James Bond is now licensed to kill in high definition. But the documentaries and bonus materials that accompany 007’s DVD adventures need to keep up.
MGM released a cross section of Bond’s history on Blu-ray discs this week, including Dr. No, Die Another Day, Live and Let Die, For Your Eyes Only, From Russia With Love and Thunderball. It’s not a bad selection to get the 007 HD releases started. You get three of the first four classic Sean Connery adventures (MGM held back the iconic Goldfinger for another release), two presentable Roger Moore escapades and Pierce Brosnan’s last outing (if not his best) bringing up the rear.
MGM released the complete collection of Bond movies on specially remastered DVDs in 2007 with complete packages of documentaries, "making of" and behind-the-scenes features. Those same comprehensive productions are included on each of these HD releases. The trouble was those special features were not in HD.
Enter Cloverland Productions in Los Angeles and John Cork. The life-long Bond fan and author has produced, written and directed 30 documentaries along with Bruce Scivally for MGM. He and his crew spent the last several months visually re-engineering the Bond DVDs’ special material into HD.
"We’re a documentary production company," Cloverland’s Cork told Wired.com. "We do special features for DVDs. Working on the Bond films was a special treat for all of us. So, we were pleased to take a number of documentaries produced previously for Bond DVD releases and re-create those in high def. We took all of the original source material and improved the aspect ratio, audio and other elements."
In addition to running his production company, Cork has co-authored three books on 007’s history — James Bond: The Legacy, Bond Girls Are Forever and The James Bond Encyclopedia. For a devoted Fleming fan like him, preserving the DVD features were a worthwhile mission.
"I think it’s important for fans of these movies to take material that could never be re-created, preserve it and rebuild a new experience. There are interviews here with actors, directors and producers who are no longer with us, and these HD features should give their insights as long a shelf life as possible."
Image courtesy Sony, MGM
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