"It's true! Varese Sarabande is releasing on March 20th a 2CD set of Alex North's legendary score to Cleopatra (1963), newly remixed and restored in brilliant stereo from the original multitracks at Fox. Here is the official announcement:

CLEOPATRA
Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Elaborately Packaged 2-CD Deluxe Edition!
Music Composed and Conducted by Alex North

Twentieth Century Fox and Varese Sarabande Records present one of the most colossal film score restorations of all time!

Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton and Rex Harrison star in one of the most breathtaking epics in motion picture history -- the story of the Queen of the Nile's tumultuous love affairs with Marc Antony and Julius Caesar. Directed by the great Joseph L. Mankiewicz (All About Eve), CLEOPATRA's astounding recreation of the eighteen years leading up to the formation of the Roman Empire makes for one of the most lavish productions in Hollywood history.

Coming on April 3 from Twentieth Century Fox is a deluxe three DVD set presenting a painstaking restoration of this enormous production. Newly produced for this set is a lavish two-hour documentary telling the turbulent story of the production of one of Hollywood's most infamous and expensive (nearly $400 million when adjusted for inflation) motion pictures. This documentary will also air repeatedly on AMC as part of a tremendous promotional push by the studio. CLEOPATRA is one of the studio's grandest productions and this DVD will be the ultimate presentation of the spectacular epic.

Equally historic is this first ever presentation of over 150 minutes of Alex North's glorious and Academy Award-nominated film score. The composer's own score for Spartacus and Miklos Rozsa's magnificent Ben Hur are perhaps this score's only peers. Recorded with an orchestra of unprecedented size, it is truly one of the most extraordinary scores ever composed for a film. CLEOPATRA has never before been available on CD. An LP of recorded highlights of North's music spent some six months on the charts and was the country's number 2 album for three weeks. Now, for the first time ever, the complete original soundtrack from the film, digitally re-mastered and sounding better than ever, is presented on this elaborately packaged double CD.

CLEOPATRA opened June 12, 1963. The film was nominated for a Best Picture Academy Award. Also receiving Oscar nominations for their work on the film were Rex Harrison (Best Supporting Actor) and Alex North (Best Score). CLEOPATRA was additionally nominated for Best Film Editing and Best Sound and took home Oscars for Cinematography, Art Direction - Set Decoration, Costume Design and Special Effects.

Catalog #: 302 066 224 2
Release Date: 3/20/01"

Excellent news! Methinks me shall have to get me one of these!

unless of course, they delay it by another 5 weeks.

quote:

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Originally posted by Eric Paddon:
With this release, now all that's left of the great epic film scores unaccounted for in a proper CD release is "King Of Kings." Still crossing my fingers that Rhino is going to have an expanded release later this year.

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What are the essential great epic film scores in your opinion? (I'm pretty familiar with Rozsa's output, but not so familiar with other composers).

Incidentally, King of Kings has been on CD before, though the new release - assuming it actually happens - will certainly be an improvement.

Essential ones would have to be:
Ben Hur (Rozsa)
Cleopatra (North)
King Of Kings (Rozsa)
Spartacus (North)
Quo Vadis (Rozsa) (Some rerecordings have been done in the past, which is all we're ever going to get of this)
The Robe (Newman)
The Ten Commandments (Bernstein)
The Greatest Story Ever Told (Newman)
The Bible (Mayuzumi)
Samson And Delilah (Young)