Site created 12/15/97.		page updated: 9/3/98 Rumor Mill (Archived Posts 7/23/98 - 6/10/98) Back to Previous Archives Back to Current Posts 7/23/98 A quick note before I get to the article: word is that the Paramount DVD title announcement will come before the end of the month, which likely means sometime next week. Stay tuned on that front... Now... I was able to find that Seattle Times article, in which Chris Carter lets slip that a DVD of X-Files: Fight the Future is in the works. Here's the article in its entirety: The Seattle Times July 03, 1998, Friday Final Edition MOVIETIMES MAN BEHIND THE X-FILES' EXHIBITS SAME STOIC CALM AS HIS CHARACTERS KEITH SIMANTON; SPECIAL TO THE SEATTLE TIMES In The X-Files movie, Fox Mulder and Dana Scully get attacked by bees, bad guys and some serious bio-hazards, but their voices rarely rise above the pitch of far away freeway traffic. They must get it from their boss, creator and principal writer of The X-Files, Chris Carter. On the phone, Carter sounds as implacable as his stoic main characters. That's quite a feat, as The X-Files movie was a gamble in many respects, and as dicey a deal as the television show ever was. (It's made a respectable $55 million to date.) The film takes off from the fifth season's finale and incorporates characters and mythology scrupulously developed by the show. The X-Files also aims to be a solo event that doesn't rely on past knowledge or the total support of the show's 20 million fans. Yet Carter is too busy to sit back and count box-office returns. The X-Files series has already finished the third show of its sixth season. Carter spent five years in Vancouver, B.C., where the show's first five seasons were shot, but complains he never had a weekend to go skiing at Whistler. Part of his packed schedule, no doubt, is compounded by the show's move from B.C. to L.A. The move was precipitated by David Duchovny, who stars as Fox Mulder, marrying L.A.-based actress Tea Leoni. But the relocation had been discussed by others long before the Duchovny nuptials. And where, now, is he going to find locations for the show's frequently used big, spooky, foggy forests? "Well, we've told a lot of forest stories, and now I suspect we'll begin telling desert stories," he says with a laugh. Then he quickly turns serious. "There was a lot of terrain we couldn't cover in Vancouver." But the show was never really meant to be located there, and, as Duchovny had frequently put it, and Carter agreed, it was a three-week shoot that turned into five years. His other show, Millennium, will remain in B.C. For The X-Files, however, he says he'll miss the way Vancouver embraced the show and allowed more license than other productions would enjoy. How people would embrace the movie is still preeminent in his mind, however. The film answered a lot of questions, but not the ones that people most want to know. A few scenes about Mulder's abducted sister were cut from the movie. Carter promises that the information is in the novel and will be included in the DVD release of the film (he is nothing if not a shrewd marketer). He's also an entertaining writer, balancing a sarcastic sense of humor with a true ability to unnerve and scare. He suffused the show and the film with asymmetry, but he's a tad unnerved, as he's not sure people are noticing his efforts. At the beginning of the movie there's a boy who falls down a hole, at the end there's a man who falls down a hole and there are other things that aren't getting much comment, he says. Sometimes his subtleties even escape the actors. When Gillian Anderson was told by Entertainment Weekly that the Blythe Danner character in the film is representative of what Scully would have become if she hadn't been assigned to the X-files, Anderson wanted to go back and reread the script. While there may be a hint of let down in Carter's voice that some of his nuances were being missed, but he is still sanguine about the whole thing. After all, The X-Files had half its roots in the sometimes frightening, sometimes hokey Darren McGavin TV show The Night Stalker, and it has ballooned into a multimillion-dollar industry with obsessed fans and worldwide attention. Carter is riding high on that crest, and with the The X-Files a sizable hit, it doesn't look as though he'll manage time to finally hit those slopes. 7/22/98 Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah! One of my sources sent word last night on MGM's planned DVD releases through the end of the year. There are some excellent titles on the list scheduled for October and November. Here they are (enjoy!): October 20th Species 2 Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Last Tango in Paris West Side Story October 27th Gone With the Wind November 17th Kingpin Casablanca Pee Wee's Playhouse, Vol. 1 Tomorrow Never Dies: Special Edition Fish Called Wanda Secret of Nimh 7/20/98 There is word, apparently from director Kevin Smith, that a Mallrats DVD is in the works from Universal, to include special edition materials. This particular quote comes from Kevin Smith himself, as posted on newsaskew.com. Be sure to check the site for the full story. In the meantime, here's the quote from Smith: "In other great (but ironic) news, I have something to report that I don't know whether or not I have the authority to, but f**k it, because that's what the board's for, right? We're working on the Mallrats Special Edition. Now for the irony: it's on DVD. Looks like it'll be released sometime after January (the advance on these things is 120 days from delivery of materials), and it'll include the trailer, the video, and all that extra footage some of you have seen. We're also working on getting some dear friends in for a little commentary action, and the box art is going the be the theatrical artwork (thank the Lord)." 