August 20, 2002

Compromises on Releases
Brett C.

On the phone just now a friend of mine was complaining about the release of the extra-length DVD in November instead of right now in August, and since the point has been raised on the debate board I felt moved to make comment.

I think the release of the extended version later makes sense for several reasons, not least of which is the fact that this will be a truely seperate film entity, with music score and extra digital effects created specially for DVD, all of which take more time to complete and intergrate into the film. As someone who was recently very disappointed by the recut version of David Lych's
Dune I am fully prepared to wait another three months to see it done right.

As far as the VHS tapes not having all the extra features; well, I just supposed that's why they were cheaper. Putting all the extra footage in would proabably have needed another tape, with a bigger box and a bigger cost.

Another thing about getting the extended feature is that I'm guessing it is going to be more expensive, while the theatre release was a very reasonlable $AUS 29.95, a good $5 cheaper than most new releases with far less to offer. Besides, the bottom line is that this is a business venture and by making increased revenue, PJ wins bargaining power to add even better and more costly features to the upcoming movies [still in post production] and their subsequent home video release. Having seen what he's accomplished so far I can't complain about that.