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DVD

Spectacular!!!

Star Trek beams all The Captains to DVD

Entertainment One will give you a rare, personal glimpse at The Captains of the Star Trek universe, bringing the feature-length documentary written and directed by William Shatner to DVD in October.

Following one of the most engaging media personalities of our time, “The Captains” chronicles Shatner’s quest to answer one burning question: why, in spite of his myriad stage, screen, and television credits, as well as his numerous Emmys and Golden Globe Awards, does one role in his career loom so large that it nearly eclipses all others? To find the answer, Shatner enlists the help of the elite group of actors who have also assumed the mantle of Starship Captain. In the process, coupling their own unique stories with compelling insights, the five Captains give Shatner a better understanding of his own life and solve this “mystery” once and for all. Featuring vintage Star Trek footage and in-depth interviews with actors Patrick Stewart (Captain Jean-Luc Picard), Kate Mulgrew (Captain Kathryn Janeway), Avery Brooks (Captain Benjamin Sisko), Scott Bakula (Captain Jonathan Archer), and Chris Pine (Captain James T. Kirk, Star Trek), “The Captains” was shot on location in Toronto, London, New York, Princeton and Los Angeles, where Shatner could capture his fellow Captains in their home environments. The acclaimed HD film, which originally premiered as part of Epix’s “Shatnerpalooza” this summer, exposes the Captains in all their earthly humanity, offering a rare and candid glimpse into the inner sanctum of each actor and their time at the helm of the Starship Enterprise.

“The Captains” will beam to your living room to tell you their stories on October 4 for $19.98.

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DVD

Awesome news!!!!

“H.R. Pufnstuf” heading to DVD for 40th Anniversary
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) ñ To mark the 40th anniversary of H. R. Pufnstuf, Vivendi Entertainment is releasing the entire trailblazing Saturday morning cartoon series on DVD.
“H.R. Pufnstuf: The Complete Series” will be released April 12 in both a regular three-disc set and a special collector’s edition, which comes with an exclusive H.R. Pufnstuf bobblehead.
Both sets feature all 17 episodes of the iconic Sid and Marty Krofft program, which was originally broadcast between 1969 and 1971 — and which still is seen in syndication, including on KCET in Los Angeles, the largest independent public television station in the country.
The DVD sets also come with downloadable coloring sheets and the rare series episode “Horror Hotel,” which has never before been available on disc.
“We’ve had at least 100 reruns of each episode since it first aired on NBC,” said Marty Krofft. “‘Pufnstuf’ was our first series ever and we’re so happy to be celebrating 40 years.”
“I am so thrilled that people still love Pufnstuf, Jimmy, Freddy the Flute and Witchiepoo,” added Sid Krofft. “All these years later, people still come up to me on the street and sing the theme song. Everyone also seems to remember and love ‘oranges smoranges, nothing rhymes with oranges,’ one of the big musical numbers we did in the show.”
“H.R. Pufnstuf: The Complete Series” is the latest release to stem from the partnership the Krofft brothers and Vivendi Entertainment formed last year. The ongoing collaboration will yield several more DVD sets and compilations that will spotlight the puppeteer brothers’ catalog of children’s television shows.
One of those programs, “Lidsville,” is heading to the big screen courtesy of DreamWorks Animation. The Krofft brothers will serve as executive producers for the project, which marks the first animated feature film adaptation of their work.
In addition, a live-action movie version of “H.R. Pufnstuf” is now in development at Sony Pictures.
The Krofft brothers rose to prominence in the 1970s with a series of fanciful programs. “H.R. Pufnstuf” was the first; subsequent shows include “The Bugaloos,” “Land Of The Lost,” “Sigmund & the Sea Monsters” and “The Krofft Supershow.”
The Kroffts also produced various prime-time series and specials, including “The Brady Bunch Hour,” “The Donny & Marie Show” and “Barbara Mandrell & The Mandrell Sisters.”

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DVD

Love it!!

