20% off books, CDs at Borders this weekend: Continuing their promotions through the "retail wasteland" of January, Borders has released two new 20%-off coupons, one for books and one for CDs, each good off the regular retail price of one item. It is good at Borders through Sunday, January 22^nd. Print them out, then bring them to your local store for the discount; this offer excludes previous purchases, purchase of gift certificates, non-stock special orders and periodicals.

Disney to buy Pixar Animation?: The Wall Street Journal is reporting today that the Walt Disney Co. is in serious talks to buy Pixar Animation Studios Inc. The Journal said the companies are still haggling over a price, and any major moves in Pixar's stock price could disrupt negotiations. The newspaper said the two sides could decide on a less-ambitious plan, including an agreement for Disney to distribute movies that Pixar finances and makes.

30% off books, CDs at Borders this weekend: Two new 30%-off coupons, one for books and one for CDs, are now available, each good off the regular retail price of one item. It is good at Borders through Sunday, January 8^th. Print them out, then bring them to your local store for the discount; this offer excludes previous purchases, purchase of gift certificates, non-stock special orders and periodicals.

Warner Bros. HD Titles: Last night, Warner Brothers Home Video announced their upcoming slate of 24 HD-DVD titles. Among the list, March 28^th will see the release of Batman Begins, Twister and Million Dollar Baby; Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Unforgiven will bow on April 11^th. Before the end of the year, two tentpole summer releases -- Superman Returns and Poseidon -- will be released in HD-DVD day-and-date with their DVD counterparts. Other titles on the list include Goodfellas and The Matrix (April 25^th), Blazing Saddles (May 9^th), The Green Mile Special Edition (May 16^th), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Dukes of Hazzard, Rumor Has It and Syriana. Warners will also support the Blu-ray format, but did not announce specific plans.

2006 HD Titles: At the 2006 Consumer Electronics Show today, several atudios have begun announcing their upcoming HD DVD titles. Sony plans to release (on Blu-ray) 20 titles by the system launch in March, and at least four catalog titles each month thereafter, beginning with XXX, RoboCop, and Stargate: Atlantis (the first announced TV series to be released in the format). Two other titles, Bridge on the River Kwai and Black Hawk Down, will be released on dual-layer (50-GB) discs. Recent theatrical titles, such as Underworld Evolution, will be released day-and-date with their DVD counterparts.

20th Century Fox Home Entertainment will debut five Blu-ray titles (including Ice Age and Fantastic Four) by system launch, and is planning 20 more day-and-date titles by summer.

Lionsgate (recently renamed from the two-word "Lion's Gate") will be releasing Terminator 2 among its ten titles for system launch.

Paramount announced the Mission Impossible trilogy, as well as nine other titles, to be released in both Blu-ray and HD-DVD.

In addition, other known titles to be released in either Blu-ray or HD-DVD (or both) include Universal's King Kong and The Bourne Supremacy; Warner’s Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Batman Begins and Friends; New Line’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy and Se7en; and HBO’s Band of Brothers.

30% off at Borders this weekend: Generally the biggest coupon of the year, a new 30%-off coupon is now available, good off the regular retail price of one item. It is good at Borders through Sunday, December 4^th. Print it out, then bring it to your local store for the discount; this offer excludes previous purchases, purchase of gift certificates, non-stock special orders and periodicals.

Paramount to buy DreamWorks SKG: Paramount Pictures said Sunday it had agreed to buy independent film studio DreamWorks SKG Inc. in a deal worth $1.6 billion in cash and debt. The agreement does not include DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc., the most profitable part of the company (the animated unit went public last year). But Paramount does gain the right to distribute the studio’s lucrative animated films, including the "Shrek” franchise.

Plan 9, MST3K'd (sort of): Legend Films has announced the limited availability of an autographed Collector's Edition of Plan 9 From Outer Space. Each cover of this prerelease is personally autographed by Mystery Science Theater 3000's Mike Nelson; the DVD itself features a MST3K-ish commentary by Mike, as well as never-before-seen Ed Wood home movies, bizarre Ed Wood commercials and the astonishing Plans 1-8. As an extra bonus, also included is a nifty limited edition alien air freshener, "Alien Fresh." The price is $19.95, and may be purchased directly through Legend Films' website.

25% off at Borders this weekend: A new 25%-off coupon is now available, good off the regular retail price of one item. It is good at Borders through Sunday, December 4^th. Print it out, then bring it to your local store for the discount; this offer excludes previous purchases, purchase of gift certificates, non-stock special orders and periodicals.

Event Horizon Special Edition: Paramount has announced April 18^th, 2006, as the release date for the special-edition DVD of the 1997 space horror movie Event Horizon, starring Laurence Fishburne (The Matrix) and Sam Neill (Jurassic Park). MSRP will be $19.99. Director Paul W.S. Anderson (Resident Evil) reportedly cut over 30 minutes from the film in order to achieve an 'R' rating; although the new special-edition DVD is not an "Unrated Director's Cut," several deleted and extended scenes will be included:

• Secrets: Deleted/Extended Scenes:
  • Briefing Scene (2:45)
  • Extended Medical Bay Scene (0:51)
  • Extended Burning Man Confrontation (6:16)
• The Point Of No Return (technical making-of, with commentary by Anderson):
  • The Revolving Corridor (1:50)
  • The Crew Gathers (1:12)
  • Shooting Wire Work (1:34)
  • The Dark Inside (3:26)
• The Unseen Event Horizon:
  • Unfilmed rescue scene (2:53)
  • Conceptual art montage (3:41)

• Into the Jaws Of Darkness (14:53)
• The Body of the Beast (22:45)
• Liberate Tutume Ex Infernis (19:51)
• The Scale to Hell (18:39)
• The Womb of Fear (26:34)

RELAUNCH!: After our unavoidable extended down time, the public VideoTropic site is now officially up again. Thanks for all your e-mail and words of encouragement. Our upcoming releases database has been refreshed with the newest available information, and we will be updating our "When will it be on DVD?" page (for films still in theaters -- the earliest DVD release-dates information available anywhere) before the weekend.

20% off at Borders next week, and 15% the following week: A new 20%-off coupon is now available, good off the regular retail price of one item. It is good at Borders from Monday, October 10^th through Thursday, October 13^th. Print it out, then bring it to your local store for the discount. This offer excludes previous purchases, purchase of gift certificates, non-stock special orders and periodicals. The odd date range for this coupon presages another coupon to be released for the following weekend. In addition to this, there is also a 15%-off coupon available, valid now through Thursday, October 20^th.

Another 30% off at Borders this Labor Day weekend: A new 30%-off coupon is now available, good off the regular retail price of one item. It is good at Borders through Monday, September 5^th. Print it out, then bring it to your local store for the discount. This offer excludes previous purchases, purchase of gift certificates, non-stock special orders and periodicals.

