Warner Home Video has postponed the release of John Schlesinger's adaptation of Far From The Madding Crowd, which was due on 28th of June, for "technical reasons". It will now be released on August the 2nd. The other titles in the package, Anna Karenina, The Beggar's Opera and Three Sisters, will be released on June 28th as planned.

High Fliers will release the Charlize Theron serial killer movie Monster on August the 2nd, for rental only. The retail version, via Metrodome, will follow on October 18th, with "a full array of special features".

The first season of Jerry Bruckheimer's latest crime drama series, Without a Trace, will be released by Warner Home Video on August 30th. The series, which is currently airing on Channel 4, stars Anthony LaPaglia as FBI Missing Persons Bureau Agent Jack Malone, who's job is to track down runaways, abductees and absconders.

The Without a Trace - The Complete First Season DVD set will contain twenty-three episodes, including the Pilot episode and the two-part season finale, Fall Out. Bonus features include a commentary track on the Pilot episode; a featurette on Bruckheimer's inspiration for the series, The Motive (15m); a featurette on the show's look and feel, Fingerprints (10m) and Deleted Scenes - Missing Evidence.

The press release says that the series will be presented in 4:3 format, but this happened with the recent R1 announcement, too, and that's since been corrected. It's been confirmed that the US set will be 1.78:1 anamorphic, and it seems likely that the UK version will be identical. The audio is in Dolby Digital 2.0 audio. The set will feature English and English SDH subtitles. RRP is £59.99.

The second series of Without a Trace will start airing on Channel 4 on August the 9th.

Premier Asia are releasing a three-disc Special Collector's Edition DVD box set of Ichi The Killer on July the 5th. The set, which has an RRP of £24.99, will feature a 16:9 anamorphic version of the film with 5.1 audio, commentary by Bey Logan, actress Alien Sun and producer Eliot Tong; an interview gallery with director Takashi Miike and stars Tadanobu Asano, Aileen Sun and Shinya Tsukamoto; trailers; behind-the-scenes footage; photo and artwork gallery; Alien Sun glamour photo gallery; biographies and filmographies and a Premier Asia showcase. Don't forget that the UK version of Ichi is cut by more than three minutes. Oddly that wasn't in the press release.

Optimum Home Entertainment is releasing three vintage classics on July the 19th: Howard Hawks' 1949 comedy romance I Was A Male War Bride; and two Samuel Fuller films - his 1953 espionage thriller Pick Up on South Street and 1957 Western romance Forty Guns. No technical details were available. RRP for the discs is £15.99 each. 

Warner Home Video will release three Triple Feature box sets on the 16th of August, showcasing three acclaimed European directors: Jean Luc Godard, Jean Renoir and Luis Buñuel.

The Godard DVD box set will feature the 1965 science-fiction masterpiece Alphaville, the jaunty 1961 musical Une Femme Est Une Femme (Godard's first film in colour and in Cinemascope) and the revolutionary 1960 drama Le Petit Soldier. All three films will be presented in mono. Alphaville and Le Petit Soldier will be in 1.33:1 format, Une Femme Est Une Femme's ratio is TBC.

The Renoir box set comprises the superb 1937 WW1 prison camp drama La Grande Illusion, his noirish 1938 thriller La Bête Humain and his 1936 film about the boss of a small printing company who disappears in mysterious circumstances, Le Crime de Monsieur Lange. All three films will be presented in 1.33:1 ratio, with mono audio.

The Buñuel set features the infamous 1967 erotic drama Belle de Jour, his scathing 1946 film Diary of a Chambermaid, and La Voie Lactée (The Milky Way), his offbeat 1970 road movie about two monks on a pilgramage. Belle de Jour and La Voie Lactée will be presented in 1.66:1 ratio; Diary of a Chambermaid will be 2.35:1. All films will have mono audio.

The three sets will each have an RRP of £29.99.

16th June 2004

Sad to report the death of film producer Max J. Rosenberg, who died on Monday, aged 89. Rosenberg was the co-founder of Amicus, the company that produced a string of favourite films, including a string of wonderful horror anthology movies like Asylum, Doctor Terror's House of Horrors and The House That Dripped Blood, and the two Peter Cushing Doctor Who movies.

