ARCHIVED NEWS - 7th to 14th September 2003

14th September

Expanded pack shots for Warner Home Video's Hammer Horror Resurrected and Horror Classics DVD box sets are now available:

12th September

Pathé Distribution Ltd are releasing a two-disc Special Edition of Luc Besson's outlandish 1997 science fiction action movie The Fifth Element on November the 24th. 

The new disc will have 5.1 DTS and Dolby Digital audio tracks; an anamorphic 2.35:1 transfer (let's hope it's more like the R1 Superbit version from Columbia Tristar than the current Pathé disc) a commentary track by the special effects team, Elements of Style (a featurette about designers Jean–Paul Gaultier and Jean Giraud); Discovering the Fifth Element (a making of... documentary); Imagining the Fifth Element (special effects featurette); The Art of the Fifth Element (with designer Jean-Claude Mezieres); An Audience with Diva Plavalaguna featurette; trailers and TV spots; footage from the Cannes opening night party; storyboard and production notes and The Sixth Element essay. RRP is £19.99.

Menu screens for Warner Home Video's forthcoming Hammer Horror Resurrected box set have been added to the site. You can see them here. Specifications for the new discs have been checked, and have been added to the Hammer on DVD guide. As expected, none of the discs in the box set have any bonus features. Aside from the fact that buying the new Frankenstein Created Woman disc will avoid any problems associated with the American disc (from Anchor Bay), the Resurrected box set will also tempt fans with an anamorphic transfer of Quatermass and the Pit. 

11th September

Australian company Umbrella will be releasing a six-disc DVD box set of episodes of popular 60s ITC series The Saint on November the 11th. 

The episodes have been digitally remastered, and will be presented uncut. The set will also include some bonus material, including an exclusive commentary track (on the first episode, The Talented Husband) by star Roger Moore, Producer Robert S, Baker and Production Supervisor Johnny Goodman. The set also contains a reproduction of an original ITC publicity booklet, rare ITC publicity and memorabilia files, production notes, rare archive footage, image galleries, The Saint on Film text feature and trailers for other ITC series. The episodes will also be accompanied by isolated music and effects audio tracks! The discs are coded for all regions, and will be playable on all UK DVD players. RRP for the set is AU$119.95 (about £49).

The set will contain the first twenty-four episodes, including the whole of the first season: The Talented Husband, The Latin Touch, The Careful Terrorist, The Covetous Headsman, The Loaded Tourist, The Pearls of Peace, The Arrow of God, The Element of Doubt, The Effete Angler, The Charitable Countess, The Golden Journey, The Romantic Matron, The Man Who Was Lucky, The Invisible Millionaire, The Gentle Ladies, The Ever-Loving Spouse, The Saint Sees It Through, The King of The Beggars, The Benevolent Burglary, The Fellow Traveller, Marcia, The Bunco Artists, Judith and The Work of Art.

You can discuss this release in this thread at Roobarb's DVD Forum.

9th September

There's a small but significant update today. I've added a new page here comparing Hammer DVDs from the UK and US. There's been a flood of Hammer discs recently, and there are a lot more on the way, (from Warner Home Video and Momentum: see the News entry for the 5th of September for details). There are a surprising number of Hammer titles available now, but there are a lot of important gaps, too. Hopefully the guide will evolve into a definitive guide to Hammer on DVD. If you have any comments about the guide, including corrections or additions, please get in touch, either via the email link (left) or in this thread at Roobarb's DVD Forum. 

7th September 2003

Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment and Pathé Distribution expands its range of £5.99 titles on the 6th October with nine titles new to DVD: Office Space, A Troll in Central Park, Body Shot, No Escape (aka Escape From Absolom and The Prison Colony), Bushwacked, Johnny Dangerously, Larger Than Life, Polish Wedding and Red Sun Rising.  

To help visitors with slow connections, and to tame spiralling bandwidth use, I've made a few changes to the News section. Basically instead of accumulating  the news for an entire month, there'll be a separate page for each week. You can access previous News pages by clicking on the News Archive button, left.

If you're interested in vintage television, be certain to pick up a copy of the latest boutique publication from the Mausoleum Club website, The Illustrated Gazette - Issue 2. 

The magazine is already shaping up to be an invaluable resource of information about archive programmes. The latest issue contains coverage on Rudolph Cartier's 1968 Theatre 625 play The Fanatics; a previously-unpublished interview with Van Der Valk star Barry Foster; a new interview with Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy star David Dixon; articles on the Late Night Horror episode The Kiss of Blood; a 1971 play, Prisoners, starring Edward Woodward and Warren Mitchell (with contributions from its author, Don Taylor) and the 1965 Play of the Month: Lee Oswald: Assassin. While you're there, you should also check out the site's other publications, which include the first issue of The Pictorial Compendium (which provides extensive episode guides for TV series like Target and Dead of Night) and a special publication about Jackanory in the 1960s. You can get full details from the Publications section of the Mausoleum Club website.

Archived News: 

1st-7th September 2003

August 2003

July 2003