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ARCHIVED NEWS - 11th - 17th OCTOBER 2004 |
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The disc will feature a commentary track (by director Jonathan Frakes) and about half an hour's worth of featurettes: Creating The Ultimate Action Sequence (an "in-depth" eight minute look at the film from creation to final production); Tracy Island Revealed (9m, on the design and creation of Tracy Island); Lady P and Parker - Fun & Stunts (3m, about the main Tracy Island fight sequence); FAB 1 - More Than Just A Car (3m, about the new FAB 1); and Lady Penelope's Pink World (4m, "a tour through Lady Penelope's world, accessories and gadgets"). Other bonus features include Busted's Thunderbirds Are Go music video (4m) and a multiple choice storybook game, Hood Vs Thunderbirds. The disc will also feature trailers for Shrek 2, Billy Elliot - The Musical, The Land Before Time 10 and Balto - Wings of Change. RRP for the disc is £19.99. There'll also be a Gift Set, which will contain the DVD, five "rocket toys" and a map of Tracy Island, which has an RRP of £29.99. A selection of the disc's horribly-structured and badly-designed menu screens can be seen here.
Also appearing on Columbia's slate for January are the first season of Fat Friends (due on the 17th), and Sea of Souls - Series 2 (a two-disc set, due on the 31st).
Universal Pictures Video is releasing a thirty-five disc John Wayne The Collection box set on November the 22nd. It will include twenty-five films which have been previously released (as John Wayne - The John Ford Collection, Wayne Out West, Wayne At War and Wayne In Action), plus eight films new to DVD in the UK, and two new releases (doesn't that make it ten films new to DVD? Maths was never my strong point). These are: War of the Wildcats, Flame of Barbary Coast, In Old California, DeMille's Oscar-winning Reap The Wild Wind, Pittsburgh, Dakota, Lady From Louisiana and Three Faces West (the "new to DVD" titles) and Seven Sinners and Shepherd of the Hills (the "new release" titles). The set features interviews with director Peter Bogdanovich, Western actor Harry Carey Junior, Wayne's son Patrick (star of Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger) and former Time Out film editor Tom Charity; the original theatrical trailer for She Wore A Yellow Ribbon (thirty-five films, and they could only find one trailer?!); a Making of Rio Grande documentary; and a Rio Grande stills gallery. Not a lot of extra bang for your buck, is it? RRP for the set is a cool £199.99
The two-disc set will feature commentaries featuring director Jon Favreau and star Ferrell. Other bonus materials are listed as follows (quoted verbatim, because it's a bit of a mess): Disc Two - About Christmas; Kids On Christmas / Deck The Halls / Santa Mania / Christmas In Tinseltown; All Access Pass: Theatrical Trailer / Elf Jukebox / Deleted and Alternate Scenes / Behind The Scenes - Tag-a-long with Will Ferrell; Film School For Kids; How they Made the North Pole; Lights, Camera Action!; That's a Wrap Fun 'n' Games: Elf Karaoke / Read-Along: Elf - A Short Story of a Tall Tale / Buddy's Adventure Games: The Race Down Mt Icing; Snowball Fights; Fix Santa's Sleigh The UK version looks broadly similar to the US edition, which will be compromised by the addition of a 4:3 version, but there do seem to be some other differences: the US version will have a Infinifilm Fact Track (information subtitles), but doesn't appear to feature the Deck The Halls / Santa Mania / Christmas In Tinseltown; All Access Pass; Theatrical Trailer / Elf Jukebox; Lights Camera Action!; and That's a Wrap items. This may simply be because of the way they've been listed on the UK press release, though. The RRP is £19.99. A limited edition box set version (pictured), which includes an Elf clock, will also be available, with the same RRP. (Some retailers are discounting the normal version more than the edition with the clock).
