Shepperton Studios to Restore British Classics for Blu-ray

[John Johnson]

Shepperton Studios, part of the Pinewood Studios Group, has launched a new facility that will oversee the restoration of classic British film titles for theatrical, DVD and Blu-ray release. The first three films to be restored at the facilities will be Peeping Tom, Kind Hearts and Coronets and The Railway Children.

Last year the Pinewood Group announced a deal with European production company Canal+ and its distribution wing Optimum Releasing relating to the Canal+ British Archive Library, which has over 1,400 British classics including The Third Man, The Ladykillers and The Dam Busters.

Speaking at the launch, Giles Farley, co-managing director of Pinewood Group Post Production, said: "We are delighted to have officially opened the new facilities and are immensely pleased to have been joined by so many colleagues from across the film and television industry. Everyone present here today shares our passion for preserving iconic and historical film titles and still images."

Representatives from companies including Canal+, Disney, Warner Bros and the BBC attended the launch.

With the new restoration facility up and running a substantial amount of restoration work will be done on the archived titles. The facility also provides temperature and humidity controlled storage for the archived films and images.

Mr Farley said: "We are especially proud that our new state of the art facilities allow us to work with Canal+ to restore many classic British titles."

http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=4295

[John Johnson]

Optimum Home Entertainment have announced the UK DVD and Blu-ray Disc release of The Dam Busters (Special Edition) on 14th June 2010. Based on the legendary true story of Commander Guy Gibson and his men, The Dam Busters (1955) captures all the thrilling action and suspense of the magnificent exploits of a young squadron charged with taking out the impenetrable Ruhr river dams of Germany with an ingeniously designed bouncing bomb.

Digitally restored, the discs also feature a brand new documentary that is based around interviews with the last remaining survivors of the daring raid. Written and directed by Matt Richards (The Brits Who Fought For Spain, Extraordinary People), The Dam Busters – 617 Squadron Remembers is presented by renowned historian Max Arthur, author of The Dam Busters: An Oral History.

The documentary runs for 56-minutes and is the sole extra. You also get HOH subs on the main feature.

RRP is £15.99 on DVD and £19.99 on Blu-ray. The latter is listed as Region B coded, 1080P 1.33:1, English Mono (PCM 2.0). The DVD is also 1.33:1 with English Mono audio (DD2.0).

http://homecinema.thedigitalfix.co.uk/c ... -june.html


http://www.dvdactive.com/news/releases/ ... ters2.html