Tagged: DVD

Heroic Casting News

william_hurt-2416683For next June’s new Incredible Hulk movie, William Hurt (Lost in Space, Altered States) has been signed to play General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross.

NBC has announced that Dania Ramirez (Callisto in X-Men: The Last Stand) has been added as a regular on Heroes. Ramirez’s character is name Maya but her place in the tapestry and her powers remain unknown.  Word is that new characters to at least recur in the second season will include a young African-American mother, an Irish mobster and a hunky boyfriend for Claire.

And the DVD for Season One will be out on August 28.

Spider-Man 3 bootlegs already abound…

spid-6328995If you want to see Spider-Man 3 and you don’t want to wait until May 4th, the inevitable bootleg DVDs are already out and about – in China. And you can get yours for the low, low cost of $1.00 a piece … plus airfare.

According to Reuters, there is even a warning on the back, printed in Chinese, against pirating the product. But, as always, buyer beware: any specific bootleg DVD might not work on your specific player.

China is almost as well known for its bootlegs as it is for its booming economy, Sadly, these sales will not be incorporated into Spidey‘s box office totals.

Spider-Man 2.1 extended cut DVD

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On the heels of Fantastic Four 1 getting its extended cut, DVD release, it now looks like Spidey 2 is getting the same special treatment.

The two-DVD Spider-Man Extended Cut includes eight minutes of never-before-seen footage – including extended fight sequences, a big ol’ sneak peak into Spider-Man 3 including an exclusive Spider-Man 3 video game trailer, commentary by Kirsten (Mary Jane) Dunst and producer Luara Ziskin (big whoop), a trivia track with all-new branched video pieces, and, of course, plenty more!

The Spider-Man Extended Cut comes out April 17, two and one-half weeks prior to the opening of Spider-Man 3.

Song of the South to rise again?

 

Disney’s first live-action motion picture (well, mostly), Song of the South, just might see the light of day once again. Locked up tight in their well-promoted archives since 1986 and never released on video tape, LaserDisc or DVD in the United States, the subject once again was raised at their annual shareholders meeting, this time in acknowledgement of a petition drive demanding the movie’s release. The petition has attained 115,000 signatures thus far.

It should be pointed out that Disney’s fear they might be seen as actively racist has not deterred them from releasing the movie overseas, and these prints have served as the basis of the great many bootleg editions that are commonly found in this country.

“The question of Song of the South comes up periodically,” Disney CEO Robert Iger told the Associated Press. “We’ve decided to take a look at it again because we’ve had numerous requests about bringing it out. Our concern was that a film that was made so many decades ago being brought out today perhaps could be either misinterpreted or that it would be somewhat challenging in terms of providing the appropriate context.”

The movie is historically important, and, of course, there’s that annoying First Amendment thing. It stars James Baskett as Uncle Remus and Hattie McDaniel as Aunt Tempy. Ironically, there weren’t a lot of starring roles given to blacks in 1946. Baskett was quite the star in the black movie circuit.

The song Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah won an Oscar as best picture, and the Splash Mountain rides at the Disney theme parks were inspired by the movie.

It is believed a DVD release will make a great deal of money for the House of Mouse.

Galactica plots its new course

Now that the third season is behind him and he’s got a full commitment from the SciFi Network for a third, Battlestar Galactica developer and executive producer Ron Moore decided to spill a few beans about what’s ahead for the series.

Moore revealed Katee Sackhoff will be back as Starbuck throughout the upcoming season, although he did not reveal if she was the final Cylon. Despite her previous public comments regarding her getting new work on other series, Moore told the trade magazine TVWeek "She was very careful how she phrased it. We wanted people to feel the loss. We didn’t want to put Katee in the position of lying to people. She did look for other work and is getting other work — just other work that won’t interfere with her "Battlestar" commitments."

He also disclosed the upcoming two-hour Galactica made-for-teevee movie that will be airing this fall (and available on DVD shortly thereafter) will not pick up from the point where season three left off, providing a convenient "jumping in" point for new viewers. "It didn’t feel right to try and resolve the cliffhanger with a single airing and DVD release. It didn’t make any sense. We told a story that takes place in the past in the "Galactica" universe but relates to events in the fourth season."

As has been widely rumored, Moore confirmed the possibility of a prequel series called Caprica. It’s "still in development," Moore said. "They’re not picking it up as a pilot right now. They’ve talked about doing a two-hour version of it, or a DVD. The longer it goes on, the less likely it seems that anything will happen."

Of course, if this fall’s stand-alone movie does well – or if the Star Trek theatrical prequel does extremely well (a longer shot, IMHO) – don’t be surprised if SciFi gets a lot more interested.

Sopranos’ Frankie Valli sings to ComicMix!

We’ve got the low-down on The Boys, Batman gets a swell new squeeze, comics and DVD new releases get revealed, Tom DeFalco gets previewed (?), and Timeline gets out in 1963, and we interview the Sopranos‘ most famous singing dead guy thus far,  Mister Frankie Valli!

All this and, as we always say, even more… at ComicMix Podcast #13.

It’s all yours, if you just click here:

DC announces first D2DVD release

superman_doomsday-4851955Following Marvel’s lead, DC Comics is entering the direct-to-DVD animated feature business with the first of a slate of programs featuring their popular heroes.

First at bat is Superman Doomsday, based on the historic Death of Superman storyline from a decade ago. Previewed at this weekend’s Wondercon in San Francisco, the DVD will be released in September and carries a PG-13 rating. Adam Baldwin voices Superman, Anne Heche Lois Lane, and James Marsters plays Lex Luthor. Marsters is no stranger to the Superman mythos, having played Brainiac on the Smallville teevee series.

DC is also adapting Darwyn Cooke’s brilliant DC: The New Frontier for D2DVD release.