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Insights from home entertainment industry experts. Home Media blogs give you the inside scoop on entertainment news, DVD and Blu-ray Disc releases, and the happenings at key studios and entertainment retailers. TK's Take analyzes and comments on home entertainment industry news and trends, Agent DVD Insider talks comic adaptations, and IndieFile delivers independent film news.

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March 11, 2010
‘Drawn Together’ Movie Heading to Comic-Con

Not that Comic-Con.

Paramount Home Entertainment and Comedy Central will screen The Drawn Together Movie: The Movie! during the Anaheim Comic-Con Saturday, April 17, at 7 p.m. The movie hits DVD a few days later, on April 20.

The screening will be followed by a panel with creators Matt Silverstein and Dave Jeser.

Anaheim Comic-Con runs from April 16-18 and is organized by Wizard Entertainment as part of its Wizard World series of conventions held throughout the year across the country.

With the big show, San Diego Comic-Con International, quickly outgrowing its current venue, the San Diego Convention Center, speculation has run rampant over where the show will be held after its contract ends in 2012. Several cities have thrown their hat into the ring, such as Las Vegas. San Diego could expand its convention center and maintain its hosting duties. Anaheim with its convention center has made a play as well, and attracting top talent with fanboy-type programs such as movie screenings are a positive step in showing it can handle higher-profile events.

The Drawn Together Movie is a continuation of the raunchy animated series that lasted three seasons from 2004-07, and featured parodies of cartoon stereotypes in a reality-show setting.

Extras on the DVD include commentary, deleted scenes, “Drawn Together” minisodes and the featurettes “Drawn Together: True Confessionals,” “Drawn Together: The Legacy,” “Anatomy of an Animated Sex Scene,” “Re-Animating Drawn Together: From the Small Screen to the Slightly Bigger Screen” and “D.I.Y. 3D Glasses.”

Additionally, the movie will be available April 20 in HD and standard-def on download-to-own platforms such as iTunes, Xbox Live Marketplace, Zune, Sony PlayStation Store and Amazon Video on Demand.
 

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March 11, 2010
I See, You See, We All See in 3D

I was disappointed, but I went anyway.

Last Sunday night was date night for my youngest son, Hunter, and me. We went out to sushi--hey, I know he's only 7 but he's already got a refined palate--and then headed over to the Carlsbad movie theater to see Alice in Wonderland. I had been looking forward to seeing the film, and even brought along a Tramadol for the occasion (no, not to get high--to ease the pain from my fractured arm injured in a skiing misshap a month ago). Much to my chagrin, there was a sign at the ticket window that informed me that "regrettably, this picture will be shown in 2D because the theater is not currently equipped for 3D performances."

It was late, Hunter was driving me nuts and I didn't feel like driving somewhere else, so I paid for the little fellow and me and we went inside. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie--it's this vibrant, moving collage of colors and cool shapes and characters (and, no, that's not the Tramadol talking!)--but the entire time I thought to myself, "Man, this must look so much better in 3D."

And as I left it dawned on me just how quickly I have been sucked in by this whole 3D experience. I have seen exactly two movies in 3D in theaters, The Final Destination and Scrooge.  And that was all it took to get me hooked. I want to see more movies in 3D, especially ones known for their artsy look, like Alice. Now, if you're wondering why, if I'm such a 3D fan, I haven't seen more than two movies in 3D--heck, I haven't even seen Avatar!--then let me clue you in to my character: As much as I like the movie theater, I am partial to watching movies in my own home, on my 65-inch Panasonic plasma, in the comfort of my own family room, preferably after the kids have gone to bed and the wife is upstairs reading or doing whatever it is wives do at night. I'm one of those consumers who won't think twice about buying a new TV just so I can watch 3D at home, regardless of the price. It's something I want--and it's something I think will catch on pretty quick to the point where it becomes the new standard for home entertainment, just like color TV in the 1980s, cable in the 1970s and home video in the 1990s.

I'm not saying I am going to want to watch everything in 3D. No need to see the news or Leno in three dimensions. I don't even want to watch every movie in 3D. But I sure would like the option, the choice, to watch certain films in 3D, and to me that's the whole beauty of the home 3D juggernaut: It broadens our entertainment choices. I can watch a documentary just to sharpen up on a certain subject, I can watch an old film noir to escape back into the mystical 1940s of Raymond Chandler and Philip Marlowe, or I can watch Shrek or Alice or Monsters vs. Aliens in 3D and have a completely different entertainment experience.

