VSDA3


	VSDA Report - Friday


	Okay, the third day of the show is over and finally some interesting news surfaced, but more about that a little later. It was a very exciting day, not only because it was literally star studded, but also because we were able to meet some very interesting people and gather some very exciting information for all you DVD-heads out there... No, Paramount hasn’t announced “Titanic” on DVD and Fox haven’t committed either, but... well, read on.

FOX LORBER
Fox Lorber are very pleased with the way DVD turned out and the impact it made in the market, stating it is “well beyond their expectations”. The company is now ready to bolster up their DVD commitment and the number of titles they want to release on the DVD format. We have already announced their upcoming releases of Akira Kurosawa’s “Ran” and the European production “Stalingrad”. Fox Lorber are putting a lot of effort in these titles and all the other highlights that will be released in the months to come. By the end of the year, Fox Lorber plan to have over 60 titles in the market, three quarters of which are foreign and independent films. During the show Fox Lorber have also announced distribution deals with Wellspring Media and Mystic Fire Video, bringing their documentary titles to video and hopefully also to DVD.


	MPI Home Video MPI’s booth was all under the sign of the upcoming Zapruder release, which we have announced earlier already. As expected, the film is getting a lot of attention and is sure to become an instant success when it finally hits the streets. MPI have also announced the DVD release of “Richard Pryor Live! In Concert” later this year. No details are know at this point however.


	HOME VISION DVD Home Vision are one of Criterion’s distributors here in the US and when talking to them, we got a list of titles Criterion are planning to put out until the end of the year. Hang on to your hats because there are some really exciting titles planned. We did not have the time to go through Criterion’s list of already announced titles, so please forgive us, if some of them seem to be old news to you. Some of the titles Criterion are planning to release on DVD until the end of the year are Alphaville, Andrei Rublev, Autumn Sonata, Blood For Dracula, Flesh For Frankenstein, Long Good Friday, M, Naked Kiss, Nanook Of The North, Oliver Twist, Peeping Tom, Picninc At Hanging Rock, The Red Shoes, RoboCop, The Ruling Class, Salo, Seventh Seal, Shock Corridor, Summertime, Tales Of Hoffman and Walkabout.


	COLUMBIA HOME VIDEO Columbia has a big stage as their booth where theyhave regular shows of the original Riverdance cast to promote the upcoming release of the new Riverdance DVD. Our contact had no information about upcoming announcements handy, but we will keep you posted whenever we hear from them. Here are some impressions of the impressive and entertaining Riverdance show at their booth however.


	UNIVERSAL HOME VIDEO Universal did a promotion for the upcoming DVD release of “American Graffiti”, bringing in the stars from the movie for autograph sessions. They also had a number of other stars like Cheech Marin and Tim Matherson around to sign autographs for the people. Unfortunately they did not have any news for us regarding upcoming DVD releases, but with the steady flow of discs Universal is putting out and their tasteful selection of titles, they surely have some really interesting titles lined up for the months to come.


	Universal’s booth, the American Graffiti cast, and some folks that really don’t need introduction


	BUENA VISTA HOME ENTERTAINMENT The Disney booth was pretty crowded all day today, mostly because Robert Forster, star of the “Jackie Brown” movie, and a very charismatic and well-tanned Robert Englund came to the show and spent all afternoon talking to the fans and the press, while sipping coffee and signing all kinds of memorabilia. It seems that most people still see Robert, simply as Freddy Kruger, the nightmare character from the Elm Street, and it was fascinating to see how fans lined up with their Laserdisc collections, Freddy pictures and rubber masks for him to sign. Someone had him even sign a baseball, which simply caused him to smile and ask “But you know that I am not a baseball player?”. Robert was also kind enough to talk to us for a while when we tried to find out if he knew more about a DVD release of the Nightmare on Elm Street series. Unfortunately he did not have details but he mentioned that New Line might hold them back until the release of the upcoming “Freddy vs. Jason” movie next year. He is very excited about the upcoming shoot for this movie and it seems that he is actually not getting tired to being known as “Freddy”. In fact he seems to be thankful to the popularity this role has brought him, although he also mentioned that he very much likes playing funny characters like the one as “Mr. Nemo” in Disney’s upcoming movie “Meet The Deedles”... and he has proven more than once that he in fact has a very funny vein. Robert also mentioned that negotiations are under way to hopefully bring the movies he directed himself, such as “Phantom Of The Opera” and “976-Evil”, to DVD. All in all, Robert was a very nice guy and a lot of fun to talk to, and of course, he too, signed an autograph, specially for one of our readers. So don’t forget that we will line up a competition with all those VSDA goodies for you sometime next week.



