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ARCHIVED NEWS - 25th APRIL - 1st MAY 2005 |
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29th April 2005
The film, which stars Run Lola Run's Franka Potente, will be presented in anamorphic 2.33:1 ratio, with Dolby Digital 5.1 audio (at 448kbps). The film will be supported by a director's commentary track; a Q&A session from last year's FrightFest (11m); an alternate beginning with storyboard and introduction (4m); alternate ending with storyboard and introduction (4m); alternate titles (simply a list of provisional titles); Make-Up Design featurette (10m, called Making The Creep on the disc); Production Design featurette (11m, called The Look of Creep on the disc); a Making of... featurette (34m); trailer and TV spots (3m) and an Easter Egg (click and drag to reveal): alternate title sequence. The disc also includes trailers for Hide and Seek, Flight of the Phoenix and an advert for Fox's Angel DVDs. Here are a couple of the disc's menu screens...
In support of their current Star Wars - Revenge of the Sith promotion, phone company Orange has launched a competition offering tickets to the film's celebrity gala premiere, three nights in LA, and return air flights. Click here if you're interested.
There's no new entry on the BBFC's website for the film, so it looks like we will probably be getting the same cut version that was released in 1994 (the BBFC cut three seconds). Warner Home Video will also launch a superheroes promotion on June the 6th, offering "all" their superheroes DVDs at half price. The Tomorrow People's Nicholas Young stars in a "psycological" (sic) fantasy thriller Explode, which will be released by Fantom Films in the Autumn. The film, the first in s trilogy of stories titled Poltergeist, marks Young's first screen role in twenty years. No doubt you'll find more info' on their website, www.fantomfilms.co.uk Metro will release all thirteen episodes of the 1980s animated TV series Inhumanoids on DVD on June the 6th. The two-disc set will feature complete series scripts, US Hasbro toy packaging gallery and a US Hasbro TV spot. RRP for the set is £12.99.
The set will feature the following episodes: Hell Is Other Robots, Anthology of Interest 1, Roswell That Ends Well and The Sting. The disc will feature cast introductions to each episodes, and "an animated feature with crew commentary". (No, I couldn't make any sense of it, either). The disc will also feature animatic footage for Hell Is Other Robots, with optional commentary. The disc will have 2.0 surround audio, and optional English HoH subtitles. RRP is £12.99 Tartan has announced some of its June 27th Asia Extreme titles, both of which feature a choice of Dolby Digital or DTS 5.1 audio tracks. They're kicking off with Lee Jong-hyuk's serial killer flick H, which will be presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen format, with behind-the-scenes footage, an alternate opening and Easter Eggs. Next up is Pak Ki-hyung's nightmarish shocker Acacia. This disc will feature a director's commentary track, a music video and trailer. Other forthcoming Asia Extreme titles include Heroic Duo (4th July), Infernal Affairs 3 and Koma (both 25th July), Duel Project (Aragami / 2LDK) (August 1st) and Battle Royal II: Revenge (2-disc edition) (August 22nd). Tartan's second Yasujiro Ozu box set is also due on June the 27th. It will feature digitally re-mastered versions of two of the director's more popular films, 1947's Record of a Tenement Gentleman and 1952's Flavour of Green Tea Over Rice. Both films will be presented in their original Academy ratio. Record of a Tenement Gentleman will have a commentary track by film historian Derek Malcolm. The set will have an RRP of £29.99. Future Ozu releases from Tartan will include Tokyo Twilight, Equinox Flower, Good Morning and his last film, An Autumn Afternoon. Finally, they have a Tartan Terror title that's also due on the 27th of June: Michael Davis's terrorized-by-trucker horror comedy Monster Man. The film, which features Eric Jungmann, Justin Ulrich and Aimee Brooks, will be presented on disc in anamorphic widescreen format, with a choice of Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 audio tracks. Bonus features will include an interview with the director, actors and writers, a gag reel, and "animatic trailer". The film will have English HoH subtitles. RRP is £15.99. An Australian label, Hopscotch Entertainment, will release the second of two discs of The Graham Norton Effect on May the 11th. Unlike the UK, which got a "Best of..." compilation, the Australian releases feature complete episodes. The Series 1 - Part 1 set features the first seven episodes, and includes the following guest stars: Sandra Bernhard, Marlon Wayans, Julie Delpy, Jennifer Tilly, Alan Cumming, Paul Rudd, Seth Green, Matthew Lilliard , RuPaul, Macaulay Culkin, Sharon Stone, Mena Suvari, Joan Rivers and Shannen Doherty. Series 2 - Part 2 features the remaining six episodes, featuring the following guests: Anne Hathaway, John Waters, Carson Kressley, Edie Falco , Josh Hartnett, Katie Holmes, Jon Voigt, Toni Colette, Jason Bateman, Chris Rock, Marilyn Manson, LL Cool J and Cyndi Lauper. Both sets will be packaged in foil-embossed digipacks. The first one's out now, the second is due on May the 11th. RRP is about £15 each. The company will also release an Australian version of Russell T. Davis's The Second Coming on June the 15th. Billed as coming "From The Team Behind Doctor Who", the disc will feature the same commentary, outtakes and deleted scenes (with optional commentary) as the UK disc, which is reviewed here. I am making enquiries as to whether the disc will feature the original Mel C music, which was substituted for the UK DVD (chances are practically zero, but it's worth asking!) Here's the sleeve art...
