News and Notes (part two)

Welcome back. Once I finished writing out all three fronts, I realized this was quite a lengthy post, and determined it would be best to split them up and let you read them in manageable chunks. Let's continue with our other two "Fronts", Releases and What the Hell was That?

The Release Front:

Up-Front Disclaimer - I'm not reporting any of the following from the position of an expert, only from the position of somebody who did some poking around and added his own conjecture.

I don't know where else to put this, but Amazon put up links a few months ago for Criterion Blu-Ray titles that I can't find confirmation about anywhere else. In addition to two reasonably likely titles (Seven Samurai and Videodrome), Amazon is also listing Terrence Malick's The Thin Red Line, Wes Anderson's The Darjeeling Limited, and Lars Von Trier's Antichrist as "Not Yet Announced" Blu-Ray titles available for Pre-Order.

For their part, Criterion doesn't seem to be saying anything. I just checked their "Coming Soon" page (this would be June 10th, 2010) and you're not going to find any of those movies listed. The Criterion Collection has been coyly playing with fans on their Facebook page by including links to stories about Malick's new film The Tree of Life (they have released Days of Heaven on DVD and Blu-Ray, so there is some relationship with the director), causing comments to explode with questions about the "4 Hour Cut" that will no doubt be the next Spine Number from Malick. I just don't know, especially since 20th Century Fox released The Thin Red Line (see below).

For The Darjeeling Limited, well, I just don't see why Fox is going to let Criterion put that out. Yes, I realize that Criterion and Wes Anderson have a working relationship (all of his films, save for two, are Spine Numbers already), but it's important to note that none of the other films were released by 20th Century Fox (Bottle Rocket was Columbia Tri-Star and Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou all came from Disney / Touchstone). Fox, on the other hand, released The Darjeeling Limited on DVD and is already selling a Blu-Ray / DVD / Digital Copy combo for Fantastic Mr. Fox. Ergo, I don't really see that there's any incentive to let Criterion have Darjeeling, especially if they're doing pretty well with Mr. Fox.

Antichrist, well, to be honest with you, this makes plenty of sense. There is currently no U.S. release date for Lars Von Trier's latest film on DVD or Blu-Ray (it's available in Europe right now) and I don't know what studio really wants to try marketing it. Criterion has released The Element of Crime and Europa, and also has a history with "controversial" films like Salo and In the Realm of the Senses, so of the three titles, this one does make the most sense.

However, I have to reiterate that none of these titles are in any way actually confirmed. Pre-ordering them might be an exercise in futility, as Amazon has very limited information about the discs and the user reviews seem to reflect hopes more than any evidence they're coming out. The going rumor was that Yojimbo and Sanjuro were released on Blu-Ray because Seven Samurai's restoration was taking longer than expected, so I wouldn't be surprised if that is actually coming out. Videodrome is a 50/50 proposition, if only because Universal has been releasing back catalog Criterion titles on Blu-Ray (like Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Traffic, and Spartacus) on their own. Keep your eyes peeled, as will the Cap'n, but don't rush to pre-order those movies until you hear they're really coming out.

Finally, the "What the Hell Was That Front":

I actually don't even know what to make of the Mortal Kombat "proof of concept" video floating around the internet. I'm betting it won't embed correctly here, so I'm just going to put the link up. Yes, that is Michael Jai White, and yes, that is Star Trek Voyager's Jeri Ryan. I guess it's a "gritty" take on Mortal Kombat, and that's either really silly or potentially cool. I just don't know. Watch for yourself and decide.