Get back pushed back?

DVD edition of The Beatles: Get Back. © Apple Corps Ltd/ Disney

The Blu-ray Disc and DVD release of The Beatles: Get Back, Peter Jackson’s acclaimed documentary that was a streaming hit on Disney+ as a three-part miniseries, had been slated for Feb. 8 in the USA but has been delayed due to a technical issue, a Disney spokesperson announced yesterday, January 31, 2022.

A new street date is pending, according to a news item in Mediaplay News yesterday.
This morning, a Target customer reported on Facebook that he had received an email from the company, apologising that the release has been delayed until September 8. Meanwhile, the official Beatles Store still says expected ship date is March 01, 2022. Amazon in the UK has labeled the Blu-ray release “temporarily out of stock”, although that status has been there for a long while. Outside the USA, the release date has been February 28 ever since it was announced, and the official Beatles store for the UK and Europe still announces it with that date, as does HMV. In Germany, the date is March 3.

Fans hoping for an uninterrupted rooftop concert at the IMAX screening were disappointed with the fact that the only new thing about that version was the huge screen and a new IMAX mix of the sound. Giles Martin had actually gone to the Twickenham Film Studios to mix it anew, since that’s the location of the only facility for mixing for IMAX in the U.K. But the film itself was identical to the rooftop segment in the last episode of the Disney+ documentary series. The bystanders interviews and the waiting cops were still there, with the sound of the concert becoming just a distant echo in the background.

In a Q&A before the IMAX screening of the film, filmmaker Peter Jackson once again urged people to demand an “extended cut” of the documentary series to be released, adding that he has four or five extra hours he would have liked to include.

Jackson and his team has also interviewed a bunch of the people who were up on the rooftop with the Beatles about their experience, hoping that some of that material could be included in an upcoming release of Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s original 1970 “Let It Be” film. That film has been slated for a future outing of some sorts, although how and when has not been decided upon yet by Apple.


Update:
The Fab 4 Free For All podcast posted this: Just got word direct from a Disney spokesperson who said the following:

“We did learn recently that the Blu-ray and DVD release will be delayed but we do not yet know the release date. So any new date is definitely a rumor. We will share the new release date once we have it, so please let your listeners know.”


Update II:
The Digitalbits has posted this information: “Disney has informed us today that their 2/8 Blu-ray and DVD release of the Peter Jackson documentary The Beatles: Get Back is being delayed. Apparently, the studio caught an audio glitch in the release at the last minute and needs to correct it. So just be aware of the delay, and we’ll post updates here direct from the studio when they reschedule the title with a new street date.”

So the delay was not because Disney wanted to give us an extended edition or add on a ton of bonus features, include the January 31, 1969 session, let us enjoy a full, uninterrupted rooftop concert with just The Beatles, or other goodies. There’s currently an online petition you may want to add your signature to, should you wish for those kinds of things.

It may have been the supermarket chain Target who discovered the sound problem, since they were quick to inform their customers. This is not the first time a Beatles-related Home Cinema release have been plagued by problems with the audio. Back in 2012, Eagle Rock shipped blu-rays of Wings RockShow with audio problems and customers had to complaint to get replacement discs. The recently released UHD “A Hard Day’s Night” in 4K by Criterion also had some problems and has been recalled “due to technical problems”. At the Home Theater Forum, it was pointed out that the problem was that the new restoration has some incorrect shots inserted at two points in the movie: At 1:23:14 into the movie The Beatles are singing “She Loves You”, and there is a shot of John singing something else. Then near the end at 1:24:43 just after the line “You’re a Swine,” the title song starts and as The Beatles start to walk out, it switches back to the video control room and you can see The Beatles singing “If I Fell “with the blonde woman adjusting the screens again.

26 Responses

  1. Rick says:

    So Disney is probably waiting for this Christmas season to release it

  2. Rich M says:

    Hopefully Disney have come to their senses and realised the is a market for an extended version with bonus content

    • Actimel says:

      Or Di$n€y just keep delaying it till 2069 so we can be happy about streaming only the full 56 hours of footage for only 25$ a month? The problem though is that most of us and even some younger fans today will not be alive by that year…

    • Rick says:

      Don’t hold your breath

  3. G.D. Wilde says:

    Let’s hope they realised they were about to release substandard product (as in merely an inferior-quality copy of the excellent series, alreday available, but locked into the Disney streaming service), and are now in the process of improving it? One can but hope …

  4. Achmet says:

    Fugh You Disney

  5. Juan says:

    Ha! Keeping the tradition of delaying this product. I love it

  6. James Peet says:

    Maybe D@$%#y have realised that this is the Beatles, and their normal policy of not issuing Director’s cuts don’t apply. I’m not hopefully of the Let It Be film being released on a BD/DVD. Is it me, but do the interested parties seem to be making it up as they go along?

