[nat]

Wow I live in Melbourne and didn't even know that it was going to be screened here, and now it's been pulled! I don't know whether to be disappointed that I could have missed this amazing opportunity or not now that's it's not showing anyway!

[Snake-Eyes]

If and when the complete, COMPLETE version of AMERICA ever makes it onto blu-ray, it'd be ideal if Sir Christopher Frayling were to contribute a commentary.

[dave jenkins]

While there has been no official announcement from the Leone estate, or Gucci and Martin Scorsese's Film Foundation who have been closely involved in the restoration, it is understood that after the Cannes screening it was agreed that more work, including on the audio track, would be beneficial for the newly inserted scenes.

That work is not expected to be completed until the autumn and Once Upon a Time in America in its latest guise will not be back on the film festival circuit until the winter of this year or spring of 2013.

OMG! Keep it from D&D!! If he finds out he might try to hurt himself!!!

[chris]

For those who can understand French and Italian:


http://www.homecinema-fr.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1382&t=30025815


and


http://www.amazon.it/CEra-Una-Volta-America-Extended/dp/B009HX6PH8/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1349869679&sr=1-1


and


http://dvd.forumcommunity.net/?t=52568847




 
Hopefully the release date of 4 December 2012 won't be delayed again.  I've pre-ordered mine.  One of the posts at DVDforumcommunity says the running time of this version is 260 minutes and some of their members have emailed Andrea Leone films and received responses.

 

[rrpower]

WTF, HURRY UP USA!!!

[Novecento]

Wow so a BD release is coming after all.

I had thought things had been put on hold until further remastering was completed on the scenes already added (and possibly some others scenes were added)

[chris]

Screenings of the new extended version were due to start at The Space Cinema in Italy on 18 October 2012 and a new Blu-ray released in November 2012.

Andrea Leone films have confirmed that these will be delayed and the new Blu-ray is now going to be released in Italy on 4 December 2012.

There is a 46 second trailer of this new version at Youtube and an option to view it in 1920 x 1080. I've not done any screen captures yet but the quality looks better than the existing Blu-ray.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Qn3mOKMCOzw


The PAL version of the unextended movie runs for 219 minutes.  


Assuming the new Italian version is in the PAL format, Amazon's running time of 244 minutes looks correct (219+25=244).


  

[dave jenkins]

Well, the Blu-ray won't be in PAL.

[rrpower]

Are you sure? I'm pretty sure Blu-Rays are still region coded...

And the new shot in the video of McGovern looks excellently restored. BONER BONER BONER

[stanton]

Blus are region coded (which has nothing to do with Pal), but they have a 24p/Sec frame-rate.

[chris]

As stanton says region coded has nothing to do with PAL.  Most Warner Blu-rays are region free but since this is a release intended for the Italian market, regional coding may be an issue.

According to Blu-ray.com there are some Blu-rays with 50Hz (PAL) content but in the future these may be a rarity.

AVForums.com have discussed the differences between UK and US versions of Pan's Labyrinth and Face/Off.

If the Blu-ray matches the duration of the theatrical release, the running time will be about 260 minutes.

_ _ _


Noodles85 from the DVDEssential.it forum wrote to Andre Leone Films in September 2012 and received a response, roughly translated as follows:


Dear Daniel,

Thank you very much for your email which I have forwarded to the director's children.

One of the reasons that led us to buy back the rights to the film that Leone only wanted to direct and not co-produce as usual, was the mail from fans when the redubbed version of the film came out.

We carried out a complete audio and video restoration, re-inserting into the film the scenes which Leone had to cut to reduce the overall length of the film at the request of the producers. The quality of these scenes is not 'excellent' because unfortunately only the positives held by Leone's family survive but we thought it only fair to give fans the chance to see the film as originally made by Leone.

This version of the film (in English) was presented last May at the Cannes Film Festival.

It is due to come out in theaters on October 18th and is a version of 4 hours and 20 minutes and, in the Italian version, dubbing the original.

I also confirm that Warner will be distributing the DVD/Blu-ray versions for us in November. This will contain only the original audio versions.

I hope you will succeed in seeing the film on the big screen which for me was a great thrill.

Best Regards,

Gustavo van Peteghem
SERGIO LEONE PRODUCTIONS
ANDREA LEONE FILMS

gvp@andrealeonefilms.it
 
 

[dave jenkins]

Very Cool. 

[drinkanddestroy]

Here are two email contacts for the company; if anyone wants to email them in Italian and let us know what they have to say, specifiocally regarding an America dvd/blu ray release


rl@andrealeonefilms.it   

mfb@andrealeonefilms.it

[Novecento]

Here are two email contacts for the company; if anyone wants to email them in Italian and let us know what they have to say, specifiocally regarding an America dvd/blu ray release

If it's region-free and with the original English audio, then it shouldn't make any difference except of course higher shipping costs (and perhaps the licensing/subtitling of extra features). However, a theatrical release in the US would be a different matter altogether