"Avatar" Blu-ray/DVD thread

[jefferiestubes8]

This is the thread for the "Avatar" film released to consumers on Blu-ray and DVD.

Surely there will be a couple editions in the next 18 months.

Fox will capitalize on the box office momentum to release a "bare-bones" DVD and Blu-ray as quickly as possible

Today there was mention of them for June 30, 2010 release.

upcoming Avatar DVD release, with the first one due out June 30th.

"There are the performances; you can really see what the scene would have been, but it doesn't have that magical realism of the finished film. So to put those scenes in without finishing them... will be for fans.

io9 via MTV

For fans? The highest grossing film can't complete 15 minutes of deleted scenes for the Blu-ray/DVD ?
I can think of another film where there were seven deleted scenes completed specifically for the DVD. 24 minutes total and of those some were mostly CGI completed by ILM with sound FX and music.
Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999)
if a film in 1999 that made $924 million worldwide box office lifetime gross...the 11th highest-grossing film of all time

....seven deleted scenes, are worth buying this DVD alone. Mr. Lucas spent an additional four million dollars on them

http://www.star-wars-pictures-games-toys-movies.com/630575067X.html

can do it why can't Cameron and company do the same for some of these deleted scenes?
Even if they finished them in 1080p 2-D as grey CGI characters only without textures, & lighting which is one step above wireframes would be pretty inexpensive. There were also HD 2-D videocameras shooting all of the actors that could be used at least to show the early rough cuts of the deleted scenes performed.

As far as a wishlist for special features:

-4 audio commentaries
-HD behind the scenes feature documentary not a bunch of featurettes
-comparisons to the stories it was said to have borrowed 'ideas' from
-I'd love to hear a audio commentary done by a Marines sargeant that covers all of the controversy even if it is available via BD-Live download only.
-extensive tests with the motion capture data, CGI models, and layers of lighting and textures, and CGI world.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Don't worry. The double (or triple) dip will happen.

 

[MarianLH]

Wait, the "bare bones" version released "as quickly as possible" isn't coming until June?


Marian

 

[Harvey]

They're trying to milk it's theatrical run for all it is worth. No surprise there. And June 30th (seven months after the theatrical release) really isn't that long.

 

[Rii]

Bare bones suits me just fine, I've no interest in wading through days of special features.

On a related note, does anyone know what's happening with Titanic on Blu-Ray? Given that the film is going to be re-released in 3D I have an awful feeling that we're not going to see it on BD until that theatrical run wraps.

 

[bigdaddy]

A DVD coming out seven months after it's release is not "as soon as possible" it's the number amount of time, and if anything these days a little later than normal

Plus I'm pretty sure they cut out like 30 minutes of completed movie, that will come out an the 4th or 5th release. It's not like there is a rush, the sequel won't come out until we are all long dead anyways.

 

[Samurai8472]

the sequel won't come out until we are all long dead anyways.

By that time his daughter's children's children will be able to film on the real pandora.

 

[23skidoo]

For fans? The highest grossing film can't complete 15 minutes of deleted scenes for the Blu-ray/DVD ?

Why should they when they can do that for the inevitable theatrical reissue in a year or so? Then they can issue a "directors cut" to the theatres and clean up (remember all those people who went to see A Bug's Life again just because they changed the blooper reel at the end?). A lot of people won't be able to get the same "immersive 3-D" effect they've enjoyed at theatres for the last few months on even the largest HD set, so there will be a demand for the film to go back to theatres eventually. So to have a version with added scenes that haven't been seen before in all their glory will be a licence to print money.

Alex

 

[bigdaddy]

the sequel won't come out until we are all long dead anyways.

By that time his daughter's children's children will be able to film on the real pandora.

Sad but true. There is no talk that there will only be a sequel and not sequels like they were talking about last month. I think they realized they don't want to make a sequel for several years, and won't make two films at the same time.

I think there is a very good chance we will not see a sequel until after Cameron is dead.