 Rosenberg formed a formidable partnership with Milton Subotsky which lasted for more than two decades, producing many films I've enjoyed countless times, including their series of prehistoric epics The Land That Time Forgot, The People That Time Forgot and personal favourite At The Earth's Core. Rosenberg's output dwindled in the late 70s, as his style of movie fell out of fashion. In 1982 he was an un-credited producer on another guilty pleasure, Paul Schrader's poetic Cat People.

Warner Home Video is releasing a box set of Marx Brothers movies on August the 23rd. The six-disc set will include A Night At The Opera, A Day At The Races, At The Circus, Go West, The Big Store and A Night in Casablanca. The films will be presented in their original 1.37:1 ratio, with mono audio.

Bonus features on the set include:

A Night At The Opera (1935): commentary track by film historian Leonard Maltin, a new thirty-four minute documentary, Remarks on Marx, an extract from The Hy Gardner Show featuring Groucho (5m); MGM short Saturday Night at the Trocadero and Robert Benchley's Oscar-winning short How To Sleep.

A Day At The Races (1937): commentary track by The Marx Brothers Encyclopaedia author Glenn Mitchell; a new documentary, On Your Marx, Get Set, Go! (28m); four shorts - Robert Benchley's Academy Award-nominated A Night At The Movies, plus MGM cartoons Gallopin' Gals, Mama's New Hat and Old Smokey.

At The Circus (1939): Our Gang comedy short Dog Daze (11m) and MGM cartoon Jitterbug Follies (9m).

Go West (1940): two short films - Pete Smith Specialty Quicker 'n a Wink (9m) and Fitzpatrick Traveltalk Cavalcade of San Francisco (9m), and cartoon The Milky Way (8m).

The Big Store (1941): MGM short Flicker Memories (8m) and MGM cartoon Officer Pooch (8m).

A Night in Casablanca (1946): Bugs Bunny Looney Tunes cartoon Acrobatty Bunny (8m) and a Joe McDoakes short So You Think You're a Nervous Wreck? (11m)

RRP for the set is £59.99

Optimum Releasing will release Ryehei Kitamura's Japanese fantasy film Azumi on August the 2nd. The film, based on Yu Koyama's popular comic book, will be supplemented by a behind-the-scenes documentary, Fighting On The Edge: The Making of Azumi, and a featurette, Battle on the Wild Side. RRP for the disc is £19.99.

14th June 2004

We begin this week as we ended last week, with more information about the UK DVD release of the second season of Fox's cult teen drama Roswell, which is due on August the 9th. 

I've now seen the discs, and can clarify what the bonus features actually are. A Little Something Extra For The Fans is a five-minute clips montage showing how some the relationships between the key characters developed. The Storyboard feature is a minute long, and compares storyboards with the finished shots for the episode Wipe Out! The Art of Composing Roswell is, as you might expect, an interview with musician Joe Williams, and this runs for four minutes. The Shiri and Majandra Show is a ten-minute on-the-sofa chat with actresses Shiri Appleby and Majandra Delfino (who played Liz and Maria, respectively). In addition to the commentary tracks, which were listed in last week's News page, the set also includes a DVD trailer for the season one set.

The episodes feature Dolby Digital 5.1 audio at 448kbps. A selection of menu screens, and a shot from the The Shiri and Majandra Show, are available here.

The DVD release of the 1970s ITC series Timeslip is eagerly anticipated, and I've had a chance to take a look at the first couple of discs in the set (the ones containing the first two stories, The Wrong End of Time and The Time of the Ice Box). Carlton have done a tremendous job in re-mastering the series from the surviving black-and-white 16mm telerecordings (and the surviving colour episode, the final episode of The Time of the Ice Box). Although the episodes still look a little fuzzy, it looks like Carlton have wrung out every particle of detail from the source material, and they exhibit good tonal range. The colour episode is problematic, in that the lighting it often poor (for example, several key speeches play out with shadows cast over the actors' faces), and a handful of exterior shots are set at twilight, which makes things very murky indeed.

