Fraggle Rock - 2nd Season Date Confirmed! Plus Price, Specs, & More!
Way back in January we had news that Fraggle Rock - The Complete 2nd Season would make it to DVD on September 5th. In the past few days we've received confirmation from industry sources that this is indeed the date that HIT Entertainment will be shipping this product, and this time it will get to the retailer channels via their new distributor, Fox Home Entertainment.
Cost will be $49.98 SRP, for 175 minutes of Fraggle fun in 1.33:1 full screen video and English Dolby Stereo 2.0 audio. While extras weren't mentioned by our contacts, we've already seen reports that we can expect new interviews and home videos shot by "Wembly" and "Sprocket" puppeteer Steve Whitmire.
This will be great fun, and we can't wait! Expect more Fraggle Rock to continue to come to DVD in the lead-up to the new 2007 big-screen Fraggle film that Brian Henson is pulling together, taking the gang into outer space! It's not a stretch, actually, since the very first episode showed Gobo's Uncle Matt heading through the opening to outer space...so don't forget that "outer space" to them is the world of humans (like us). Stay tuned and we'll bring you more about the upcoming releases that are sure to tie in with this new movie that's in the works.
Marathon 'Runner'
WB preps 'final cut' of sci-fi classic
Warner's homevid will release a remastered 'Blade Runner,' to be followed by a theatrical version, which studio says will be director Ridley Scott's final cut.
Warner homevid has disentangled "Blade Runner's" famously thorny rights issues to pave the way for a September reissue of the remastered "Director's Cut" version, followed by a theatrical release of a version promised to be truly Ridley Scott's final cut.
Warner's rights to "Blade Runner" lapsed a year ago, but the studio has since negotiated a long-term license. The pic, now considered a sci-fi classic, has had a troubled history from the start: When Scott ran overbudget, completion bond guarantors took control of it and made substantial changes before its 1982 theatrical release, adding a voiceover and happy ending. That version was replaced by the much better-received director's cut in 1992, but Scott has long been unhappy with it, complaining that he was rushed and unable to give it proper attention.
The helmer started working on the final cut version in 2000, but that project was shelved by Warner soon after, apparently because the studio couldn't come to terms with Jerry Perenchio over rights issues.
The restored "Director's Cut" will debut on homevid in September, and remain on sale for four months only, after which time it will be placed on moratorium.
"Blade Runner: Final Cut" will arrive in 2007 for a limited 25th anniversary theatrical run, followed by a special edition DVD with the three previous versions offered as alternate viewing: Besides the original theatrical version and director's cut, the expanded international theatrical cut will be included. The set will also contain additional bonus materials.
The massive "Blade Runner" project comes on the heels of Scott's four-disc treatment for "Kingdom of Heaven," released this week by Fox homevid, less than a year after the pic's initial homevid release.
'Breakfast Club' principal Gleason dies
BURBANK, Calif. - Paul Gleason, who played the go-to bad guy in "Trading Places" and the angry high school principal in "The Breakfast Club," has died. He was 67.
Gleason died at a local hospital Saturday of mesothelioma, a rare form of lung cancer linked to asbestos, said his wife, Susan Gleason.
"Whenever you were with Paul, there was never a dull moment," his wife said. "He was awesome."
A native of Miami, Gleason was an avid athlete. Before becoming an actor, he played Triple-A minor league baseball for a handful of clubs in the late 1950s.
Gleason honed his acting skills with his mentor Lee Strasberg, whom he studied with at the Actors Studio beginning in the mid-1960s, family members said.
Through his career, Gleason appeared in over 60 movies that included "Die Hard," "Johnny Be Good," and "National Lampoon's Van Wilder." Most recently, Gleason made a handful of television appearances in hit shows such as "Friends" and "Seinfeld."
Gleason's passions went beyond acting. He had recently published a book of poetry.
"He was an athlete, an actor and a poet," said his daughter, Shannon Gleason-Grossman. "He gave me and my sister a love that is beyond description that will be with us and keep us strong for the rest of our lives."
Actor Jimmy Hawkins, a friend of Gleason's since the 1960s, said he remembered Gleason for a sharp sense of humor.
"He just always had great stories to tell," Hawkins said.
Gleason was survived by his wife, two daughters and a granddaughter. Funeral plans were pending.
Wind That Shakes the Barley earns top prize at Cannes Film Festival
CANNES, France (AP) - British director Ken Loach's The Wind That Shakes the Barley, a saga set amid Ireland's struggle for independence in the early 1920s, won top honours Sunday in an unanimous vote at the Cannes Film Festival.
It was the first time veteran filmmaker Loach won the main prize after seven earlier entries in the main competition at the world's most prestigious film festival.