Where to buy this week's big titles: For the blockbusters this week, the best in-store prices are... Sahara: "Low Price" at Best Buy (w/ bonus DVD), Circuit City (w/ three free downloads), and Target. Monster-In-Law: $14.99 at Circuit City and Best Buy, $16.99 at Target. Lilo & Stitch 2 and Ong-Bak Thai Warrior: $19.99 everywhere (Lilo includes $5 in Reward Zone certificates at Best Buy). We will update this list as necessary.

25% off at Borders this weekend: A new 25%-off coupon is now available, good off the regular retail price of one DVD or CD. It is good at Borders and Waldenbooks through Sunday, August 28^th. Print it out, then bring it to your local store for the discount. This offer excludes previous purchases, purchase of gift certificates, and non-stock special orders.

Coal Miner's Daughter on September 13^th: Universal Studios Home Entertainment has announced details on the upcoming 25^th anniversary special edition of Coal Miner's Daughter. New to this edition are:

• Feature Commentary with Sissy Spacek and Director Michael Apted;
• Tommy Lee Jones Remembers Coal Miner's Daughter;
• An Exclusive Interview with Loretta Lynn and Director Michael Apted;
• George H.W. Bush Salutes AFI and Coal Miner's Daughter.

Another 30% off at Borders this weekend: A new 30%-off coupon is now available, good off the regular retail price of one book, DVD or CD. It is good at Borders and Waldenbooks through Sunday, July 24^th. Print it out, then bring it to your local store for the discount. This offer excludes previous purchases, purchase of gift certificates, non-stock special orders and periodicals.

We're Back!: We pause to thank Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince for defeating He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named, who has prevented the updating of the Videotropic home page for several weeks. All of our databases have been brought up to date, and as a special bonus we get to announce November 8^th as the DVD release date for a certain movie, the third prequel to a far superior trilogy. For other about-to-become-official dates, check out our "When is that new movie coming to DVD" listings. Yes, Fantastic Four is there, too.

When is that new movie coming to DVD? Fantastic Four, out theatrically this week, will be released on DVD in December in a 2-DVD set. November, as usual, is the big month for DVD blockbusters; look for Star Wars Episode III, War Of The Worlds, Batman Begins, Cinderella Man, Miyazuki's Howl's Moving Castle, Madagascar, and a few upcoming summer releases to have street dates this month. George Romero's Land Of The Dead, House of Wax and Bewitched will be out by Halloween (naturally), along with Nicole Kidman's other film, The Interpreter; also expect to see Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven. DVDs to hit the streets in September include Disney's Robots, Hitchhiker's Guide, and a slew of B-level theatricals.

This VideoTropic feature is your electronic bug in the conference rooms of the studios, where we let you in on what release dates the studios are planning for those big movies still in the theaters -- usually months before an official studio announcement. For the complete list of when current theatrical features are expected on DVD -- before they're officially announced, and before you'll hear about it anywhere else -- click here.

Rhino replacing MST3K disc: Following up reports that Disc 4 of the Mystery Science Theater Collection 7 set ("Killer Shrews") is missing about a minute following the movie titles, Rhino has confirmed a mastering error and is offering to replace the disc at no charge. Send an mail to drrhino@rhino.com requesting a replacement for disc 4 of Volume 7, and include your name and mailing address. Rhino will ship the replacement discs as soon as they are ready.

Harry Potter IV on November 18: Dan Fellman, president of Domestic Distribution at Warner Bros. Pictures Warner Bros., announced today that the fourth film in the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, will be released simultaneously to both conventional theaters and in the big-screen IMAX format on Nov. 18^th. This marks the ninth such agreement between Imax and Warner Bros. Pictures; upcoming Warners summer event films Batman Begins and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory will also be released simultaneously in IMAX and conventional theaters.

30% off at Borders this weekend: In addition to the 10%-off sale prices coupon good until the end of this month, a new 30%-off-one-book coupon is now available. It is good at Borders and Waldenbooks through Sunday, May 1^st. Print it out, then bring it to your local store for the discount. This offer excludes previous purchases, purchase of gift certificates, non-stock special orders and periodicals.

Warners to release a restored King Kong: In conjunction with the Peter Jackson King Kong remake, Warners is restoring the 1933 original for an as-yet undated theatrical re-release and subsequent 2-DVD (or possibly 3-DVD) home release. Although the original negative was destroyed decades ago, Warners has gathered what are believed to be the best elements still existing, and has teamed with Hewlett Packard in a massive restoration project; those of you with the groundbreaking Criterion laserdisc should hold onto it, though, until further details emerge from the two camps.

Dune extended a little further: Universal Home Video has announced that the "Extended Edition" of Dune has been postponed. Originally scheduled to street on May 10^th, a new release date has not yet been determined.

When is that new movie coming to DVD? Robots has been positioned for Thanksgiving, with an expected November street date and a likely 2-DVD set. With the Winter Olympics in Torino not until next February and therefore too late for the normal Disney live-action film-to-DVD window, Disney will be releasing Ice Princess to DVD in September (and saving November for what -- Herbie: Fully Loaded?). August, a dead month for home entertainment, will see Bruce Willis' Hostage, Sandra Bullock's comeback vehicle Miss Congeniality 2, and James Cameron's Aliens Of The Deep (neatly combining the titles of two of his hits). July will be horror month, with DVD releases of The Ring 2, Cursed, The Jacket, and -- most frightening of all -- Vin Diesel's The Pacifier.

This VideoTropic feature is your electronic bug in the conference rooms of the studios, where we let you in on what release dates the studios are planning for those big movies still in the theaters -- usually months before an official studio announcement. For the complete list of when current theatrical features are expected on DVD -- before they're officially announced, and before you'll hear about it anywhere else -- click here.

Schrader's Exorcist to be released: Morgan Creek and Warner Brothers have agreed to release Paul Schrader's Warners-rejected and still publically-unseen version of Exorcist: The Beginning in May. The $35 million film was completed in 2003, but was rejected by the studio and the film's backers -- who then offered another $35 million to Renny Harlin to rewrite and reshoot the movie (it was Harlin's version that was eventually released and is now on DVD).

Titanic Special Editions in October: The long-awaited special-edition DVDs of James Cameron's 11-Oscar-winning Titanic will be released in October by Paramount. Two editions are planned: a two-DVD set which will include a commentary and some other featuresa, and a 4-DVD set to include hours of additional featurettes, documentaries and special additions. The film will include 58 minutes of additional footage, available from the main film via a branching mechanism. And yes, at long last -- they will be anamorphic.