The set will feature fourteen episodes, all digitally restored and presented in their original aspect ratio. The set's bonus features are confirmed as: episode introductions by guest stars James Warrior, George Sewell, Jenny Runacre, Nick Stringer, Peter Wright, and Eric Morecambe's son, Gary; The Electric Theatre Show interviews with John Thaw, Dennis Waterman and producer Ted Childs, from 1978; Sweeney 2 trailer, with introduction by Ken Hutchison and James Warrior; Sweeney 2 promotional gallery PDF; two This Is Your Life extracts (Dennis Waterman, from 1978, and John Thaw, from 1981); stills gallery; 1978 The Sweeney Annual PDF; extract from the Morecambe and Wise documentary Behind the Sunshine, about their appearance on The Sweeney; outtakes; Series 4 textless titles with dual sound; and music-only tracks. The Sweeney - The Complete Fourth Season has an RRP is £39.99.
The set will contain all nine episodes, digitally re-mastered. Bonus features include three commentary tracks (on An Instinct For Murder and Little Green Men and Other Martians, by series creator / writer Chris Boucher, and on This Case To Be Opened in a Million Years, by writer Philip Martin); a documentary, It Won't Be Easy - The Making of Star Cops; two featurettes: I Had To Kill Blake - The Career of Chris Boucher; FX, Lies and Videotape - Designing the Future (on the models and special effects); a Q&A session, Philip Martin's Question Time (covering Star Cops, Doctor Who and Gangsters); continuity links and trailers; "extensive" photo gallery; Radio Times cover plus feature which contains cast and crew PDF; Radio Times listings; Starburst feature on the costumes of Star Cops. The RRP for the set is £39.99. Note that some of the features previously listed (over thirty minutes of discontinuous studio recording and unused takes and behind the scenes footage) are not mentioned in the new press release, and may not be included on the finished set.
The set will feature five movies: Cheech and Chong's Next Movie, Nice Dreams, Things Are Tough All Over; the pseudo-documentary short Get Out Of My Room and Marin's Born in East LA (which has never been released in the UK, and is exclusively available in this new set). No technical details were released, other than the sound will be "Dolby". RRP for the set will be £39.99. 11th October 2004 CHRISTOPHER REEVE - 1952-2004 I was saddened to hear of the death of Christopher Reeve, a man of incredible spirit and determination. By odd coincidence I've been slowly working my way through the second series of Smallville, and only yesterday watched the first episode that he appeared in. Although he'll forever be associated with Superman, there'll be a fair percentage of his fans who adore Jeannot Szwarc's film Somewhere In Time, another fine fantasy movie. Reeve was a remarkable man, coping with the cruellest twist of fate imaginable, and an inspiration to millions. Oddly enough Jeannot Szwarc directed the movie that we're reviewing today. Zeta Minor contributor Darrell Jones has taken a look at Szwarc's 1985 movie Santa Claus The Movie, which stars Dudley Moore and the irrepressible John Lithgow. Click on the sleeve image, right, or here to read Darrell's review. The disc is released on November the 8th. Not to be outdone, Richard Spurr has reviewed the underrated and somewhat neglected BBC sitcom Going Straight, which was released in its entirety on DVD recently. The series has always cowered in the shadow of the series that spawned it (Porridge), but it has many redeeming qualities, not least of which are a fine performance by Ronnie Barker, as Norman Stanley Fletcher, seamlessly transplanted to civilian life, and the fine writing, by Ina La Frenais and DIck Clement. Click on the sleeve image, right, or here, to read Richard's review. Warner Home Video has issued a statement about their recent release of The Goonies, which didn't quite live up to the promises of the press release or packaging:
The correct version containing all the listed languages plus the audio commentary will be available at all retailers from next Monday 11 October. Anyone who has purchased a copy of the DVD containing the incomplete disc can exchange their DVD for the correct version by following these instructions:
