It made its debut at the
Venice Film Festival in late August (followed by Telluride a couple of days
later) to thunderous applause and critical acclaim. A clear front-runner for Oscar consideration
… and then came word that the director had tinkered with an-important moment of
the story to make it “more inclusive.”
That one decision — and
the word of it — in today’s highly charged emotional environment cost it big
bucks at the box office.
Of course we are talking
about director Damien Chazelle’s film adaptation of professor James R. Hansen’s 2005 biography, “First Man: The
Life of Neil A. Armstrong,” which was shortened for it’s theatrical release to
simply, First Man.
Universal Pictures Home
Entertainment has tabbed Jan. 22 for a three-SKU landing of First
Man — a stand-alone DVD edition, a Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack and a 4K
Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo Pack selection are the choices consumers will have to
select from.
The ARR is 102 days and
box office receipts were a less-than-stellar $44.7 million. Home entertainment sales are unlikely to be
impacted by the theatrical misstep.
Filmmaker Damien Chazelle
was robbed of Best Picture laurels for La La Land in an historic live-TV
screw up at the Oscars, but by the time the Golden Globe nominations came
around this year (not that they are of any real importance) his film, First
Man, was all but forgotten.
There is, however, a
certain irony in the street date that Universal Pictures Home Entertainment has
assigned to its home entertainment launch … it is the same day that this year’s
crop of Best Picture contenders will be announced, and with up to eight to ten
slots for consideration it might be on the list (stay tuned).
As to bonus goodies,
director Damien Chazelle provides commentary, plus there are deleted scenes and
at least a quartet of production featurettes — “Giant Leap in One Small Step,”
“Recreating the Moon Landing,” “Shooting at NASA” and “Astronaut Training.”
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