MST3K Volume 7 Update: Rhino Home Video has confirmed for us the episodes to be included in the 4-DVD Mystery Science Theater Collection Volume 7 set, due on April 17^th:

• The Killer Shrews (from Joel's season 4, plus the featurette Junior Rodeo Daredevils -- "And the crowd goes wild!");
• Hercules Unchained (season 4, with Mike Nelson as Steve Reeves during one of the bits);
• Hercules Against the Moon Men; and
• Prince Of Space (a Mike episode from season 8)

One more 25% off at Borders: In addition to the 10%-off sale prices coupon good until the end of February (Note: on March 1^st its expiration date will change to 3/31), a new 25%-off-one-book coupon is now available. It is good at Borders and Waldenbooks through Thursday, February 10^th. Print it out, then bring it to your local store for the discount. This offer may be used once per day, in theory.

MST3K Volume 7: Rhino Home Video has confirmed an April street date for the 4-DVD Mystery Science Theater Collection Volume 7, although has not yet announced the specific episodes to be included. Also due in April (4/1) is Pop Ink's book Happy Kitty, Bunny, Pony: A Saccharine Mouthful of Super Cute, with text by MST3K's Mike Nelson; it is likely, then, that the Rhino DVD set will be released on the following Tuesday (4/5).

When is that new movie coming to DVD? With the flurry of nominations for award season, the studios have begun their repositioning of projected release dates; the general rule of thumb is that films with significant nominations get moved up to take advantage of publicity, while movies failing to earn noms get pushed back. Million Dollar Baby will be released sometime in May (an unusually short theater-to-video window). May will also see National Treasure (5/3), along with Team America, the Bobby Darin biopic Beyond the Sea, the Razzie-nominated Alexander and the fanboy-dream Elektra. The Aviator and Hotel Rwanda have been moved up to April, a month that will also see Lemony Snicket, The Life Aquatic, Meet The Fockers, House Of Flying Daggers (4/19) and Blade: Trinity (4/26). Seven-Oscar nominee Finding Neverland has been set for 3/22.  As an indication of how poorly Christmas With The Kranks is expected to do, note that it will be released on 3/8 rather than the traditional Christmas-movie month of November.

This VideoTropic feature is your electronic bug in the conference rooms of the studios, where we let you in on what release dates the studios are planning for those big movies still in the theaters -- usually months before an official studio announcement. For the complete list of when current theatrical features are expected on DVD -- before they're officially announced, and before you'll hear about it anywhere else -- click here.

Another 25% off at Borders: In addition to the 10%-off sale prices coupon good until the end of this month, a new 25%-off-one-item coupon is now available. It is good at Borders and Waldenbooks through Sunday, January 23^th. Print it out, then bring it to your local store for the discount. The discount this time around is 10% 10% on videogames and electronics; on DVDs, the discount is 25% at Borders, 10% at Waldenbooks. This offer excludes previous purchases, purchase of gift certificates, non-stock special orders and periodicals.

Movie Gallery Buys Hollywood Video: And then there were two: Ending a competition between Movie Gallery and Blockbuster for the takeover of the number two video chain, Movie Gallery announced today an $850 million acquisition of Hollywood Video. The definitive agreement must still be voted upon by stockholders.

Borders 10%-off update: The 10%-off-your-total-purchase coupon mentioned here two weeks ago has had its expiration date extended; it is now valid through the end of January, 2005. As a reminder, unlike the typical 15%-25% coupons that Borders issues, this coupon is valid on top of sale prices.

When is that new movie coming to DVD? Not surprisingly, the year's two non-embarrassing Christmas movies -- The Polar Express and Christmas With The Kranks (based on John Grisham's "Skipping Christmas") -- will be released next November. As for the rest: look for Blade: Trinity, The Incredibles, Series of Unfortunate Events and Spanglish to be released on DVD next May. Alexander will be out in April (it would be appropriate to be out on April Fools' Day), as will House of Flying Daggers, the Bobby Darin biopic Beyond The Sea, and Team America: World Police. National Treasure should be out in March (compare this 5-month release to its spiritual mentor, The Da Vinci Code -- over a year with no sign of a paperback release). March will also see DVD releases of Finding Neverland and the SpongeBob movie.

This VideoTropic feature is your electronic bug in the conference rooms of the studios, where we let you in on what release dates the studios are planning for those big movies still in the theaters -- usually months before an official studio announcement. For the complete list of when current theatrical features are expected on DVD -- before they're officially announced, and before you'll hear about it anywhere else -- click here.

Chappelle Season 2 delayed: Paramount has announced that the Season 2 Chappelle's Show box set, originally scheduled for February 8, is being delayed. The release was set to coincide with Comedy Central's premiere of Season 3, but the show has run into production delays and its premiere air date has been postponed. We will announce the new DVD release date as soon as it can be confirmed.

10% off at Borders: The new 10%-off-your-total-purchase coupon is combinable with sale prices and promotions (except other coupons). It is good at Borders through the end of the year (Friday, December 31^st). Print it out, then bring it to your local store for the discount. This offer excludes previous purchases, purchase of gift certificates, non-stock special orders and periodicals.

10% off at Best Buy: There is a new in-store coupon good for 10% off most items at Best Buy, valid through Sunday, December 19^th. Click here to open the coupon in a new browser window, then print it out. Limit, in theory, anyway, is one offer per coupon per household.

Where to buy this week's big titles: For the blockbusters this week, and there are quite a few of them, the best in-store prices are... Lord Of The Rings: Return Of The King Extended Edition: $22.99 at Best Buy ($22.99 at Coconuts after a $7 mail-in rebate), $24.99 at Target and Circuit City. ROTK Gift Set: $49.99 at Best Buy and Circuit City. I, Robot: $14.99 at Best Buy, Circuit City and CompUSA, $15.99 at Target. Top Gun: $12.99 at Coconuts, $14.99 at Best Buy w/ bonus disk. Collateral: $14.99 at CompUSA and Circuit City, $15.99 at Best Buy and Target. Princess Diaries 2: $14.99 at CompUSA, $15.99 at Target, $17.99 at Best Buy and Circuit City. We will update this list as necessary.

25% off at Borders: This week's new 25%-off-one-item coupon will be the biggest-discount Borders coupon of the shopping season. It is good at Borders through Monday, December 13^th. Print it out, then bring it to your local store for the discount. The discount this time around is 20% on DVDs, and 10% on videogames and electronics. This offer excludes previous purchases, purchase of gift certificates, non-stock special orders and periodicals.

20% off at Borders: These coupons should be coming weekly until the end of the shopping season. This week's new 15%-off-one-item coupon is now available, good at Borders through Monday, December 6^th. Print it out, then bring it to your local store for the discount. The discount is valid only on regularly-priced items including DVDs, and the discount for videogames and electronics is 10%. This offer excludes previous purchases, purchase of gift certificates, non-stock special orders and periodicals.

Where to buy this week's big titles: For the blockbusters this week, the best in-store prices are... Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: $12.99 at CompUSA, $14.99 at Target, $15.99 at Best Buy and Circuit City, $18.99 at CostCo. The Terminal: $15.99 at Target, $17.99 at Circuit City and Target, $18.29 at CostCo. The Terminal 3-Disc Gift Set: $24.99 at CostCo, $29.99 at Best Buy, $34.99 at Circuit City. Seinfeld: Gift Set $69.99 at CompUSA, $75.99 at CostCo, $79.99 at Best Buy, $89.99 at Circuit City; Seasons 1-2 and Season 3: $31.29 each at CostCo, $39.99 at Circuit City and Best Buy. We will update this list as necessary.