25th April 2005 Let's get the routine admin stuff out of the way first, shall we? Ceri has updated the Incoming page, which now includes dozens of new titles, including many that have not been officially announced yet. Whatever your taste in movies and TV, there's bound to be something to tickle your fancy!
Goodnight Sweetheart - The Complete First Series (the first of six) will feature six episodes, which were originally shown in 1993. (Subsequent series had ten or eleven episodes each). The episodes will be in 4:3 format, with Dolby Digital 2.0 audio. The disc will be Region 0 coded.
The disc will feature commentaries by
series creators and writers Maurice Gran and Laurence Marks; and
interviews with stars Nicholas Lyndhurst, Christopher Ettridge (who played
dopey policeman Reg Deadman) and David Ryall (Royal Oak landlord Eric
Bamford). The press release also reassures
that the disc will feature "all the original music from the TV broadcast". (This
is no mean feat, considering all the songs that Gary claims to have
composed in various episodes - Elton John's Your Song and My Way
in the first episode alone). Sadly, there will be no subtitles. You can see a larger
version of the sleeve by clicking
Revelation will release Dogtanian - The Complete Second Series on DVD on June the 20th. The four disc set will feature twenty-six episodes, along with a bouncing-ball-style karaoke version of the theme tune; desktop wallpaper; and a bonus episode from Dogtanian's first series. The episodes will be presented in 4:3 format,. with Dolby Digital audio. The four DVD-9 discs will be Region 0 encoded. The RRP is £19.99. The British Animation Awards Children's Choice 2002-winning animated film War Game will be released on DVD by Revelation on June the 20th. The film, which won a string of awards during its tour of the festival circuit, is about the football game between English and German soldiers that took place during the Christmas Day ceasefire of 1914. It was produced by the team behind the animated versions of Raymond Briggs' The Snowman and Father Christmas. The DVD apparently features 4:3 and 16:9 versions of the film (which is just under half an hour long), along with interviews with the author of the book the film is based on, Michael Foreman, producer Iain Harvey and director Dave Unwin. There are also "commentaries" by Michael Foreman, Dave Unwin and Iain Harvey; An Exclusive Look Into The Amazing Animation Process; a moving photo gallery; a preview of War Boy; and a War Game trailer. The disc will have "some" subtitles. The Region 2 disc will have Dolby Stereo audio, and an RRP of £12.99.