A plus point is that the discs feature the caption cards that book-ended the adverts have been preserved. These were routinely removed from the old ITC VHS versions, usually resulting in missing footage and awkward transitions. There's even a bit of original ITC leader film to be discovered.

From what I've seen so far, fans with ITC Video's VHS versions will be delighted with the new discs. If nothing else, the DVD set will save them about a foot of shelf space!

A selection of the set's (frankly horrible) menu screens, and a couple of screen grabs from the colour episode, to whet your appetites, are available here.

There are two new competitions this week, offering you the chance to win a copy of the thrilling John Grisham courtroom drama Runaway Jury, or a set of three new Hammer horror releases, Taste the Blood of Dracula, Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed and Dracula Has Risen From The Grave. Click on the banners, above, or here for the Runaway Jury competition, or here for the Hammer horror competition.

The winners of our Lord of the Rings - Return of the King competition were Simon Ireson, Mephistopheles and Mary Malcolm. They knew that it was Frodo who carried the ring. Congratulations to them, and my thanks to Entertainment in Video for supplying the prizes (and so promptly, too!)

Here's Ceri, with his update of all the week's news that required a touch more work than sitting back and waiting for a press release to turn up. Oh, and he might save you a few quid, too. Take it away, maestro...

Hi everyone, there’s some interesting information from the BBFC this week, along with all the usually juicy gubbins from the retailers…

Let’s start with the TV additions and changes to Incoming this week…

First up, is the big news that the BBC’s 1954 adaptation of Nineteen Eighty-Four has been cleared by the BBFC for DD Video. The adaptation was written by Nigel Kneale, directed by Rudolph Cartier and starred Peter Cushing and Andre Morell. The play was long thought to be prevented from release due to copyright restrictions imposed by the producers of Michael Radford’s 1984 film version. So far the release isn’t being listed yet by the retailers.

DD Video have also had cleared the superb play on the life of Stephen Hawking recently broadcast on BBC 2, which starred Benedict Cumberpatch, Dempsey and Makepeace’s Michael Brandon and John Sessions, entitled Hawking. Cleared with the play is a small item, also entitled Hawking, running to 4m 38s – possibly a trailer or mini making of. Again the release of the play hasn’t appeared yet on retailers.

The special features for Network’s release of Public Eye - The Complete 1969 Series have been posted at The Mausoleum Club Forum. The six episodes of this, the fourth, series have been digitally restored and clean-up, with the final episode, A Fixed Address, presented in colour. In the addition the set features the ABC episode Nobody Kills Santa Claus (the earliest surviving episode – episode two of the first series), which has been digitally re-mastered and, as it only exists as a telerecording, it has also undergone the VidFIRE process; a recently-found extract for the missing ABC episode It Must be the Architecture - It Can't be the Climate (the tenth episode of series three); interviews with series co-creator Roger Marshall and star Alfred Burke; a restoration featurette; a Series 1 to 4 Photograph Gallery; a PDF of Roger Marshall's script for Divide and Conquer (the second episode of the fourth series); a PDF of the series one ABC promotional material; a PDF of Roger Marshall's credits; a PDF of Alfred Burke's credits; a PDF of a Public Eye episode guide; a Commemorative Booklet, which will contain an updated version of Adrian Petford's article, Hitting the Marker, and Roger Marshall's short story Return to Mrs Mortimer. Unfortunately the Armchair Theatre episode, Wednesday’s Child, which ties in with series four of Public Eye, couldn’t be cleared. It’s a shame, but this is shaping up to be a fantastic release even without it. The set is now expected late July / early August, with an RRP of £39.99. If you are interested Amazon are offering it at £29.99 - click here!

Play has put up Filthy, Rich and Catflap, from Universal Playback for July the 26th, with an RRP of £12.99. Only previously listed on Universal Playback’s website (with a date that slipped a few times, and with an RRP of £19.99), this is the first time it’s been listed by a retailer, so hopefully means it’s going to make it to release now!