20% off at Borders: These coupons should be coming weekly until the end of the shopping season. This week's new 20%-off-one-item coupon is now available, good at Borders through Sunday, November 22^nd. Print it out, then bring it to your local store for the discount. The discount is valid only on regularly-priced items including DVDs, and the discount for videogames and electronics is 10%. This offer excludes previous purchases, purchase of gift certificates, non-stock special orders and periodicals.

Sale at DeepDiscountDVD: DeepDiscountDVD is offering 20% off all in-stock DVDs through November 20^th (sale does not include preorders or video games). All sale prices include free shipping. Use the coupon code "SUPERSALE" at checkout.

Where to buy this week's big titles: For the relative paucity of blockbusters this week, the best in-store prices are... Elf: $14.99 at Toys R Us, $15.99 everywhere else. Chronicles of Riddick: $15.99 at Target, $16.99 at Best Buy, $19.99 at Target. Aqua Teen Hunger Force Vol. 3: $21.99 at Best Buy, $22.99 at Target, $24.99 at Target. We will update this list as necessary.

20% off at Borders: A new 20%-off-one-item coupon is now available, good at Borders, Waldenbooks and Brentanos, valid through Sunday, November 7^th. Print it out, then bring it to your local store for the discount. The discount is valid only on regularly-priced items including DVDs, and the discount for videogames and electronics is 10%. This offer excludes previous purchases, purchase of gift certificates, non-stock special orders and periodicals, and -- for the first time -- the coupon states "One coupon per purchase, per day," although actual permitted frequency is left up to the individual store.

Where to buy this week's big titles: For the blockbusters this week, the best in-store prices are... Shrek 2 (Friday release): $15.99 everywhere (Best Buy includes bonus "Green Room VIP Pass" disc). Around the World in 80 Days: $17.99 at Circuit City, $18.49 at Costco, $19.99 at Best Buy and Target. Pirates of the Caribbean 3-Disc Set: $18.99 at Costco, $19.99 at Best Buy, $22.99 at Circuit City. Ali G: $19.99 everywhere. Loony Tunes Vol. 2: $49.99 everywhere. Star Trek: TOS Season 2: $84.99 at Costco online, $114.99 at Costco stores (!), $99.99 everywhere else. Dr. Strangelove 40th Anniversary Edition: sadly, not advertised anywhere. We will update this list as necessary.

Notice to our customers and visitors: The VideoTropic domain experienced an unauthorized rerouting late last week, resulting in the inability of many of our visitors to reach us. Our data security protocols remained solidly in place, however, and our customers' proprietary information was not compromised. We apologize for the interruption in service, and are investigating the event to determine the root cause and to prevent a similar hijacking from taking place in the future. To ensure continuity we will be resending all e-mail that had been scheduled since Saturday, October 9^th; similarly, if you attempted to contact us via e-mail since that day, please resend it and -- if requested -- we will respond ASAP.

20% off at Borders: A new 20%-off-one-item Borders coupon is now available, valid through Monday, October 4^th. Print it out, then bring it to your local store for the discount. The discount is valid only on regularly-priced items including DVDs, and the discount for videogames and electronics is 10%. This offer excludes previous purchases, purchase of gift certificates, non-stock special orders and periodicals.

Second Miramax layoff: Walt Disney Co.'s Miramax Film Corp. has announced the layoff of an additional 55 workers. Added to the 65 let go in June, this represents a trimming of 25% within the past three months; the workforce will now number 365 employees, similar to the levels of October 2001, before the studio began expanding its slate. Despite the impressive roster of films such as Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill and the Spy Kids franchise, Disney has stressed that -- including the Weinsteins' compensation -- Miramax is not consistently profitable (as if the recent Disney slate is).

Amazon offering additional 1.57% discount: If you sign into Amazon.com, then -- while you're signed in (your name should appear in the upper-right corner) -- jump over to Amazon's new search engine A9 and perform a search, your Amazon purchase will be discounted by 1.57% at checkout. This unadvertised discount is being offered by Amazon in order to drive traffic to its new search engine.

When is that new movie coming to DVD? New for this update, The Notebook has been pushed back again, this time to February '05. Although the studios have not yet announced official dates, look for January DVD releases of Cellular and (shudder) Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2; late December is being eyed for the DVD release of Resident Evil: Apocalypse. Official dates have also been announced this week for Anacondas: Hunt For The Blood Orchid (12/4), Dodgeball (12/7), I, Robot (12/14), The Manchurian Candidate (12/21), and the indie-style sleepers Napoleon Dynamite (12/21) and Garden State (12/28). These last two will receive surprisingly large market pushes by Paramount.

This VideoTropic feature is your electronic bug in the conference rooms of the studios, where we let you in on what release dates the studios are planning for those big movies still in the theaters -- usually months before an official studio announcement. For the complete list of when current theatrical features are expected on DVD -- before they're officially announced, and before you'll hear about it anywhere else -- click here.

Packages going out: VSDA Conference information packets are going out today to our B2B customers.

VideoTropic at the VSDA Show: WideoTropic will be at the VSDA Conference (formerly the East Coast Video Show) in Baltimore today. We hope to see many of you there.

VideoTropic exclusive: We here at VideoTropic are proud to announce that we are the only online news source to not invoke the song title "Oops, I Did It Again" in reference to Britney Spears' second marriage.

Where to buy this week's big titles: For the blockbusters this week, the best in-store prices are... The Star Wars Trilogy: $39.99 at CompUSA, $42.99 at Best Buy (with a free "Star Wars Insider" magazine), $43.49 at CostCo, $44.99 at Target and Circuit City. Mean Girls: $15.99 at Best Buy (with a free "Burn Book"), $17.99 at Circuit City, $19.99 at Target. Mr. Show, Season 4: $27.99 at Best Buy, $29.99 at Circuit City. MadTV, Season 1: $29.99 everywhere. We will update this list as necessary.

When is that new movie coming to DVD? New for this update, the comparatively quiet release month of January will see Alien vs. Predator, the remake of The Manchurian Candidate, Wicker Park, Without a Paddle, Suspect Zero, and Troy (with a release date of January 4^th). Although the studios have not yet announced official dates, look for December DVD releases of Exorcist: The Beginning (with Warner likely to include Paul Shrader's much-debated completed-but-unreleased version as a separate title and with the theatrical Renny Harlin version as part of an Exorcist collector's set), I Robot, Harold and Kumar..., Collateral, Anchorman, and the indie Napoleon Dynamite.

