Film historian and archivist Robert Harris has detailed a flaw in the upcoming West Side Story Blu-ray. As his October 25th Home Theater Forum posting indicates, Harris obtained the UK Blu-ray release and noted that what was originally a dissolve transition from designer Saul Bass' skyline pattern to the main title now appears as a fade-to-black/fade-in transition. According to Harris, this mistake occurred in the HD master of the film; it went unnoticed and eventually appeared in the Blu-ray.
Following Harris' report, Hollywood Elsewhere's Jeffrey Wells investigated further and confirmed that the transition flaw also exists in the North American Blu-ray version streeting on November 15th. Wells wrote that the fault lies not with disc distributor Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment but with MGM Home Entertainment - MGM owns the rights to West Side Story and handled the remastering duties.
With regards to correcting the error, Wells quotes a Fox source as saying the distributor "will not recall the title. It will instead implement what's being called a 'running fix.' This means that if anyone wants to send their West Side Story Blu-ray back, Fox Home Video will accept it and send them a corrected disc down the road."
Wells' source then adds "[Fox is] looking to fix the issue on future discs."