The Adventures of Baron Munchausen
d. Terry Gilliam
c. John Nevelle (The Fifth Element), Eric Idle (Life of Brian), Sarah Polley (Dawn of the Dead), Oliver Reed (Gladiator)
Release Date: April 08, 2008
One of the unfortunate loses with the dissolving of the laserdisc format was the special edition of The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. Lost in the poor DVD treatment was the commentary by Gilliam and deleted scenes. I would assume the commentary track would provide interesting. The film was part of the reason Gilliam found it nearly impossible to secure financing for a number of future films. Following the production problems, Gilliam failed in his attempts to make Time Bandits II and The Man Who Killed Don Quixote. He was also turned down in his attempts to make Watchmen and was rejected by the studio to direct Harry Potter despite being J.K. Rowling’s first choice. Gilliam considered Munchausen a fiasco but in the commentary for Tideland admitted it was one of his fan’s favorite films. In April, the film will finally receive a 20th Anniversary Edition both on DVD and Blu-Ray. It will include commentary with Director Terry Gilliam & Co-Writer/Actor Charles McKeown, ‘The Madness and Misadventures of Munchausen’ Documentary, Storyboard Sequences with All-New Vocal Performances by Terry Gilliam and Charles McKeown, Deleted Scenes and a special Blu-Ray exclusive Marvelous World of Munchausen Enhanced Graphics & Trivia Track.
“Why, why, why! Because it’s all logic and reason now. Science, progress, laws of hydraulics, laws of social dynamics, laws of this, that, and the other. No place for three-legged cyclops in the South Seas. No place for cucumber trees and oceans of wine. No place for me.”
That’s about it for this week. I’ll finish off the column with a look at the art for the 2-Disc Special Edition of There Will be Blood. 