Angry Web

Warner Home Video has released the DVD and blu-ray covers for the “Watchmen: Tales of the Black Freighter” which will come with a live-action/CGI version of “Under the Hood” told by Hollis Mason.  Here’s what they had to say about the release:

They’re in the book. And on this disc. From the director of Watchmen and 300 come two tales from the celebrated graphic novel that do not appear in the extraordinary Watchmen Theatrical Feature. Tales of the Black Freighter (featuring the voice of 300′s Gerard Butler) brings to strikingly animated life the novels richly layered story-within-a-story, a daring pirate saga whose turbulent events may mirror those in the Watchmen’s world. Stars from the Watchmen movie team in the amazing live-action/CGI Under the Hood, based on Nite Owl’s powerful first-hand account of how the hooded adventurers came into existence. Two fan-essential stories. One place to watch the excitement. Watching the Watchmen begins here.

Special features attached to the DVD and blu-ray will include “Story Within A Story: The Books of the Watchmen”, a first look at DC Universe’s Animated Green Lantern DVD, and Chapter 1 of the Watchmen Motion Comic.  The blu-ray will, in addition, include a deleted scene from “Watchmen” called “The Two Bernies”, and a featurette with director Zack Snyder called “The WHY of the Watchmen”.

“Watchmen: Tales of the Black Freighter” hits stores March 24, 2009.  Frankly, I wouldn’t be surprised if this is rereleased together with “Watchmen” this summer in a collector’s set.  Spend wisely, my friends

Yes, we are talking about the 90s series!  Could this be too good to be true?  It’s been over a whole decade since the series ended and with the constant studio bickering over who had the DVD release rights, fans had pretty much lost all hope that this amazing show would ever see the light of day in retail stores.  Numerous petitions were written up as bootlegged DVD sets began to sell on ebay and various small-time online outlets for hefty sums.  This was certainly not what fans wanted to resort to.

And now it’s suddenly here.  Posted discreetly on Amazon.com are “X-Men: Volume 1″ and “X-Men: Volume 2″, each retailing for the low price of $16.99!  Make no mistake, this isn’t another lame-ass attempt to appease the fans by releasing a three or four-episode story arc in the series.  This is the real deal.

While both are 2-disc sets, Volume 1 is listed as 368 minutes long and Volume 2 as 391 minutes long.  Do the math and that’s approximately 18 episodes for Volume 1 and 19-20 episodes for Volume 2!

“X-Men: Volumes 1 and 2″ hits stores April 28, 2009.  You can pre-order the sets on Amazon.com here and here.

A viral microsite for “Watchmen” has recently been discovered at http://www.thenewfrontiersman.net/

In “Watchmen”, the character of Rorschach is a conspiracy theorist and a regular reader of a right-wing magazine called “The New Frontiersman”.  Expect the package to be open sometime early next week!

Now take a look at these nifty new photos released from Total Film Magazine:

The word is that “Tales of the Black Freighter”, the tie-in animated DVD that follows a comic book story within the graphic novel itself, has been assigned an R rating by the MPAA for “Violent and Grisly Images”.

And for anyone who is sick and tired of reading endlessly about this whole brouhaha between Fox and Warner Bros., the gist is, Fox wants to postpone the film, the judge is siding with Fox’s claims that they had the story rights back in 1994, neither side is yielding, and the trial date to settle their differences is January 20th.  The latest news now is that Warner Bros. is trying to set up a trial date as early as next Monday as they had plans to unleash a multimillion dollar marketing campaign leading to the film’s intended March 6th release date.

“Watchmen” hits theaters 03.06.09 once the economy takes a big, nasty dump on Fox and bankrupts them down the toilet.  Hey, it could happen and that would be a fine day, indeed

For those expressing disappointment over the inadequacy of special features on the blu-ray release of “The Dark Knight”, this might cheer you up.  Remember that Jokerized trailer reel that fans received during the viral marketing event for the release of the 3rd trailer (including the teaser)?  Well, it looks like it has snuck itself into the blu-ray release as a cleverly-hidden easter egg.  Here’s what you have to do:

1. Pop the Special Features disc into your player.
2. Access the Galleries section and play Trailer #3
3. While it’s playing, enter the following numerical code on your remote (spelling out “JOKER”): 56537

Tada

Note: This only works on the blu-ray release, not the DVD.

How come America never gets the cool stuff?

Universal has released artwork for the 1-disc, 2-disc, and Blu-Ray editions of “Wanted”

The 2-Disc DVD and Blu-Ray special features will include the following:

• 8 Featurettes – Cast and Characters, Stunts on the L Train, Special Effects: The Art of the Impossible, Groundbreaking Visual Effects: From Imagination to Execution, The Origins of Wanted: Bringing the Graphic Novel to Life, Through the Eyes of Visionary Director Timur Bekmambetov
• The Making of Wanted: The Video Game
• Wanted: Motion Comics
• A “Killer” extended scene
• A digital copy of the film
• BD-Live features (Blu-Ray only)

The 2-Disc DVD and Blu-Ray giftsets will include a Book of Assassins, 4 collectible postcards and a lenticular scene in an acrylic frame.

Release Date: December 2nd, 2008
Retail Price: 1-Disc DVD – $29.98; 2-Disc DVD – $34.98; Blu-Ray – $39.98; DVD Giftset – $64.98; Blu-Ray Giftset – $69.98

We received an email today with the assets for the DVD and Blu Ray release of “Hellboy II”. Here they are.