This VideoTropic feature is your electronic bug in the conference rooms of the studios, where we let you in on what release dates the studios are planning for those big movies still in the theaters -- usually months before an official studio announcement. For the complete list of when current theatrical features are expected on DVD -- before they're officially announced, and before you'll hear about it anywhere else -- click here.

Where to buy this week's big titles: For the blockbusters this week, the best in-store prices are... THX 1138: 2-Disk Special Edtion: $19.98 at Best Buy and Circuit City. Seventh Heaven, Season 1: $49.99 everywhere. Everybody Loves Raymond, Season 1: $29.99 at Best Buy, $34.99 at Circuit City and Target. Survivor All-Stars: $34.99 at Target, $37.99 at Best Buy. Home On The Range: $17.99 at Best Buy and Circuit City, $19.99 at Target. We will update this list as necessary.

Sony buys MGM: For the third time, investor Kirk Kerkorian has sold MGM -- this time to Sony (with help from Comcast), who has agreed to pay $12 a share. Sony will likely shut down MGM's current production slate, with the possible exception of the "James Bond" franchise -- which, with its 21^st installment due to start filming early next year, is barely a a live franchise. The Bond franchise will be negotiated under a separate deal with the Broccoli family, but future Bond films (if any) would be handled by Sony releasing under the MGM name. MGM itself has eight films planned for 2005 releases, including the Bond film, the Get Shorty sequel Be Cool, a remake of The Amityville Horror, Barbershop spinoff Beauty Shop with Queen Latifah, Into the Blue, and the return of The Pink Panther with Steve Martin; United Artists is planning four films.

Frank Thomas dies: There has been another loss in Walt Disney's "Nine Old Men" family. Frank Thomas, a frequent collaborator with Ollie Johnston, was the animator for many of Disney's classic sequences, including Mary Poppins' dancing penguins, the spaghetti sequence of Lady And The Tramp, and the "I've Got No Strings" musical number from Pinocchio. He was also lead animator for the title character, as well as for Cinderella's wicked stepmother, the Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland, and Captain Hook in Peter Pan. With Disney since 1934, Thomas was part of the team that created Snow White, the first animated feature; he and Johnston both retired in 1978 and went on to author several influential books on animation, including "Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life" and "The Disney Villain."

Star Trek: Generations recalled: A bulletin has been sent out to retailers from Paramount Home Entertainment to inform them of a recall of the 2-disc Star Trek: Generations Collector's Edition, and a delay of the street date (originally September 7^th). The recall is due to a discrepancy between the disc contents and the packaging, which inadvertently notes a teaser and theatrical trailer that are not on the DVD. A new street date has not yet been announced.

Where to buy this week's big titles, including the Holy Snuff Film: The best in-store prices are... The Passion Of The Christ: $14.99 at Circuit City and CompUSA, $15.99 elsewhere (except, oddly, $19.49 at Costco). Star Trek TOS, Season 1: $81.99 at Costco, $99.99 at Circuit City and Target, $106.99 at Best Buy. Lion King 2: $17.99 at Best Buy and Circuit City, $18.49 at Costco, $19.99 at Target. Rocky & Bullwinkle, Season 2: $23.99 at Costco, $24.99 at Target, $29.99 at Best Buy (with free three 20-oz. Cokes). Twisted: $17.79 at Costco, $19.99 elsewhere. Videodrome (Criterion): Sadly, not on sale anywhere. We will update this list as necessary.

Update on Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection 6: Rhino has announced a delay on this title. Previously set to street on September 21^st, the collection has been delayed and will now street on October 5^th.

Where to buy this week's big titles: This is a big week for DVD releases, especially box sets. For the blockbusters this week, the best in-store prices are... Futurama Vol. 4: $31.99 at Costco, $32.99 at Best Buy, $35.99 at Target, $39.99 at Circuit City. Night Gallery, Season 1: $43.99 at Best Buy, $34.99 at Circuit City. The Apprentice, Season 1: $34.99 everywhere. The Girl Next Door: $17.99 everywhere (free Maxim DVD with purchase at Best Buy). Ella Enchanted: $15.99 at Target, $17.49 at Costco, $17.99 at Circuit City, $19.99 at Best Buy. Purple Rain: $14.99 at Best Buy, $17.99 at Circuit City. We will update this list as necessary.

15% off at Borders: A new 15%-off-your-total-purchase Borders coupon is now available, valid through Friday, September 3^rd. The 15% discount is also applicable to DVDs. Print it out, then bring it to your local store for the discount. The discount is also valid on sale items (discount is taken on the sale price), and the discount for video games and electronics is 10%. This offer excludes previous purchases, purchase of gift certificates, non-stock special orders and periodicals.

We're back: And there's lots of catching up to do. If you have e-mailed us with an RFI, we are replying in the order of receipt, and we hope to have all responses out by the end of day on Wednesday.

Borders 20% update: Besides the original coupon (mentioned here on August 4^th), good for 20% an entire order but 10% on DVDs through this coming Monday, another coupon is available: click here for a coupon good for 20% off one item, including DVDs. The coupon is valid for the same dates as the original: Friday, August 6^th through Monday, August 9^th.

Update on Universal's Monster Legacy Wave 2: Sadly, no, there will not be 3-D versions of the Creature films; on the plus side, to make up for the comparatively short Creature series, there will be feature-length commentaries for all three on that collection. Universal has just released official specs of the Wave 2 special features, as follows:

• The Mummy Collection: Mummy Dearest: A Horror Tradition Unearthed featurette; and for The Mummy, a feature-length commentary with film historian Paul M. Jensen, archives, and theatrical trailer.
• The Invisible Man Collection: Now You See Him: The Invisible Man Revealed featurette; and for The Invisible Man, feature-length commentary with film historian Rudy Behlmer, and production photographs.
• The Creature From the Black Lagoon Collection: Back To The Black Lagoon featurette, and theatrical trailers for all three films; for Creature.., feature-length commentary with film historian Tom Weaver, and production photographs; for Revenge.., feature-length commentary with actress Lori Nelson and film historians Tom Weaver and Bob Burns; and for Walks.., feature-length commentary with film historians Tom Weaver and Bob Burns.

Universal's Monster Legacy Wave 2: On October 19^th, to coincide with the DVD release of Van Helsing, Universal will be releasing Wave 2 of their Monster Legacy collections. With an MSRP of $29.98 each, the titles this time around are:

• The Mummy Collection, featuring:
  • The Mummy (1932)
  • The Mummy's Hand (1940)
  • The Mummy's Tomb (1942)
  • The Mummy's Ghost (1944)
  • The Mummy's Curse (1944)
• The Invisible Man Collection, featuring:
  • The Invisible Man (1933)
  • The Invisible Man Returns (1940)
  • The Invisible Woman (1941)
  • The Invisible Agent (1942)
  • The Invisible Man's Revenge (1944)
• The Creature From the Black Lagoon Collection, featuring:
  • The Creature From the Black Lagoon (1954)
  • The Revenge of the Creature (1955)
  • The Creature Walks Among Us (1956)

20% off at Borders: A new 20%-off-your-total-purchase Borders coupon is now available, valid Friday, August 6^th through Monday, August 9^th. Print it out, then bring it to your local store for the discount. The discount is valid only on regularly-priced items, and the discount for DVDs and electronics is 10%. This offer excludes previous purchases, purchase of gift certificates, non-stock special orders and periodicals.

Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection 6, and more: Big news for fans of MST3K's Comedy Central years: on August 31^st, Rhino is releasing a 2-disc set, Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Essentials, Vol. 1, containing the official fan club's two highest-rated movies: Santa Claus Conquers The Martians (with Pia Zadora) and the previously released Manos: Hands Of Fate (with Torgo), as well as outtakes and the also-previously-released "Poopie Reel." MSRP is $24.95 (the lowest online price is $17,47, from Amazon). And on September 21^st, Rhino will be releasing the 4-disc MST3K Collection Volume 6, featuring:

• Gunslinger (from Season 5)
• Teeneagers From Outer Space (Season 4)
• Attack Of The Giant Leeches (with the short "Undersea Kingdom Part 1") (Season 4)
• "Mr. B's Lost Shorts??!!"

• "Mr. B Natural" (from War Of The Colossol Beast);
• "X Marks The Spot" (from King Dinosaur);
• "Hired! Part 1" (from Bride Of The Monster);
• "Design for Dreaming" (from 12 To The Moon);
• "Johnny At The Fair" (from The Rebel Set); and
• "Are You Ready for Marriage?" (from Racket Girls)

More Walt Disney Treasures: The next wave of the limited-edition tin-cased 2-DVD Walt Disney Treasure sets will be released on December 7^th, and are now available for preorder on Amazon. The three titles will be: Mickey Mouse in Black & White, Vol. 2; The Complete Pluto, Vol. 1; and The Mickey Mouse Club. MSRP, as before, will be $32.99 each; Amazon's preorder price is currently $23.09. Details of the disc contents will be posted as soon as we get the official specs.

Where to buy this week's big titles: For the blockbusters this week, the best in-store prices are... Hellboy: $15.99 everywhere. Showgirls (VIP Edition): $24.99 at Circuit City, $29.99 at Best Buy. Sledge Hammer, Season 1: $24.99 at Circuit City, $25.99 at Best Buy. We will update this list as necessary.

: Warner Home Video has announced the DVD release of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban for November 23^rd, with an MSRP of $22.95. Among the supplements for the disc will be an interview with book series author J.K. Rowling.

$5-off-$30 at Buy.com: Click here for a $5-off-$30 coupon for the books, music and movies store at Buy.com, valid until midnight (PDT) this coming Sunday, July 25^th.

Where to buy this week's big titles: For the blockbusters this week, the best in-store prices are... Starsky & Hutch: $15.99 at Best Buy and Target, $16.99 at Circuit City. Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights: $17.99 at Circuit City, $26.99 at Target, $19.99 at Best Buy (as a 2-pack with the 2-DVD edition of Dirty Dancing 1: $25.98 at Circuit City, $25 at Best Buy). Confessions Of A Teenage Drama Queen: $17.99 everywhere. The Human Stain: $19.99 at Target and Best Buy. We will update this list as necessary.

MGM to release 12 new-to-DVD horror films exclusively to Best Buy: Twelve never-on-DVD horror titles from MGM, under its "Midnite Movies" double-feature line, will be sold exclusively at Best Buy beginning Aug. 24. The titles are:

• The Return of Count Yorga
• Madhouse
• The Incredible Two-Headed Transplant
• The Land That Time Forgot
• The Ghost of Dragstrip Hollow
• Ghost and the Invisible Bikini
• Wild in the Streets
• Gas-s-s-s
• Invasion of the Star Creatures
• Invasion of the Bee Girls
• Hells Belles
• Tentacles

When is that new movie coming to DVD? Due to the timespan since the last update, there are an unusual number of new-to-this-list titles. Many of the titles that we've gotten the most requests about will be released in November, and most have actually received official release dates (unusual this far in advance). The month will start out with Shrek 2 (11/5), two weeks later (11/23) the family-oriented Harry Potter 3 and Spielberg's adult-aimed drama The Terminal will hit the streets (two big titles, but different audiences -- so they won't compete with each other), and the following week will bring Spider-Man 2 (11/30). The day-in-the-title quadrilogy Around The World In 80 Days, The Day After Tomorrow, Dawn Of The Dead and Fahrenheit 9/11 will be hitting video shelves in October.

This VideoTropic feature is your electronic bug in the conference rooms of the studios, where we let you in on what release dates the studios are planning for those big movies still in the theaters -- usually months before an official studio announcement. For the complete list of when current theatrical features are expected on DVD -- before they're officially announced, and before you'll hear about it anywhere else -- click here.

Where to buy this week's big titles: It's another week with no A-list titles, but nevertheless: The Manchurian Candidate: $9.99 at Best Buy. Never Die Alone: $19.99 everywhere. The Bourne Identity (with free MovieCash ticket to The Bourne Supremacy): $17.99 at Best Buy, $19.99 at Circuit City. The Barbarian Invasions: $19.99 at Best Buy. We will update this list as necessary.

Universal announces major push into the TV Season Box Set market: Universal has announced its long-awaited committment to the TV-on-DVD market, with the release of several Season One box sets ($60 MSRP each unless noted otherwise):

• The Apprentice (8/24)
• Knight Rider (8/3)
• Sliders (Seasons 1-2) ($90, 8/3)
• The Munsters (8/24)
• Night Gallery (8/24)
• Magnum, P.I. (9/7)
• Columbo (9/7)
• Dream On (Seasons 1-2) (10/12)
• Amazing Stories (11/2)
• Buck Rogers (11/16)

• Alfred Hitchcock Presents
• The Bionic Woman
• Traffic
• The New Battlestar: Galactica
• Law & Order: The Fourteenth Year (9/14)
• Law & Order SVU: The Fifth Year (9/14)
• Law & Order CI: The Third Year (9/14)
• Miami Vice
• Las Vegas
• American Dreams: Season One Extended Music Edition

Back from vacation: VideoTropic is back from our annual shut-down, and as always our priority will be to reply to all interim e-mails from our corporate and public visitors.

Where to buy this week's big titles: Well, there are no real "big" titles this week, but... Bad Santa: $15.99 at Circuit City, Target and Best Buy (with Armageddon for an extra $5 at Best Buy). Secret Window: also $15.99 at Circuit City and Target, $16.99 at Best Buy (this time with Once Upon A Time In Mexico for an additional $6.99). Reno 911!: $16.99 at Best Buy, $19.99 at Circuit City and Target. We will update this list as necessary.

