Brazil R2 Anamorphic (2 Viewers)

I just read that Brazil is released in the UK on the
19th of May. No word on details but the
German R2 of Brail is said to be 1.85:1 anamorphic,
dolby surround 2.0 and with featurette "What is Brazil?"
and the theatrical trailer. 12th April.
Any other info available??

Sounds like we in R4 may be getting the same release. Fox have just put out a press release saying:

Brazil
Available to BUY on DVD June 18, 2003

This nightmarish futuristic satire effectively blurs all lines between illusion and reality. Whenever real life becomes too oppressive, Sam Lowrey, a Government statistician, fantasizes about being an alternate-world superhero, forever rescuing beautiful Jill Layton. The omnipresent computer that controls everything in the "real" world malfunctions, causing the mistaken-identity assassination of an innocent citizen. When Sam routinely investigates the error, he meets Jill, literally the girl of his dreams. It turns out that she is an associate of a terrorist (Robert De Niro) whom the computer had originally intended to target for execution.

Starring: Jonathan Pryce/ Robert De Niro/ Micheal Palin
Director: Terry Gilliam

FILM FACTS
Rated: M15+
Feature Running Time: 124 minutes
DVD Features:
Featurette:- "What is Brazil"
Trailer

http://www.michaeldvd.com.au/NewsFiles/FoxJune.htm

What worries me is the running time - 124 minutes is a very short running time (missing a good 20 minutes). Is that a misprint, and if not, which cut is this and what is missing? And who on earth was it that tried to spell Sam Lowry's name? And was Jill really an associate of Tuttle (De Niro's character)? I have no memory of that.

Remember that the current Universal R1 has an incorrect running time
printed on the back, I think it is 131m instead of 143m.
If you take 131m and PAL-speed it, it will be about 125m, close to 124m...

So, it could be that FOX is simply reusing incorrect timing
info from the old Universal release and ending up with 124m
without actually checking the length, just doing the math.

But it sounds too far fetched to be true...

By the way, here are the specs for the UK R2 of Brazil:

Special features:
Documentary: "What is Brazil?"
Theatrical Trailer
Scene Access
Interactive Menus
Aspect Ratio: 16 x 9 Widescreen
Audio Format: English 2.0 Surround (LT-RT)
Subtitles: English SDH, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish
Length: 137min

and of course, R1 Universal just rereleased it with a small "restored scenes" tab on the cover, but inexplicably, even thought mid-price not budget, it IS NOT anamorphic!
simply mind boggling.....
I would have bought one siince it seems unlikely we will see CRITERION redo theirs...

"Criterion is considering the possibility of re-releasing some of our early DVDs in 16x9 enhanced editions. Please keep an eye on our website for any future news and updates regarding this project. "

that was from http://www.criterionco.com/asp/faq.asp

Let's keep our fingers crossed!

I am so glad that the new UK version has retained the fabulous "filing cabinet" poster art, rather than the horrible "flying bed" art used in some territories, or the "exploding head" art (as seen on the US disc).

You can see the classy UK art here.

I too love the filing cabinet design. I don't care much for the exploding head. I have never seen this "flying bed" design. Anyone have any links pointing to it? Thanks.

Here's the "flying bed" design:

Oh my gosh. That flying bed is quite possibly the ugliest picture I have ever seen. Why, when you have a poster as perfect and beautiful as the filing cabinets, would you use that picture?

Thanks, Julian, for getting that picture for me.

I believe the European theatrical release (which was before the US release) was a different cut - could that be the source of the different running time? Anyone know how long the original European release was?

The European theatrical release was about 142 minutes, pretty much the same length as Gilliam's "final director's cut" (there's only a couple of differences between the two edits). With PAL speedup that comes out to around 137 minutes, which matches the info we have. The question mark is whether it's the European cut or the "final director's cut."