BABEL, COLLECTOR’S EDITION
d. Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
c. Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett
release date: September 25, 2007
The collector’s edition of the Oscar nominated Babel is being released in September in a less than impressive package. The original DVD was released in February in a bare boned edition that left the film’s few fans disappointed. Fret no longer, as Babel gets a second disc with one documentary. That’s it. No deleted scenes. No commentary tracks. Albeit, the documentary is a feature length making-of, which might be pretty damn cool, but that is all that makes this a special release at all. The first disc will be the exact same as the original release. I did not buy the original release because I knew this would be coming, and I will buy this because the making-of is feature length. I’m not sure it will measure up to other great feature length making-of docs (Full Tilt Boogie and the Devil’s Backbone’s second disc are great examples) but I love these things, and often spend more time re-watching them, than the movie they are about. The making-of is called Common Ground: Under Construction Notes, which is basically a video diary from director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu.
OTHER UPCOMING MOVIE RELEASES:
Knocked Up (September 25, 2007): This will be released in three versions: a single-disc Widescreen Theatrical R Rated cut (129mins), a single-disc Full Frame and Widescreen Unrated cut (133mins) and a double-disc Widescreen Unrated Special Edition (133mins). The theatrical cut will include Deleted Scenes, Extended/Alternate Scenes, Line-O-Rama, Roller Coaster Doc, Directing the Director, Loudon Wainwright III – Live at McCabe’s and Feature Commentary with Writer/Director Judd Apatow, Executive Producer/Star Seth Rogen and Actor Bill Hader. The unrated cut will include the same thing as the theatrical cut, except with one special extra (an Unrated “Topless Scene”). The special edition will include the same as the Unrated version plus an extra disc with More Deleted Scenes, More Extended/Alternate Scenes, Video Diaries, Kids on the Loose, Beard-O-Rama, Kuni Files, Gummy: The 6th Roommate, Stripper Confidential, Finding Ben Stone, Kuni Gone Wild, Loudon Wainwright III Scoring Session, Line-O-Rama Version 2, Gag Reels, Loudon Wainwright III – Live at McCabe’s, First Sex on Camera, Topless Scene – Restaurant, Raw Footage and the Katherine Heigl Audition.
Shrek the Third (November 13, 2007): The animated sequel will be released in a pretty stacked edition – if you’re a kid.. It will include Additional Scenes, Shrek’s Guide to Parenthood, Meet the Cast (Commentary), Tech of Shrek 3, Worcestershire Academy Yearbook, Big Green Goofs, Music Videos: Donkey Dance and Dancing Babies, Trailers, Merlin’s Magic Crystal Ball, Get Up and Play PSA, Learn the Donkey Dance and How to be Green.
Evan Almighty (October 09, 2007): This very loosely based sequel will include Deleted Scenes, Outtakes, The Ark-itects of Noah’s Ark, Steve Carell Unscripted, Animals on Set Two by Two, Animal Roundup Game, The Almighty Green Set, It’s Easy Being Green, Acts of Random Kindness, A Flood of Visual Effects, Casting Call: Serengeti and The Almighty Forest.
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End (December 04, 2007): The grand finale of this trilogy will hit the market in both a basic edition and a 2-Disc Special Edition. Disc one will include Bloopers. Disc two will include Anatomy of a Scene: The Maelstrom, Keith & the Captain, Tale of the Multiple Jacks, Hoist the Colors, Masters of Design – five individual documentaries highlighting the talented design teams behind this immense production – #1: Jim Byrkit and The Map, #2: Crash McCreary and the Krusty Pirates, #3: Rick Heinrichs and the Singapore Set, #4: Penny Rose and the Captain Teague Costumes and #5: Chris Peck and the Pirate Code Book, Inside the Brethren Court, The Pirate Code: Revealed, The World of Chow Yun Fat and The Pirate Maestro: The Music of Hans Zimmer. Also, the Blu-Ray disc will feature a special extra called Enter the Maelstrom. It takes you deep into the whirlpool of the Maelstrom. Jerry Bruckheimer hosts the BD-Java feature – a one-hour immersive, interactive tour that explores the sequence from stem to stern, covering everything you would want to know and more about this awe-inspiring cinematic achievement. In-feature pop-ups and selectable icons appear throughout the time-lapse footage over different areas of the massive set; navigating to each of these reveals multimedia content about how the Maelstrom was created, from set construction to special effects. Jerry Bruckheimer also provides optional commentary throughout the feature.
Spider-Man 3 (October 30, 2007): The third Spider-Man movie will hit the stores in both a single disc edition, a 2-Disc Special Edition and a three-pack with all three movies in one box. The single disc edition will include Bloopers, Photo Galleries, Snow Patrol Music Video, an Audio Commentary with Director Sam Raimi and Cast Members Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, Thomas Haden Church, Topher Grace, and Bryce Dallas Howard and an Audio Commentary with Producers Laura Ziskin, Avi Arad and Grant Curtis, Editor Bob Murawski and Special Effects Supervisor Scott Stokdyk. The 2-Disc set will include that plus six hours of featurettes: Featurette: Grains of Sand – Building Sandman, Featurette: Re-Imagining the Goblin, Featurette: Covered in Black – Creating Venom, Featurette: Hanging On…Gwen Stacy and the Collapsing Floor, Featurette: Fighting, Flying & Driving – The Stunts, Featurette: Tangled Web: The Love Triangles of Spider-Man 3, Featurette: Wall Of Water, Featurette: On Location Cleveland, Featurette: On Location New York, Featurette: The Science of Sound, Featurette: Inside The Editing Room and Theatrical TV Spots From Around the World. The three movie box set will possibly only include the single disc editions.