		Freddy unmasked... a very charismatic Robert Englund faces our questions


	ANCHOR BAY If you are a fan of horror movies, you are definitely in for a treat. We spend a long time, talking to the folks at Anchor Bay, finding out more about their DVD plans. We know that many people are frustrated with Anchor Bay’s release of “Halloween” last year, which was sadly flawed, spoiling the whole movie. We raised the issue with Jay Douglas, Anchor Bay’s Vice President, and he told us, that Anchor Bay are fully aware of the problem and are preparing a new release of “Halloween” next year. It will be Special Edition with a brand new 5.1 channel remixed Dolby Digital soundtrack and lots of extras, to make up for the flawed first release of the film. We also brought to their attention that many people are unhappy with the constant release date changes, Anchor Bay’s titles have seen and although the problems are of technical nature, they will try to solve this problem in the future. After all, Anchor Bay want to make sure they have the same good image for their DVD releases as they have it for their VHS titles. Every publisher we have been talking to expressed problems in the DVD production process, making it very hard to maintain and predict accurate street dates and to make sure the quality meets consumer expectations. It is a new technology that needs to be evaluated more and it will take time until the process is completely streamlined and free of errors. Anchor Bay are, like all other publishers, investing huge amounts of money to ensure the quality of their releases and will continue to do so in the future. To improve the

	quality of ther DVD rleeases, Anchor Bay have also changed to a new authoring facility, to make sure the film get the correct treatment and one example of their new standards will be Lucio Fulci’s “Zombie”. We have gotten our hands on an early preview version of this disc and we will let you know what it looks like as soon as we had the time to screen it, so stay tuned. While talking to Anchor Bay’s PR representative Sue Procko, we also learned a little about upcoming DVD releases and, believe it or not, we will see “The Black Hole” from Anchor Bay in the not so distant future. Among other titles, this will be one of the highlights of their next DVD line-up which will hopefully be fully revealed soon.

After all this technical talk, we then had the chance to meet with George A. Romero. The horror meister who brought us horror cult classics like “Night Of The Living Dead”, “Dawn Of The Dead” and “Day Of The Dead”, among others. It was very exciting to hear him talking about his plans for the next installment of the “Dead” series. Yes folks, you read this right. George Romero is currently working out the financing details to finally realize the next part in his zombie installment. This is no rumor any more. He is now actively pursuing the project. “First I will do Resident Evil however”, he says and once again lightning struck. Only last week, he signed the contract to write and direct the infamous and highly anticipated “Resident Evil” movie after months of uncertainty and negotiations. George was also kind enough to sign an autograph for one of our readers, so if you haven’t been interested in our contest so far, I think this autograph will make you jump.



	George A. Romero and Anchor Bay’s Jay Douglas


	That’s it for today folks. We hope we have been given you some overview about what we have seen today. Now let’s “pull out” the stars. We have met a huge number of celebrities at the show today and we have not had the chance to take picture of all of them, but here is a selection of pictures we were able to shoot. Enjoy and come back for more news. We won’t be able to update our site tomorrow, but we will try to give the final scoop of the show on Sunday... if everything goes smoothly. Now it is time for dinner and time to mingle with some more industry people. We shall talk to you later.





	Country legend Willie Nelson, Actress Joan Van Ark, a very courteous Sir Tony Curtis



	Robin Tunney from “Niagara, Niagra”, “Scream” star David Arquette, “Animal House” star Tim Matheson

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