Warner Bros. Home Entertainment has announced the 75th Anniversary Ultimate Collector's Edition Blu-ray release of
Gone with the Wind, which arrives limited and numbered, with new collectible packaging, memorabilia and special features. The new UCE set streets on September 30th.
Synopsis: Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Olivia de Havilland, Leslie Howard and Hattie McDaniel star in the quintessential Hollywood epic that still stands as history's all-time domestic box-office champion ($1.6 billion adjusted for inflation), with more tickets sold than any other movie ever made.
Gone with the Wind opens on the eve of the Civil War. Rich, beautiful and self-centered Scarlett O'Hara (Leigh) has everything she could want. Except, that is, Ashley Wilkes (Leslie Howard). As the war devastates the South, Scarlett discovers the strength within herself to protect her family and rebuild her life. Through everything, she longs for Ashley, unaware that she is already married to the man she really loves (Gable) -- and who truly loves her -- until she finally drives him away. Only then does Scarlett realize what she has lost and tries to win him back.
Gone with the Wind, lauded as one of the American cinema's grandest, most ambitious and spectacular pieces of filmmaking, was helmed by Victor Fleming in 1939, the same year as the director's
The Wizard of Oz. It captured 10 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress for Hattie McDaniel, the first Oscar awarded to an African-American actor. Margaret Mitchell's Pulitzer-prize winning novel, on which the film is based, has been translated into 16 languages, sold hundreds of millions of copies worldwide, and even now, continues to sell 50,000 copies a year.
The Ultimate Collector's Edition memorabilia includes a replica of Rhett Butler's handkerchief and a music box paperweight that plays Tara's theme and bears an image of the Rhett-Scarlett kiss. Also included is a 36-page companion booklet featuring a look at the immortal style of
Gone with the Wind, written by New York fashion designer and Project Runway finalist Austin Scarlett, whose signature look reflects the romantic elegance of the
Gone with the Wind era.
The new special features include footage of Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh attending the original movie premiere in Atlanta and "Old South/New South," a journey through today's South, revisiting the real-life locations depicted to see how the world of the Old South continues to inform life in the New South's cosmopolitan world.
Warner hasn't revealed final cover artwork or packaging photos yet, or detailed the new edition's complete technical specifications or special features.