GOONIES Please allow up to 28 days for delivery of replacement. We have three new competitions for you to try your luck with today, offering the chance to win Network's outstanding two-disc set of Terry Jones and Michael Palin's comedy series Ripping Yarns, courtesy of our friends at Network; or a set of fourteen - count 'em - Hammer Horror Collection DVDs, which are being released by Warner Home Video at bargain prices; or the third and final series of Roswell, thanks to Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment. Click on the banners above, or here for the Ripping Yarns competition; here for the Hammer Horror Collection competition; or here for the Roswell - The Complete Third Season DVD set. If you have your DVD player connected to a Dolby Digital or Pro-Logic decoder, and were thinking of buying Network's Ripping Yarns set, you might want to hold off for a few weeks. The first batch of discs has an authoring fault which affects audio playback (all the audio comes from the rear speakers). A relatively small number of copies are affected, but they are likely to be the ones in shops now. I will try and get an official statement from Network this week about the problem, and discover whether they will be offering some sort of trade-in for people who have bought the faulty discs. If you're going to listen to the discs through your TV speaker, then you should have no problem (it seems to be a Dolby Digital steering fault). You can read Ceri's review of the new set here. I'll be adding a note to it later today to mention the audio problem. Christopher Reeve's death has rather dampened my spirits this morning, but I do want to briefly note that today is officially Zeta Minor's second birthday. Hard to believe that it was (only) two years ago that I tentatively uploaded my Star Wars - Attack of the Clones DVD review. So much has changed since then! The most notable change has been the alliance that Zeta Minor has forged with Roobarb's DVD Forum, which also goes from strength to strength. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has helped with the site over the last year: Karl, for hosting the site; Adam, for running a better Forum than I could possibly do myself; and, especially, Ceri, whose tireless work on the Incoming and Offers pages has given the site a new voice, and helped redefine the site's modus operandi. Ceri, if it wasn't for all your support, I'm not sure I'd still be here. He also writes a pretty smart review! Thanks, matey! I'd also like to thank the people who have recently begun contributing reviews to the site, especially Matt West, Mark Frost and Lee Medcalf. Thanks, too, to all the DVD labels and PR companies that have supported the site with press releases, review discs and competition prizes. Special thanks to to Sophie at Blue Dolphin (for Network), David, Paula, Kim and Nina at DSA (for Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment), Matt and Stephen at Peter Noble PR (for Warner Home Video), all the folks at New Media Maze (for Universal and Dreamworks), Bella and Bryan at Greenroom (for Paramount), Paul at Tartan, and Debbie and Yung at Cathy Beck (for Granada Ventures). Apologies for anyone I've not mentioned - you know I love you all!
CERI'S GUIDE TO THE INCOMING AND OFFERS PAGES Hey everyone, here’s the guide to this week’s update to the Incoming and Offers pages…
The Extended Edition box set of Peter Jackson’s adaptation of The Return of the Kings, finally completing the Lord of the Rings trilogy, is now being listed for the 10th of December. Boasting a further 48 minutes (and boy does the theatrical cut need it) to expand and clarify the storyline. Special features for the four disc set are showing as: Disc 1 & 2: Audio commentary from director Peter Jackson with writer/producer Fran Walsh and writer Philippa Bowens; Audio commentary from members of the design team; Audio commentary from members of the production and post-production team; Audio commentary from members of the cast.