I know there are naysayers out there who think we've seen it all before, that 3D is a passing fancy, having originated with the monster movies of the 1950s and periodically come and gone in the years since. But the new 3D is nothing like the old. Instead of putting on red and blue glasses and getting a headache, you are thrust into the action, into the center of things, and you feel almost physically transported into the movie, if that makes any sense. That's what appeals to me-it's not an enhancement of the viewing experience, like the old 3D, but, rather, it's a completely new experience--and one that I first experienced about two years ago in Panasonic's 3D lab in Universal City, watching a clip of a canoe ride.

That canoe ride forever altered my perception of 3D and left me wanting more. Whenever I watch a 3D movie nowadays, I leave the theater with the same feeling--I want more. But it's more than that--I want more 3D at the time and the place of my choosing, which happens to be my family room. That's why I think 3D for the home will catch on, and catch on big. In this era of personal control and home theaters, I can't imagine I'm alone.

There must be thousands of 3D junkies like me out there, just craving for a fix--on our own terms.

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March 10, 2010
Indie Bits: Gravitas Inks Doc Deal, Film Movement Nabs ‘Jaffa,’ White Stripes Doc Screens

A platter of red and white cupcakes greeted viewers of Under Great White Northern Lights

Lots going on in the indie film world today:

•    Gravitas Ventures has signed a deal with Lux Digital Pictures to bring two documentaries to video-on-demand providers. American Grindhouse, about the history of exploitation films, premieres March 13 at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival, then will debut on VOD thorugh Warner Bros. Digital Distribution. And, likely this summer, Nightmares in Red White and Blue, about evolution and history of the American horror film, will hit VOD as well.
•    Film Movement has acquired the Cannes and Toronto Official Selection Jaffa, a Hebrew-language film from Israel about families and prejudice.  The film will se a limited theatrical run and will premiere on VOD in the late summer of 2010.
•    Last night I had the distinct pleasure of seeing the new White Stripes documentary film about their tour of Canada, Under Great White Northern Lights. Filmmaker Emmet Malloy was on deck after the screening at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, Calif., to discuss the film, which celebrates the 10-year anniversary of the best rock band of the new millennium. The film features astonishing performances from their 2007 Canadian tour of standouts such as “Little Ghost,” “I Just Don’t Know What to Do With Myself” and “Seven Nation Army,” as well as rare early footage of the band and footage from “side shows” the band did in remote towns of Canada. The absorbing film ends with an emotional moment with hyperactive Jack White and reticent Meg White coming to terms with the end of their tour and 10 years moving from husband and wife, to “brother and sister,” to friends and bandmates. The film hits DVD ($19.98), Blu-ray ($24.98) and in audio form, on CD, LP and boxed set, March 16 from WEA/Reprise.

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March 10, 2010
Trailer Wars: 'Iron Man 2' vs. 'Tron Legacy'

This past week, fanboys were treated to not one, but two new trailers for some highly anticipated blockbusters due in cinemas this year.

First up, after the Oscars, came the Iron Man 2 trailer:

 

It looks awesome and oh-so-cool, especially seeing Tony Stark deploying the new Mark V suitcase armor. The movie hits theaters May 7.

Also out this week is the new Tron Legacy trailer:

 

Looks like a slick CGI re-imagining of the computer world created in the original Tron from 1982. I don't know if it can be as groundbreaking as the first one but it still looks like a fun ride with a hefty heap of nostalgia. Tron Legacy hits theaters Dec. 17.

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March 09, 2010
Terry Gilliam Talks 'Imaginarium,' 3D

Terry Gilliam on the set

Genre: Fantasy
Studio: Sony Pictures
Street date: 4/27
Prebook date: 3/25
Price/Format: $28.95 DVD, $34.95 Blu-ray
Reserve on Netflix
Reserve for purchase (DVD or Blu-ray)

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is a delirious dream ride, with Terry Gilliam (Brazil, 12 Monkeys) at the helm. Gilliam spoke with me and other journalists about, among other things, where he comes up with his ideas ("little elves," he says), how he brings them to life without a mammoth budget and what he thinks about 3D.

“I don’t think technology changes or saves anything,” Gilliam said. “3D is interesting, but you’re going to need more money to make a film. And if you need more money to make your film, you’re going to be limiting what you can say and do because that’s just the way it works. The more money, the more you’re constricted in what you say. You’re not out there to disturb people when you’re playing with $200 million dollars, you’re there to reassure them, stroke them, ‘ahhh, come back to my world, it’s going to be like you’ve seen before.’”

Take that, Avatar!

Read the whole story here.

 

 

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