Let It Be and Magical Mystery Tour films being reissued on DVD

More than 40 years after their release, The Beatles' "Let It Be" and the "Magical Mystery Tour" films may finally be coming to Blu-ray and DVD.
"Let It Be" director Michael Lindsay-Hogg, who has making the rounds to promote his autobiography "Luck and Circumstance," spoke about The Beatles in an interview with radio station WNYC-FM.
"We have been been working on it pretty much every year for the last couple of years. And the plan is, at the moment, to have it come out, I think, in 2013," Lindsay-Hogg said.
Lindsay-Hogg also directed the Fab Four's promotional videos for "Paperback Writer," "Hey Jude" and "Revolution," as well as music videos for The Rolling Stones and Paul McCartney and Wings.
A home video release of "Let It Be," featuring outtakes and additional footage highlighting the making of the 1970 documentary, would follow a planned DVD release of the band's self-directed 1967 TV special "Magical Mystery Tour" in 2012, according to Beatles Examiner

Both films were briefly available on VHS in the early 1980s. 
Pirated copies have become popular staples at record collector shows for decades.


Alternate scenes from "Let It Be" and "Magical Mystery Tour" were featured in "The Beatles Anthology," a documentary created by the surviving band members in 1995.

The original trailer for the film "Let it Be"

Related topics: beatles

Source: http://www.masslive.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2011/10/the_beatles_let_it_be_and_magi.htm

Beatles 'Let It Be' director drops hints about DVD's release date


Steve Marinucci, Beatles Examiner, October 17, 2011 
In an appearance Monday on the radio program "Soundcheck" heard on WNYC-FM, "Let It Be" director Michael Lindsay-Hogg, promoting his book "Luck and Circumstance: A Coming of Age in Hollywood, New York, and Points Beyond," gave something real to those wishing and hoping for the film to be released on DVD. 


In answer to a caller's question, Lindsay-Hogg recalled a past meeting talking about the film with Beatle Paul McCartney and, more importantly, gave a timetable for its release on DVD.  
"We bumped into each other on an airplane. It was just before George Harrison died. George was very ill. And George had not had a happy time during the making of 'Let It Be.' For personal reasons. He was about to go out on his own and a lot of other things like that. And we knew it probably would not be re-released in George's lifetime. But, we have been been working on it pretty much every year for the last couple of years. And the plan is, at the moment, to have it come out, I think, in 2013.


"This is after they release 'Magical Mystery Tour' as a special DVD release. And it'll be the film itself, the original film -- the color's great, the soundtrack is perfect -- with a No. 2 DVD which will be a documentary about the making of the documentary ('Let It Be')."
He says that second disc will be filled with the film's outtakes. 


"When we first put 'Let It Be' out, I had to cut out a lot of stuff that I really like and wanted to stay in there. The stuff in the new DVD has a lot of the stuff that had to be cut out. So for me, it's like the egg is now complete."


Besides "Let It Be," in the interview, Lindsay-Hogg talks about his work on the landmark British music show "Ready, Steady Go!" and on the Rolling Stones film, "Rock and Roll Circus." About the latter film, he said film cannisters for it languished in a bathroom, then in pianist Ian Stewart's barn before the film finally was released. 


You can (and should) hear or download the entire interview at http://www.wnyc.org/shows/soundcheck/2011/oct/17/father-music-video/, where you can also see a video clip from "Ready Steady Go" with the Rolling Stones doing "Paint It Black" that's discussed in the interview.


(Thanks to Mike Rapsis.)

Source: http://www.examiner.com/beatles-in-national/beatles-let-it-be-director-says-dvd-of-film-is-the-works