Now listed for the 6th of September is Frasier – Season 3 from Paramount. Cheers – Season 3 hasn’t appeared with it yet, but as both their previous two seasons have been scheduled together it’s safe to assume that it’ll appear at the same time. The RRP of the sets are £34.99.

There are quite a few US TV box sets now being listed for release on November the 8th from Warner Home Video. There’s Season 2 of Kung Fu, with an RRP of £29.99; a complete box set of Dallas - Season 1 and 2 (Season 1 ran for 5 episodes during April 1978 in the US and was followed with Season 2 of 24 episodes from September 1978), with an RRP of £49.99; the two seasons of the 1985 American Civil War mini series, North and South, (starring Kirstie Alley, David Carradine and Patrick Swayze) at £34.99 each; and Richard Chamberlain’s The Thorn Birds at £19.99.

24 – Seasons 1-3 from Twentieth Century Fox is listed for July the 26th (the same day as the individual Season 3), with an RRP of £99.99 and Red Dwarf – Series 1-4, from BBC Worldwide, for September the 20th at £54.99.

The BBFC has cleared some of the extras for the Jonathan Creek – Series 3 and 4 box set. These are the video profiles of Alan Davies (running to 4m25s), Julia Sawalha (6m24s) and David Renwick (at 4m47s); outtakes (6m15s); and deleted scenes from The Seer of Sands (7m59s). It’ll be interesting to see if all these deleted scenes come from that episode or it’s really a deleted scenes package with the first scenes from The Seer of Sands, which the BBFC has mistakenly used to title them. The listing of the The Seer of Sands is important as it’s the first episode of the recently-broadcast remaining three episodes of Series 4. There has been some confusion as to whether or not this year’s episodes would officially be classed as Series 5, and so not included in the Series 3 and 4 set. Of the extras listed by the retailers that only leaves the featurette – An Anatomy of a Scene – to be cleared. The box set has a date of August the 2nd and an RRP of £39.99.

August the 16th sees the a listing of Steven Moffat’s Coupling Series 4, from VCI. Its RRP is £19.99.

The special features for Spooks – Series 2 are being listed as audio commentaries; Behind the Scenes footage; interviews with members of the cast; a preview of the Spooks Xbox and PS2 game; and trailers. It has a date of August the 30th and an RRP of £39.99.

An Introduction of The River of Souls (sic, 4m11s) has been cleared by the BBFC for Warner Home Video, presumably destined for their release of Babylon 5 - Thirdspace / A Call To Arms / The River of Souls. The set is listed for August the 16th with an RRP of £34.99.

In addition to the re-issue of the Thunderbirds – Complete Collection  box set and the individual volumes, to coincide with Jonathan Frakes’ new film version, Carlton are also planning to break the Complete Collection into two parts – Part 1 including Volumes 1-4 and Part 2 including Volumes 5-8 – both with an RRP of £63.99. Streets Online are offering these two parts at £25.99 each – for Part 1 click here and Part 2 here. Both Thunderbirds - Complete Collection - Parts 1 & 2 are out the same day as the Complete Collection and individual volumes – the 19th of July.

MIA will releases the 1989 US TV mini-series version of Verne’s classic story Around The World in 80 Days, which starred Pierce Brosnan and Eric Idle, on July the 5th. The disc include a production stills gallery; biographies of leading cast members; production notes; and a trailer. It has an RRP of £15.99. It’s being released on the same day as Warner Home Video’s two disc release of Michael Anderson’s epic 1956 adaptation of Around The World In 80 Days, the details of which we’ve listed before: it will include an introduction, documentary, highlights from the film's premiere and the Oscar ceremony, highlights from the 1957 Playhouse broadcast, 1958 newsreel footage an the theatrical trailer. It has an RRP of £19.99. Both are being released to coincide with the theatrical release of the latest version of the story, which stars Steve Coogan and Jackie Chan.

