I woke up 3am my time (by accident), so caught the last 2 hrs of the chat. My advice to anyone in Europe with a question for a popular HTF chat - don't bother. Even if you have broadband. The lag was considerable, so those trigger-happy Americans YO-ed in ahead of me every time. So I didn't get a chance to ask about Murder One[/razzlefrazzledickdastardly]
The chat itself was fine, albeit slow. No announcements at the end (which is what used to happen in the GOD). No interesting DVD news as far as I was concerned. Mr Staddon dodged the bullet a tad on Fox's "previously-on"-cutting history (he did say it wasn't official policy to cut - down to the disc producers). Maybe all the best news was in the first hour. I look forward to the transcript.
Hope I don't sound too peeved in the above paragraphs. I really do appreciate Fox and the HTF admins taking the time out to do the chat.
I don't recall any definitive list of 2004 Classics. People asked about a couple of titles that PS said might come out as part of the Classics line, but no listing of the 2004 schedule was given, as I recall.
I couldn't "yo" fast enough either, so I'm not sure where you are makes a huge difference (other than the fact that it's the middle of the night in Europe).
The biggest thing that caught my eye was that Fox is in no way interested in even starting to think about HD-DVD until there is an iron-clad, uncrackable copy protection scheme in place.
Given that there has never been such a thing in the history of the entertainment biz, it makes me think HD-DVD is a long, long way away.
According to TVShowsOnDVD.com PS said the Chris Carter series "Millennium" & "Harsh Realm" are both coming later this year (after "The X-Files" S9 hits this spring).
PS said he had to push hard to get "Millennium" released. Lots of his fellow execs are apparently skeptical that there's an audience for those sets. So it will need to sell well in order to see seasons 2-3.
It'll be interesting to see if they're priced lower than "The X-Files" sets.
Good news is that we're maybe getting a reissue of The Abyss this year! Anamorphic, finally. They'll probably need to add something substantial to release it though, so I'm hoping Cameron can do a commentary for it. Maybe another one with the cast.
Also it's a little strange that Mr. Staddon would think there's no interest in a Romancing the Stone SE. It's directed by one of my favorite directors whose other films are well-presented on DVD. An anamorphic transfer and a commentary would do just fine here. Maybe some other extras, but that's unimportant. Zemeckis' Used Cars was a pretty bare-bones release, but it had a great commentary and a fine anamorphic transfer.
I feel like a moron. I temporarily killed the entire chat asking about the Alien 3 docs. I joked in the question that I was gonna get groans for it, and right after I asked it, Peter overran his buffer with a long answer, so even though he saw it on his screen, we didn't. He tried again, and again it was all in vain. I felt like a tool for causing what amounted to dead air and dragging the chat to a halt. Oh well, on the upside, Mr. Staddon was quite gracious, and just the fact he was willing to go in depth about that issue is yet another reason he is the man.
My brother is happy The Crucible is finally coming out this year.
Well to be honest, only really one edition came out. The single-disc and the repackaged 2-disc editions can't really be counted. That's my opinion. I'm eagerly waiting for this. I bought the original 2-disc when it came out and if they'll give us a different edition with a commentary or two and a brand-new anamorphic transfer - that will be great. This is one of my favorite movies of all time and having it in an inferior video transfer is definitely painful. Please please Mr. Staddon make it happen!