You know, it came to me while reading your post, perhaps the most important/imperative question you/we could have asked him was whether or not he was familiar with this web board an would he consider posting here.

doesn't the newspaper that offers the bounty say "Sean Mallory"? His name is Sean; he said "John" to Juan cuz he realized Juan never heard of tha name Sean before. I always viewed this as pretty straightforward, and I don't think this has anything whatsoever to do with Sean's friend in the flashbacks

1. I am sure that the Italian company that is taking care of restoring these scenes and releasing the new movie has public contact information. Perhaps someone on these boards who speaks Italian could call them or write them a letter just to clarify this question (ie. whether the new film will be released in America) and maybe some others and post their reply here? That would be mighty cool

2. While the articles that have been linked here have said that the the original audio exists for these new scenes, I wonder if Leone actually completed the full post-production for these scenes, including editing, and most importantly, scoring them? If not, then I guess the Leone children and the "restorers" they are working with will choose among the various songs from the film score and place them in the scenes where they believe it's appropriate?

But I'm sure if the one day version exists it will be sold to the whole world.

well I'd be mighty happy if they indeed posted on these boards

I am not worried about eventually getting my hands on a copy; these days, everything is available through one channel or another. I am just hoping that we'll get a full-scale (theatrical?!) release with official dvd's etc., rather than having to get a copied version off some guy in Italy!

But if it is indeed released only in Italy, I hope that the English audio will be available. (I have never seen any Italian versions of Leone's films, but I assume that since OUATIA was dubbed into Italian, then they'll probably dub these new scenes into Italian as well, rather than using Italian subtitles).

It looks like the unreleased footage already has original audio in English

Leone's children have found a script written by him between 1960 and 1965 about a battle between warriors in Ancient Rome. Inspired by The Magnificent 7. David Franzoni screenwriter of Amistad and The Gladiator is very eager to put together a film based on the script.

Another article reveals that the agreement with Milchan was signed 10 days ago and that Leone thought that the short U.S. version ruined his movie and he would never see it.

It also states that Scorsese has said he is available for the new version. Leone's children are adamant that the fully restored director's cut will be available in 2012.

Thanks for the links! btw, all the articles I have read say that the Leone children have bought the Italian rights to the film. Does that mean the restored version will only be released in Italy? (I may have asked that a couple of times before but I have never gotten a straight answer to that; if anyone knows I'd greatly appreciate it....)

Just saw Harry and Tonto (1974) for the first time yesterday (on Fox Movie Channel). Just completely blown away. This is an absolute 10/10. I never saw Art Carney on screen anywhere other than The Honeymooners (my understanding is that he was primarily a stage actor) before I saw him in this film, and I was absolutely amazed that the goofy "Ed Norton" could deliver such a wonderful performance. That's what makes a great actor:having the ability to step into any role. Carney received a very well-deserved Best Actor Oscar for his performance, beating Al Pacino (Godfather Part II); Jack Nicholson (Chinatown); Dustin Hoffman (Lenny); and Albert Finney (Murder on the Orient Express)

Unbreakable 6/10 -- I should say very clearly: I am not into supernatural movies whatsoever (I only watched it cuz it happened to be on AMC at the time). So I am not pretending to judge it fairly. If you like supernatural films, maybe you'll like this one too. (The only supernatural films I ever liked were "The Shining" and "The Sixth Sense," [though the latter was ruined for me cuz someone told me the ending beforehand])

btw, in response to my original post: so now that we've established - thanks to the info provided by Once - that the scene where Noodles leaves Deborah in the limo after raping her was indeed filmed in Jersey, are we in agreement that the scene must have actually been shot at sunset, rather than at sunrise?