Another 25% off at Borders: Two new short-dated 25%-off-one-item Borders coupons are available, one for books and one for CDs, are now available, valid through June 14^th. Print either or both of them out, then bring them to your local store for the discount. Remember that while each coupon is good on only one item, nothing prevents you from printing more than one of each coupon. As usual, this offer excludes previous purchases, purchase of gift certificates, non-stock special orders and periodicals, and -- alas -- DVDs.

Night Gallery do be released, poorly: Universal will be releasing a long awaited "first-season " box set of Rod Serling's Night Gallery on August 24^th, in a bare-bones no-extras package with a MSRP of $59.98. As of this writing, it is unclear what episodes will be included; Universal claims "20 episodes including the pilot," but beyond the 2-hour TV movie and a pilot, the series' actual first season (12/16/70-1/20/71) was a limited run of only six episodes, and the second season (9/15/71-3/22/72) was 29 episodes long. More disturbingly, Universal has opted out of a remastering of the series, despite its long refusal to release the series without remastering (and several times, refusing the offers of outside entities such as Image and director Guillermo del Toro to pay for remastering and distribution costs in exchange for the rights to release the series). Instead, Universal will be using an inferior 1991 mastering of the series that sported a weak image, uneven soundtrack, splices, and missing scenes. A petition is available at www.petitiononline.com/ng1969/petition.html; we urge all VideoTropic visitors to add their names to the list and request of Universal a proper showing of this memorable, semi-classic TV series.

25% off at Borders: An unusually generous, unusually short-dated new 25%-off-one-item Borders coupon is now available, valid through June 6^th. Print it out, then bring it to your local store for the discount, and remember that while the coupon is good on only one item, nothing prevents you from printing more than one coupon. This offer excludes previous purchases, purchase of gift certificates, non-stock special orders and periodicals.

Where to buy LOTR and the rest of this week's big titles: Target is offering Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King for $14.99, while Best Buy, Circuit City and most other competitive chains will have it for $15.99 (Best Buy throws in a free "commemorative" Entertainment Weekly magazine). The 2-DVD edition of Underworld: $21.99 at Circuit City, $23.99 at Best Buy. Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 6: $39.99 at CostCo, $45.99 at Best Buy, Target, and Circuit City. Club Dread and Welcome To Mooseport: $19.99 everywhere. Northern Exposure Season One Parka Pack: $34.99 at Circuit City and CostCo, $39.99 at Best Buy and Target. We will update this list as necessary.

Server change: In an effort to minimize the database and connection issues that some VideoTropic visitors have been reporting recently, this week we will be upgrading our hosting servers to a more stable configuration. We have been working behind the scenes to make this as seamless as possible, but due to the vagaries of the network changeover it is possible that you may see a brief outage before the new arrangement is complete. VideoTropic appreciates your patience.

When is that new movie coming to DVD? Troy and Van Helsing will be hitting video shelves in October (in the case of the disappointing Van Helsing, which should have been released sooner, the DVD is being held off to October solely in order to position it with Halloween). 13 Going On 30 and Ben Stiller's Envy will be released during August, as comedies on video typically do well in the last weeks of summer; expect at least one to be released the same week as Kill Bill Volume 2 (8/10), a big release that targets a different audience. Official dates have also been announced for Hidalgo (8/3) and Mel Gibson's Passion (8/31).

This VideoTropic feature is your electronic bug in the conference rooms of the studios, where we let you in on what release dates the studios are planning for those big movies still in the theaters -- usually months before an official studio announcement. For the complete list of when current theatrical features are expected on DVD -- before they're officially announced, and before you'll hear about it anywhere else -- click here.

Where to buy this week's big titles: Many of the big releases this week are priced identically at Circuit City, Best Buy and Target, as follows: Paycheck: $19.99, Torque: $15.99, and Sex & The City Season 6 Part 1: $29.99. Beyond those titles the best in-store prices are... Star Trek Voyager, Season 2: $84.99 at Costco, $99.99 at Best Buy. The Good, The Bad and the Ugly: $18.29 at Costco, $19.99 everywhere else ($10 off with the purchase of The Great Escape at Best Buy). Speed Racer Volume 2: $14.99 at Circuit City, $17.99 at Best Buy and Target. Smallville Season 2: $39.99 at Circuit City, $44.99 at Target and Best Buy. We will update this list as necessary.

Passion set for August 31: Fox has confirmed an August 31 street date for Mel Gibson's The Passion Of The Christ. The single-disc release, with little or no bonus features, will have an MSRP of $29.98.

Database update: As many of you know, we had an event several weeks ago which corrupted one of our data feeds. Our "Upcoming Releases" database is now 95% repaired and updated through this morning; the one remaining repair is for MSRPs on some titles (the selling prices are all correct). We hope to have this corrected momentarily. Thank you for your continued patience!

20% off at Borders: A new 20%-off-one-item Borders coupon is now available, valid through May 9^th. Print it out, then bring it to your local store for the discount, and remember that while the coupon is good on only one item, nothing prevents you from printing more than one coupon. The discount is valid on both regularly-priced and sale-priced items, including DVDs; ther discount on video games and electronics is 10%. This offer excludes previous purchases, purchase of gift certificates, non-stock special orders and periodicals.

Where to buy this week's big titles: For the big releases this week, the best in-store prices are... Monsters Legacy Collection: $54.99 at Costco ($18.29 each separate title), $59.99 at Target and Best Buy (or $19.99 for each separate title; Target includes a free "Van Helsing plate" with each Monster Legacy title). Big Fish: $15.99 at Best Buy and Circuit City, $17.99 at Target, $18.19 at Costco. Ghosts Of The Abyss: $18.19 at Costco, $19.99 everywhere else. Love Actually: $15.99 at Target, $17.99 Best Buy and Circuit City. Love Don't Cost A Thing: $15.99 at Circuit City and Target, $17.99 at Best Buy. We will update this list as necessary.

Where to buy this week's big titles: For the big releases this week, the best in-store prices are... Haunted Mansion: $15.99 at Target and Circuit City (some regional Targets are maintaining a $19.99 price), $16.99 at Best Buy ($5 off with the purchase of another Disney DVD), $17.99 at CostCo (with free pin). Master And Commander: $25.99 (2-DVD) at CostCo, or $15.99 (1-DVD) or $29.99 (2-DVD) everywhere else (free 20-minute behind-the-scenes DVD at Best Buy). Wild Things 2: $19.99 at Best Buy and Circuit City (or $30 two-pack with Wild Things 1). We will update this list as necessary.