Rock Hall of Fame shows get a three-disc set for the ages
Mick Jagger can’t recall who suggested Gimme Shelter as his ideal symbiotic exercise with U2 for last year’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame shows in New York.
“Bono and I were throwing around ideas,” Jagger says. “Gimme Shelter seemed like a good one. It always works. We rehearsed the night before and tried different tempos and a few different arrangements.”
The 1969 Rolling Stones classic, with Fergie of the Black Eyed Peas tackling Merry Clayton’s role, is among 67 performances on The 25th Anniversary Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Concerts (Time Life, $40), a three-DVD set out this week.
Their blazing version is an undeniable highlight on the all-star collection, but it may have been a rematch. “I’ve got a sneaky feeling that Fergie’s guested on it with the Stones before, when we did shows with the Peas,” Jagger says. At the Madison Square Garden event, “Fergie was very good. She’s not fazed by anything. She’s right there, happy in every situation.”
He also joined Bono on U2’s Stuck in a Moment You Can’t Get Out Of, a single from 2000’sAll That You Can’t Leave Behind. Bono’s suicide-themed song, an imagined argument with late INXS singer Michael Hutchence, wasn’t entirely unfamiliar to Jagger.
“I was in the session at Island when that album was being recorded,” he says. “I did background vocals for (Stuck) with my daughter Elizabeth. We didn’t actually finish them, and they were never used.”
Jagger was the third act to sign on after Rock Hall chairman Jann Wenner enlisted U2 and Bruce Springsteen for two historic music marathons of big hits and fantasy collaborations by an ambitious roster including Jerry Lee Lewis, Smokey Robinson, Aretha Franklin, Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, Billy Joel, Ray Davies, Buddy Guy, Sam Moore, Sting, James Taylor, B.B. King and Crosby, Stills & Nash.
The two-night stand, which aired a month later as a four-hour HBO special, raised roughly $5 million for Cleveland’s rock shrine and served up such choice combos as Jeff Beck and Billy Gibbons on Foxey Lady, Springsteen and John Fogerty on Fortunate Son, Metallica and Lou Reed on Sweet Janeand Paul Simon and Dion on The Wanderer.
A bonus disc of mash-ups not shown on HBO boasts Springsteen and Tom Morello’s London Calling, Stevie Wonder and John Legend’s Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology) and Simon & Garfunkel’s Mrs. Robinson.
Such rare matchups are vital to a momentous rock summit, Jagger says. “Otherwise, it’s just a procession of people.”
He’s pleased that rock’s big tent accommodated genres from soul to metal to blues but wishes the shows had been less Boomer-centric.
“I kept saying to Jann that there should have been more younger artists,” says Jagger, 67. “But most of the artists were chosen because they were in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and you don’t get in if you’ve only been going a couple of years.”
And while the DVD set pops the seams at 5Ω hours, Jagger’s sorry some ragged edges didn’t make the cut.
“Patti Smith did a duet with Bruce Springsteen that had a few false starts because she couldn’t hear,” he says. “It’s a pity you can’t see that because it was funny. Well, maybe it wasn’t so funny for her. It wasn’t her fault, and she got through it really well.
“There were one or two glitches,” he says. “There are always one or two people who get nervous. But everyone was vibed up to do it, and it was well put-together. Most of these people know each other, so it was very friendly. It was a real enjoyable experience.”

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DVD

Sweeeeeeeeet!!

Taxi – JUST in Time for Christmas: The 5th and Final Season Drives onto DVD
Fans have had to endure a four-year wait since the third season came to DVD, but tomorrow – September 22nd – sees the long awaited release of Taxi – The 4th Season. It made everybody wonder how long the studio would take before coming out with the 5th and last year of the classic sitcom, but CBS/Paramount isn’t going to make it a long wait at all. They’ve flagged down a December 22nd street date for Taxi – The Final Season on DVD!
With a running time of 571 minutes long, it seems like the set will include all 23 episodes, including the double-length “clip show” from mid-season called “A Taxi Celebration”. Guest stars include Marcia Wallace, Ricardo Montalban, Dick Sargent, Vincent Schiavelli, Rhea Perlman, Penny Marshall, Keenan Wynn, “Judo” Gene LeBell, ring announcer Jimmy Lennon Sr., and musician/actor Scatman Crothers, among others.
On the same release date, CBS/Paramount will also release a “complete series” bundle which takes all five seasons and shrink-wraps them together into a “brick” with no special pricing or packaging, just as a convenient way to pick up everything at once (they’ll probably make a fancier complete set down the line). No further details for Taxi – The Final Season are available just yet, nor do we have package art. But stay tuned and we’ll update you just as soon as we can!

