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ARCHIVED NEWS - 7th-14th FEBRUARY 2005 |
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9th March 2005
Bonus features on the set include commentary tracks on four of the five episodes, a sneak preview of season four (currently in production), and a look at MacFarlane's latest endeavour, American Dad. Fans of the series will realise that the commentary tracks for these episodes are new - they weren't included on the previous releases, either here (on the Family Guy - Uncovered box set bonus disc), or on the R1 version. Kudos to Fox for not taking the easy option, which would have been to simply recycle material that had already been released. Commentary participants are: Road To Rhode Island - Brian and Stewie; To Love and Die in Dixie - Seth MacFarlane, Daniel Palladino, Steve Callaghan, Danny Smith and Mike Henry; I Am Peter Hear Me Roar - Seth MacFarlane, Chris Sheridan, Alex Borstein, Craigh Hoffman; Lethal Weapons - Seth MacFarlane, Chris Sheridan, Garrett Donovan and Steve Callaghan. RRP for the new disc is £12.99.
Bonus features on the disc will include Outpatients Outtakes and an Easter Egg. As usual, the episodes will be presented in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen format, with Dolby Digital 2.0 audio. The RRP is £44.99.
Warner Home Video will release two
Further the the information announced on January the 17th, about the Miss Congeniality Special Edition disc, Warner has also announced Miss Congeniality - The Deluxe Edition Giftset, which will include the CD soundtrack for Miss Congeniality 2: Armed & Fabulous, which features tracks from artists including Pink, Natasha Bedingfield, Thelma Houston, Paul Anka and Ike and Tina Turner. Both discs are due on March the 21st, four days before the sequel gets a theatrical release. RRP for the Giftset is £24.99. Here's sleeve art for the two new Miss Congeniality discs...
Buena Vista will release Zach Braff's excellent drama Garden State on May the 5th. The film, about a young man who returns to his New Jersey home town to attend his mother's funeral, and encounters a quirky soul mate, features Scrubs star Braff, Natalie Portman, Peter Sarsgaard and Ian Holm. The disc will feature two commentary tracks: one by writer / actor / director Braff and Portman, and a second by Braff, director or photography Lawrence Sher, editor Myron Kerstein and production designer Judy Becker; deleted scenes with optional commentary; a Making of... featurette; outtakes and bloopers and a promo' spot for the soundtrack. Aside from a note that the film will feature closed captions, no technical details were announced. This seems to be identical to the US disc, which has a 2.35:1anamorphic format, with 5.1 Dolby Digital audio. Here's Buena Vista's schedule for the next couple of months: 14th March - Finding Neverland, One From The Heart, Kim Possible: A Stitch in Time, Chip 'N' Dale - Volumes 1 & 2, Mickey's Laugh Factory, Donald's Laugh Factory, Extreme Sports Fun, Jasmine's Enchanted Tale - Journey of a Princess, Disney Princess Stories Volume 1 - A Gift From The Heart, The Magical World of Pooh - Volumes 7 & 8, Timon and Pumbaa: Dining Out With Timon and Pumbaa - Volume 2, Timon and Pumbaa: On Holiday - Volume 3 18th March - The Incredibles 21st March - Power Rangers Ninja Storm: Cyber Clash 4th April - Chronological Donald, Mickey in Living Colour Volume 2 11th April - Alice In Wonderland, Dumbo 18th April - Power Rangers: Day of the Dino, Ella Enchanted 25th April - National Treasure 9th May - The Aviator 16th May - Garden State 6th June - Ladder 49 Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment will finally release the Director's Cut of Daredevil on DVD on May the 2nd, almost six months after the Region 1 version was released. The disc features a new version of the film, with approximately thirty minutes of additional footage, including the sub-plot featuring Coolio's character, who was featured in the trailers for the theatrical edit. By all accounts, the new version of the film is grittier, and more brutal, with less emphasis on the relationship between Matt Murdock and Elektra. Bonus features on the new disc include a new commentary track, by director Mark Steven Johnson and producer Avi Arad and a featurette comparing the two versions, Giving The Devil His Due (US version: 15m). The disc will be presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen format, with DTS 5.1 audio. The RRP is £19.99. Elektra will be released on May the 30th.