  7. admin says:

    Fab 4 Free For All podcast posted: Just got word direct from a Disney spokesperson who said the following:

    “We did learn recently that the Blu-ray and DVD release will be delayed but we do not yet know the release date. So any new date is definitely a rumor. We will share the new release date once we have it, so please let your listeners know.”

  8. Jools says:

    The bootleg market will have cleaned up by then….. most of the audio been available for years.

  9. bob says:

    I’d like to look at this as a positive development from the Mouse House, but I’m not so sure. Time will tell. It just seems so badly bungled. So much material being overlooked. Director’s cut, physical copy of the rooftop performance and the original LIB movie. To steal from an old Kinks LP…Give The People What They Want.

  10. Ronald says:

    Peter Jackson is a fan! He is calling for the fans to support him!

    • Mike H says:

      Agreed completely that Peter Jackson is a fan!
      If the delay is due to what many of us have been clamoring for which is extra hours in a director’s cut and the full rooftop performance, then we will have Disney to thank. It will be worth the wait.
      Anyone know in what manner we can make our feelings known to Disney?

    • Rick says:

      If he’s such a fan then he never should’ve let Disney get their greedy hands on it in the 1st place.

      • Mike H says:

        It wasn’t his call as to who distributed the movie. He was contracted to edit it.

      • Blakey says:

        Nothing to do with Peter Jackson who distributes the film. Apple and the (two remaining) Beatles are to blame for this whole mess. They could have kept the project in house and had as many extras as they wanted on it. But now – because of their greed – they have to ask the permission of Disney if an extended version can be done. I mean, The Beatles having to get someone else’s permission to put bonus features on their own work?! I ask you? It’s quite laughable, but Apple only have themselves to blame…

        • Shad+Radna says:

          Apple aren’t in the film distribution business. It’s not greed that drives you to give someone a cut of the take of your movie for distributing it for you. And the estates of the two deceased Beatles have an equal say in these decisions.

        • Arno says:

          Do you have any proof that Apple made such a bad deal, that Disney are free to do whatever they want regarding all the audio and videomaterial and that Apple now has to ask to change the product? I’m sure that Olivia, Sean, Ringo and Paul all made a 100% watertight deal of what they wanted from Disney, otherwise proof me I’m wrong. Apple shopped around with the project and Disney made the best offer. We are not back to 1962 and bad deals for The Beatles/EMI and later th-shirts, buttons, pencils, photos, cups and cans and whatever. They have learned a lot! Please notice their sky high royalty on all kinds of products with their name, And now Amazon, E-Bay etc don’t sell cheap Beatlescopies of pillows, shoes and whatever made in China. Universal only release what Apple wants, and each Beatle family has to accept the project before it’s a go ahead. So no voting 1-3 or 2-2. Only 4 pro the project is a go. This is cyrstalclear from the Apple contract as found on Companies House in England and is public available. So I see no mess. It us the fans that don’t know what has been ordered and we had expected to get 20 blu-ray’s with the video and 200 cd cd’s with the audio in a superbox and 4 volues of pictures each 500 pages strong with the complete Collection of what were done in january 1969. Let’s see what happens and stop complaining. We will get what was planned. You don’t do 100.000 new boxes overnight because of wants from the fans.

  11. Rich says:

    Looks like there was an issue with the sound which is why you got pushed back but eight more months?

  12. Rickenbacker620 says:

    “We are writing to share some news about The Beatles: Get Back 3-Disc Blu-ray Collector’s Edition you purchased from The Beatles Official Store.

    Due to technical and supply chain issues, the release date for this item has been delayed. We sincerely apologize for the delay, and any inconvenience this may cause. We love “The Beatles: Get Back,” and we look forward to sharing a new release date soon.

    Please respond to this email with any questions or concerns, or if you would like to cancel your order due to this delay.

    We again apologize for any inconvenience, and thank you for your patience and understanding.

    Regards,
    The Beatles Official Store”

  13. Blaze says:

    The original film has the complete versions of LET IT BE, THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD, and TWO OF US that the Beatles recorded the day after the rooftop concert. Why did Peter Jackson leave those performances out of his film? Makes no sense to me.

    • Juan says:

      I’d think because the whole idea of the project is the final show which was the rooftop. Whatever happened after it is filler, besides, it was mentioned by him from the beginning that there weren’t going to be any full songs.

  14. kozmo says:

    I have this DVD on pre-order from the Amazons, but given these delays (?) and without any “bonus” material, if I find a reputable source before an official, barebones release, I will go with it. Because everything else is only vapor.

  15. jrs says:

    Amazon UK now saying release date 31st December

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