MGM's press releases usually turn up long after the information has been given to the online retailers, so there's little point in expending much energy on reproducing them here. Instead, here's a quick summary of their June releases. June 6th Harold and Kumar Get the Munchies (£15.99) Triple Box Sets (£12.99 each): Robert De Niro - Raging Bull, Ronin and True Confessions John Wayne - The Alamo, Red River and The Horse Soldiers Action - Rocky, Road House and Blown Away War - 633 Squadron, Bridge at Remagan, The Great Escape June 13th
New York, New York Special Edition (£19.99) The Adventures of Priscilla - Queen of the Desert SE (£19.99) June 20th The L Word - The Complete Series One (4 discs, £39.99) Dead Like Me (Series One, 4 discs, £39.99) Adrian Lyne's Foxes (£12.99) Tony Richardson's Ned Kelly (£12.99) Robert Altman's O.C. and Stiggs (£12.99) Robert Altman's Thieves Like Us (£12.99) Paul Verhoeven's Spetters (£12.99)
Sam Peckinpah's Bring Me The Head of Alfredo Garcia (£15.99) Ken Russell's Gothic (£15.99)
Stargate SG-1 - Volume 42 (£19.99) [could be 30th May] MGM is also running a promotion during May and June, where a hundred of its "best" DVDs will be offered in a three-for-£20 promotion. ("An MGM three-for-£20 deal?", I hear you cry, "What a shocker!!"). Titles included in the new offer will include recent hits like 21 Grams, Walking Tall, The Passion of the Christ, De-Lovely, Die Another Day, and a bunch of Special Edition titles, including The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Rain Man, Ronin, A Bridge Too Far, A Fish Called Wanda, The Terminator, The Usual Suspects, Thelma & Louise, Fargo, Some Like It Hot, and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
Bonus features on the set will include unspecified audio commentaries (there are four on the US set); Alias Script Scanner (DVD-ROM); The Museum of Television and Radio: Creating Characters (10m); The Animated Alias: Tribunal (7m) Alias Up Close (56m); Burbank to Barcelona (10m); Blooper Reel (8m); deleted scenes (7m); Team Alias (two adverts featuring cast members); and an Easter Egg. Durations are taken from the R1 version. Assuming that the bonus materials are intact, it looks like the UK version will be identical to the US edition. The press release didn't reveal any technical spec's, except to say that the episodes would have closed captions. It didn't mention the RRP, either, but it's believed to be £49.99. Australian label Umbrella will release seasons three and four of the popular Thames drama series Minder on DVD on May the 25th. The sets will feature four and three discs respectively, with thirteen episodes on Series 3 and twelve on Series 4, including the special Minder's Christmas Bonus. Extras on the sets will be: Series 3 - audio commentary on Dead Men Do Tell Tales by George Cole and writer Tony Hoare; commentary on Back In Good Old England by Script Executive Linda Agran and writer Andrew Payne; guest cast biographies; production notes; image gallery; and original Thames story information, in DVD-ROM PDF format.
Series 4 - audio commentary on If
Money Be The Food of Love, Play On by George Cole and Tony Hoare;
audio commentary on Willesden Suite by Linda Agran and writer
Andrew Payne The episodes will be presented with their original advert break bumpers intact. Both sets have an RRP of AU$69.95, including local taxes (about £26 each).
The recent movie adaptation of Vanity Fair, which starred Reese Witherspoon, will be released on DVD by Universal Pictures on May the 16th. The disc will feature an audio commentary (by director Mira Nair); deleted scenes; Welcome To Vanity Fair and The Women of Vanity Fair (about the team of women who created the film). No technical spec's were announced. The disc has an RRP of £19.99.
The two-disc set will feature a collection of materials from the Chaplin estate's vaults, digitally restored and re-mastered. This set focuses on material made for First National between 1918 and 1923, and includes the shorts Shoulder Arms, The Idle Class, The Pilgrim, A Dog's Life, A Day's Pleasure, Sunnyside and Pay Day. The disc will also feature an array of bonus materials: deleted scenes from Sunnyside and Shoulder Arms; a 1918 documentary, How To Make Movies (which shows Chaplin building his new studio); a featurette, The Visitors (behind-the-scenes footage of guests visiting Chaplin's sets); footage from an uncompleted short featuring Chaplin and music hall star Harry Lauder (1918); a WWI-era propaganda film, The Bond, featuring Edna Purviance and Sydney Chaplin, as the Kaiser; an introduction by David Robinson, Chaplin's biographer; film posters; photo' gallery; trailer for The Chaplin Revue. RRP for the set is £19.99 Previous Zeta Minor News entries can viewed here. |
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Pathé
will release the London Underground-based slasher movie Creep on
DVD on June the 6th. 
Warner
Home Video is releasing the Batman animated feature film Mask of the
Phantasm on June the 13th, three days before the UK theatrical release
of Batman Begins. The press release doesn't mention anything about
technical spec's, and doesn't say anything about any bonus materials. The
RRP is £15.99.
Twentieth
Century Fox Home Entertainment will release a compilation of creator Matt
Groening's favourite episodes of Futurama, titled The Monster
Robot Maniac Fun Collection, on May the 30th.
The
third season of Alias will be released by Buena Vista Home
Entertainment on May the 30th. The six-disc set will feature twenty-two
episodes, including those with guest cameos by Quentin Tarantino, Ricky
Gervais and David Cronenberg. 
Warner
Home Video and MK2 will supplement their existing Chaplin Collection
series of DVDs with The Chaplin Revue on July the 11th. 