It looks like the
Universal will release the first season of Michael Mann and Dick Wolf's slick 80s cop series Miami Vice on April the 25th. The eight-disc set features all twenty-two episodes of the 1984-5 season, including the Pilot episode. The series has been re-mastered, and features a remixed 5.1 surround soundtrack, featuring performers like U2, Elvis Presley and the Rolling Stones. The set features about half an hour of bonus material, including The Vibe of Vice ("how Miami Vice changed the face of television"), Building the Perfect Vice ("from development to primetime"), The Style of Vice ("how Miami Vice's trend-setting fashions gave the series its signature look and influence pop culture), The Music of Vice ("how Miami vice transformed television storytelling, attracting music's biggest stars to the series") and Miami After Vice (how the city of Miami has evolved since the 80s). The set has an RRP of £49.99.
Following last week's announcement of a new edition of Tinto Brass' Salon Kitty from US label Blue Underground (News - 2nd March) comes news of the UK release of a "fully restored Director's Cut" release of the film, in its original widescreen format, featuring "21 minutes of never-seen-before footage". (As with most UK press releases, "never-seen-before" this probably discounts discs from other regions). The UK version, from Argent Films, will be released on April the 25th. Bonus features include an exclusive interview with Brass (in English, 24m), the theatrical trailer, and trailers for Argent's Forbidden Fruits and Westerns Trail releases. The Brass interview on the two-disc limited edition Blue Underground Salon Kitty set ran for fifteen minutes, so this should indeed be exclusive to this new UK edition. The RRP is £19.99. Finally, here, hot off whatever the electronic equivalent of the presses is, is the sleeve art for Momentum's forthcoming Total Recall disc... enjoy!
7th March 2005 Ceri has updated the Incoming page with new information about forthcoming titles, including details of all of Network's March and April titles, and a provisional release date for Scorsese's terrific The Aviator.
The set will feature a DTS 5.1 audio mix (no other technical details were announced), and "cast and crew feature commentaries" (probably the Ron Howard and Jim and Marilyn Lovell tracks from the old version, as per the equivalent new R1 release). It will also feature the Lost Moon - The Triumph of Apollo 13 documentary (from the old disc), as well as a new documentary about man's achievements in space over the last forty-five years, Conquering Space: The Moon and Beyond (45m), and a featurette where members of Mission Control and the space crew recount their own recollections of the Apollo 13 story, Lucky 13: The Astronauts' Story (12m). The disc will also include an original theatrical trailer (3m). Oddly, there's no mention on the press release about the second disc featuring the IMAX version of the film - a key selling point of the forthcoming R1 version, which is due on March the 29th. RRP for the new disc is £19.99. 2 Entertain will release the third season of Footballers Wives as a nine-episode, three-disc box set on April the 25th. The set, which has an RRP of £24.99, will feature exclusive bonus materials: cast interviews, outtakes, plus "Hazel Baileys tour of Earls Park" (sic). The company will also issue the sixth series of Bad Girls, on the 20th of June. The four-disc box set will feature all twelve episodes, plus exclusive bonus cast interviews, outtakes, and a feature on Bad Girls The Musical. RRP for the set is £34.99.
There seems to be nothing to be gained from summarising this press release from Tartan about their forthcoming Paul Morrissey box set, so here it is in its entirety... Tartan Video’s Paul Morrissey boxset has been postponed because the director himself has become personally involved in the project. With all three films – Flesh, Trash, and Heat – all being fully passed uncut for the first time in the UK, Tartan plans on making its boxset the very best possible. Newly mastered prints will ensure maximum picture quality and sound, whilst Morrissey is making a whole series of extras available to include in the package. These will include some short films, deleted scenes, and fascinating behind-the-scenes footage of life in The Factory. In addition, negotiations are underway to access commentaries and voice-overs. While all the materials are being sourced and approved, Tartan has postponed the release date. It is hoped that the boxset will be re-scheduled for a July release. Full details will be announced nearer the time. MGM Home Entertainment has announced its April releases. As usual with MGM, there are scant technical details, and information about bonus features - where there are any - are sketchy. Many of these titles have been featured here and on the Incoming page for some time, so this is a quick summary.
A Fistful of Dollars' bonus features include A New Kind of Hero; a Clint Eastwood featurette, A Few Weeks in Spain; Monte Hellman's analysis of the prologue, Not Ready For Primetime; three friends reminiscing about Leone in Cinque Voci; The Lost Prologue, shot in the 70s, with Harry Dean Stanton; radio spots; and a double bill trailer for A Fistful of Dollars and For A Few Dollars More.
