ARCHIVED NEWS - 17th TO 23rd MAY 2004

21st May 2004

HBO Films will release John Leguizamo's boxing film Undefeated on July the 5th. The disc will be available exclusively through HMV. Leguizamo wrote, directed and stars in the film, which is about a Latino welterweight boxing prodigy.

The disc will feature an interview with John, a behind-the-scenes featurette and a commentary track. The RRP is £15.99.

HBO Films will be releasing Antonio Banderas' biopic And Starring Pancho Villa As Himself in August, and the star-studded AIDS-themed mini-series Angels in America in September.

Menu screens for Fox's Lost in Space - The Complete Second Series DVDs are now available. Click here to see 'em.

Network accidentally sent us the wrong version of the Dick Turpin press release on Monday. The two-disc set will not include the feature film version of Dick Turpin's Greatest Adventure.

Dick Turpin's Greatest Adventure was made as a co-production with RKO. It was released theatrically in the US, and shown here broken down into episodes and screened on TV. Network are hoping to release Dick Turpin's Greatest Adventure at some point.

The second series of Dick Turpin comprised of thirteen episodes. The first seven episodes were shown in 1980. The remaining six were shown in 1982, after the five parts of Dick Turpin's Greatest Adventure, so these six are often referred to as a fourth series. The DVD will contain all of the episodes made in the second recording block, leaving only the five Dick Turpin's Greatest Adventure episodes unreleased. Clear? Good!

In other Network news, expect the second series of Press Gang to be delayed: the company is adding bonus material to the disc, and it's now unlikely to meet its June 28th release date.

19th May 2004

Fox are releasing twelve back catalogue titles on June the 21st, at the budget price of £9.99. They include two titles new to DVD: Bernardo Bertolucci's Stealing Beauty, which features Liv Tyler and Jeremy Irons, and heist movie Best Laid Plans, which stars Nightbreed's Josh Brolin and Reese Witherspoon. The other titles are Shallow Hal, The Transporter, Resident Evil, Dunston Checks In, Casper: A Spirited Beginning, High Crimes, X-Men, Predator, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Secret of the Ooze and Joe Somebody.

Lee Medcalf has reviewed Wolfgang Petersen's epic action film Troy. Was he impressed by the spectacular battle scenes? Did he feel empathy with the beautiful people? Check out his review to find out! Click here, or on the Troy image in the left-hand column to go to the review.

18th May 2004

Amazon are selling a number of older Doctor Who discs for £9.97, including The Aztecs, The Talons of Weng-Chiang and Tomb of the Cybermen. You can find them here. Thanks to Analogueman, who posted this in The High Street section of the forum.

Speaking of Doctor Who, yesterday's BBC3 episode of Coupling, written, of course, by long-time fan Steven Moffatt, featured several scenes set in a SF shop which contained a Dalek. The episode will be shown again on Sunday. Also, this week's Dead Ringers featured a small role for Big Finish star India Fisher, as a burglar. It also closed with a speech reminiscent of the final Dalek rant in Genesis of the Daleks. The show is repeated on Saturday at 11.15pm, on BBC2.

Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment will release the second series of the kitsch SF TV series Lost in Space on DVD on July the 5th.

The eight-disc set features all thirty colour episodes from the 1966-7 season, including fan favourite The Golden Man, which provided the series with one of its most enduring images, and the "Crush! Kill! Destroy!" episode, Revolt of the Androids. It also includes the doppelganger episode West of Mars, which features an evil Doctor Smith look-alike. (Predictably, this was one of Jonathan Harris' favourite episodes).

The set will contain a twenty-minute stills montage, accompanied by audio interviews. The set will also feature English subtitles. RRP for the set is £49.99. Click here for a larger image.

Network has confirmed their June line-up, which includes the 1968-9 ITC series Strange Report on June the 28th.

Strange Report was a series starring Anthony Quayle as a retired Home Office criminologist, who, along with assistant Hamlyn (Kaz Garas) and next-door neighbour (former Doctor Who assistant Anneke Wills), solved crimes that had Scotland Yard baffled. The series featured a host of familiar faces, including Bernard Lee, Sylvia Sims, John Thaw, Martin Shaw, Ian Ogilvy, Robert Hardy, Anton Diffring and Ray McAnally. The series also features dozens of character actors who will be familiar to fans of other ITC shows, Hammer films and contemporary series like Doctor Who.

Only five episodes of the series were released on VHS, in the early 90s, and the most recent repeat run, on Bravo, skipped three of the unreleased episodes, so the new set will be a real treat for fans of the show.

The five-disc set will feature sixteen digitally-re-mastered episodes. Bonus features include generic and episodic trailers; on-location interviews with Anneke Wills and Kaz Garas; Garas' photo gallery; stills and promotional gallery featuring Roger Webb's original music; script PDFs; a restoration featurette and episode introductions by guest stars including Robert Hardy, Martin Shaw and Xienia Merton. RRP for the set is £49.99.

No sooner is the first series of 3rd Rock From The Sun released on DVD than the second season is announced. 3rd Rock From The Sun - The Complete Season Two will be released on June the 21st as a three-disc set that will contain twenty-six episodes, including the two-part 3D season finale, A Nightmare on Dick Street.

The set will also contain a behind-the-scenes featurette, a blooper reel, an unaired alternate season ending and two pairs of 3D glasses! Guest stars who appeared in the second season, which won eight Emmy awards, include Mark Hamill, Dennis Rodman, Jay Leno and Cybill's Christine Baranaski. RRP is £29.99.

The second series of Richard Carpenter's 1979 LWT action series Dick Turpin will be released on June the 21st. The series starred Richard O'Sullivan as the infamous highwayman, and featured Michael Deeks as his sidekick, Nick "Swiftnick" Smith, and David Daker and Christopher Benjamin as Turpin's enemies, Sir John Glutton and Captain Nathan Spiker.

The two-disc set will contain the seven episodes of the second season, as well as the feature film Dick Turpin's Greatest Adventure (which would seem to be a compiled version of the five-episode third series, from 1981). RRP for the set is £19.99.

The second series of the BAFTA-winning children's series Press Gang will be released on June the 28th. The two-disc set will feature thirteen episodes, which were originally broadcast in 1989. RRP is £19.99.

Network are also releasing the second series of Soldier Soldier on June the 14th. The two-disc set will include seven fifty-minute episodes. RRP is £19.99.

Here be the sleeve images...

17th May 2004

Perhaps it's because it's been a while since it had any real exposure, but people seem to have forgotten just how popular Rab C. Nesbitt was.

When it was originally released on VHS in the early 90s it was a big hit, easily out-selling well-established classics like Dad's Army and Steptoe and Son. So, it's been a bit of a puzzle why the series hasn't been released on DVD before now. Fans of the incorrigible Rab won't have to wait much longer, however, since the first series will be released on July the 5th. It appears that the DVD is being released by a company called John Williams Productions.

Ceri's had some computer problems this week, and has had to abandon this week's updates before they were completed. The information he collated has, however, been absorbed into the relevant pages, so check out the updates to the Incoming and Offers pages.