7/18/98 In yesterday's update, I mentioned a quote by George Lucas about the DVD version of the Star Wars films. Thanks to the efforts of Bits reader Grant Peterson, I'm happy to present the exact quote to you now. It's an excerpt from the article An Expanded Universe: Digital and analog special effects collide in the retooled version of Star Wars by Ron Magid, originally published in the February 1997 issue of American Cinematographer. There can be no doubt, that it reveals that Lucas was already thinking in terms of DVD, even as the format was just about to find its way to consumers. Here's the excerpt: "Occasionally, [you can] go back and get your cut of the video out there, which I did with on both American Graffiti and THX-1138; that's the place where it will live forever. So what ends up being in my mind is what the DVD version is going to look like, because that's what everybody is going to remember. The other versions will disappear. Even the 35 million tapes of Star Wars out there won't last more than 30 or 40 years. A hundred years from now, the only version of the movie that anyone will remember will be the DVD version [of the Special Edition], and you'll be able to project it on a 20' by 40' screen with perfect quality. I think it's the director's prerogative, not the studio's, to go back and reinvent a movie." Finally, there's been additional word from my sources on the Paramount DVDs. The Grease featurette is said to be about 15-20 minutes long. Also, The Odd Couple, Clear & Present Danger and Top Gun are all reportedly in the works for upcoming DVD release. Stay tuned... 7/17/98 There's a quote I like a lot: "The devil's in the details..." So , finally, here are some specific details for you about Paramount's initial upcoming DVD releases. Titles are as follows: Grease, Face Off, Twilight, Star Trek: First Contact, In and Out, Kiss the Girls, and Titanic (of course, but not until week two of December). Expect an official announcement soon. Now... the disc features: nearly all titles will feature theatrical trailers, themed menu screens and the usual language and subtitle choices. Grease and Titanic will also feature behind-the-scenes documentaries or featurettes. Titanic may include deleted scenes. The discs are DVD-9 (dual-layered) as necessary for the longer films. And here's the best news... many will be 16x9 enhanced... OK, let's talk Fox. In addition to the titles I mentioned yesterday, Independence Day is also reportedly being prepared for DVD release (finally). No word yet on features, or anything specific about Fox titles. Of course, the most awaited Fox DVD titles are the Star Wars Trilogy. I'm told not to expect them before Summer '99, when the prequel hits theaters. But word has reached me yet again, that eventual DVD release of the trilogy was specified by Lucas in the contract he signed with Fox, as a condition of Fox getting the distribution rights to the prequel. Lucas himself was has been quoted (in a past issue of American Cinematographer, prior to the Special Edition re-releases) that the ultimate home experience of the Star Wars films would be on DVD (Anyone out there have the specific article? Send me the exact quotes please). Of course, everyone at the time argued that people in the industry, "use the term DVD to mean DVD and Divx interchangeably...". Not in this case. Remember this - when you eventually have your DVD copy of Star Wars in hand, you'll have Lucas himself to thank for making it happen... 7/16/98 Word from one of my sources this morning reveals a glance at the Fox DVD plans in the works. Expect maybe 8 catalog titles by Christmas, but nothing day and date yet. Among the titles in the works... The Abyss and Porky's. Look for Die Hard and Aliens series films in the first quarter of next year... and possibly X-Files: Fight the Future in January or February. A message to the folks at Fox: As a courtesy, I've made an effort here at the Bits to keep people from spamming you with hate mail for not announcing at VSDA. So now, why don't you give me a e-mail and let's talk turkey about your DVD plans. It's time to get down to business. I'd like to be able to reassure my readers (with some kind of official word) that they have Fox DVDs to look forward to, but all information can be keep confidential if we can establish a dialog on this issue... 