Warner readies remastered Woodstock

DVD, Blu-ray release for 40th anniversary

By Susanne Ault -- Video Business, 8/6/2008

AUG. 6 | Warner Home Video is tuning up the release of Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace & Music: The Ultimate Collector’s Edition, on standard DVD and Blu-ray Disc on July 28, 2009, to mark the festival’s 40th anniversary.

Woodstock features the four-hour director’s cut of the remastered film, as well as more than an hour of never-released festival performances from such artists as The Who, Joe Cocker, Canned Heat, Joan Baez and Country Joe McDonald.

Also included is a 40-minute documentary about the culture surrounding the festival, The 60s and the Woodstock Generation by filmmaker Robert Kline.

The director’s cut of Woodstock has been on DVD since 1997, but Warner put the title on moratorium in January and it will remain on hiatus for a year and a half after its Ultimate Collector’s Edition bows next year. Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace & Music also will street as a stand-alone DVD.

Pricing information for the standard-def and Blu-ray versions of the Ultimate Collector’s Edition and stand-alone edition of Woodstock haven’t been specified.

“The music, artists and spirit of Woodstock resonate as strongly today as in 1969,” said Jeff Baker, WHV’s executive VP and general manager of theatrical catalog. “We’re certain the film will strike a chord with those who remember and may have attended Woodstock, but we also believe the music in extended cuts will appeal to today’s youth generation.”