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DVD

12600 – This is post number 12600 on our website, and this news is awesome!!!

Spinal Tap ‘Unwigged’ Tour Coming To DVD
he trio behind Spinal Tap and the Folksmen has set a Sept. 1 release date for a DVD of their recent concert tour.
“Unwigged & Unplugged: An Evening with Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer” features an entire 35-track performance filmed at their May 31 show at the Riverside Theatre in Milwaukee. The show features Spinal Tap material from the film “This is Spinal Tap” and the albums “Break Like the Wind” and this year’s “Back From the Dead,” as well as some of the Folksmen tracks from the Guest-written and -directed “A Mighty Wind.” Guest, McKean and Shearer were joined on the tour by “Back From the Dead” producer CJ Vanston as well as McKean’s wife Annette O’Toole, who co-wrote “A Mighty Wind’s” Academy Award-nominated duet “A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow.”
The DVD contains the concert only, with no extra material.
“It’s a great way to present these songs,” Shearer, who wrote liner notes for the DVD, told Billboard.com during the tour. “We had done this a couple of times in just very casual and almost accidental situations…and people seemed to enjoy it. So it was in the back of our minds, ‘Well, one of these days we’ll do more of that.’ ”
The trio wanted to do something to commemorate this year’s 25th anniversary of “This is Spinal Tap” as well, Shearer said, and not necessarily go out with “a full-on Spinal Tap tour.”
“We’re not big fans of repeating ourselves,” he explained. “And in terms of the state of the economy, it wasn’t the time to be going around with three semis worth of stage stuff and charging people 75 bucks to see us be Spinal Tap. So we thought, ‘Let’s do that other thing now. That’ll be fun.’ ”
Shearer said the nature of the tour also allowed the trio to showcase the Spinal Tap and Folksmen material as songs rather than the character vehicles they are in the films.
“When we’re up there up there doing it as ourselves, our heads are in the place of being musicians,” he explained. “When we’re up there as characters, when we do performances as Tap or as the Folksmen, then there’s that other layer of, ‘Yes, we’re doing this as musicians but we’re doing this as the other musicians, not as ourselves. So we might make different choices or play differently based on how we think they would do it.
“But when we’re doing it as ourselves, there’s no place to hide. This is us playing these songs that we’ve written, and this is our best effort at playing them.”

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DVD

How many times will you buy it?

First Details of Watchmen Ultimate Edition BD Emerge
Early copies of the ‘Watchmen: Director’s Cut’ Blu-ray are surfacing, and the release contains a flier with some early details of the Ultimate Collector’s Edition of the movie. It will be released in December and will only be available through June 2010. Over two hours of bonus content will be included.
The movie version in this edition will be the director’s cut, augmented with the animated comic ‘Tales of the Black Freighter’ woven into the narrative. The total length of the cut is not known yet; the theatrical cut was 162 minutes long, whereas the director’s cut featured in the first-edition Blu-ray is 186 minutes long. As we reported, Paramount is releasing the theatrical cut in the UK.
The special features will also include the mockumentary ‘Under the Hood’ (already released as a companion to ‘Tales of the Black Freighter’) and ‘Watchmen: The Complete Motion Comic’.
The Ultimate Collector’s Edition will not include most of the special features available on the upcoming Director’s Cut, such as the “walk-on” Maximum Movie Mode. However, it will include a new audio commentary with Snyder and artist Dave Gibbons.
Get ready to be milked for this, repeatedly!!

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DVD

Cool, but I want it now!!