The 1995 TV drama series The Politician's Wife, which was written by Paula Milne and starred Juliet Stevenson and Trevor Eve, is being lined-up by Channel 4 Video for September the 6th. Its RRP is £9.99.

The dates for Acorn’s Tenko – Series 3 releases have unfortunately slipped again. The complete box set and Part 1 are listed for the 9th of August, with Part 2 on the 13th of September. The box set has an RRP of £49.99, with the two parts at £24.99 each.

Oracle Home Entertainment have revised the pricing of some of their forthcoming titles. The RRP of the Space Rangers release is now £16.99, with the Jupiter Moon releases now at £19.99. All of these were previously set at £24.99.

And finally, for the TV releases…..

BMG Video is planning two Deluxe Edition releases covering two of Elvis Presley’s TV specials, both of which feature extensive additional footage. The '68 Comeback Special is a three disc set with Aloha from Hawaii (a 1973 NBC special) a two disc set. The '68 Comeback Special is listed as containing: Disc One: the original Elvis television special as it first aired on NBC on December 3rd 1968 (both of the black leather sit-down shows). Disc Two: both of the black leather stand-up shows including used and unused takes, plus If I Can Dream music video. Disc Three: all components/outtakes shot for the gospel production and the Guitar Man production number. Aloha from Hawaii is listed as containing: Disc One: Elvis Arrives and Greets Fans - January 9; Rehearsal Concert - January 12; Elvis - Aloha from Hawaii Concert - January 14. Disc Two: Post-Concert Insert Songs Session - January 14, Elvis - Aloha from Hawaii NBC TV Special - April 4 (Broadcast Version).

Both are listed for July the 5th with the '68 Comeback Special having an RRP of £24.99 and Aloha from Hawaii at £17.99.

Previously an HMV exclusive, the Looney Tunes Golden Collection box set from Warner Home Video is now being listed as a wider release for the 18th of October. The set contains the Bugs Bunny Collection, the Daffy & Porky Collection and the All Stars Collection Volumes 1 & 2. The set has an RRP of £39.99

Now the Film releases…

There are two new releases of Dawn of the Dead (the original version) and Day of the Dead being lined up by Anchor Bay for September the 6th (the date of the release of the new version of Dawn of the Dead). Special features for Dawn of the Dead are listed as commentary by director George A. Romero and Special Effects Creator Tom Savini; an exclusive preview of the upcoming Dawn of the Dead Comic Book from IDW Publisher; theatrical trailers; TV & Radio Spots; Poster Galleries; and a 4 Page Collector's Booklet with all-new liner notes. Special features for Day Of The Dead are listed as commentary by director George A. Romero, Special Make-up Effects Artist Tom Savini, Production Designer Cletus Anderson, and actress Lori Cardille; Theatrical trailer; The Many Days of Day Of The Dead - An all-new 39 minute documentary featuring interviews with the cast and crew; Day Of The Dead: Behind The Scenes - 31 minutes of production footage from Special Make-up Artist Tom Savini; Audio Interview with actor Richard Liberty; Wampum Mine Promotional Video; TV Spots; Production Stills; Behind-the-Scenes Photos; Galleries: poster and advertising art, memorabilia, Zombie make-up photos, continuity stills; and a George Romero Biography. These replicate Anchor Bay’s recent Region 1 Divimax Edition releases. The Region 2 versions both have an RRP of £17.99. A more comprehensive, four-disc release of Dawn of the Dead is being released in the US on September the 7th, and will probably turn up here once Anchor Bay UK have finished milking fans for the single-disc release. Quite contemptible…

Two notable films are being reissued as special editions from MGM: John Frankenheimer’s 1998 heist movie Ronin and Mike Newell’s comedy Four Weddings And A Funeral. There’s no word on the content of either of these release yet, but the Ronin - Special Edition is due on October the 11th, and the Four Weddings And A Funeral - Special Edition is scheduled for November the 25th. As this latter date is a Thursday, expect this to change. Both releases have RRPs of £19.99.

