The Immortal Story will make its high definition debut in November with a release on Blu-ray in the United Kingdom.
The U.S. rights are held by Janus Films and there has been no word of a Criterion Collection release.
The British release from Mr. Bongo Films in the UK is set for November 2. It is priced at £13.99.
Mr. Bongo founder and managing director David Buttle told Wellesnet in May that its DVD release of The Immortal Story was taken from a digibeta source, but he was working with Gaumont Film Company to make a HD master from the original negative.
Mr. Bongo has already released Falstaff: Chimes at Midnight and Too Much Johnson on Blu-ray.
Made for French television in 1968, The Immortal Story stars Welles and Jeanne Moreau and is based on a story by Danish author Isak Dinesen.
Set in the Portuguese colony of Macao in1860, Mr. Clay (Welles) is an aging, rich merchant. He likes his clerk Levinsky (Roger Coggio), to read to him to help him relax in the evenings and one night he recounts a tale about a rich man who paid a poor sailor five guineas to father a child with his beautiful young wife. Clay has no wife and no heir to his fortune and resolves to make the story true. Levinsky approaches Virginie Ducrot (Moreau), the daughter of Clay’s one-time business partner. Clay’s dealings drove her father to bankruptcy and suicide, and she is eager to get her revenge. The destitute sailor, a young Englishman named Paul (Norman Eshley), is recruited to take part.
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