Watchmen arrive in July already
Warner Home Video has just unveiled first details about the upcoming release of the superhero blockbuster movie Watchmen to arrive on DVD and Blu-Ray Disc in July.
Someoneís killing our super heroes. The year is 1985 and super heroes have banded together to respond to the murder of one of their own. They soon uncover a sinister plot that puts all of humanity in grave danger. The super heroes fight to stop the impending doom only to find themselves a target for annihilation. But, if our super heroes are gone, who will save us?
The film will arrive on two DVD versions, one featuring only the movie itself in a fullframe presentation, while the Special Edition will offer up a Directorís Cut of the movie in an anamorphic widescreen version with Dolby Digital 5.1 audio. As extras the 2-disc release will also contain the Featurette îThe Phenomenon: The Comic that Changed Comicsî as well as Watchmen: Video Journals and the Desolation Row Music Video îMy Chemical Romanceî. A Digital Copy of the filmís theatrical cut will also be part of the release.
The Blu-Ray version of the movie will arrive in 108p high definition with high definition audio and also offer up the Directorís Cut of the film. Extras of this release will include a Warner Bros. Maximum Movie Mode as well a Featurette called îWatchmen: Focus Pointsî and BD Live connectivity. Also inlcuded is the Featurette îThe Phenomenon: The Comic that Changed Comicsî from the DVD version as well as the Desolation Row Music Video îMy Chemical Romanceî. In addition you will find Real Super Heroes, Real Vigilantes on the release as well as Mechanics: Technologies of a Fantastic World. A Digital Copy of the theatrical version of the film rounds out this release.
ìWatchmenî will make it to home video on July 28 .

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DVD

Love that Pinocchio!!

WHO WOODEN WANT TO SEE IT?
Only an ogre doesn’t love Jiminy Cricket, the wisecracking conscience of Hollywood’s most famous wooden boy. He’s cute and even sings the classic “When You Wish Upon A Star.”
But if Walt Disney had stuck to the original plot of the “Pinocchio” story – first created as an Italian newspaper serial in 1883 – our beloved Jiminy would have been smashed with a hammer early on, his erstwhile puppet pal tired of being told what to do.
In the bonus features of the 70th anniversary DVD and Blu-ray editions of the classic film, out Tuesday, we learn that Jiminy and Pinocchio both went through major transformations before Walt Disney considered them charismatic enough to anchor a film.
“[Pinocchio] was brash, he was cocky and kind of unlikable – he was a troublemaker,” says veteran animator Frank Thomas in an interview from 1983. “Walt didn’t like that as he was shaping up.”
And whereas author Carlo Collodi only gave the talking cricket – il grillo parlante – a handful of scenes in his original story, Disney decided to give him nearly as much screen time as the piney hero himself.
“Walt had felt there was not enough warmth, not enough friendship, no love in the story, really,” Thomas recalls. “So that’s where he used Jiminy Cricket. He ended up being the heart of the story instead of being squashed with a mallet.”
With Disney animators riding high on the blockbuster success of 1937’s “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” the iconic pairing of Pinocchio and Jiminy opened the door for the studio to create what many consider its animation masterwork. The production set a standard for traditional cel-based animation.
Chief among the breakthroughs – which included sophisticated motion-capture techniques and an unusual multi-plane camera – was the film’s depiction of water, both in windswept waves crashing around Monstro the whale and in the funhouse-mirror effects created during Pinocchio’s time in the water. One animator spent an entire year focusing only on those effects and we get to see his multi-layered sketches, which have all the detail and complexity that CG animators use today.
“The effects at that time were so beautifully done,” animation director Eric Larsen said in 1983. “We still look back at it as one of the most perfect, technically, pictures we ever made.”
But technical dexterity without great characters doesn’t mean much. And the animators excelled with this cast. Just as they gave all seven dwarfs in “Snow White” distinct personalities, every player in “Pinochio,” from huffy housecat Figaro to leering fox Honest John, is memorable.
That’s partly due to Disney’s “sweatbox” manner of brainstorming ideas. In a small screening room, the boss and his animators would watch reels of the movie as it progressed from storyboards to line drawings to finished product. Along the way, Disney would offer his notes and prompt the animators for feedback. All the comments were taken down by a stenographer and distributed later to keep everyone working to improve the project.
The sweatbox, we can assume, is where Disney jettisoned the storyboard of an alternate ending. In the film, Pinocchio drowns after escaping Monstro’s belly, only to be revived and turned into a real boy by the blue fairy in Geppetto’s workshop. The other conclusion had Geppetto drown and Pinocchio mourn over his body on the beach before the blue fairy intervenes, bringing the woodcarver back to life and transforming Pinocchio at the same time.
While “Pinocchio” represented the pinnacle of the Disney animation team’s work, it was also the only time legendary cartoon voice actor Mel Blanc (Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck) worked on a Disney film. He played Gideon, Honest John’s nefarious feline accomplice, but after he’d recorded his part, filmmakers decided to make Gideon mute.
The only remnants of Blanc’s performance are a few spirited hiccups, a reminder that during his best years, Walt Disney’s editorial instincts were ruthless but unparalleled, spurring his team to create the finest canon of traditionally animated films in history.

