Classic movies coming soon to Blu-ray

No "Star Wars" or "Lawrence of Arabia" on the Blu-ray horizon quite yet, but some classics and old blockbusters are on the way, including a trio of Sean Connery-era Bond movies, an old Cinerama epic, and a classic from the Disney vault.

Indeed, looking at the slate of upcoming Blu releases, it looks like the big movie studios are starting to loosen up and release more of their classic (and, in some cases, not-so-classic) catalog titles on Blu-ray. No, we're not talking a flood of movies here, but the selection of available Blu-ray titles is looking much more interesting than it was a year ago, when I could barely bring myself to buy any discs at all.

So here's a few of the highlights on tap in the next few months—but before I begin, I'd like to tip my hat to High-Def Digest and its comprehensive Blu-ray release schedule; click through to see any and all recent BD announcements.

Classic James Bond
Well, three classic Connery Bonds, anyway: Dr. No, From Russia with Love, and Thunderball (no word on Goldfinger yet). Also, for Roger Moore fans: Live and Let Die and For Your Eyes Only, followed by the last of the Pierce Brosnan Bonds (and the one that wore out his welcome, for me anyway), Die Another Day. All will arrive on October 21, and I'd imagine that we can expect more waves of Blu Bonds in the coming months.

Next time, Jack, write a memo
All of the Jack Ryan movies have already been released on HD DVD, although the best of the bunch—1990's The Hunt for Red October—was only available in a four-disc box set. Now all four movies are set for Blu-ray on July 29—all in individual packages, including Red October ("I know these books, Ryan!").

Uma and Bill
Up to now, only one Quentin Tarantino movie has gotten the HD treatment—Reservoir Dogs, which was released on Blu-ray last year. Now comes word that the two-part Kill Bill series is going the Blu way on September 9 (as separate titles, apparently). The QT classic Pulp Fiction still awaits a Blu-ray release date, unfortunately.

Paul Newman, Jack Nicholson classics
Warner Brothers is dusting off the Paul Newman classic Cool Hand Luke ("Nobody ever eat fifty eggs"), complete with an audio commentary by Newman biographer Eric Lax, while Jack fanatics can revel in the Oscar-sweeping One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Expect Luke on September 9, while Cuckoo should bow on July 15.

Cinerama goes Blu
Here's an interesting one: The Blu-ray release of 1962's How the West Was Won, a classic John Ford western and one of only two feature-length movies shot in the three-panel Cinerama format. One of the cool options on the Blu-ray version of HTWWW (available August 26) will be a "SmileBox" version of the movie, which promises to simulate the deeply-curved Cinerama screen with curved letterboxing on the top and bottom of the screen (a "smile" up top, and a "frown" below). Sounds weird, I know, but it could be interesting—and it's also the only way to display a true, three-panel Cinerama film on a flat screen without distorting the image.

Sleeping Beauty
Disney's animated 1959 masterpiece is one of the studio's first classics to get the Blu-ray treatment, along with a host of Web-enabled BD-Live features (Disney is giving me a demo in New York next week), including real-time chat, a trivia game, and "Movie Mail," which lets you upload video clips and embed them in any scene of the movie (and yes, someone will be moderating all this stuff to keep the creeps away). Look for Sleeping Beauty to awaken on October 7.

Cruise back to the 80s
Before he was jumping on couches, Tom Cruise was busy making some of the biggest movies of the 80s, and two of them are on tap for Blu-ray: the one that started it all, Risky Business (September 26), and the granddaddy of 80s-era blockbusters, Top Gun (July 29, already available on HD DVD).

Check out High-Def Digest for its complete list of upcoming Blu-ray release dates.

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When are Darth, Indy coming to Blu-ray?