Indiana Jones coming to DVD in November

DaSpudMan writes "The "Indiana Jones" trilogy, one of the most requested film series for the DVD format, is finally slated for worldwide release Nov. 4 as "The Adventures of Indiana Jones -- The Complete DVD Movie Collection," a box set that will include a fourth disc specifically dedicated to bonus materials."

Comments

percent of revenue

[AbdullahHaydar]

It's about time they released these DVDS....

I'm surprised they took so long, considering DVDs are such a huge percent of the total revenue movies make for a studio.

Re:Awesome

[Verteiron]

Your point about the Imperial March is well-taken. But the Thuggee Ceremony music is more.. well, nightmarish. To put it in D&D terms, I think it's a matter of Orderly Evil vs. Chaotic Evil.

Is it magic pixie dust?

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't get it. Nice to have them out finally...

Spielberg and Lucas treat DVD as though its a big trumpeting event.

Where's SW? Where's Schindlers list?
Where's THX1138?

They're so corporate now, anything they produce is so mechanical, so by the numbers that it's hardly an art form anymore, it's a style. You could easily see the same story and visual structure in EVERY spielberg and Lucas film. Janus Kaminsky (Spielberg's cinematographer) has lost all creativity due to the fact that he's made nothing but spielberg movies for the last decade.

Watch Jurassic Park for the shots of people "looking" at things off camera. Then watch ANY other one of his films, and it'll be ruined for you. That's HALF of his shot list on any given film. AHHHH!

My other issue is the PR at Lucasfilm's flimsy excuse for the lack of commentary.

Spielberg won't do them. Point blank. Don't feed us an excuse that "in order to save space..." for not doing it. If you wanted to save space, there'd be a DTS track on there. Screw his position on not wanting to reveal his "magic"...

Unless they're going to be single layer discs, it's got plenty of space for DTS, DD 5.1, commentary, and a French track for Quebec.

Bonus material: gimmicks

[Malc]

Does anybody else dislike most of this bonus material? It seems like waste of money and a gimmick to me.

The documentaries and interviews always seem rather contentless and full of people who take themselves too seriously, talk too much about inconsequential things, and go on self-importantly in a self-promotion about how wonderful their movie is, and all the people in it.

I know whether I liked a movie or not - I don't need propaganda to convince me otherwise. Really, most of the bonus material is just plain dull. Really, most Hollywood movies are just some quick entertainment which doesn't require much concentration, so why take them so seriously? Earth shattering movies are few and far between - and it's the content of the story that matters, not how the movie was made or how wonderful all the actors and actresses are. These people have too much ego. I'd be happy with more of Jackie Chan's routine: out-takes during the closing credits (although they'd require more effort than those with The Tuxedo).

Cleaned up film transfer?

[Pootenheimer]

Does anyone know if the film transfer will be cleaned for DVD? I, for one, would prefer not to see in blissful DVD detail the reflection of the snake in the glass during the scene in the snake pit in Raiders. Kind of takes you out of your immersion in the movie a bit.

Re:No commentary track

[jweatherley]

Personally, I couldn't care less about the stupid director's commentary. I would much rather see them spend their bandwidth on less-compressed video and audio streams.

I quite like commentaries - providing the commentators have something worth saying of course. Some of my favourite ones are Ridley Scott on Alien, Tom Baker on some of the BBC Dr Who DVDs and Sam Raimi on the Evil Dead. Actually Evil Dead has two commentaries one by Raimi/Tabert (producer) and the other by Bruce Campbell the lead actor. Both commentraies are pretty interesting - you find out that someone's sister got roped in because the original actress pissed off halfway through filming when the money ran out.

The ones that tend to suck are the recent main stream Hollywood movies - lots of gushing about how wonderful everyone is. Even then you're not sacrificing that much video quality for the 150MB that a plain stereo commentary track costs so I don't really mind. Anyway Region 2 DVD's tend to have half a dozen European language tracks and a dozen subtitle tracks so we're used to non-video things filling the disc.

Re:Why such a huge ad campaign?

[payndz]

Last year, I went to a Paramount press event for the DVD launch of Grease and some other Travolta/musical movies. The sheer amount of money that was spent absolutely stunned me. As well as flying in several hundred people (journalists, distributors, suits from Paramount's various international subsidiaries) from all around the world, *first class all the way*, hotels, limos, everything, they laid on a red carpet event at the studio, various stars turned up, there was a Grease cast reunion *and* they got Travolta and Olivia Newton John to sing together. Dunno about her, but I bet Travolta didn't do it just for some free wine and burgers.

We're talking an event that easily ran into millions of dollars to stage, all told. (Not that I'm complaining - I've never flown first class before, and doubt I ever will again either, but it was very enjoyable!) And this is *without* adding in the cost of the actual DVD advertising on TV and the press.

Yet studios are always somehow claiming to be strapped for cash. Hmmm. Hollywood is an insane place...

Next, maybe Star Wars?

[crashnbur]

(Here is a copy of the press release announcing the Indiana Jones trilogy DVD.)

Before I get started, check OriginalTrilogy.com, a web site dedicated to the preservation of the original theatrical cuts (and eventually have them released on DVD as well, not just the special editions) of the films of the classic Star Wars trilogy. See their FAQ for more information. Signatories number around 29,500 at the moment; 30,000 could be reached within the day!

Now, on with the show...

From September 2001, LucasFilm clarifies that they can not simply jump into a DVD project for the classic Star Wars trilogy. It will take time, but from the hints presented here, it should be worth the wait! (I still think Lucas could make a fortune by releasing *only* the movies, everything we have on VHS so far, as individual titles on DVD.) From the September 2001 feature:

An ever-increasing number of archival projects from other studios are also readying the THX team for a time when Lucas will be available to focus on releasing the classic trilogy on DVD. "We have an advantage that some very great work was done by Rick McCallum and his group back in '97. So we have restored films and we have a lot of work that was put in that first step with the restoration job back then," says Dean.

"I've certainly heard that there's a lot of material that has been in the archives that never has come out. I imagine it will be a very, very long, tedious process to make it work," he speculates. "Frankly, that's why DVD is just not something that you jump into. There is a lot of planning behind that."

Another article from February 2000 expresses more reasons for delaying development of the trilogy's DVD. It seems as though fears of pirated copies of Star Wars films is a major concern, though LucasFilm denied this then. (As technology has improved, I wonder if they would still deny it, or if they would simply deny this as a reason for delaying the DVD project.)

Although about twenty and forty months old, respectively, this is still more information than the StarWars.com FAQ, updated quite frequently, gives:

When will the classic trilogy come out on DVD?
The films of the classic trilogy will eventually come out on DVD, but it won't be this year.

Thanks, George. We got that memo.

Last tidbit. According to this FAQ, Natalie Portman may shoot some scenes for the Return of the Jedi DVD, and Jimmy Smits (Bail Organa, Princess Leia's adopted father, who is presumably but not necessarily on planet Alderaan when the Death Star destroys it) may shoot some scenes for the A New Hope DVD.