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DVD

If only he made a better film!!

Paul Gross hopes for ‘Passchendaele’ big-screen release in China
TORONTO – Writer-director Paul Gross won over Canadian audiences with his multimillion-dollar war epic “Passchendaele,” and now he’s got his sights set on movie fans internationally.
As Gross releases the First World War film on DVD this week in Canada, he says he’s trying to get the picture on to big screens in Britain, China and the United States.
“What I’m most excited about is China,” Gross says in an interview.
“I would just love it if it went into China . . . They take about 20 foreign films a year, and you know there are 500 million middle-class Chinese – we could actually make some money.”
Recouping funds is understandably top of mind for the Canadian filmmaker. At a cost of $20 million, “Passchendaele” is among the most expensive Canadian films ever made.
The gritty drama ended up raking in roughly $4.5 million at the box office since its release in October – a hefty sum for an independent Canadian film but still far short of its original cost.
When “Passchendaele” debuted last year it was bolstered by massive publicity. It had an opening-night slot at the Toronto International Film Festival, followed by a cross-Canada tour in which the film’s cast appeared at movie houses and took questions from audiences.
Now it’s ready for its small-screen debut, but Gross notes the stakes are anything but small.
“I think it accounts for like two-thirds of what a film can do financially,” he says of DVD releases in general.
“Increasingly, I think people start to look upon the theatrical release as a way of satisfying those who really need to see it on a huge screen, but also making sure that people are aware of it when it comes out for people to take home to their own television sets and their own home theatres.”
Of course, it doesn’t help that Gross is seeking distribution during the current tough economic climate. By and large, independent films are not selling well these days, he says.
“It’s ironic, because if I were trying to raise the financing for it right now it would be hopeless to go to private individuals and say ‘Can you part with money that you no longer have and give it to me?’ That wouldn’t have happened,” says Gross, who also found support from government sources, including $5.5 million from the Alberta government.
“On the other hand, it might have been better if we had done it five years earlier and had it out when the market was a bit better.”
The sprawling historical drama centres on the battle-weary Sgt. Michael Dunne, played by Gross, who falls in love with a troubled nurse, played by Caroline Dhavernas, when he’s brought to a Calgary hospital. Their tender relationship forms the main story arc, leading up to the climactic battle of Passchendaele and a stark account of the relentless German assault that devastated Allied forces.
Gross says he began envisioning the project more than a decade ago, and after finally recreating the battle’s stunning bleak landscape for the large screen he expresses misgivings now that it is being shrunk for the small one.
“You do sort of cringe because we made something that’s capable of being blown up into a huge picture, and reducing it like that seems a little bit crazy. On the other hand, the world is what it is,” he says, noting today’s medium of choice is even smaller than TV, with many pop culture junkies favouring portable media players.
“I don’t like watching a film on a screen that small but I know lots of people who do, including my own kids. They seem fine with it. I’ll say, ‘How can you get enough out of this? And they’ll say, ‘Oh no, I see it big.”‘
Meanwhile, Gross is hopeful that “Passchendaele” could find another life in movie theatres in China.
“I gather we still have quite a profile there. Because of Bethune, there’s this funny sense they have of us,” he says, referring to Canadian doctor Norman Bethune, considered a hero in China for joining the resistance in that country against the Japanese invasion in 1938.
“Passchendaele” comes out on DVD on Tuesday.