Disc 3:
Introduction from Peter Jackson; J.R.R. Tolkien: The Legacy of
Middle-Earth documentary; From Book To Script - Forging The Final
Chapter documentary; Abandoned Concept: Aragorn battles Sauron;
Designing Middle-Earth documentary; Disc 4: Introduction from Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan; Cameras In Middle-Earth documentary Production photos: a gallery of 69 images; Weta Digital documentary; The Mumakil Battle interactive feature; Editorial: Completing The Trilogy documentary; Music For Middle-Earth documentary; The Soundscapes Of Middle-Earth documentary; The End Of All Things documentary; The Passing Of An Age documentary; Cameron Duncan: The Inspiration for Into the West documentary; DFK6498 short film; Strike Zone short film. Entertainment in Video’s box set has an RRP of £34.99, but dvd.co.uk regularly have the Extended Edition box sets at 49% off and (thanks to Lissa for posting about this!) they have done so again. To order it at the very tempting price of £17.99 – click here! As expected there is also a complete collection of the Extended Edition box sets to all three films. That is also listed for the 10th of December with an RRP £64.99. If you’re interested in purchasing that Amazon are offering it at £43.99 (here). Though, it does work out cheaper to purchase the three sets individually: Amazon has the first two sets very cheaply at the moment – Fellowship of the Ring at £12.97 (here) and The Two Towers at £11.97 (here). So, purchasing these two with dvd.co.uk’s offer for the final set is the cheapest way if you want all three. But, for some folks, dvd.co.uk isn’t option. Just in time for Christmas, Universal are putting out Holiday Inn with some interesting special features. Included are A Couple of Song and Dance Men featurette; All Singing, All Dancing: Before and After featurette; audio commentary by film historian Ken Barnes with archive audio comments from Fred Astaire, Bing Crosby and John Scott Trotter; Cast and crew profiles; Theatrical trailer; and Production notes. It has a date of November the 29th with an RRP of £17.99, though Sendit are offering it at £7.99 in the Universal promotion they are running at the moment – click here if you are interested! The recent shark thriller Open Water has started to appear on some of the retailers for the 27th of December (just in case Jaws isn’t on somewhere over the Christmas period). Extras include an audio commentary from the actors and filmmakers; In The Jaws Of Death: a behind the scenes documentary featuring actors Blanchard Ryan & Daniel Travis and film makers Laura Lau and Chris Kentis (30 mins); Predators shark documentary; Storyboards and production sketches; Shark Attack game; Easter Egg: behind the scenes footage (15m); and a shooting script, with handwritten corrections PDF. The release is from an as yet unknown label (probably Redbus, via Warner Home Video) and has an RRP of £17.99.
Another collection (it’s the quarter leading up to Christmas after all!) is one covering four of Marlon Brando’s films: The Wild One, On The Waterfront, The Ugly American and The Appaloosa. Special features include a director interview, Mastering the Method featurette and Collectable Postcards. The collection from Universal has and RRP of £34.99 and a street date of October the 25th. Morgan Spurlock’s fantastic documentary on McDonalds, Super Size Me, has been picked up by Tartan for release and it’s appeared for the 3rd January 2005 (perfect timing after all those holiday blowouts!). Tartan have also pulled together some interesting extras: director's commentary; UK Exclusive director interview; deleted scenes; UK premiere voxpops; Q & A with the McLibel Two; Original theatrical trailer; McLibel trailer; A Word with Phil Lempert - Supermarket Guru; Chewing The Fat Q & A. Tartan’s release has an RRP of £15.99. The McLibel trailer is presumably for the proposed DVD release of the documentary that was optioned by the BBC and Channel 4 before they got cold feet. This proposed release will also feature some interesting extras including a follow-up documentary; commentary track; interview; and outtakes. It’s a shame that Channel 4’s re-enactment from 1997, McLibel!, featuring Clive Merrison and Julia Sawalha couldn’t be include, as that was really good. The problem is though the label trying to release the McLibel documentary are very small and have limited funds – to find out more click here. The BFI are preparing three Jacques Tati films - Jour de Fete (for the 15th of November), and two Monsieur Hulot films, Mon Oncle and Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday (both the 29th of November). All three have an RRP of £19.99. Some titles that were known to be on Cinema Club’s roster have now appeared for March next year. At the Earth’s Core, The Land that Time Forgot and Warlords of Atlantis are all due on March the 7th, and Dentist on the Job, Henry VIII and His Six Wives (the 1972 Keith Mitchell film) and The Man Who Haunted Himself are due a couple of weeks later on the 21st. All six titles have RRPs of £9.99. Now let’s have a look at the TV releases… A big thank-you to Andy Priestner, who runs the superb Survivors website, for passing on information about some of releases he’s working on for DD Video.
