)
Furthermore, I think we need to wait for an OFFICIAL announcement of a DVD release instead of a pre-order from a Web site.I agree that this is the wisest thing to do. Look at the situation recently with Amazon listing the 10 Fox TV titles and then Fox turning around and telling us, "Sorry...those dates aren't set in stone and we'll get Amazon to pull them off for now".
On the other hand, all ten of those titles are still listed at Amazon with the same release dates.
And, on that same hand, we also have the fact that Amazon listed Disney/BV titles for shows like Alias and the second season of Felicity far in advance (weeks for the former, a couple of months for the latter!) of any official information being available from the studio sources. What Amazon posted early turned out to be true; and so the e-tailer listing was a valuable piece of information that would have been foolish to ignore.
Now, no offense to users of DVDSoon, but in my opinion there is a world of difference between trusting advance info from Amazon on a fairly unique title (hard to screw up the meaning of "Alias Season 1", right?) and trusting advance info from DVDSoon about an existing title with the only difference being the words "Special Edition" tacked onto the end (and no box art or listing of supplements to support that this is a different release!).
Especially in view of the fact that many e-tailers tack that "SE" suffix onto many releases who don't contain those words in the title (example: Image Entertainment, back when they distributed everyone's stuff, called anything an "SE" that contained a commentary track or a full-fledged behind-the-scenes documentary).
But Top Gun's existing release hardly falls into that category: no commentary track, no docs or featurettes, and no trailer. And, even when you have access to some of that particular studio's advance information like I do, you know how easy it is for things to slip in under the radar. And sometimes any studio can keep something quiet, for the impact of a big surprise later. And sometimes any e-tailer can accidentally let the cat out of the bag with a jump-the-gun posting.
So yeah, I decided it was a legit thing based on a strange set of circumstances, and got my hopes up on this one too. I should have used my head. I guess I just wanted to believe!
Anyway, I think we can all appreciate Martin for not leaving us hanging out to dry here. He didn't have to say a word, but it's good that he did. Being mad at him or Paramount and thinking that they have something against making money isn't the way to go. They have their own plans and strategies for how these things happen. I imagine that, with new leadership over that department, there are a lot of re-thinking going on about those strategies, too.
Patience. As was pointed out, this title has sold well in every home video format, and its unimaginable that a better version won't be along sooner or later.
You're smart beyond your years, Dean