For A Few Dollars More will include
A New Standard, which features Frayling discussing Leone in a
featurette titled A New Standard; Back For More Eastwood
interview;
A Fistful of Dynamite (aka Duck You Sucker!) will feature the missing ending; Sir Christopher Frayling's The Myth of Revolution; co-writer Sergio Donati Remembers Duck You Sucka!; a behind-the-scenes look at the Leone exhibit at The Autry Exhibition, Once Upon A Time In Italy; Sorting Out The Versions featurette on the various versions of the film;
Two collections of six episodes from the 1990s Outer Limits series are being released on April the 11th, with £15.99 RRPs. These are Aliens Among Us and Sex and Science Fiction collections. Episodes included are I Hear You Calling and Second Soul on Aliens Among Us and Bits of Love and Caught In The Act on Sex and Science Fiction. Oddly, these don't match the two collections released in the US. They had the Sex and Science Fiction collection (which also included Valerie 23, The Human Operators, Skin Deep and Flower Child) and a compilation called Time Travel and Infinity, (which featured A Stitch in Time, Tribunal, Gettysburg. Time To Time, Déjà Vu and Patient Zero). The Time Travel and Infinity collection was being listed by some retailers, along with the other two R2 sets, but this seems to have been dropped. More comprehensive collections of episodes from the series (most of the first two seasons, and all of the third season) have been released in Canada, but these are apparently the censored (non-cable TV) versions.
According to the press release, The Amityville Horror took more at the box office in 1979 than Alien and Moonraker. Hard to believe, isn't it? In fact only one 1979 film appears to have grossed more than The Amityville Horror: [click and drag to reveal what it is: Kramer vs Kramer]. Anyway, the new set will feature more than four hours of bonus material, including "audio commentaries, all-new documentaries and two History Channel features about the real-life, horrific story of the house". The R1 equivalent only has one commentary, by parapsychologist Dr Hans Holzer, and, according to the proof sleeve, the R2 version will have the same commentary. MGM's proof sleeves are often inaccurate, though, so take it - and the claims of their press release - with a pinch of salt. RRP is £15.99.
Previous Zeta Minor News entries can viewed here. |
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Fox
will release a best of... disc of episodes from their animated
series Family Guy on April the 18th. The disc, The
Freakin' Sweet Collection, features five episodes picked by series
creator Seth McFarlane. These are Road To Rhode Island (a spoof of
the Crosby / Hope Road To... movies), To Love and Die in Dixie
(which finds the Griffin family enrolled in the witness protection
programme), I Am Peter Hear Me Roar (Peter is given awareness
training after being accused of sexual harassment, and gets in touch with
his feminine side), Lethal Weapons, and the unaired episode When
You Wish Upon a Weinstein.
Warner
Home Video will release the fourth season of ER on May the 16th.
The four-disc set will feature all twenty-two episodes (presumably, as
before, some discs will be DVD-18s). The season was the first to feature
Alex Kingston as Doctor Elizabeth Corday, and the only one to feature
Maria Bello as Doctor Anna Del Amico.
Paramount
will release the recent comedy Without A Paddle on April the 18th.
The film, about three friends who go on a disastrous Deliverance-style
Oregon camping trip, stars Seth Green, Matthew Lillard and Dax Shepard.
The disc will feature a commentary by director Steven Brill, a video
commentary by the cast and director; MTV's Making The Movie: Without A
Paddle featurette; thirteen additional scenes with optional director
commentary; and a theatrical trailer. No technical specifications were
available. RRP for the disc is £17.99.
Universal
Pictures will release a two-disc Special Edition version of Ron Howard's
Apollo 13 on April the 11th, thirty-five years to the day after the
real Apollo 13 launched.
Leading
their releases are two-disc Special Edition versions of three
Sergio Leone Spaghetti Westerns: A Fistful of Dollars, For A Few
Dollars More and A Fistful of Dynamite. All three films have
been digitally restored and re-mastered, with new Dolby Digital 5.1 audio
mixes (there's no word if the original audio mixes will be available as an
option).
The
company will also release a two-disc Special Edition of The
Amityville Horror, on April 11th.
Other
April releases include the recent Al Pacino version of The Merchant of
Venice (11th April, £15.99), Stargate SG-1 Volume 40 (25th
April, £19.99), Stargate Atlantis - Volume 2 (11th April, £19.99),
the Zeffirelli / Domingo adaptation of Otello (18th April, £15.99),
the post-apocalypse SF flick Cherry 2000 (11th April, £12.99),
b-movie thriller Retroactive; and the awful Michael Biehn / Patsy
Kensit identity-crisis flick Timebomb (11th April, £12.99); 
