Home Media Magazine - June 8-14, 2008 - (Page 26)

NEWS www.homemediamagazine.com Eastwood Attends DGA ‘Dirty Harry’ Screening By Chris Tribbey OLLYWOOD, Calif. — Any time you ship more than 1 million discs for one franchise, on one street date, a party like this is in order. Hundreds packed the Directors Guild of America’s headquarters and theater May 29 to mark the June 3 Warner Home Video release of the remastered Dirty Harry on DVD and Blu-ray Disc. Attendees started the night with cocktails, ended it with chocolate replicas of a .44 Magnum revolver, and went home with bragging rights: “Clint Eastwood and I watched Dirty Harry together.” “What do you say to an audience that’s coming to watch a 38-year-old movie?” said Eastwood, 77, before the screening. “Either I got into the wrong theater, or they have a certain nostalgia about this. I certainly do,” he said, receiving a standing ovation. In addition to the deluxe DVD and Blu-ray editions of Dirty Harry, Warner also is releasing an ultimate collector’s edition of the entire “Dirty Harry” franchise, featuring all five films and a ton of exclusive bonus features, highlighted by a featurelength documentary of Eastwood. “You have to ask yourself: ‘Do I feel lucky?’” joked Alan Horn, president and COO of Warner Bros. “I have to say, yes, I do. Because tonight we have the opportunity to celebrate one of the company’s, one of the industry’s, most successful franchises. “Harry Callahan has made our day — and our bottom line.” David Valdes, producer of The Dead Pool and Unforgiven; The Enforcer director James Fargo; and Dirty Harry composer Lalo Schifrin Fire Damages Uni Library Continued from page 1 H (L-R): Jeff Baker, EVP and GM, WHV theatrical catalog; Clint Eastwood; Tim Matheson; Tyne Daly; and Ron Sanders, president of Warner Home Video, at the Dirty Harry screening in Hollywood. Photo by Alex Berliner©Berliner Studio/BEImages joined Hollywood stars and Warner Bros. executives in celebrating a film that inspired an entire genre of police cinema. “It’s tough for me to sit there and watch it,” Eastwood said. “Also, on the same token, it’s great fun to relive some great moments in my existence. “[Director] Don Siegel and I went up to San Francisco and worked out the locations for this story. It was not written for a specific city,” said Eastwood, who was born in San Francisco. “Don was an enthusiastic director, and we were both politically moderate guys who just thought we were making a detective story. But later on we were told that we were the vast right wing conspiracy. “In that time, I guess, people didn’t like the idea of a detective who was so dogmatic, he would go to all extremes to solve the case and get the criminal off the street, even if it meant nudging the department a little bit.” Dirty Harry, which was shown to Cannes Film Festival attendees May 22, is earning special DVD and Bluray treatment in honor of the Warner Bros. 85th anniversary. “The video library was affected and damaged, but our main vault of our motion picture negatives was not,” Meyer said during a press conference. “Fortunately, nothing irreplaceable was lost. We have duplicates. Obviously it’s a lot of work to duplicate what was lost, but it can be done.” Los Angeles County fire chief Michael Freeman told The Associated Press that firefighters recovered hundreds of titles from the vault. Freeman told Fox News that black smoke seen in the area was a result of plastic video containers burning in the vault. “They moved hundreds of containers out of that structure,” he said. The AP reported that a deputy and firefighter were injured in an explosion in the building where the videos were stored. The fire began around 4:30 a.m. on a backlot sound stage. According to Meyer, the only production that was being filmed at the time was the CBS series “Ghost Whisperer.” Meyer said two of the locations the series was filming at were affected. Smoke from the fire could be seen throughout the Los Angeles area, however, firefighters had the blaze contained to a small area of the studio’s 400-acre property. Also destroyed during the fire was the courthouse square from the “Back to the Future” films, the King Kong exhibit included in the Universal Studios tram tour, and several movie facades, according to Los Angeles County fire inspectors. The studio’s City Walk and studio attractions unaffected by the fire reopened Monday, and most studio employees were expected to return to work Monday. “I can’t say enough about the work the fire department does,” Meyer said. “I know we all know it, but they are real heroes. They were here in record time. We were very lucky.” JUST ANNOUNCED A Weekly Product Update* Never Back Down STREET DATE The Ruins BOX OFFICE (MILLIONS) Stop-Loss TITLE PREBOOK GENRE PRICE Never Back Down 7/29 6/24 $25 Action DVD $26.99, BD $39.99 Summit. 2008. Sean Faris, Cam Gigandet, Djimon Hounsou. A troubled teen who’s off to a bad start at his new high school is taught martial arts to overcome the school bully. Includes deleted scenes and commentary. Also available in a two-DVD set at $32.99. The Ruins 7/8 Now $17.4 Thriller DVD $29.99, BD $39.99 Paramount. 2008. Jonathan Tucker, Jena Malone, Shawn Ashmore, Laura Ramsey, Joe Anderson. A group of friends on vacation end up in an ancient evil trap. Includes an alternate ending, deleted scenes and commentary. Stop-Loss 7/8 Now $10.9 Drama DVD $29.99 DVD Boosts Lionsgate Q4 Continued from page 6 The COO said Blu-ray sales were off to a great start in 2008, with industry sales in the first quarter of the calendar year generating about $150 million and on track to reach $1 billion this year, especially with the introduction of a less-than-$300 Blu-ray player at Wal-Mart. “This is what all of us have said we need to spur growth in HD,” Beeks said. Digital revenue increased 60% to $40 million, from $25 million in 2007, and is projected to reach $70 million this year and $100 million in fiscal 2010. Paramount. 2008. Ryan Phillippe, Channing Tatum, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Timothy Olyphant, Abbie Cornish. A veteran soldier returns to his Texas hometown after a tour in Iraq, only to get sent back to duty. Includes a making-of featurette, commentary, deleted scenes and featurettes. Shine a Light 7/29 6/17 $5.3 Documentary DVD $19.99, BD $29.99 The COO said the studio generated 3 million Internet downloads (VOD and sellthrough) in the fiscal year, compared to 800,000 in fiscal 2007. Digital revenue was expected to grow 250% by 2010, with episodic downloads increasing 275% from last year. “The growing ubiquity of digital delivery will dramatically expand our available markets at ever increasing margins with no inventory or obsolescence risks,” Beeks said. “All of these developments underscore the strengths of home entertainment and our bullish expectations.” Paramount. 2008. Director Martin Scorsese captures The Rolling Stones in a documentary with interviews from the band and guest performances by Christina Aguilera and Jack White. Includes a behind-the-scenes featurette and four bonus songs. The Art of War II: Betrayal 8/12 7/10 DTV Action DVD $24.96 Sony Pictures. 2008. Wesley Snipes, Lochlyn Munro, Lisa Marie Caruk, Athena Karkanis, Pascale Hutton. The action-packed sequel to the film The Art of War includes an alternate fight scene and a bonus digital copy of the film for consumers to play on their PC or PSP. The Picture of Dorian Gray 10/7 9/2 NTV Drama DVD $19.97 Warner. 1945. George Sanders, Hurd Hatfield, Donna Reed, Angela Lansbury. Based on Oscar Wilde’s famous novel about a young man who remains eternally young while his portrait ages. The remastered release includes cast commentaries, a vintage short and a special cartoon. * In order of box office, then prebook date Home Media Magazine June 8–14, 2008 http://www.homemediamagazine.com

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Home Media Magazine - June 8-14, 2008

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