The Wind That Shakes the Barley stars Cillian Murphy as an Irish medical student who takes up arms against a reign of terror by the Black and Tans, British troops sent in to quell calls for independence.
Loach, who previously won the third-place prize at Cannes with 1990's Hidden Agenda and 1993's Raining Stones, said he hoped the film would be a small step encouraging the British to "confront their imperial history. And maybe, if we tell the truth about the past, maybe we tell the truth about the present."
Prizes for best actor and actress went to ensemble casts. Penelope Cruz and her five key cast mates in Pedro Almodovar's Volver, including Carmen Maura, Yohana Cobo and Lola Duenas, shared the actress prize. The film, a comic drama about women making do without men, also won the screenplay honour for director Almodovar.
"It's such an honour to be able to share this award with all these amazing women," Cruz said. "I think this award really belongs to Pedro, the master. . . . Thank you so much, Pedro, for what you do for women."
The men of Algerian director Rachid Bouchareb's Second World War saga Days of Glory, about North African Muslims who volunteered in the fight to free France from the Nazis, received the best-actor honour. The cast includes French stars Jamel Debbouze, Samy Naceri and Sami Bouajila.
In accepting the award, the Days of Glory cast joined in on an anthem sung by French colonial soldiers during the war.
Mexican filmmaker Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu won the directing prize for Babel, which features Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett in a multicultural drama about loosely linked families around the globe.
Inarritu said more than 1,000 people contributed to the production of the film and that "I'm receiving this award on behalf of all of them."
The grand prize for second-place film was given to French director Bruno Dumont's Flanders, a stark drama following soldiers from dreary farm country through a grisly tour of duty in the Middle East.
The third-place jury prize went to British filmmaker Andrea Arnold's Red Road, a sombre tale about a Scottish woman carrying out surveillance on a man responsible for tragedy in her past.
The award for best film from a first-time director went to Romanian filmmaker Corneliu Porumboiu for his Christmas drama A Fost Sau N-A Fost?
The main competition's three high-profile American films - including Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette, starring Kirsten Dunst as the 18th-century French queen - were shut out for prizes. Marie Antoinette earned praise for its style and visual panache but was criticized as a superficial treatment of the Austrian aristocrat who became a symbol of extravagance preceding the French Revolution.
The other U.S. entries were Richard Linklater's consumer satire Fast Food Nation, which had a lukewarm reaction, and Richard Kelly's darkly comic tale of apocalypse, Southland Tales, which received a scathing response from critics who scorned it as self-indulgent nonsense.
The nine-member jury that chose Cannes winners was headed by Hong Kong director Wong Kar-wai and included actors Samuel L. Jackson, Helena Bonham Carter, Tim Roth, Monica Bellucci and Ziyi Zhang. Wong said the decision for the top prize was unanimous.
The 59th edition of the world's most prestigious film festival opened May 17 with Tom Hanks and Ron Howard's The Da Vinci Code, which received a harsh reception from Cannes critics but went on to become an instant blockbuster the following weekend. The film did not compete for prizes at Cannes.
Other high-profile films that screened out of competition included the superhero adventure X-Men: The Last Stand, the animated comedy Over the Hedge and the documentary An Inconvenient Truth, chronicling former U.S. vice-president Al Gore's efforts to educate the public about global warming.
After 15 years, Couric makes 'Today' exit
NEW YORK - Millions of Americans can scarcely remember a weekday where Katie Couric wasn't a part of their morning routine. Maybe the "Today" show was on in the background when they gathered their homework for school. Later, she was there when they gulped a quick cup of coffee before work. In a few years, they'd watch TV while feeding the baby and Couric was still there — a few hairstyles later.
That comes to an end on Wednesday, Couric's last day as "Today" co-host. She'll be feted in a three-hour special edition stuffed with film clips and performances by Tony Bennett, Martina McBride and the cast of the Broadway show "Jersey Boys."
How will she be able to hold it all together?
"I haven't really thought about it and worried about it," Couric told The Associated Press. "I'll do what I've always done for 15 years and be myself. I'll react the way I react."
Couric, 49, will take June off and then report to work at CBS News. She'll start anchoring the "CBS Evening News" in September.
Her tenure as "Today" host began on April 5, 1991. She looked impossibly young then next to Bryant Gumbel, her playfulness a perfect counterpoint when he lapsed into self-seriousness. She was pregnant with Elinor at the time, and gave birth to her second daughter Caroline in 1996.
Viewers felt an immediate connection. She was family, and fans grieved when Couric's husband Jay Monahan died of colon cancer in 1998 and made her a young widow. Couric evolved from the girl-next-door into someone more glamorous — a diva at times, some critics thought. For more than a decade, however, she has remained viewers' first choice in the morning.
