Paramount Pictures Home Entertainment has announced that they will be bringing the William Wyler classic Roman Holiday to Blu-Ray for the first time on September 15, 2020. The film starring Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck will be released newly remastered and restored as a part of the recently launched Paramount Presents line.
Synopsis: Director William Wyler’s 1953 fairy tale was one of Hollywood’s first on-location motion pictures and memorably captures the bustling streets and iconic sites of Rome. ROMAN HOLIDAY expresses the exhilaration of joyously breaking free as the lead character escapes her royal obligations against the backdrop of post-war Europe embracing long-awaited peace.
Screenwriter Dalton Trumbo was blacklisted for refusing to cooperate with the House Un-American Activities Committee and his name was not included in the film’s original credits. In 1992 the Board of Governors of the Academy voted to finally credit Trumbo for the “Story Writing” Oscar and his widow received a statuette in 1993. In 2011, the WGA restored Trumbo’s name to the screenwriting credits. This is the first physical home entertainment release to correctly credit Dalton Trumbo with both the screenplay and story by credits both on packaging and the film itself.
About the Restoration
The original negative was processed at a local film lab in Rome and was unfortunately badly scratched and damaged. The film had to be pieced back together, but the splices were so weak due to the damage that extensive amounts of tape had to be used to allow the negative to make it through a printing machine. Because of the fragile state of the negative, a Dupe Negative was made and then blown up a few thousandths of an inch to cover all the splice tape that held the original negative together.
In anticipation of this new Blu-ray release, the film was digitally restored using the Dupe Negative and a Fine Grain element to capture the best possible image. Every frame was reviewed, and the film received extensive clean up to remove thousands of scratches, bits of dirt, and other damage. Because audio elements to properly up-mix to 5.1 do not exist, the original mono track was remastered, and minor anomalies were corrected. The result is a film returned to its original vibrancy and beauty that remains true to director William Wyler’s vision.
Bonus Features:
– Filmmaker Focus: Leonard Maltin on Roman Holiday
– Behind the Gates: Costumes
– Rome with a Princess
– Audrey Hepburn: The Paramount Years
– Dalton Trumbo: From A-List to Blacklist
– Paramount in the ’50s: Remembering Audrey
– Theatrical Trailers
– Four Photo Galleries: Production, The Movie, Publicity, The Premiere
Dillon is most comfortable sitting around in a theatre all day watching both big budget and independent movies.