Home Media Magazine - April 27 - May 3, 2008 - (Page 23) www.homemediamagazine.com PIPELINE Fox Waltzes Out Carmen Miranda Set By Billy Gil CLASSICS Just in time for summer, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment will get viewers shaking their bon bons with a five-disc set of films starring The Brazilian Bombshell, Carmen Miranda. The Carmen Miranda Collection streets June 17 (prebook May 21) at $49.98. Nowadays, Miranda is mostly known for her iconic banana-hat-wearing image. But the Portuguese-born star in the 1930s and ’40s helped popularize the samba for American audiences. She even has a city square named after her in Hollywood, Calif., across from Grauman’s Chinese Theater, where her footprints are preserved. The Fox set gathers five of her most popular films: Doll Face, Greenwich Village, If I’m Lucky, Something for the Boys and The Gang’s All Here. Doll Face (1946) is about an actress who has a ghostwriter write her autobiography to gain notoriety after she is rejected from an audition because she lacks cultural refinement. The DVD includes an isolated music track, a deleted scene with optional commentary by film historian John Cork, the original theatrical trailer and photo galleries. Greenwich Village (1944) follows an aspiring composer who falls in love with a singer in New York, and stars Miranda as another singer and fortune teller. The DVD includes photo galleries. If I’m Lucky (1946) is a remake of Thanks a Million (1935) and co-stars Perry Como, Edgar Buchanan, Vivian Blaine and Harry James in a tale about a swing band leader who unwittingly helps a corrupt gubernatorial candidate take office. It includes an isolated music track, excerpts from the early 1940s special “Singing With the Stars” featuring Miranda, the original theatrical trailer and photo galleries. Something for the Boys (1944) stars Miranda as one of three cousins who inherits a Texas plantation, which is then converted into a home for Army wives, which the cousins use to entertain troops. The DVD includes the four-part documentary “Carmen Miranda: That Girl From Rio,” as well as photo galleries. The fifth title in the set, The Gang’s All Here (1943), features Miranda as a chorus girl trying to set things right between her co-star and a soldier. The remastered title is the only one of the set that is new to DVD. It includes a commentary by film professor Drew Casper, the featurette “Busby Berkeley: A Journey With a Star,” the deleted scene “The $64 Question,” several featurettes on the film’s co-stars, the original theatrical trailer and photo galleries. Additionally, on the same day, Fox will release each of the films individually at $14.98 each, and will re-release the Miranda films Weekend in Havana, That Night in Rio and Down Argentine Way at $19.98 each. ‘STARGATE: CONTINUUM’ BOWS JULY 29 By John Latchem BRIEFS I NATIONAL LAMPOON GEARS UP WITH ROBODOC National Lampoon has announced it will release and distribute the comedy National Lampoon Presents RoboDoc, opening theatrically May 10 in a limited run. The comedy, produced in conjunction with National Lampoon and cowritten by doctor brothers Doug and Scott Gordon, stars Alan Thicke, David Faustino and newcomer Will Haze as RoboDoc, an android doctor designed to help alleviate the bureaucratic problems of the health care system. “National Lampoon Presents RoboDoc is a very funny film looking at a very serious issue,” said Tom Daniels, president of worldwide distribution for National Lampoon. “The film fits perfectly into our distribution model, and we anticipate a great response.” National Lampoon releases up to 12 DVDs a year through National Lampoon Releasing and National Lampoon Home Entertainment, with some titles having broader distribution through major studios. The next DVDs due from the company are National Lampoon’s Cattle Call, distributed through Lionsgate, at $26.98; and National Lampoon Presents Electric Apricot: Quest for Festeroo, which will have distribution through Hart Sharp Video, at $26.95. Both titles are due May 13. – Billy Gil GM and 20th Century Fox July 29 (prebook July 2) release the second direct-to-video movie sequel to the “Stargate SG-1” TV show. Stargate: Continuum debuts on DVD at $26.98 and Blu-ray Disc at $39.98. The film chronicles the effort of the SG-1 team to restore the timeline after an enemy uses time travel to ensure the Stargate program never existed. Extras include commentary by executive producer/writer Brad Wright and director Martin Wood, a making-of featurette, a “Stargate Goes to the Arctic” featurette, and the featurette “The Layman’s Guide to Time Travel.” The first “Stargate” DTV movie, The Ark of Truth, debuted in March and finished in the top 20 on the sales charts its first two weeks in stores. “Continuum is more of a standalone movie to prove to MGM and the world that we can make a whole bunch of these,” Wright said. The release comes a week after San Diego Comic-Con International 2008, where the film will be heavily promoted, according to MGM. M I ZZ TOP DEBUTS FIRST CONCERT DVD, BLU-RAY Eagle Rock Entertainment June 24 will release ZZ Top: Live From Texas, the first-ever live-concert ZZ Top DVD, through wholly-owned subsidiary Eagle Vision. Orders for the $14.98 DVD and $24.98 Blu-ray are due June 4. The two-hour-plus concert disc features 17 songs, such as hits “Legs” and “Gimme All Your Lovin.’” Bonus features include band members Billy Gibbons, Dusty Hill and Frank Beard discussing the band over a poker game, backstage footage, and a bonus track: the band’s cover of Jimi Hendrix’s “Foxy Lady.” Initially the DVDs also will include a booklet of live photos. – Billy GIl April 27–May 3, 2008 Home Media Magazine 23 http://www.homemediamagazine.com http://www.indicanpictures.com
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