 

[DonnyBaker]

I cant wait for the 3-d version...

 

[Mr Light]

The King Kong DVD came out 3 months after the theatrical release.

 

[Starbreaker]

The King Kong DVD came out 3 months after the theatrical release.

Probably because it only made about 11 million dollars profit domestically.

 

[Samurai8472]

Bare bones suits me just fine, I've no interest in wading through days of special features.

Agreed

I'm not sitting through 3 hours of recorded meetings and their final decision to make the Na'vi blue.

Ofcourse we've got the fastforward button

 

[Admiral_Young]

I was reading on Mania today that the bare bones DVD/Blu Ray is now coming out on April 22, 2010. This is from Cameron himself. The wish list posted above is echoed by myself as well. Just a single commentary featuring Cameron, Weaver, Worthington, Landru, and Salanda would satisfy me. I would love to see an extensive behind the scenes documentary on the making of the movie. Along with the HBO First Look special included as well. If they had to do a second one then I'd take a producer/director/writer effects team one as well.


http://www.mania.com/cameron-talks-avatar-blu_article_120731.html

 

[Mr Light]

King Kong did $218 million domestic. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=kingkong05.htm Hey, it did more domestic and international than Superman Returns!

 

[bigdaddy]

King Kong did $218 million domestic. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=kingkong05.htm Hey, it did more domestic and international than Superman Returns!

And it cost around $200 million dollars to make, and then ads.

 

[FordSVT]

I have little interest in seeing this movie outside of 3D. For me, it's entertainment was born greatly out of the sense of immersion it gave me, but it wasn't so interesting that I need to see it again.

If it hadn't been filmed (masterfully) in 3D, hand in hand with 3D ticket prices, I think it would have been really lucky to make half it's current BO total.

 

[jefferiestubes8]

release date & deleted scenes

I was reading on Mania today that the bare bones DVD/Blu Ray is now coming out on April 22, 2010.

I did a little searching and found this stuff about the deleted scenes for the 'value added' version of the home video release.
Looks like they will be finishing some deleted scenes fully in HD (and probably in 3-D...).

And what was left behind was 10 to 12 minutes of motion-captured goodness, as Cameron revealed exclusively to MTV News.

"It's all wonderful stuff, but it was sort of bogging down the middle section of the movie," Cameron said. "So there's plenty for a value-added DVD experience on this film. Of course, we'll have to go punch it all up and get it all mixed and stuff like that."

An important chunk of those 10-plus minutes is devoted to a trial that Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), who joins the Na'vi through his mind-controlled alien avatar, must pass to truly become one of the clan. It involves a hunt for a Sturmbeest, a sort of colorful, overgrown rhino.

"It's a creature you no longer see in the movie," Cameron said of the Sturmbeest

The deleted scenes also include the introduction of the heads of other Na'vi clans.

James Cameron Previews 10 Minutes Of Deleted 'Avatar' Scenes For DVD
Dec 17 2009
http://www.mtv.com/movies/news/articles/1628491/20091217/story.jhtml

"The unfinished scenes look like a cheesy video game," Cameron said. "They're the performances — you can really see what the scenes would have been — but it doesn't have that magical realism of the finished film."

The DVD, he said, is likely to contain five or six minutes of fully finished, theatrical-release-quality deleted scenes and 15 minutes of footage that was excised early on and thus contains rough CG effects.

Feb 17, 2010
http://www.mtv.com/movies/news/articles/1632095/20100217/story.jhtml

 

[DBR]

Are we talking cool, amazing, watchable 3-D like in the Avatar was shown in the theater, or are talking lame red and blue glasses 3-D like Coraline or the Polar Express on DVD?

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Dip 1 will be the vanilla version. The red/blue glasses version will be in dip 2. Dip 3 will be the extended edition with documentaries. Dip 4 will be the red/blue version of that. I imagine dip 5 will be for people who've shelled out for a 3D TV that uses polarization technology. That version of the movie will retail at $80.