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DVD

Porno, porno, porno!!!

U.S. Wal-Marts want ‘Zack and Miri’ DVD cover without word ‘porno’: Kevin Smith
TORONTO – There’s new controversy over the title of filmmaker Kevin Smith’s saucy comedy, “Zack and Miri Make a Porno.”
Last fall, some ads for the film were rejected south of the border because of the word “porno.” Now, Smith says Wal-Mart stores in the U.S. have asked that the cover of the DVD, set to hit shelves Tuesday, omit the word too.
“I’m just so shocked that the word ‘porno’ meant that much to people in terms of, like, they found it insanely offensive and don’t want to see it on display,” the outspoken writer-director said Thursday in an interview from Los Angeles.
Smith said Weinstein Co., which released the film Oct. 31, has complied with Wal-Mart’s request and created new DVD covers for the retailer, but the director worries that some unsuspecting customers will be fooled when they see the shortened title.
“Some Wal-Mart-er could buy it and think: ‘Oh, Zack and Miri, looks lovely,’ and pop it in and there’s … some pretty graphic stuff,” said the indie icon, known for such slacker hits as “Clerks,” “Chasing Amy,” “Dogma” and “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.”
“I mean, at least with the word ‘porno’ in the title, you can kind of give people a warning about what they’re in for.”
Wal-Mart did not immediately respond to calls for comment Thursday.
As for the DVD release in Canada, Smith said retailers here will sell the cover with the full title.
“Zack and Miri Make a Porno” stars Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks as roommates who shoot an adult flick to make quick cash. While the film does include nudity, vulgar content and colourful language, it is not a porno but rather a romantic comedy, said Smith.
Before the film hit the big screen, the Motion Picture Association of America gave it its most restrictive rating – NC-17, which means no one under that age is admitted. After several appeals from Smith, the organization lowered the rating to “R,” which allows under-17 viewers in if they’re accompanied by a parent or adult over 21.
In Canada, most provinces gave it an 18A rating, in which viewers under that age can only see the film if accompanied by an adult.
The MPAA also rejected some “Zack and Miri” ads, deeming them “highly sexually suggestive,” so Weinstein Co. created new posters that had stick figures representing the actors.
Smith said he was initially “flabbergasted” about the uproar over the word “porno” but now: “I’ve thrown up my hands at the whole thing.”
He also said he’s not worried that the continuing controversy will bring down his DVD sales, noting the film has actually led to new opportunities for him.
“‘Zack and Miri’ did some weird things for my career in as much as I guess lots of folks at different studios finally considered it a like, movie-enough movie, where they could be like, ‘Hey, would you like to direct movies for us?”‘ said Smith, who made his first film, “Clerks,” for just US$27,575 in his home state of New Jersey.
With new opportunities at his door, Smith said he’s largely abandoned what he calls the “Askewniverse” – a comical world with recurring characters including misfits Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (Smith).
“I just can’t imagine bringing Jay and Silent Bob back, man,” said Smith, whose character was a mute who always wore a baseball cap, black trench coat and long hair.
“I’m 38 now, I’ll be 39 in August. I cannot imagine spinning a backwards baseball cap and leaning against a convenience store wall. Those characters would just stop being cute – they’d become depressing, you know? Old, fat (guy) leaning outside a convenience store with another dude and they’re selling drugs to teenagers?
“The charm would be gone, I think. But Dante and Randal (from ‘Clerks II’) I think could still be viable … but beyond that it just feels like the Askewniverse is kind of done. ‘Clerks II’ was a really nice way to close it up.”
Smith will be in Toronto next week for two speaking engagements at Roy Thomson Hall, and for Q&A sessions at the Kevin Smith Film Festival.