Paramount DVD + Blu-ray 1/24/12

After years of false starts, Paramount Pictures has confirmed that Wings will finally be released on DVD (and Blu-ray) on January 24, 2012.

Update 11/15/11: Full information is now available:

The discs are coming from Paramount. Retail prices are $24.99 DVD, $29.99 Blu-ray. Both discs have the featurette Wings: Grandeur in the Sky. Two other featurettes are included on the Blu-ray only: Restoring the Power and Beauty of Wings and Dogfight!.

Further update 11/16/11: In its press release, Paramount stated that the DVD was copied from a duplicate negative (the original having been destroyed many years ago), but that that negative itself had so much damage that it could only be repaired using state-of-the-art equipment and techniques, restoring it frame-by-frame. The original tinting has been restored, using a surviving continuity script as reference, and the original paper score was borrowed from the Library of Congress and recorded with a full orchestra. Also, sound engineers from Skywalker Sound added sound effects using library sounds from earlier eras to reconstruct the sound effects heard in the film in 1927.

Paramount has been promising a release of this first-ever Oscar-winner for Best Picture for a long time. They could just as easily have put all three bonus features on the DVD as well (obviously trying to boost Blu-ray sales), but extras are only a side matter. The only important thing is that the film itself has been properly restored and is finally being released.