Post by BIGFANBOY on Dec 2, 2008 6:05:22 GMT -5
THE GOLDEN GLOBE-WINNING SCI-FI CLASSIC
Academy Award®-Winning Director Robert Wise’s Original Masterpiece Lands Onto Blu-Ray Disc And DVD December 2 From Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment
Packed With Out-Of-This-World Bonus Material, Including An Exclusive First Look At The New Movie THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL Starring Keanu Reeves And Jennifer Connelly
CENTURY CITY, CALIF. – The fate of the world hangs in the balance when a mysterious alien and his robot land on Earth in THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL, debuting as a Special Edition Blu-ray Disc (BD) and two-disc DVD on December 2 from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment. Directed by two-time Academy Award®-winning* director Robert Wise (The Sound of Music, West Side Story) and starring Oscar®-winner** Patricia Neal (Hud) and Michael Rennie (Les Miserables), this 1951 classic story of hope and peace is widely acclaimed as one of the most influential and thought-provoking science-fiction films of all time and can now be seen like never before – in high definition.
THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL Special Edition BD will contain two never-before-seen, high-definition BD exclusive features: “Gort Command!,” an arcade-style shooting gallery game and “Interactive Theremin: Create Your Own Score,” where viewers can re-score the film’s opening sequence. Both the BD and DVD versions of THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL Special Edition feature all-new and exclusive bonus materials including legendary composer and Academy Award®-winner*** Bernard Herrmann’s isolated score; film and sci-fi featurettes – including a “Making Of The Day The Earth Stood Still” and “Decoding Klaatu Barada Nikto: Science Fiction As A Metaphor” – an audio presentation of the original short story; commentaries from Robert Wise and other film and music historians; and more.
Arriving in time for the theatrical release of its 2008 remake starring Keanu Reeves (The Matrix) and Academy Award® winner**** Jennifer Connelly (A Beautiful Mind), THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL Special Edition Blu-ray Disc will be available for $34.99 U.S. / $37.99 Canada and the two-disc DVD will be available for a suggested retail price of $19.98 U.S. / $21.98 Canada.
Synopsis:
A spaceship lands in Washington D.C., capturing the attention of the world. But the alien emissary it brings refuses to reveal his mission to any single government, leaving the military, the politicians, and millions of ordinary people to wait in fear. Soon their distrust turns to calls for violence. But one young woman and her son befriend him…and soon realize that they may be all that stands between the human race and total destruction.
Blu-ray Disc Specs:
THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL Special Edition BD release will be authored in BD-Java with AVC (MPEG 4) compression on a dual-layer 50 GB disc presented in full frame format (1.33:1 aspect ratio) with English 5.1 DTS HD Master Audio, English Mono and Spanish/French 5.1 Dolby Digital audio with English, Spanish, Cantonese, Mandarin and French subtitles. THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL Special Edition BD includes the following special features:
• New: Exclusive First Look at the new movie starring Keanu Reeves and Jennifer Connelly
• New & Exclusive To BD: Interactive Theremin - Create Your Own Score
• New & Exclusive To BD: Gort Command! - Interactive Game
• Commentary by Robert Wise and Nicholas Meyer
• New: Commentary by Film & Music Historians John Morgan, Steven Smith, William Stromberg and Nick Redman
• New: Isolated Score Track
• New: The Mysterious, Melodious Theremin
• New: The Day The Earth Stood Still Main Title Live Performance By Peter Pringle
• New: The Making of The Day the Earth Stood Still
• New: Decoding “Klaatu Barada Nikto”: Science Fiction as Metaphor Featurette
• New: A Brief History of Flying Saucers Featurette
• New: The Astounding Harry Bates Featurette
• New: Edmund North: The Man Who Made the Earth Stand Still Featurette
• New To Disc: Race To Oblivion - a documentary short written and produced by Edmund North
• New To Disc: Farewell To The Master - A reading by Jamieson K. Price of the original Harry Bates short story
• New: Interactive Pressbook
• Fox Movietonews from 1951
• Original Theatrical Trailer & Teaser Trailer
• Advertising Gallery
• Behind-The Scenes Gallery
• Portrait Gallery
• Production Gallery
• Spaceship Construction Blueprints
• Shooting Script
DVD Specs:
THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL Special Edition DVD is presented in full screen format (1.33:1 aspect ratio) with English Mono, English 5.1 Dolby Surround, Spanish and French Mono, plus English and Spanish subtitles. THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL Special Edition DVD includes all of the above bonus features, with the exception of the two noted BD exclusives.
BIGFANBOY.com special notes:
Notes on the Blu-ray edition by contributing reviewer SAM CALVIN
This new Blu-ray edition of THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL looks and sounds terrific (listen to the crickets during Klaatu's speech at the end!), but be aware that the "Making of TDTESS" documentary on this disc is completely new. The two-hour documentary on the previously released laserdisc and standard edition DVD is NOT on this disc, although there are audio excerpts from it. I find it odd that the previous documentary was not included for the sake of completeness. That said, I'm pleased to have this classic (my favorite film of all time) in Blu-ray.
The new documentary suggests that there were three Gorts but there were actually four. Two were costumes for Lock Martin, one with flange-like fasteners in the front for rear shots and the other with fasteners in the back for front shots. Another figure that was used for setup shots and never appears in the film is the one that Larry Harmon obtained and that Bill Malone later purchased and refurbished. This standee figure is shown in a series of photos with craftsmen working on the figure as well as one shot with Patricia Neal holding his hand. Finally -- and it is odd that no mention is made of this fact -- there is the nine-foot stationary Gort that appears in several scenes in the film as well as in many of the publicity photos. This is the Gort I'm most intrigued with, as I have never heard what happened to it. Maybe there's a very lucky kid somewhere. The documentary doesn't distinguish clearly enough between the standee and the large-size Gort.
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