reverie

I didn't see this mentioned anywhere, so I thought I'd ask here...

It really looks like it was meant to be widescreen, but it's not. Does anyone know if it was? If so, I wonder why they cropped it down to fullscreen. If it wasn't meant to be widescreen, it looks pretty crappy!

Regardless, for the price it's a neat thing to have. Was the pilot the only one shot?

TGM

You're surprised that a failed pilot packaged as a throw-away didn't receive the 5-star treatment?

reverie

Not really, just wondering if it was filmed in widescreen, why not just dump that version on the disc? Is it actually less work to make it fullscreen?

Cameron

i assume it was shot open matte protecting for full screen, but composed for widescreen. That the way most everything is shot these days. Again, this is an assumption as I have not seen the disc.

drainout

A failed pilot that managed to be the number one seller on itunes for a few weeks straight

Trevor

Only because people thought it was an Entourage spin-off.

The Valeyard

LOL.

Cameron did a great job with the character.

shyguy1083

i don't think that's why... or maybe it was? i just thought there were a lot of comic fans interested in seeing how the pilot would've been? dunno. i just thought it was pretty cool they were making the pilot available at all considering it didn't get picked up. that's why i checked it out.

did they offer it as a free download or was it only to order? i remember "purchasing" it... but i don't know if it was a free download or purchased with leftover money from an itunes card.

anywho, the pilot on itunes is in widescreen format. just compared it to the disc i got, and the image is cropped on the sides. haven't watched the disc fully, so i don't know if the cropping really affects the framing. random scene comparison, not the exact same frame though:

itunes:


best buy dvd:

will travel

I wish they had included the "Aquaman" Pilot on the Aquaman Cartoon DVD as a Bonus.

lamphorn

Is Spider-Man 3 the Kiss of Death for Aquaman III?

James Cameron arrives at the film premiere of "The nightmare before Christmas" in 3-D (AFP/Getty Images)
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I haven't heard anyone report the real story here. Lost in the Spider-Man beats Pirates debate is the more relevant argument. Namely, how did Spider-Man beat the other giant superhero franchise, Aquaman, by a full $35 million? That's a lot of million!

When Aquaman came out, James Cameron was lauded as a genius. The film made $117 million in its opening weekend and champagne was being popped around the Warner Brothers office. To be fair, Vincent Chase's performance as the underwater hero got mixed reviews, but we can all admit Mandy Moore was as cute as a button in the watery adventure. Rumors of onset tension between the two clearly led to great chemistry, and we all anxiously awaited the sequel. Then, disaster. After typical super-agent antics from Ari Gold, Vinny Chase was out. They recast the film and released a highly compromised Aquaman II and the public didn't bite. Jake Gyllenhaal was shamed, and now everyone is hoping the franchise will be salvaged with Aquaman III: Shadow of Atlantis (rumored title as the series tries to go darker).

Given the Spidey box office domination, I'm now worried that James Cameron will pass after he finishes Avatar -- after all, who needs the comparisons? And here I was hoping they'd finally get around to the Black Manta story arc. Or what about bringing in some Justice League of America action? Sigh. Now we might never get the chance, and Aquaman has been washed away in a sea of Spidey money.

So today I'm in mourning for the psychic swimmer with whom the dolphins swim. As every story on the internet is about Spider-Man 3, it's almost like the Aquaman movies never happened at all.

http://www.film.com/movies/story/iss...aniii/14434700

GuessWho

random.... riiiiiiight

bboisvert

^

jpdude

I DL'd it when it was a freebie!

Edison

This has been on the Xbox LIVE marketplace for a long time, I downloaded it probably ~6 months ago. On the LIVE marketplace there is both a 480p version, and an HD widescreen version so I'm assuming it was originally shot in HD/Widescreen.

Michael Corvin

Awesome.

Mickactual

This whole "Aquaman" fiasco has me totally miffed. I had seen this pilot as a download. No - it wasn't matted. It was a 16X9 widescreen presentation, and on this DVD, the sides are literally lopped off. It's not even pan-and-scanned: in certain scenes, characters faces are half cut off - actors to either side are sometimes entirely cut off (yet can be heard). The title sequence shows the letters "QUAMA"...the "A" and the "N" are cut off. All this, BTW, happened on both a 1:33:1 TV and a 16X9 LCD. It's laughable. But my question is WHY? Only a year-and-ahalf from all TV going WS HD, why would they take a widescreen show and lop off the edges?
I wrote to TVShowsOnDVD.com for some guidance. The response I got was they couldn't help. OK. Then I wrote Best Buy (as this is a BB exclusive). Their response was basically "we feel Your pain - we can't help - try writing the manufacturer".
Has anyone written ANYONE and gotten anything more constructive than a pass-the-buck? Does anyone even KNOW who to contact to gripe about this (maybe at Warners)?
I'm burned about this because I'm a Justin Hartley fan, and I bought that "Smallville" box specifically for the "Aquaman" disc. Whatta letdown!