Lionsgate Press Release: Stargate 15th Anniversary Edition (Blu-ray)

Stargate: 15th Anniversary Edition
Stargate, the film that spawned three television series, two movies and a galaxy of fans, celebrates its 15th anniversary with a special edition Blu-ray Disc!  The film, written and directed by Roland Emmerich (Independence Day), boasts a critically-acclaimed ensemble cast that includes three-time Emmy® winner James Spader, Emmy® and Golden Globe® nominee Kurt Russell and two-time Academy Award® nominee Djimon Hounsou.  The Stargate: 15th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray Disc contains both the theatrical and extended cuts of the film - for the first time on Blu-ray - in newly remastered 1080P High Definition 16 x 9 Widescreen with English 7.1 DTS-MA Audio and four hours of mind-blowing special features including three new featurettes, a never-before-seen gag reel, an interactive trivia track and more!  The Blu-ray will be available on October 27, 2009, timed to coincide with the new television series "Stargate Universe" coming to SyFy this fall! 
Pricing: Blu-ray Disc $29.99
 

Newly remastered and 7.1.
It's a definite purchase for me.
I'll be glad to buy this. Glad I waited.

I will be double dipping for sure. Just bought the Blu Ray for $9.99. Thanks for the heads up.

I got the single layer first release as a freebie. I don't even own a Blu-ray player yet. This is great news. I was going to cave in and get the Optimum UK release.

Let's hope they get the subtitles right on this release. The first version that I bought didn't have the correct subtitles for the Egyptian and foreign planet dialogue. In order to see them I had to turn on *all* English subs. Then the replacement they sent me has the right Egyptian/foreign planet subtitle track--without the spoken English subs--but sometimes the subtitles don't default to on when I begin to play so I have to manually choose it. Major pain in the a$$.

For that alone I'd consider a re-buy. Better AV quality will definitely convince me to upgrade.

Oh yeah....this one is definitely mine.  Look forward to it...

I too hope it's great quality on I'm sure a BD-50 and possibly AVC or VC1 encode keeping the film grain. I guess I could sell off the single layer release I own and still keep my 2-Disc Ultimate Edition. That being typed out, I hope this 15th Anniversary Edition retains everything from the 2-Disc Ultimate Edition DVD along with the new features and has "hard" alien subtitles burnt into the print instead of optional since it was like that in cinemas. I even remember I had the calender and the action figures back in 1994. Hell, I still even have the ticket stubs!
The front cover looks quite nice but my major nitpick is it doesn't keep the films font. Also I keep on wishing the film will get a sequel since the Film and SG-1 Universe are seperate. The SNES game was really great too.
http://www.dvdactive.com/news/releases/stargate2.html

I hope I have a Blu-ray player by the time this is released!
EDIT: The two movies are sequels to the TV Universe, specifically SG-1. Damn I can't believe it's been 15 years. I still prefer the Director's Cut compared to the Theatrical although I saw it in theatres about 10 times.
Now if I can find the single layer disc, it's the corrected second version, and sell it.

Edited by Ray_R - 8/4/2009 at 05:31 am GMT

"Stargate THE MOVIE" ?

Eww.

They just had to stick "the movie" on there....

I'm satisfied with my copy of the first release.

I take it you're also satisfied at not being multi-region capable? The first release is also MPEG2 on a single layer BD. I'm selling mine.


There're also custom covers. I almost always type it out StarGate. But it's far more applicable to a series such as RoboCop where the former is the correct typing with the "CamelCaps" and Robocop is vastly incorrect. That being said, I'm also waiting for MGM to release a superior version of RoboCop on Blu-ray disc instead of the one out now. Besides the V/A quality, the Steelbook vastly trumps it in terms of extras. Even then I'd prefer a BD-50 of RoboCop.

Yes. Because 1) I have no need to ever play it on a non-Region A player, and 2) It's not a movie I like enough to double dip on. I'll watch it once every 5 years or so if I'm lucky.

YMMV

I did a big paragraph for mine so it's one of my favourite films. I haven't seen it in awhile just cause I have a huge backlog of blind buys and other random purchases to watch. More multi-region being SDVD. Places I've imported from are Hong Kong, UK and South Korea. Japan has alot of expensive things I'd like to purchase but I'm holding off.
I'll be purchasing a Blu-ray player soon FINALLY and perhaps I should browse the HD Hardware section.
Since Lionsgate is releasing a 15th Anniversary for STARGATE (Yeah I even type-out titles in caps also), perhaps next year will see the 20th Anniversary Edition for TOTAL RECALL? The AUS/UK HDDVD is superior to the US Blu-ray only on the case the HDDVD was encoded either AVC/VC1 and the Blu-ray for MPEG2. Point of this is MPEG2 should only be used on SDVD and the newer codecs for Blu-ray. Also has to do with the encode bitrate and quality of the transfer.
Case in point, my version of Army of Darkness, the Region 3 NTSC MGM release, damn near looks like HD quality since it was derived from a film source and retaining all the lovely film grain. Counterpoint is all the Anchor Bay releases were mastered from tape dupes. Here's to hoping the upcoming Blu-ray is going to be mastered from film elements.

