Anchor Bay Special Editions: Phantasm ---> 4-10-07 and Re-Animator ---> 3-20-07
 

http://dvd.ign.com/articles/757/757444p1.html

Re-Animator Specs:

• Brand-new remastered transfer, approved by director Stuart Gordon
• Widescreen Presentation (1.85:1), enhanced by 16x9 televisions
• Remastered Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 sound
• Audio Commentary with Director Stuart Gordon
• Audio Commentary with Producer Brian Yuzna and Actors Bruce Abbott, Jeffrey Combs, Barbara Crampton and Robert Sampson
• All-New 70-minute featurette: “Re-Animator Resurrectus” featuring interviews with Director Stuart Gordon, Producer Brian Yuzna, Writer Dennis Paoli, Composer Richard Band and Fangoria Magazine editor Tony Timpone, Actors Jeffrey Combs, Barbara Crampton, Carolyn Purdy-Gordon and Robert Sampson
• Music Discussion with Composer Richard Band
• Deleted and Extended Scenes
• Theatrical trailer
• TV Spots
• New Production Stills from Brian Yuzna’s private collection
• New Behind-The-Scenes, Posters & Advertising, Storyboard and Fun-On-The-Set galleries
• Stuart Gordon Bio
• Screenplay (DVD-ROM)
• “Herbert West, Reanimator” by H.P. Lovecraft (DVD-ROM)
• Re-Animator green pen


Re-Animator Cover Art

http://www.horror-movies.ca/AdvHTML_...81_article.jpg

Phantasm Specs:

* Audio Commentary with Director Don Coscarelli & Actors Michael Baldwin, Bill Thornbury & Angus Scrimm
* Deleted Scenes
* 2005 Documentary Phantasmagoria
* Behind the Scenes & Actors Having A Ball Featuettes
* 1979 Promotional Interviews
* 1989 Angus Scrimm Convetion Apperance
* Trailers & TV Spots & 1988 Fangoria TV Commerical

http://horrormovies.ca/horror_7528.html

Phantasm III Specs:

* Audio Commentary by stars Michael Baldwin & Angus Scrimm
* Phantasm III: Behind the scenes featurette
* Deleted Scene
* Phantasm & Phantasm III trailer
* DVD-Rom Screenplay

http://www.horror-movies.ca/horror_7467.html

Original link about Re-Animator and Phantasm:

http://www.horror-movies.ca/horror_7060.html

Great! I'll definitely buy both, but I thought Re-animator already had a pretty good SE. wasn't there a Millenium Edition or something that was 2 discs?

Yep, I've had it for long time now. Here is what's on it:

I already have the R2 Phantasm Sphere set as well, so it'll be interesting to see what they stick on the R1 version of a new Phantasm release.

Another <i>Re-Animator</i> ? I'll pass, unless it comes with a glowing green test-tube and a dead cat.

From the article:

They've recorded two new commentaries with exactly the same two groups of people on the Elite DVD's two commentaries? That's seems weird. I wonder if there really is new commentaries, or if the article is incorrect, and they ported the tracks over from the Elite edition.

I don't have Phantasm, so I'll probably be picking that one up.

I hope to GOD that Phantasm is finally anamorphic.

good news on Phantasm. Re-Animator is great for everyone who doesn't have it, but the last dvd was so packed its going to be hard to beat.

PHANTASM yeeeeesss!!! Another non-anamorphic title down!

I'm down for Phantasm 1 & 3 (now if they would just release 2), and I'll probably just stick to the Millenium Edition for Re-Animator.

Yeah, it'll be hard to beat the Sphere though. It is one of the crown jewels of my collection.

Yeah redoing that Millenium 2 disc from Image will be hard to top. Phantasm needs a good transfer.

Just wish (hope) they could release that Phantasm Region 2 sphere collection here in Region 1, as it always looked really cool. I still need legit copies of Phantasm 2 and 3, too. Kinda surpised Universal never issued a Region 1 release of 2 - but as it looks like Anchor Bay could possibly do so sometime in the near future, I'll be happy

That Re-Animator disc is going to need a stunning transfer to get me to bite... The ME is damn solid. Hmmm, a quick search shows that it's OOP. Guess that's good news for those who missed out on the Elite.

No sale. Where's the HD-DVD?

Bout time for Phantasm. Been holding off forever it seems. Cant wait. Dont have ReAnimator either so thats a buy for me as well.

Only way I'd get Phantasm is if it is the sphere, just for the pure radness of that packaging. I got the Re-Animator ME and it rules so I'll probably stick with it.

I think I'll also hang on to my Re-Animator ME. Will definitely be buying Phantasm though.

This would be my third Re-Animator dip (after the 2 Elite Editions).
I would be psyched if they included the R rated cut as well, which I actually prefer over the unrated.

The unrated cut is 86 min, while the R- rated cut is 95 min.
I like the R rated better because it includes almost all the deleted scenes incorporated into the film (hence the longer run time) and only trims very minimal amounts of gore, just a few seconds here and there. The deleted scenes really flesh out the characters, and the plot actually makes more sense. For example, the whole Dr. Hill hypnotism sub plot is missing from the unrated cut.
My R rated Reanimator is the only VHS I have left to replace with DVD, here's hoping...

I would looooove having the silver sphere in my collection but honest and truely how many times has a distributing company actually had a box set redone exactly the same for a region one market? :(

Does this mean that Anchor Bay has been able to license part of the MGM library via their Fox agreement? Or has Phantasm fallen out of MGM's control since they published their DVD?

