It has been officially announced by Warner Brothers as reported by www.dreadcentral.com (great site for the horror genre, BTW):

http://www.horrorchannel.com/dread/m...ticle&sid=1251

"The new release will feature a commentary track by star Jeremy Irons, a behind-the-scenes featurette, interviews with the cast and crew, and something called the Dead Ringers psychological profile. Not too sure what that last one is.

It’s also got a new 1.85 anamorphic transfer and your choice of 2.0 or 5.1 sound."

Glad to hear!

WOW! Glad I didn't go for the Canadian reissue. This seems to have all the same extras, right? Plus an anamorphic transfer.

Time to pull out the CC and check to see if the extras are worth keeping... Haven't spun this title in a couple of years.

Awesome. Warner has been doing a great job lately

No. The Criterion disc had:

Audio Commentary by David Cronenberg, Peter Suschitky, Jeremy Irons, Ronald Sanders and Carol Spier
Original Designs for the Opening Title Sequence
'Mathematics In Metal' and 'Instruments For Operating On Mutant Women' - Still Gallery of Drawings and Photographs
Electonic Press Kit including Trailer and Featurette
Twinning Effect/Motion Control Footage

DJ

Edit: DJ beat me to it!



Will definitely be double-dipping, but will also hold onto the Criterion release since it doesn't look like the extras are being carried over. The Criterion has:

Audio commentary by Cronenberg, Irons, the editor, production designer Carol Spier, and Peter Suschitzky.

Original designs for the opening title sequence.

"Mathematics in Metal" & "Instruments for Operating on Mutant Women" - still galleries of drawings and photographs of the sculptures and medical instruments used in the film.

Twinning effect - motion control footage.

Electronic presskit including trailer and featurette.

Guess that means I need to go ahead and sell off my Anchor Bay while I can still get somewhere close to (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/off...?condition=all) for it.

-JP

All those extras may still be included, they're just not named. If we'll know definitely the extras are different, then that means Jeremy Irons recorded a new commentary for Warner. I'll have to get the Canadian reissue of the CC disc then, to get all the extras.

Triple dip for me.

Also, the new version will be cropped.
The movie was filmed 1.33:1.
The Criterion edition is matted to 1.66:1 as approved by D.C.

And it was framed to be shown between 1.66:1 and 1.85:1 (at that time, he would frame at about 1.75:1 during filming to accomodate either AR). Cronenberg told me he generally prefers 1.66:1 for his films, but he is also fine with versions that matte the film further. He has approved 1.85:1 for Criterion's Videodrome, for example. He knew full well that Dead Ringers would be shown at 1.85:1 in US theatres. This may not be ideal, but I think it's hardly fatal.

DJ

My favorite film by my favorite director.

Think I'll definiitely keep my criterion. Don't like the fact that the new version may be cropped.

Fantastic news... but I'm holding onto my Criterion!

The cropping from 1.66:1 to 1.85:1 might not be so terrible, but there's no way I'm giving up the Cronenberg commentary!

Apparently it's a must to get the CC or the Canadian reissue. It'll make a sort of a 2-disc set :-)

Not sure if I'll double-dip or not. I'll wait to read the reviews.

i didn't even know that there had been a re-release in canada......
what special features were on that exactly?

i'll be interested to read reviews of this new release, but the Criterion will always be special to me as it was the first Criterion disc I ever purchased.

1.85:1 isn't a big deal for an 1988 (?) film.

The older editions were 1.66:1 most likely because the old transfer was meant for laserdisc. Thus, 1.66:1 would offer a bit more resolution than 1.85:1 in that format.

However, now that we have DVD and it'll be 16x9, it's not a big deal to matte. Besides, Warner uses 1.78:1 on all flat (1.85:1) films, which means it won't be matted as much as an exact 1.85:1 version. You get a few extra lines of picture information on the top and bottom.

i just hope some people on ebay will hear the news, and the value of the criterion will drop so i can pick it up, but i'm not too sure something like this will drop the value. oh well thanks for the news.

Exact same as the criterion release.

No love for the Anchor Bay version?