Author: Nicklas Ingels

Finally.. and let me repeat it again.. Finally we know what’s comming and it’s not one Blade Runner DVD that’s going to be released. It’s atleast going to be two different DVD’s that’s comming our way and not only on DVD but also on HD-DVD and Blue-Ray.. Great huh ??
The Digital Bits which is a great source for DVD news has this to say..

First a bit of background on the reason for the title’s delay. Warner had been planning a 2-disc special edition of the film early last year… but suddenly realized that their rights to the title were about to lapse. However, the studio ponied up the big bucks to get back what is arguably one of their primo Cadillac catalog titles (dare you to say that three times fast). The ownership situation now resolved, Warner has set in motion plans to really do something special with the film. You might recall back in January when I asked them about the film at their 2006 catalog press event, they hinted that things were looking good for a 2007 release. Privately, we were told that there were BIG things in the works, but were also told that if we leaked too much about the project, we might end up like Fredo Corleone (or WORSE, that the project itself could be complicated). Needless to say, though we’ve been dying to talk about this for months now (and we get about two e-mails a day asking about the title), we’ve kept largely silent on the subject. Now that the project is finally out in the open, however, we can finally say a few things. Keep in mind that the major portion of the release is still over a year away. But here’s the basic plan…
This coming September, there will be a new limited DVD release (HD-DVD & Blu-ray Disc are also planned) of the restored 1992 Director’s Cut (you know… the one that isn’t really a director’s cut). This will be available for just four months. We believe this is basically the 2-disc release that Warner had originally planned to bow LAST year.
Then next year, just in time for the film’s 25th anniversary, Ridley Scott’s ultimate Blade Runner: The Final Cut will hit theaters for a limited run. This will be a REAL director’s cut, with restored scenes and more – all the stuff that Ridley’s always wanted to do with the film but hasn’t really been given the chance to do before. That will be followed later in the year by an Ultimate Blade Runner DVD release. You can expect a multi-disc box set (again, likely with a simultaneous HD-DVD and Blu-ray Disc release) that will contain at least four different versions of the film… ALL in full anamorphic widescreen, we might add. You’ll get the film’s original U.S. theatrical cut, you’ll get the expanded international theatrical cut, you’ll get the 1992 Director’s Cut and you’ll get the new Final Cut as well. Now… we realize at this point, you may have questions. Keep in mind, there’s a TON of additional material that’s going to be included in this set that hasn’t been announced and can’t be talked about yet – all-new material that you’ve never seen before. The set is pretty early in the planning and production stage, so it’s way too early to talk details, but trust us… some very cool stuff is in the works. These extras will likely be different from the September ’06 release, so if you buy both you’ll at least be getting your money’s worth.
Imagine that… anamorphic widescreen AND real value in a DVD release! Hey… are we being punked?
You veteran Bits readers will also be thrilled to learn that longtime Ridley Scott DVD producer Charles de Lauzirika and his team are involved in project, and have already been working on the set for a while now. Lauzirika, as you may know, was the producer responsible for Fox’s 9-disc, massively comprehensive Alien Quadrilogy box set, as well as the multi-disc special editions of Scott’s Gladiator (from DreamWorks), Black Hawk Down (from Sony) and Kingdom of Heaven (recently available from Fox), among others. You should also know that Lauzirika and his team are big fans of Blade Runner themselves. Rest assured that they know what you guys all want to see on this release, and they’re working very hard to make it as good as it can be. Trust us when we say that this project is in EXACTLY the right hands.
Source: The Digital Bits

Wow.. I guess that good things comes to those whom waits and I think that I will get both the Limited 2-Disc DVD release and the ultimate Blade Runner: The Final Cut. Who knows with a bit of luck I also get to see it on the big screen (read: cinema) again..
Was that the coolest kind of news ever or what ??..

Source: The Digital Bits & Variety

The Digital Bits has some information concerning the so called “Special Edition” DVD that we still are waiting for. Warner’s got a big list of good things comming both on DVD & HD-DVD and at the press event where they made their release list public they also let us know that “the death of the DVD format is exaggerated” and that they sit on a film vault with over 6,000 theatrical titles and only 1,200 have been released on DVD so far. So we have over 5,400 titles for the studio to choose from when it comes to catalog DVD releases.
There’s a large list of titles comming both on DVD and HD-DVD over at this page over at thedigitalbits.com and since they too are waiting for new Blade Runner release they asked about this title specifically and this is what they (and we) got to know.

Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner (1982) is currently on track for release as a multi-disc special edition in time for its 25th anniversary in 2007. The release is far from certain (as usual, there’s a lot more that I can’t post about this title yet – think of the old saying, “Loose lips sink ships”), but Warner says that work is proceeding, most of the key players are involved and things are “looking good” for release next year. We’ll see.

Well, if everything goes smoothly then next year we will finally get to see a version of Blade Runner with decent picture & hopefully 5.1 surround sound (and with a bit of luck maybe even some neat extra material). Again everything is far from certain but we know that Warner’s are still working on getting the title re-released, we can only hope that “most of the key players” now means that the “pesky legall problems” might be solved..
I’ll personally will hold my breath until I’ll have the new disc in my hands, we all know for how long we’ve been waiting for this release..

Source: thedigitalbits.com