7/15/98 OK, I know you are all dying to know what titles Paramount will be releasing to DVD this year, so until they make their official announcement in the next month or two, this will have to do. I'm told by sources that the following titles are definitely in the works for DVD: Grease, Face Off, Twilight, Braveheart, Star Trek: First Contact and of course Titanic (which at least one source is now claiming will street in the 2nd week of December). As I can better verify this information, I'll let you know... 7/6/98 On the eve of VSDA, I've been sent information as to the September release line-up from Columbia/TriStar and MGM. Here's the list: Columbia/TriStar (street date 9/8) Wild Things (includes director's commentary and deleted scenes) Sex, Lies and Videotape (includes new director's commentary) Candyman Blue Thunder MGM (street date 9/29) Carrie (5.1) Leviathan Logan's Run (5.1, featurette) Lord of Illusions (5.1, deleted scenes) Westworld (director's commentary) 7/4/98 Well, less than a day after cautioning all of you to the contrary, information was passed to me yesterday afternoon (from multiple sources), that Fox may announce some kind of limited open DVD support at VSDA after all. I'm not going to mention specific titles or details, only that there's a good chance a DVD announcement from Fox is in the works. But given the flurry of contradictory information I've been getting (even from my best sources) about Fox DVDs these last couple of days, I'd advise you just to sit tight and wait for events to play themselves out at VSDA... Of interesting note however, is a recent interview of X-Files guru Chris Carter, which I'm told appeared in today's issue of the Seattle Times. The issue includes a brief profile of him, in which he discusses scenes that were cut from X-Files: Fight the Future that dealt with what really happened to Mulder's sister. The pertinent paragraph: "Carter promises that the information is in the forthcoming novel and will be included on the DVD release of the film (he is nothing if not a shrewd marketer)." I find it entirely appropriate that the modern Master of Conspiracy should leak info about possible Fox DVD plans. After all, the truth is out there... 7/3/98 With VSDA approaching next week, here's a list of what (I'm told) you can expect to hear from the studios with regard to DVD... Paramount is expected to announce the DVD, Divx and laserdisc versions of Titanic, as well as the rest of their initial DVD lineup... Columbia TriStar should announce their Godzilla DVD, as well as (finally) Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Amblin's Men in Black... Universal should likewise announce new Spielberg DVD product, to include Jaws and Duel... Warner will likely trumpet their new DVD pricing strategy... MGM will crow about Gone With the Wind and Casablanca... Buena Vista may announce their first animated DVD release (don't expect anything too impressive)... Dreamworks may announce their first DVDs (The Peacemaker, Mouse Hunt and Polly)... and you may hear a word or two on DTS DVDs. Sadly, however, do not look for Fox to announce DVD support at VSDA, as had been predicted (and even expected) for some time. The more I dig, the more I begin to learn that there is one simple reason why Fox isn't doing DVD: animosity between Bill Mechanic (the head of Fox) and Warren Lieberfarb (the head of Warner Bros., and the staunchest supporter of DVD). Mechanic has long been quoted as saying crap like, "We think digital videotape is the future, not DVD..." and so forth. Backing Divx, and not announcing DVD support at VSDA, are last good jabs at Lieberfarb. But I have been told by someone at Lucasfilm that there have been definite discussions about future DVD release dates for the Star Wars Trilogy. So it is only a matter of time. It's just damn irritating in the meantime... I say, try to be patient until the day after VSDA. Then, if Fox does remain silent about DVD... it's time for DVD supporters everywhere to start really turning up the heat on them. Stay tuned... 7/2/98 OK, folks... if this is true, it's major. I received information yesterday, from a long-reliable source, that Warner is about to create a new pricing structure for their DVDs. Apparently, the U.S. Marshals and Sphere price changes are simply a test run for what's to come later this year. Here's the scoop... Warner is developing three separate DVD price points. The Suggested Retail Prices (SRPs) will be $25, $20 and $15, with Minimum Advertised Prices (MAPs) of $20, $15 and $10 respectively. The $25 point will be for Special Edition titles. Non-Special Edition releases will arrive at the $20 point (like U.S. Marshals and Sphere). And catalog titles with few extras will be priced at the $15 point. So what upcoming titles can we look forward to in these ranges? The following list of titles and dates is tentative, and runs through the end of the year: $25 price point July - Camelot Aug - Mean Streets Sept - City of Angels, Cowboys, The Exorcist 25th Anniv. Oct - A Perfect Murder, Quest for Camelot Nov - Lethal Weapon 4, My Fair Lady Dec - The Avengers, The Negotiator, The Music Man, Outlaw Josie Wales $20 price point July - Sphere, U.S. Marshals Aug - New Jack City, Palmetto Sept - My Giant Oct - Altered States Nov - Eagles, Rolling Stones, Dolores Claiborne, Dead Calm Dec - Wrongfully Accused, Mr. Roberts, Montery Jazz Festival $15 price point Oct - Burglar, Bloodsport, Doc Hollywood, Frantic, Over the Top, Sharky's Machine, Swing Shift Nov - Best Friends, City Heat, Deal of the Century, Falling Down, Lean On Me, Made in America, Protocol Dec - Boiling Point, Final Analysis, Lovesick, Man With Two Brains, Next of Kin, Stroker Ace In addition, a number of current titles will likely be price-reduced, depending on third-party agreements. If all this pans out, it represents a major push to move DVD into the mainstream. Remember, you heard it here first... ;-) Bravo Warner! 