19th February 2008

CULT TV NEWS

I promised Virgin 1 that I'd give a plug to new acquisition Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, which premieres on the channel on Thursday at 10pm.

If you're a fan of the movies, you should enjoy the TV series (particularly the show's first episode, which packs an awful lot of action into forty-five minutes).

Firefly fans might want to tune in to see Summer Glau kickin' butt alongside the show's eponymous heroine, who's played by The Brothers Grimm's Lena Headey (left).

More details are available on their website.

18th February 2008

DVD NEWS

Lots of new information has been added to the Incoming database this week, including listings or additional info for Donnie Darko director Richard Kelly's bewildering - and not in a good way - new movie Southland Tales; the Blu-ray and DVD editions of the Invasion of the Bodysnatchers remake The Invasion (due on sale today), and a new horror movie from Revolver, The Ferryman.

Other titles added to the database in the last week include first sightings of the O Lucky Man! Special Edition; season nine of Frasier; the first seasons of The Cosby Show, Laverne and Shirley and Ironside; Channel 4 dramas The Politician's Wife; The Camomile Lawn and Porterhouse Blue; and the new version of The Bionic Woman (which stars Jekyll's Michelle Ryan). You'll also find details for the first UK DVD release of the off-kilter Oliver Stone mini-series Wild Palms, which Fremantle will be releasing next month.

Acorn has confirmed that the Campion Complete Collection DVD set that's due on May the 12th will indeed feature eight adventures for the dapper detective played by Peter Davison, including four which have not been released on DVD in the UK before: Sweet Danger, Dancers in Mourning, Flowers for the Judge and Mystery Mile.

That makes HMV's pre-order price of £17.99 (against an RRP of £29.99) all the more tempting!

HD DVD AND BLU-RAY NEWS

I'm sure most of you will have heard about the recent seismic developments in the battle between Blu-ray and HD DVD formats: two major US retailers (Best Buy and Wal-Mart) and another large rental chain, Netflix, have decided to effectively drop the format. Stick a fork in it, folks, HD DVD is done.

Toshiba, HD DVD's principal backer, hasn't yet released an official statement, but word from reliable sources within the company (reported by Japanese news service NHK, and subsequently picked up by Reuters), say that it's only a matter of time before the company throws in the towel.

This will presumably leave the only two HD DVD major studios, Universal and Paramount, free to announce a switch to dual format support or, more likely, that they'll be joining the rest of the industry in releasing on Blu-ray exclusively (that is, if Universal can surmount their long-standing animosity with Sony).

Last week's Zeta Minor News can be viewed here.

Previous Zeta Minor News entries can viewed here.