AMERICAN GANGSTER: DVD & HD-DVD [March 2008]
 

Universal Reveals Early 'American Gangster' HD DVD Details

Issuing a rare "pre-announcement," Universal says it's planning a late winter HD DVD bow for Ridley Scott's 'American Gangster.'

Although the studio stopped short of issuing an exact street date for Denzel Washington-Russell Crowe starrer (which is still in theaters), it's promising an HD DVD/DVD Combo edition sometime in March, day-and-date with a matching standard DVD.

Tech specs will include a 1080p/VC-1 transfer, along with Dolby TrueHD 5.1 Surround and Dolby Digital-Plus 5.1 Surround tracks.

Extras are already looking quite extensive, with audio commentary by Ridley Scott himself, the "Fallen Empire: The Making of American Gangster" documentary, "Uncovering the Past" featurette, deleted scenes and a U-Control-enabled picture-in-picture commentary. The HD DVD will also include web-enabled extras, which will be announced along with final details when the full press release arrives sometime in the next few weeks.

Universal has set a suggested list price of $39.98 for the HD DVD/DVD combo.

While we await a final street date and complete details for 'American Gangster,' we've added a listing for the title in the "Release Dates Pending" section of our HD DVD Release Schedule. Stay tuned!


HIGHDEFDIGEST.com

Enjoyed the film a lot in theatres, will be picking up the hd dvd.

They better keep the poster art for this. A steelbook would be great. Maybe two covers like the "Transformers" steelbook. One with the Denzel cover, one with the Crowe cover.

Hell. Yes. First week pickup for me.

Will definitely pick this up. Arguably Ridley Scott's best movie since Blade Runner. Oh yes, I said it.

Hopefully, I'll have a receiver to hear "Across 110th Street" in lossless glory by then.

Should make a great double bill with Black Rain.

i'm praying to god universal doesn't fuck up again and make the standard dvd a flipper disc. i don't think i can handle another casino ordeal.

A definite must buy for me! I expect a cool packaging and interesting extras.

i agree. one steelbook is enough though.
quick question. when you buy a hd combo disc, do both sides have the extras or just one side? better yet, do both sides have identical content besides the hd/sd difference?

Jasko: It depends on the disc. Usually, the extras are only on one side. Best thing you can do is wait on the specs and see where they end up.

I'm in for this one on HD DVD.

HD for me, although I hate these goddamn combo releases.

Dammit, +1 to needing an HD-DVD player. :(

Definite buy on HD-DVD for me!

http://www.dvdactive.com/news/releas...-gangster.html

A two disc set and a nearly 3 hour extended edition!

:up:

Awesome. Although the REAL Frank Lucas was NOTHING like what was portrayed in the movie I'll still by the movie. They made Nicky Barnes look like a clown in that movie. They have those characters mixed up. Nickey was a real intelligent street hustler.

Excellent! Ridley Scott really knows what DVD collectors want. Awesome movie - and awesome cover art too.

Just saw this in the theater this evening, definite buy on HD for me.

Partly because the darn theater messed up the projector or something, and the whole movie was shown in open matte I guess. I saw boom mikes every few minutes.

Contrary to this press release, expect this on Feb. 19th, the Tuesday before the Oscars....

Cool. Saw this in the theatre, thumbs up.

Extended version on HD? I'm in!

If they have the theatrical cut on the SD side, it'll at least make the combo somewhat worthwhile(kinda like Miami Vice).

DVD active now reports that they will also release a 3-disk Collector's Edition of this film as well as the 2-disk version. Very interested to see what will be on that bonus disk.

I hope they turn this into a 2-disc HD DVD. :fc:

Wow Ridley Scott seems to be releasing a lot of extended cuts to his films lately. It'll be interesting to see what the 20 minutes of additional footage looks like.

It looks like Uni's putting a "digital copy" of the film on disc 3, hopefully it's a little more than that otherwise I'll just have to plunk down for the 2-disc.