6/30/98 Warner's European DVD press release indicates City of Angels as a future DVD release there, so expect it to be announced for Region 1 release soon. Look for it to hit store shelves by late summer or early fall. Also, as you might have expected, Divx has a very active 'intelligence'-gathering effort at work. In addition to all those pro-Divx posts that have been spamming the various news and discussion groups around the Net, it seems Divx is working retail stores as well. I received a very interesting report from a reader recently. He claims that, while browsing the DVD section of a Best Buy store in one of the test markets recently, he was approached by a man who asked him what he liked about DVD. The reader proceeded to give him a laundry list of DVD's advantages. The guy then said that he's decided to wait for Divx, which will be a much better product. The guy gave a Divx sales pitch, right there in the middle of Best Buy! But here's the clincher - a few days later, the reader visited a nearby Circuit City store to check Divx out first-hand... and the man who had approached him at Best Buy was working there as a Sales Manager! You'll also find this report from another reader interesting: "I was in Circuit City with a friend the other night and wanted to test the sales person to see how well he was familiar with DIVX. It was very apparent that he had been run through the DIVX propaganda machine, and admitted that he had never seen a machine or a movie played on one, but that from all indications, it was the wave of the future. At one point in the conversation he mentioned that the Circuit City's on the coasts (I guess he meant the test markets) had sold out of 20,000 players within 3 1/2 hours of making them available for sale with no movies even available for the players yet." 20,000 players, huh? Yeah sure. Can you say B.S.? Thanks to all the readers who are reporting on the goings-on in the test markets - keep 'em coming! 6/26/98 Word is that Divx has caught a few hackers attempting to infiltrate their main computer system... The hackers in question were apparently on the shallow end of expertise, so rest assured that more experienced high-tech hooligans are on the case as well... Also, I'm told that at least one Divx representative has said 668 Divx players have sold thus far in the test markets... However, this number apparently includes players given to Divx and industry-related personnel, as well as demo players... The number sold to actual consumers is probably in the 100-200 range - much more in line with the out-the-door sales numbers Circuit City and Good Guys employees have been reporting... Finally, another good source is telling me that the DVD and Divx versions of Titanic will street on October 1. There will be separate P&S and letterbox versions on Divx, and a letterbox DVD version, which will include the theatrical trailer and two deleted scenes. No word on other features, or if the DVD will be anamorphic. The announcement is expected at VSDA... Stay tuned... 6/25/98 I've been able to confirm, via several unofficial sources, that Warner Bros. will be price reducing two of their upcoming major DVD titles (with July release dates): Sphere and U.S. Marshals! They'll now retail for $19.99, meaning they'll street for around 16.99! I'm told that this move is a test, to gauge consumer response to lower pricing, and is an part of an overall effort by Warner to combat Divx. If it works, expect the trend to continue... Also, a very reliable source tells me he's heard (from a well placed individual) that there's absolutely no way Divx will be able to prepare their Titanic discs in time for a day-and-date release with the VHS version on Sept. 1. Best estimates are that the DVD and Divx versions will likely street simultaneously, about a month or two after the VHS release. Stay tuned... 