Back on STARGATE, I could've sworn I rented a Widescreen Director's Cut VHS with a holographic cover which had a scene of a couple of the other military guys hijacking one of the Gliders. Am I mis-remembering things? Could be before SG-1 started too.
I prefer the cover for the Optimum UK Blu-ray compared to the 15th Anniversary one. Can barely make out the stars behind the gate. There're always custom covers too.
http://laserdisken.dk/html/billede.dna?ID=36285567092&VIS=forside

Back in my brain I keep hoping there'll be a sequel to this film since The Film and SG-1/etc. are completely different universes. Sure I read the film sequel books and both Kurt Russell and James Spader have been wanting to do a sequel for awhile.
One last thing! "And more" I hope means every single extra for the film made prior to this release including various other tidbits they're adding to this 15th Anniversary ought to be on this disc. Still keeping my Ultimate Edition 2-Disc DVD release anyway. More for companionship/complimenting this release.
Now if I can just find one of my other game controllers to play the STARGATE video game on ZSNES. Should also finish buying the SG-1 seasons, I only have the slim version of Season One so far!

I'm very much looking forward to the release of the 15th anniversary BluRay, just because of all of the added special features.

As for "Stargate: Universe", you couldn't pay me to watch that dren.  I enjoyed both "Stargate: SG-1" and "Stargate: Atlantis" and have all of the seasons on DVD, but from everything I have seen and read of "Universe", they're jumping the shark with this one before the first episode even airs.

As a fan of the film only I don't go near any of these spin-off shows, but that "universe" show's commercials laid out the basic premise perfectly clear to me: 

It's the "Voyager" of the SG-1 TV franchise.

To me the film and the spin-off TV shows are their own seperate entities and shouldn't be grouped together. So if Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin made a sequel to the 1994 film it'd be directly based upon the first film since neither of them are involved in either of the TV incarnations. Hell, I even look at it as the canon film universe and the off-shoot semi-canon but canon for itself TV series universe which is SG-1 and its spin-offs. Henceforth and I sound a bit purposefully snooty about this, the DTV sequels to SG-1 are ONLY sequels to the show and not the film of course.
Certainly if Emmerich, Devlin, Russell and Spader all get back together to have two sequels to STARGATE as they intended, it'd be a sequel to the original film of course with zero ties with the SG-1, Atlantis, Universe, et. al TV shows.
I sold off my stand-alone second corrected original release Blu-ray a couple weeks ago. I still don't like the front cover for the 15th Anniversary and I wish they kept the original font they used for the poster-art. That being typed, I do hope a custom cover artist will use the original theatrical poster for artwork for this 15th Anniversary release.
And this "SyFy" schtick? What do they think we are, morons?
Here's to hoping LionsGate won't DNR STARGATE to the edges of the universe and back. Wish there were more details regarding the special features instead of the "and more!" bullshit companies tend to use. Gimme a breakdown of the special features, please, film studios!
Regarding that VHS I watched which was nearly 140+ minutes of the film, it was OAR too.

EDIT: Here're the extra features.
http://dvdtimes.co.uk/content/id/71312/stargate-15th-anniversary-edition.html


Edited by Ray_R - 9/7/09 at 3:39am

Heh... You know what? That is exactly what people were saying about Stargate Atlantis when that show first started. I'm not making it up. - people were saying that everywhere. Five years later, I think anyone who's been following the show would agree with me in hindsight that the comparison was absoloutely ridiculous. I have no doubt the same will be true for Stargate Universe. Thing is, people see the trailers, are reminded of whatever show they've seen before that looks the most like it, and have too little imagination to think that it may just be something different from what they already know.


Now, that's an odd thing to say. As a (very) long time fan of the Stargate franchise, I think Stargate Universe looks very, very promising. You, however, are apparently a fan of both SG-1 and SGA, so much so in fact that you've acquired every season on DVD (that's fifteen box sets!) and yet you've decided not to watch the new show from the same creative team - a month before even a single episode has aired? I mean, one would think you'd at least give it a fair chance, given their track record.

..okay: Call me a stalker, but out of curiousity, I just googled your nick and based on posts you made on other forums, it appears you decided against SGU more than a year ago - when all we'd been told of the show was a brief synopsis. Add to that the fact that you apparently registered here on HTF just to express your hatred of the show makes me think I probably shouldn't bother with trying to reason with you about this, but should you still want to discuss SGU the appropriate thread for it is here.