Since I've got both the MGM SE and the AB UK sphere, I'm not interested in the new disk (nor am I interested in another Re-Animator.) If this means that AB has access to more obscure gems from the MGM catalog, it might result in more cool AB special editions like back around the turn of the century.

Those were different times...

But I'm still annoyed that the new Wenders box includes the old Wenders box.

Um,I own the R rated version on VHS myself(for curiousity sake) and the gore is not 'minimal trims',but huge chunks. The finale of the film for example which is so many minutes long,is over in under 2 minutes now with all the gore completely missing. There are plenty of jump cuts that are jaring and make the sequence incoherent since lots of material is missing.

Also the humor is destroyed in the R cut,since all the gore is deleted,and the deleted scenes additions slow the pace to a crawl and makes the film snail along. It feels more like a rough cut than a true cut of the film. Especially with how the deleted scenes play out in full in that version(notice Dan getting the 'roll camera/action!" cue when he meets with the Dean) and that doesn't make the film flow well.

I wouldn't be against them including the R rated version as an alternate cut completist option,since it is apart of the films history. But it is not a 'superior' version of the film by a long shot.

Some of the deleted scenes are good,but still need some trimming to flow well with the rest of the film(the dinner sequence with the hyno subplot goes on forever,when it could have been trimmed significantly).


Anyway,I am happy with the news on the rereleases. Since we need a 16.9 Phantasm in R1,and hopefully Re-animator will include captions this time unlike the Elite dvds. And they both better retain their original mono soundtracks or else,there will be hell to pay! :)

I'll reserve judgment until it is actually released. I've lost count of how many re-issues of films have been botched. :(

I'm interested in Phantasm but the Re-Animator re-release sounds kinda pointless.

I've never seen the R rated version, but I agree that the deleted scene that establishes the hypnotism/mind control angle with Dr. Hill makes a lot of the subsequent events fall into line more neatly.

It's an Avco-Embassy film so MGM should still own it. It's part of the AIP/Avco-Embassy/Orion library. This may have something to do with Fox distributing MGM/UA titles. Fox licenses some of their horror and others to AB maybe the Midnight Movies will continue from AB?

Like others have said on this thread, the Re-Animator 2-disc by Elite will be tough to top. Phantasm is another story. If it finally ends up with an anamorphic transfer that is good, then great. I'll await reviews first for both new releases.

I enjoyed my original Phantasm dvd, watched it and re-watched it many times, will this new one be any better? I'd hate to give up my current release for something that's not up to par.

I expect something awesome from anchor bay on Phantasm. They did a great job on Coscarelli's Beastmaster. So I think they will come thru.

Funny, I would think most people would say the original PHANTASM DVD isn't up to par.

Has anybody heard anything about Anchor Bay possibly releasing a Phantasm III SE the same day as Phantasm? Another site has it listed but I don't see any info anywhere confirming this.

Avco Embassy's license for PHANTASM expired, so it went back to Don Coscalleli. Which is why the MGM DVD went OOP.

Blahh more Anchor Bay interlaced releases I'm sure.

It was mentioned in the news piece posted in this thread.

Regarding the SE of Re-Animator: there was a crew filming at the H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival in Portland, OR this past October, interviewing the guests and attendees. When I asked what they were filming, I was told that they were doing a documentary on Lovecraft for an Anchor Bay DVD extra. Personally I hope that this ends up on the Director's Cut of From Beyond (which should be ought in Spring of 2007 according to my sources, but hey! entropy always increases [nerd way of saying "Shit Happens"]), as I am very happy with my Millenium edition.

Best,
Scott

Ah, well. I was hoping this might signal the possibility of cool SEs of cult-y type stuff from MGM's vault that has thus far been neglected. Since I can't really think of anything in particular, I suppose it's not that big of a deal.

I was pretty sure that Sony would never license the stuff, but I was hoping that AB might have an "in" via the Fox license since Fox is currently distributing the catalog.



Thanks for the info.

;) Taken to task by Julie Walker, now I know I've finally arrived! ;)

All good points -- I haven't watched Re-Animator for a good 5 years, so maybe I'm romaticizing the R cut? I remember really liking the inclusion of the cut scenes, and don't remember them slowing the pace or affecting the humor of the movie, but I'll watch both versions soon to compare.

Never noticed Dan getting the cue, that's pretty funny!

that would be nice if only to have all those mgm titles that are OOP re-issued. Like Sid & Nancy, How To Get Ahead in Advertising, Robocop, Silence of the Lambs, This Is Spinal Tap etc.

I like the R cut better too. I grew up on the R VHS and was stoked when I got my first Unrated version only to be extreamly dissapointed by the cuts. I went so far as to rip the whole dvd to my comp and edit those scenes back in so I could actually enjoy the movie and feel ok showing it to people.

I am personally a gore hound but I've really grown attached to those other scenes and they dispell some plot holes created in the UR cut.

So I won't be getting Re-Animator again unless they finally match my 101min cut

Just sold a copy of Phantasm for $31.00 so I am happy about that.

OK, so despite Julie's opinion, I'm not completely insane with my opinion :)
I too grew up on the R rated, which is probably why I like it so much.

Julie does bring up some great points re: R rated vs Unrated, so editing those scenes into the Unrated cut is brilliant -- as a fan, that for me would be the ultimate cut of the film, even if Stuart Gordon didn't approve it!