Friday, September 26, 2008

Tale of a Grauman's Chinese Theater Doorman

Attention SciFi junkies. The Day the Earth Stood Still is being reissued on DVD (again). This "special edition" will come out on BluRay and regular DVD on Dec 2., just in time for the holiday season. More from The Digital Bits Web site:

The 2-disc DVD (SRP $19.98) will include the film in its original full frame (1.33:1) aspect ratio, the original audio commentary by Robert Wise and Nicolas Meyer, a new commentary by film & music historians John Morgan, Steven Smith, William Stromberg and Nick Redman, an isolated score track, 8 featurettes (The Making of The Day the Earth Stood Still, Decoding "Klaatu, Barada, Nikto": Science Fiction as Metaphor, A Brief History of Flying Saucers, The Astounding Harry Bates, Edmund North: The Man Who Made the Earth Stand Still, The Mysterious, Melodious Theremin, Race to Oblivion: A Documentary Short Written and Produced by Edmund North and Farewell to the Master: A Reading by Jamieson K. Price of the Original Harry Bates Short Story), video of a live performance of the film's main title music by thereminist Peter Pringle, an Interactive pressbook, the vintage Fox Movietonews from 1951 short film, the film's theatrical trailer, multiple still galleries (for advertising, behind-the-scenes, portraits, production, spaceship construction blueprints) and the film's shooting script. The single-disc Blu-ray edition (SRP $34.99) will include all of the above along with the film in 1080p full frame with DTS-HD audio and 2 exclusive bonus features: the Interactive Thermin: Create Your Own Score option and the Gort Command interactive game.

Sorry, stuffed "collectible" beanbag toys of Gort, Michael Rennie, or Hugh Marlowe not included (darn).

Excellent film, I'm just sick of buying reissues every time they come out. Not only do we get extras, now BluRay is the carrot on the stick. Have you seen how many times they've reissued An Affair to Remember on DVD (BluRay aside, the letterboxed, Cinemascope version is the best BTW)? How about the Hitchcock films? Ok, end rant.

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