Quote: I don't care either way, since I'm not going to watch it. The commercials all say something like '70 million light years from home' and two different groups having to work together to survive and so on which was just what Voyager's premise was, only with that it was 70 thousand light years. That says nothing about whether they are good or bad. Let me put it this way: being a film music nut, particularly that of a certain composer's work that has been scrutinized endlessly for its familiarities and re-uses, I have absolutely NO problem with familiar concepts whatsoever. (anyone who knows me here knows who I'm referring to so I'll say no more about that.

Which is fair enough, of course. I only said it because it seems to be a common opinion that SGU will be a crappy retread of Voyager, and I don't believe that to be the case at all. :)

That's not possible, because if anything it would likely be an improvement on Voyager's concept!

Heh. Not a Voyager fan, eh?

On a more on-topic note, I will probably get this disc... if it's not region coded. Are Lionsgate BD titles generally region free, anyone know? IIRC, the last release was, but I never did get that one.

Quote by Nicholas Martin:
[quote]You know, I feel the same way about that and it was (as silly as it may sound) my loyalty to Devlin and Emmerich that held me back from watching SG-1, other than to sample it when it first started. It just wasn't for me.

Now, Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich don't even work together anymore, with Emmerich continuing the disaster movie trend and Devlin moving forward with TV projects like "Leverage", which I can't see here in Canada. They made fun popcorn movies together, and regardless of their film's flaws (of course Godzilla has many) I just plain like those guys and their intentions were honest and clear with the films they made. Independence Day is, was and always will be a massive favorite film of mine - both of the films they made and all together...and I love the A / V presentation of it on Blu-ray.[/quote]
I completely agree with you on that one. I even enjoyed Universal Soldier but I have zero idea as to how the A/V quatily is for the Blu-ray. ID4 was a blast too but I'm disappointed the Blu-ray releases doesn't also have the Extended Cut and the extra featrues from the second disc of the Five-Star Collector's Edition DVD. I have a good feeling this release is gonna be kick arse.

I prefer the theatrical version of ID4, mainly because I don't like the Russell Casse scenes in the extended version. I've felt that they were poorly acted and stuck out badly as a result. Also, because the deleted scenes weren't integrated into the film properly (they are mixed in six channel mono, for the most part, not true 5.1) they were just dropped in with no thought to the pacing of the scenes they interrupt (that small insert with the Levinsons joking about being in the Oval Office during "Operation Welcome Wagon", as well as the scene with Russell Casse's kids interrupting the final battle sequence - think of the pointless Vader returning to his shuttle scene in the 'special edition' of "The Empire Strikes Back") so I'm glad they weren't included on the Blu-ray. If they were included as separate deleted scenes, fine. I took a 2-disc Blu-ray case, printed my own custom cover including the information and put the Five-Star bonus DVD in with the Blu-ray. None of the extras would be in HD anyway, so it's no big deal to keep that disc, and not have those SD extras take up space on the existing BD.

The current StarGate release is literally dirt-cheap, and looks and sounds pretty good. I don't regret picking it up because it was so cheap, as most of the Lionsgate releases are.

As for Voyager, well....it ultimately betrayed its core concepts and did so too often. By that I mean they hit the reset button too many times in order to get away with things that weren't supposed to happen on the show. If this new universe show avoids that and stays true to its concept, then it will indeed be an improvement because Voyager never did that.

Yay I love Stargate! When will the tv shows be out on the Blu-ray? In my collection I already have the sequels to the SG-1 television show. The Optimum BD is very nice too. I love my Momitsu player.

It's rather amusing that they're now putting Djimon Honsou's name right next to Russell's and Spader's in the press release. Not that the guy doesn't deserve it, of course -- though isn't he credited simply as "Djimon" in the opening titles, if memory serves?

Still, I'll probably be picking this one up, since I've held off on buying the 10th Anniversary Edition after hearing this was on the way.

Wasn't Djimon Horus? He only had an extended cameo and wasn't famous as much compared to when Amistad came out.

Correct. His last name wasn't included in either the opening or end credits.



Yes, he was the principal Horus guard, while Carlos Lauchu was the (only) Anubis guard. 

This film was basically Djimon's first real film role while still actively involved with a modeling career.

The release date for this Blu-ray falls one day early of the film's actual theatrical release in 1994.

That doesn't happen often, if at all when it comes to home releases marking anniversaries.  It's fantastic timing.

does any1 know if this is a "true" remaster on the video-front or just a re-encoding of the SAME film master used in the 1st BD release?

the lossless audio is definitely NEW, a FIRST compared to the lossy version on the 1st BD release i own =P. i'm looking fwd to this =).

It took forever to get a review copy, but I can tell you this much on a quick glance: The encoding is AVC, and a lot of the extras are new. I'm going to try to have the review up tomorrow, but there's a lot to get through.

Hi Michael,

I'm attaching my thoughts in the Coupons and Bargains thread when Mike Frezon asked about this title below. I just sat down and am  watching it. The encoding according to my PS3 is VC-1, though.