In addition to the Goodfellas and Strangers On A Train special editions reported last week (both the 25th of October and the 1st of November respectively), Warner Home Video are also preparing a special edition of Prince’s Purple Rain. Several music videos have been cleared at the BBFC for the release, along with three featurettes: Backstage Pass (29m42s), Rffs, Ruffles and a Revolution – The Impact and Influence of Purple Rain (9m58s), MTV Premiere Party (27m49s). Music videos for releases of Graffiti Bridge and Under a Cherry Moon, but they haven’t appeared on the retailers’ books yet. The Purple Rain – Special Edition is scheduled for October the 18th, with an RRP of £19.99.

There have been more Film clearances at the BBFC…

Twentieth Century Fox are lining up a new release of Alan Parker’s The Commitments. Apart from the film itself the following additional items have been cleared - The Making of Alan Parker’s film The Commitments (8m37s); Dublin Soul: The Working Class and Changing Face of Dublin (14m50s); Treat Her Right – music video (5m44s); Looking Back featurette (47m9s). Trailer (2m18s); and TV Spots (3m).

The 1999 film RKO 281, dramatising the making of Citizen Kane, has been cleared for Odyssey Video.

Neither RKO 281 nor The Commitments has been listed by a retailer yet.

Optimum’s release of Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence has had a An Interview with [Producer] Jeremy Thomas cleared with a run time of 16m 57s. The release is listed for the 26th of July at £19.99.

MGM are lining up Region 2 releases of two more of their Region 1 Midnite Movies range. The 4th of October will see Roger Corman’s Edgar Allen Poe’s Pit and the Pendulum, which stars Vincent Price, and the 1965 Boris Karloff film, Die Monster Die. Both have an RRP of £12.99.

There are four Ingmar Berman films planned by MGM for August the 2nd: Hour of the Wolf, The Passion of Anna, The Serpent's Egg and Shame. Each has an RRP of £15.99.

Two other titles are forthcoming from MGM: the 1946 Fredric March and Myrna Loy film The Best Years Of Our Lives has a date of July the 5th with an RRP of £15.99; while their special edition release of the Peter Sellars and Blake Edwards film The Party (which was due last Monday) has now been put back to September the 20th.

Paramount has a Jack Black Pack of School of Rock and Orange County (packaging the two individual releases together) for an RRP of £26.99, on July the 12th, the same day as the individual release of School of Rock. Paramount has also packaged together the two existing releases of “Crocodile” Dundee and “Crocodile” Dundee II in a box set, with a date of July the 5th for an RRP of £19.99.

A double-pack of Blade and Blade II is coming from Entertainment in Video. Again, this simply repackages the existing releases. The set has a date of the 26th of July and an RRP of £19.99.

Two new titles are in the pipeline from the BFI: The Charge of The Light Brigade and Playtime. The special features for The Charge of The Light Brigade are listed as an interview with Richard Williams, the designer of the innovative animated sequences; a biography of director Tony Richardson; a biography of Richard Williams; a twelve-minute silent film of the story made by Thomas Edison’s studio in 1912; and the original trailer. The July 26th release has an RRP of £19.99. If you’re interested in the release Benson’s World are offering it at £12.99 – click here!

Playtime, one of the films from Jacques Tati’s Monsieur Hulot series, from 1967, is listed for September the 6th with an RRP of £19.99. There is no word on any special features as yet.

Momentum is releasing John Hurt’s film about the life of jockey Bob Champion and his struggle against cancer, Champions, on August the 30th, with £12.99 as it’s RRP. It will include the trailer.

The Julie Andrews comedy musical Thoroughly Modern Millie gets a bare bones release from Universal on the 26th of July. It’s RRP if £9.99.

There are two 1958 Hammer films due from DD Video on July 12th, adding to the label’s range of British comedies - Up the Creek and it’s sequel, Further Up the Creek. Both have an RRP of £12.99. Both discs should include an interview with director Val Guest.

There are three British films getting budget releases from an as-yet-unknown label: Dad’s Army – The Movie, The Slipper and the Rose and The Virgin Soldiers. They’re listed for August the 16th at £5.99 each. This is the first time any of these titles have been released on DVD within the UK.