Also due on November the 8th is a complete collection of all three series releases of Secret Army for an RRP of £129.99. This will include all the features and booklets (all written by Andy) that appeared in the individual releases. On the cards for next year also from DD Video are releases of Kessler, the follow-up series to Secret Army, which is hopefully due in the Spring and the 1972 BBC twenty-part adaptation of War and Peace, starring Anthony Hopkins, Colin Baker and Joanna David, for around the middle of the year. These are, of course, subject to the usual sort of clearances. Sadly, there appears to have been some problems with all of DD Video’s October the 4th releases – J.M. Barrie’s The Lost Boys, Orde Wingate, Secret Army – Series 3, Survivors – Series 2 and the already-slipped Oh Doctor Beeching – Series 1 – which has meant they’ve been delayed, but I’m sure these are minor issues and it won’t be long before they make it out. DD Video’s next release, Fall of Eagles, is due on October the 18th. Hopefully, the other releases will make it out before then or with it, but the delays may have a knock-on effect on Fall of Eagles as well. Acorn is planning a collection of all three releases of Tenko. The Complete Series box set is listed for January the 10th with £149.99 as its RRP. Though, it’s of course cheaper to pick-up the Series 1 and 2 box sets from Amazon at the moment, who have both at £21.97 – click here and here! Back on the schedules is Columbia Tri-Star’s release of Sea of Souls – Series 1, presumably tying-in with the broadcast of the second series. Its new date is the 31st of January, with £24.99 as its RRP. The second series of Rab C. Nesbitt is being released on October the 18th, again by the same label as the first series – John Williams Productions. Its RRP is £14.99. Universal Playback’s box set re-issue of Series 1-5 of A Touch of Frost has had its RRP raised. It’s now £110.99 – the original RRP listed, £29.99, did seem too much of a bargain. I hope you got your orders in! Three more British comedy releases from the main Universal arm are now listed for November: Dave Allen’s early 90s ITV series, Dave Allen – On Life and some of the live action episodes of Rowan Atkinson’s Mr Bean. The latter features the episodes The Exam, On The Beach, The Church, The Department Store, Restaurant, Royal Film, Hairdressers, Village Fete, Train Station, The Library, together with the animated episode In The Pink. Both releases are due on November the 1st. This years Bottom stage show, entitled Mindless Violence, is due on November the 29th. All three have an RRP of £19.99. Universal’s release of Sliders – Season 1 & 2 has been put back to the 27th December. Season 3 of Lost in Space from Twentieth Century Fox has appeared for the 10th of January 2005. Fox are also re-issuing the Buffy box sets in M-lock packaging, with Seasons 1-3 showing for the 31st of January. They have RRPs of £39.99. In Warner Home Video’s big schedule revision E.R. – Complete Season 3 has been put back and will now appear (barring anymore revisions) on the 31st of January. Cinema Club are releasing all the episodes of 1960s cartoon series Batfink (his wings are like a shield of steel, you know!) on December the 6th. The box set has an RRP of £22.99. And finally, for Incoming... It’s now known that a label called Revolver Entertainment is behind the three disc release of The Richard Pryor Show. Special features for the set are listed as being for Volume 1: never before seen alternate series opening and deleted scenes; Volume 2: outtakes and improvs, question and answer segment with Richard Pryor, deleted scene featuring Robin Williams; Volume 3: thirty-seven minute Richard Pryor "mudbone" monologue, and full, unedited forty-four minute roast segment. The release has a date of October the 25th and an RRP of £24.99. Now, let’s have a look at the update to the Offers page… The first big change is the loss of Benson’s World. For a few moths now I’ve been aware that Benson’s had been running a second website with higher pricing, which was more in line with their mail order operation and shops. It seems they were running in this new site to replace the one we have been using, as all the pricing has now changed on the old site to those that are on the new one. Also people that have tried to order with Benson’s this week through the old site, have been presented with pages from new site as they’ve got to the payment