Warner Home Video was
very busy this past week with announcements for director Wally Pfister’s sci-fi
thriller, Transcendence and special editions of such film vault treasures
as Gone
With The Wind, On Any Given Sunday and Once
Upon a Time in America.
The Johnny Depp/Rebecca
Hall sci-fi film, Transcendence, will be available on July 22 as Blu-ray/DVD
Combo Pack (with UltraViolet) and DVD editions.
The ARR is a zippy 95 days and the box office take was $22.9 million.
Way back in 1970 Dennis
Feltham Jones’ novel, "Colossus," was adapted for the screen by scripted James
Bridges and director Joseph Sargent.
Titled Colossus: The Forbin Project, it was a chilling tale of a super
computer becoming sanctioned and then plots to take over the world.
In 1984 writer/director
James Cameron tracked a similar storyline with Skynet turning on the human race
in The
Terminator.
In both cases humans
developed computer systems to the point of self-awareness and then found that
there was hell to pay for their hubris.
In the case of Transcendence,
we find Dr. Will Caster (Johnny Depp) working on the same concept …
create a self-aware computer that will experience a “technological singularity.”
There are, however, human
beings out to stop him and they call themselves R.I.F.T (short for: “Revolutionary
Independence From Technology”) and they come within a whisper of doing him
in. Ironically, by murdering him they
set in motion what they feared most as Caster, mortally wounded, infuses his consciousness
into the mainframe of the supercomputer that he has designed.
Regenerated into robot
form (looking exactly as he did before) Caster systematically hooks into the
internet and becomes exponentially more and more intelligent until he arrives
at the conclusion that all human being must be assimilated into his worldwide
network!!!
When will we ever
learn? Can he be stopped … and at what
price?
Bonus features include
two featurettes — “What Is Transcendence?” and “Wally Pfister: A Singular
Vision.” Exclusive to the Blu-ray SKU are
five additional featurettes — “Guarding the Threat,” “The Promise of A.I.,” “R.I.F.T.,”
“It’s Me” and “Singularity.”
On Sept. 30 Gone
With The Wind will be rereleased as Gone With The Wind: 75th
Anniversary Ultimate Collector’s Edition. Bonus nuggets with the Blu-ray collectible
edition include footage of Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh attending the film’s
premiere in Atlanta, a newly-prepared 32-page booklet on the styles of GWTW
and the extended featurette titled “Old South/New South,” which takes a look at
the sites depicted in the film and how they are today.
Also streeting on Sept.
30 are two Blu-ray SKUs of Sergio Leone’s 1984 film, Once Upon a Time in America. There are two buying options for Once
Upon a Time in America: Extended Director's Cut — one with and one
without the original theatrical cut.
Bonus features include
commentary by film historian and critic Richard Schickel, the documentary
titled “Once Upon a Time: Sergio Leone” and a 32-page booklet highlighting the
restoration of the film to its current status.
Special features
(available on all the editions) include commentary by film historian and critic
Richard Schickel, and a making-of documentary, “Once Upon a Time: Sergio
Leone.”
Elsewhere on the release
schedule from Warner Home Video this week are the Sept. 9 Blu-ray release of
director Oliver Stone’s On Any Given Sunday: 15th Anniversary Edition -
Director's Cut.
Bonus features include
commentary from filmmaker Oliver Stone and actor Jamie Foxx, the featurette
titled “Anything Can Happen,” a gag reel, unused and extended scenes and screen
tests.
A Blu-ray edition of Dreamcatcher
will be available on Sept. 16 and Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack and DVD editions of
the newest Scooby Doo! original animated feature film, Scooby-Doo! Frankencreepy
will debut on Aug. 19.
To download this week's
complete edition of the DVD and Blu-ray Release Report: DVD & Blu-ray Release Report
.jpg "Mill Creek Entertainment Announces First Wave Of August 2014 DVD And Blu-ray Product Offerings")
