2012 is a big year for Universal Pictures. No, it isn’t because it is releasing Battleship, it’s because the studio that brought us Jaws, the Back to the Future trilogy, the Universal Monsters series, Scarface, some of Alfred Hitchcock‘s most memorable films, and dozens of other classics is celebrating its 100th anniversary!
The brand new logo above is just the first part of the celebration. The centerpiece of the celebration is that Universal has committed to complete restorations of 12 (really 13… see below) of its most iconic films. Not only will they be restored, but there are plans to hold screenings for them, too! These films are:
1) All’s Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
2) Dracula (1931)
2a) The Spanish version of Dracula (1931), shot cocurrently with the above version
3) Frankenstein (1931)
4) The Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
5) Abbott and Costello’s Buck Privates (1941)
6) Pillow Talk (1959)
7) To Kill A Mockingbird (1962)
8) The Birds (1963)
9) The Sting (1973)
10) Jaws (1975)
11) Out of Africa (1985)
12) Schindler’s List (1993)
Of course, we could nitpick the list (it seems that Back to the Future and E.T. were left out because of their status as co-productions between Universal and Amblin). It probably wouldn’t have killed them to include a silent film, particularly with the popularity of The Artist and Hugo in 2011 — I’m think Erich Von Stroheim‘s Foolish Wives (1922), one of Lon Chaney’s masterpieces (I’d vote for either the 1923 version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, which is desperately in need of a proper restoration, or the 1925 version of The Phantom of the Opera, which really lacks a “definite” version), or the Man Who Laughs, the 1928 Paul Leni film commonly cited as a key inspiration in the development of the Joker, Batman’s archnemesis. But any chance that we get on seeing any of these classics being cleaned up and put back on the big screen (not to mention eventual Blu-ray releases) is great. More importantly, Universal President Ron Meyer tells Deadline that the investments being done on these restoration efforts will allow Universal to produce future restorations at a much quicker pace, so perhaps we’ll see some of those silents in the future.
We also have some awesome Universal Blu-ray releases to look forward to in 2012: the Universal Monsters series and Alfred Hitchcock’s Universal films are set to be released for the first time on Blu-ray in 2012, as well as first-time Blu-ray releases of To Kill A Mockingbird, Jaws, and E.T. The Extra Terrestrial. That’s all good news for sure!
Relive your memories of your favorite Universal films at http://www.universal100th.com/.
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