6/24/98 The Divx test launch is not going well, folks. I'm told by several Circuit City and Good Guys 'moles' that three weeks into the launch, only around 100 Divx players have been sold. Each store apparently has a salesman dedicated to the Divx product. An employee at one large Good Guys location told me that their dedicated salesman hadn't even sold 15 players since the launch. And lots of people have been coming in to complain about Divx to store employees! What's more, of the approximately 100 players that have been sold, most have been purchased by people affiliated with the stores, and/or other industry folk. And a few enterprising Silicon Valley hacker-types have apparently gotten their hands on players as well... Also Divx personnel have indicated that Titanic will appear on Divx discs day-and date with VHS on Sept. 1. There will apparently be pan & scan and letterbox versions on Divx. That being the case, look for Paramount to announce the DVD version at VSDA, very likely with a day-and-date release as well... 6/22/98 Another reliable contact has informed me that both Fox and Paramount will be releasing their first DVD titles in September... I'm told to expect about four titles from each... Fox's first four DVDs will reportedly be taken from the same list of titles as their Divx releases, which currently include The Edge, Firestorm, The Full Monty, Speed 2 and Volcano... Other Fox titles in the works for Divx (which will likely find their way to DVD) are Alien Resurrection, Broken Arrow, Chain Reaction and Speed... Word is Fox may also release Anastasia on DVD for the holidays... Look for Fox's DVD commitment (and info on specific titles) to be announced at VSDA next month... 6/18/98 One of my contacts just e-mailed me with a list of more good DVD titles coming for later this year, this time from Columbia/TriStar. This contact has been very reliable, but as always take the dates as approximate only (note the revised Godzilla date). Here's the list: Wild Things - 9/8 Big Hit - 10/20 Midnight Express (20th Anniversary) - 10/20 Les Miserables (1998) - 11/3 Godzilla - 11/3 Candyman - 9/8 Quick and the Dead - 9/29 Fright Night - 10/13 Bugsy - 12/15 Can't Hardly Wait - 12/22 Also, my contact tells me that Polygram is working on The Graduate for sometime this fall... There's been some question as to what I meant yesterday about the Paramount DVD release dates. To explain more clearly, look for the first Paramount releases in September and October, rather than August... 6/17/98 A friend called me to say that he's been told that MGM is currently working on DVD versions of Casablanca and Gone With the Wind for November! The latter as you know, is about to be re-released to theaters (on the 26th), with a completely remixed Dolby Digital soundtrack. Expect them both to be excellent discs. Also, I've been told that when Titanic hits DVD later this year, you'll find at least two extra scenes on the disc (included as supplements), as well as a theatrical trailer. A 'director's version' of the film will be released sometime mid-next year... Also, the first three Paramount titles listed in the 6/12 update are (according to a number of sources) correct, but about a month early. Roll all the dates back about a month, and you have a fairly good idea of the time-frame for Paramount to hit DVD. As many pointed out, the exact dates listed below are odd days of the week, so keep in mind these are approximate dates only... 6/12/98 I've just gotten some interesting new information from my contacts - tentative release dates for the first Paramount DVD titles, as well as dates for some exciting new titles from the Warner distributed studios. Remember, all of this is very much subject to change... Paramount Grease - 8/16 Face Off - 8/21 Titanic - 9/1 (at least one source swears that Paramount will try to go day-and-date with this title, despite official claims of not having yet made a release date decision) Warner distributed titles (HBO, New Line, MGM, etc...) Wedding Singer - 8/4 Palmetto - 8/4 Mr. Nice Guy - 8/11 Man in the Iron Mask - 8/11 2001: A Space Odyssey - 8/25 2010: The Year We make Contact - 8/25 Hackers - 8/25 New Jack City - 8/25 Mean Streets - 8/25 Tales from the Hood - 8/25 Balls of Fire - 8/25 Secret Life of Walter Mitty - 8/25 Spawn 2 (animated) - October South Park (animated - no details - under consideration) - October From the Earth to the Moon - 11/10 6/10/98 Look for DTS to begin making DVD title release announcements in the "next 3-4 weeks". There have been apparently some troublesome technical issues relating to authoring software used to master DTS on DVD. Reportedly, the majority of DTS's initial DVD titles will begin shipping in the 4th quarter, possibly in September. The release schedule is expected to escalate every month after that. And some titles may be available prior to September. Also, look for Amblin/Spielberg titles to be shipped on DTS DVD this year... I've been told that, despite their total lack of extra features, Divx discs are actually more difficult to author than regular DVD titles. Apparently, the encryption is woven throughout the authoring, which throws off the jitter, and causes problems with chaptering, among other things. This would certainly explain the 'quality control' problems Divx is having with their titles... For anyone who cares, tentative word is Columbia/TriStar should be releasing their DVD version of Godzilla on Oct 8th... Also, I've been hearing that a 'director's cut' of Titanic will be released either to theaters or directly to home video in 'about a year'. It will include some 20-30 extra minutes of footage that was edited from the original theatrical release... Stay tuned... More Archived Posts Back to Current Posts
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