stage. So, sadly it seems the old site may soon be no more and the bargains we’ve been experiencing from Benson’s World are now over. A great shame! Some of their pricing for Network, Acorn and DD Video titles have been the best around. Still, they must be confident in their customer base, so good luck to ‘em, but this is one customer who won’t be migrating to their new site unless they revise their prices! The main additions to the page this week have been to Amazon… Thanks to Mike W for posting that they have Brass - Series 1 at £11.97. There are a few Acorn titles in the form of Bernard Cribbins’ 1981 version of Dangerous Davies – The Last Detective at £7.97; one of the Father Brown discs – The Hammer of God and other stories – at £11.97 and Lord Peter Wimsey – Clouds of Witness at £9.97. The complete series set of Hammer House of Horror is at £17.97 and the forthcoming Pink Panther – Cartoon Collection is at £22.49. Thanks to Little Ern for posting that the Monty Python Movies Box Set is at £13.97, and thanks to Chris for letting us know that the Secret Army – The Complete Series box set is at £97.49. Now on to some Audiobooks. A big thank-you to Sean Marsh for posting that Beyond Our Ken - Collector's Edition Series 1 is at £36.00 (£24.00 off!), The Complete Sherlock Holmes CD Box Set (featuring the superb Clive Merrison and Michael Williams series) at £108.99 (£72.00 off!) and the Earthsearch CD Box Set at £39.99 (£26.00 off!). Some mighty fine price revisions there! Julian added during the week The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Tertiary Phase at £9.59, which is the same price being offered for Douglas Adams at the BBC (a nice dovetailing to take you over Amazon’s new free P&P ceiling of £19). Some other bargains include Blake's 7 - The Radio Adventures CD Set at £10.19; Doctor Who at the BBC - Volume 2 at £8.39; Doctor Who - Cybermen CD Tin at £17.99 (£12.00 off!); the Hancock's Half Hour - The Complete Radio Archive at £150.00 (£100.00 off!); The Paul Temple Radio Archive Collection at £60.00; and I'm Sorry I Haven't a Christmas Clue at £9.59. All these are listed and linked in the Amazon section of the Offers page. I’ve also added Little Britain – The Complete Scripts Series 1 at £8.99. And, finally from me, Sendit have Alistair Cooke’s America at £29.99, which is £20.00 off the RRP! Previous Zeta Minor News entries can viewed here. |
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Universal
Pictures UK will release the Thunderbirds movie on November the
15th. The disc will feature the film (in anamorphic 1.85:1 format), with
Dolby Digital 5.1 audio (at 448kbps). 
Columbia
Tristar has pencilled in their first releases for 2005, which include two
significant 2004 theatrical releases:
Entertainment in Video will release Will
Ferrell's box office hit Elf on DVD on November the 8th (a week
before the official release date of the US version, from New Line).
The
fourth and final box set of The Sweeney has been confirmed for
release on October the 18th. 
Similarly,
Network has nailed down the details of their three-disc Star Cops
set, which has been re-scheduled for release on November the 1st. 
UCA
(Universal Columbia Alliance) is releasing a set of Cheech and Chong
movies - the Cheech and Chong Collection - on November the 15th.
Let’s
kick things off with the biggest release of the final quarter, if not the
entire year…
Warner
Home Video has a The Ultimate Oliver Stone Collection now showing
for the 6th of December. They have put out Oliver Stone collections
before, but to justify the ‘Ultimate’ tag this collection features 12
discs and includes 
Firstly,
there is a release of the remaining episodes of the Derek Nimmo BBC sitcom
Oh Brother! Much in the same vein of Nimmo’s other sitcom All
Gas and Gaiters, but with different characters and set in a monastery,
Oh Brother! ran for three series between 1968 -1970. All of the
seven episodes of the final series exist in colour PAL 625 format, but
unfortunately, the only other episode that exists is the very first
episode, which exists as a black and white telerecording. It was thought
that a series two episode was also extant, but sadly when checked neither
the BBC nor BFI held it. The release will also feature a photo gallery and
a 24 page behind-the-scenes booklet (written by Andy). It has a date of
November the 8th and an RRP of £19.99. DD Video is also planning to
release the follow-up series Oh Father! during 2005.