^YEah who gives a shit about a "digital copy" of the film. That to me makes no sense at all. It does look like the 3-disk will come with a nice little Photo Booklet though.
It will also be interesting to see if everything on the 3-disk DVD will be on a 2-Disk HD-DVD.

3-disc artwork is NICE, but I hate that border around the cover with the gigantic fonts. The cover should just be that poster, with "3 Disc Collector's Edition" written on it maybe at the top or bottom in a smaller, classier font. Or, at the very least, make that silver border much smaller and make the fonts used much smaller. Looks like a great package though, and if the price is right, I'll probably buy it even if the third disc is nothing more than a digital copy or whatever.

I would. If it's something that can be put into an iPod or streamed over to my Xbox / PS3, then I would love it. I imagine they could even put a 720P WMV movie into that disc.

Universal Home Video has revealed some early details on a new extended edition of American Gangster which stars Denzel Washington, and Russell Crowe. This new cut of the film will contain around 20 minutes of additional footage, bringing the runtime to 2 hours 56 minutes. The two-disc set will retail at around $29.98. A 3-disc collector's edition will also be available, although the retail price has yet to be announced. A HD DVD/DVD Combo release will also be available for $39.98 with additional web enabled features. The street date has yet to be confirmed for this one, but we'll bring you further details just as soon as Universal make them available to us. For now though, here's the official package artwork: http://www.dvdactive.com/news/releas...-gangster.html

ill just stick to the 2-disc

I'm in for the three disc ed.

LOVED, LOVED, LOVED this movie and definitely in for the 3 disc when it gets released :thumbsup:

I hope that's the case. I want the theatrical version and I don't see it mentioned anywhere being available separately.

As you can see, we've also posted early temp art for Universal's American Gangster on 2-disc DVD and HD-DVD (a 3-disc DVD version is also expected be available, with both the 158-minute theatrical edition and Ridley Scott's unrated 176-minute extended edition, as well as a booklet). The street date hasn't been announced yet, but it's expected to hit stores in February. Watch for more details soon.


THEDIGITALBITS.com

I'll probably go with the three disc, or that Gangsters: The Ultimate Film Collection mentioned here, if it includes the 3-disc:

http://www.dvdactive.com/images/news...rr1artpic2.jpg

I think I'm going to go with the 3-disc set and pass on the HD version. I HATE combo discs, and not buying them is the only way I can send the message to Uni. I've already had 2 of the 3 combos I've watched give me problems, so I'm not chancing it on anything else. Besides, I know that 3 disc set is going to be tits.

I'm surprised that Universal hasn't learned their lesson with DVD-18.

There have been so many problems with Universal TV on DVD titles that were released on double-sided, DVD-18 discs. Kolchak: The Night Stalker, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Kojak, The Rockford Files, Las Vegas, and even other studio titles, such as the first 2 seasons of ER and the first season of Without A Trace, released by Warner Bros. have had reported problems with discs skipping/bad playback. Universal (and other studios) finally listened/acknowledged that there was a problem with DVD-18s, and has pretty much stopped releasing TV shows on that type of DVD.

Looks like -18 discs will anger more people/have already angered people. Have the HD DVD version on one side, and the SD DVD version on the other is a good idea in theory, but they haven't really done a great job with it.

I'll be picking up (since I don't have an HD DVD player, yet) the 3-disc set, which looks great.

i plan on picking up the 3 disc set as well

So I'm not sure about this...I want the HD but I also want the 3-disc. And maybe I'm reaching, but that HD artwork is definitely not standard fare for promo, it looks like it might be some kind of nicer packaging. Maybe like the Planet Earth HD?

I'm guessing it's just a slipcover, but I'd love it if it were some nicer packaging.

That HD packaging looks more like the hardcover cases Universal used for it's "Legacy" line of dvds like Deer Hunter, Double Indemnity, The Sting, etc.