Jeff Zucker, then the "Today" executive producer, said he knew she was a natural from that first day.
"She emerged as one of the seminal hosts in morning television history," said Zucker, now CEO of the NBC Universal Television Group. "She grew up on the air and changed both professionally and personally. She earned her stripes as one of the great news broadcasters in history. I think she'll be remembered for her ability to do both the silly and the important."
Morning shows morph every day from news to a program primarily for stay-at-home women who want entertainment and advice. A host must be able to convincingly interview a head of state and a rock star within minutes of each other.
Couric was tested early. She was being given a tour of the White House in 1992 by first lady Barbara Bush, and had studied up on things like Dolly Madison's tea set.
Then President Bush unexpectedly walked in ready to talk, and Couric had to wing it for a 19-minute interview that touched on the presidential campaign and international affairs.
"I saw my life flash before my eyes that morning, at least my career," she remembered.
Interviews with politicians are some of her fondest memories, like call-in shows conducted with Vice President Gore and Ross Perot. Couric's on-air colonoscopy — a spectacularly successful attempt to raise awareness about the disease that killed her husband — is an indelible memory of her time on "Today."
"Because I had to learn so much when Jay was sick and distill a lot of complicated medical ideas for my own edification, I've become good at that for other people," she said. "I've really enjoyed doing that because hopefully I'm doing a service."
Couric is most proud of giving her all to make each segment a positive experience, whether it's a newsy interview or a cooking segment. She won't miss "having to go from zero to Mach 10 in 10 minutes every morning."
She makes a startling admission: "I'm not a morning person."
That said, Couric doesn't feel the urge to take a sledgehammer to her alarm clock for all the years it went off at 5 a.m.
"People are always so disappointed — they're so sadistic," she said. "When I tell them that I don't get up at 3, they're really disappointed. The hours are really very manageable. But you really have to jump-start your brain in a fast way. That's a tough experience. To ease into the day a little bit more might be a nice change of pace for me."
Despite jumping to the competition, Couric said NBC has been "incredibly gracious" during the transition.
"I think I've had a long time to come to grips with this one," Zucker said. "Obviously, it's bittersweet for all of us. We're sorry to see her go but completely understand why she wants a new challenge in her life. We all feel great about the way it's happened and we all feel great about the future.'
Business is business, though: NBC kept Couric on the job until the very last day of her contract, and painstakingly negotiated an agreement that restricted what CBS executives could say about her until the contract expired.
In September, when Couric shows up in the evening at CBS, Meredith Vieira will move into her chair next to Matt Lauer on "Today."
Does Couric have any advice for her successor?
"Have fun!" she said.
"X-Men" annihilates "Da Vinci" at box office
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The final film in the "X-Men" superhero trilogy blew past last weekend's box office champ, "The Da Vinci Code," to post the fourth-highest all-time opening in North America, according to studio estimates issued on Sunday.
"X-Men: The Last Stand" sold about $107 million worth of tickets in the three-day period from Friday to Sunday, dwarfing "Da Vinci's" $77 million opening a week ago, said tracking firm Exhibitor Relations Co.
The Vatican conspiracy thriller slipped to No. 2, but sales data were not immediately available as most studios were planning to report sales estimates for the U.S. Memorial Day holiday weekend on Monday.
The three-day record for a film opening on a Friday is held by 2002's "Spider-Man" ($115 million), followed by 2005's "Star Wars: Episode III -- Revenge of the Sith ($108.4 million) and 2004's "Shrek 2" ($108 million).
"X-Men: The Last Stand," which reportedly cost at least $165 million to make, was released by News Corp.'s 20th Century Fox, which licensed the comic book franchise from Marvel Entertainment Inc. The first film in the series, "X-Men" opened to $54 million in 2000. Three years later, "X2: X-Men United" launched with $86 million. Fox executives were not available for comment.
The new film, whose returning cast of mutants includes Hugh Jackman as the heroic Wolverine and Ian McKellen as the evil Magneto, was directed by Brett Ratner, best known for the "Rush Hour" films. It had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival last week, and earned rave reviews -- unlike Sony Corp.'s "Da Vinci Code."
In addition to taking over from "Da Vinci" as the highest opening so far this year, the new "X-Men" beats the nine-year-old Memorial Day weekend record held by "The Lost World: Jurassic Park," which opened to $72 million during its first three days. Steven Spielberg's dinosaur picture earned an additional $18 million during the Monday holiday.
Projections for the four-day period will be released on Monday, and final data on Tuesday.
Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures said it took the No. 3 and No. 4 places with "Over the Hedge" ($27.3 million) and "Mission: Impossible III" ($6.6 million), respectively. Their totals rose to $85.3 million after two weeks and $115.5 million after four weeks, respectively.