The Monster Legacy Collections: April 27^th is the street date for three 2-disc Monster Legacy collections from Universal, each with an MSRP of $26.98:

• Frankenstein: The Legacy Collection
• Frankenstein (1931) (with audio commentary by Rudy Behlmer)
• The Bride of Frankenstein (with audio commentary by Film Historian Scott MacQueen)
• The Son of Frankenstein
• Ghost of Frankenstein
• House of Frankenstein
• Stephen Sommers on Frankenstein's Monster
• "She's Alive! Creating the Bride of Frankenstein"
• "The Frankenstein Files"
• Frankenstein Archives
• Boo! A Short Film
• Theatrical Trailers
• Dracula: The Legacy Collection
• Dracula (1931) (with audio commentary by Film Historian David J. Skal)
• Spanish Dracula (1931) (with introduction by Lupita Tovar Kohner)
• Dracula's Daughter
• Son Of Dracula
• House Of Dracula
• Stephen Sommers on Dracula
• "The Road to Dracula"
• Poster Montage
• Theatrical Trailers
• New Dracula score by Philip Glass, performed by the Kronos Quartet
• The Wolf Man: The Legacy Collection
• The Wolf Man (with audio commentary by Tom Weaver)
• Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man
• She-Wolf Of London
• Werewolf Of London
• Stephen Sommers on The Wolf Man
• "Monster By Moonlight"

In addition, a collection of all three Legacy releases, The Monster Legacy DVD Gift Set, will include commemorative Sideshow Collectibles busts of the three monsters, and carry a $79.98 MSRP.

When is that new movie coming to DVD? Cold Mountain has been shifted from a June release to early July, and an official July street date has been set for The Human Stain. Among the most anticipated titles this time around are Mel Gibson's The Passion (August, for no valid reason), Dawn of the Dead, Secret Window and Starsky & Hutch (all July). June is a comedy month, with anticipated releases of 50 First Dates, Along Came Polly, Eurotrip and Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights (and yes, we consider that a comedy). Titles announced for preorder in the online stores this week include just about all the big May releases, as well as Big Fish (4/27).

This VideoTropic feature is your electronic bug in the conference rooms of the studios, where we let you in on what release dates the studios are planning for those big movies still in the theaters -- usually months before an official studio announcement. For the complete list of when current theatrical features are expected on DVD -- before they're officially announced, and before you'll hear about it anywhere else -- click here.

10% off at Borders: Two new 10%-off-your-total-purchase Borders coupons are now available, one valid through March 14^th and the other from the 18^th through the 21^st. Print them out, then bring them to your local store for the discount. The discounts are valid on both regularly-priced and sale-priced items, including DVDs. This offer excludes previous purchases, purchase of gift certificates, non-stock special orders and periodicals.

Where to buy this week's big titles: This may be the biggest new-release date until May, with long-anticipated titles from several studios; because of this, there is a likely chance of last-minute local price changes as the retail stores position themselves. As it stands this morning, for the big releases this week, the best in-store prices are... The Ten Commandments (Special Edition): $12.99 at Circuit City, $14.99 at Target and Best Buy. Schindler's List (2-Disc Edition): $15.99 at Fry's, $16.99 at Target, $17.99 at Best Buy, $18.99 at CostCo, $19.99 at Circuit City (the Collector's Edition is $54.99 at CostCo, $59.99 at Best Buy). Mona Lisa Smile: $14.99 at Best Buy and Circuit City, $16.99 at Target, $17.99 at CostCo. Futurama Season 3: $29.99 at Best Buy and CostCo, $35.99 at Target and Circuit City. Dawn Of The Dead: $11.99 at Best Buy, $14.99 everywhere else. We will modify this list as necessary; please email us with corrections and updates.

LOTR: The Return Of The King to video on May 25^th: The last of Tolkien's (and Peter Jackson 's) trilogy will be available on a two-disc DVD with an MSRP of $29.95 (separate fullscreen and widescreen versions will available). As with the previous two installments, an extended four-disc edition will be available late in Q4. Disc Two of May's release will feature behind-the-scenes specials, featurettes, theatrical trailers, TV spots, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy "supertrailer," a preview of the upcoming LOTR-based video game from Electronic Arts and a link to exclusive online content about the motion picture trilogy.

Gigli sweeps: At the Razzies award ceremony this morning at Santa Monica's Four-Points Sheraton, Gigli became the first movie to take all six top trophies. The film took awards for worst picture, Affleck as worst actor, Lopez as worst actress and the two as worst screen couple; in addition, filmmaker Martin Brest also took the Razzies for worst director and screenplay. Despite sweeping the top awards, the film fell short of the record seven Razzies won by Showgirls and Battlefield Earth. "But those are much better bad movies, if that makes any sense," said Razzies founder John Wilson. "If you sit through them with the right people or the right brand of liquor, they can be strangely entertaining. But I don't care how medicated you are or what people you're watching it with, Gigli is just a pain in the posterior. It's one of those things that is, as opposed to enjoyably embarrassing, it's just skin-crawlingly embarrassing." Other winners this morning included Sylvester Stallone (for Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over), Demi Moore for worst supporting-actress for her comeback role in Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle ("She tried to come back, and we said, 'No, thanks. We chased you away before. Go away again,'"), and Dr. Seuss' the Cat in the Hat for worst excuse for a movie. From Justin To Kelly was awarded a special "governor's award" for distinguished underachievement in choreography.

When is that new movie coming to DVD? Once again, after a hiatus, we are relaunching our "When Is That New Movie Coming To DVD?" section. And once again, we are promising to update it on a weekly basis. This VideoTropic feature is your electronic bug in the conference rooms of the studios, where we let you in on what release dates the studios are planning for that big movie still in the theaters -- usually months before an official studio announcement. For the complete list of when current theatrical features are expected on DVD -- before they're officially announced, and before you'll hear about it anywhere else -- click here.

Where to buy this week's big titles: For the big releases this week, the best in-store prices are... Spy Kids 3-D: $15.99 at Circuit City, $16.99 at Target and Best Buy. Matchstick Men: $16.99 at Target, $17.89 at CostCo, $17.99 at Best Buy, $19.99 at Circuit City. The Missing: $17.99 at Best Buy and at Circuit City, $18.49 at CostCo, $19.99 at Target. We will update this list as necessary.

More Megapacks: Fans of Treeline's recent 50-movie and 100-TV-episode "megapacks" (generally found at either Rite-Aid, similar rack-jobber stores, and Overstock.com) should be aware of new Treeline collections now available for purchase at Amazon. The following 50-movie packs are currently up for preorder for $24.49 each at Amazon: Hollywood Legends, Sci-Fi Classics, War Classics, Comedy Classics, and Action Classics. Also available for the same price are the 150-episode Classic Serials, and the Cartoon Classics 100-pack. For those who have not sampled these titles, Treeline's transfers are significantly better than the old Brentwood and similar $5.99 DVD transfers, and at an average cost of $0.50 per film are a great way to see some of the older titles that you may be interested in. The releases so far have been in fullscreen, matching the 1.33:1 Academy ratio that these older movies (and TV episodes) were filmed in. The discs generally contain 3-4 movies per double-sided disc, with each disk stored in a heavy-duty cardboard sleeve and the collection packages in a DVD-Box-Set-sized box with velcro closures.

Two big collections on March 9^th: Two long-awaited box sets are being released next month. The 22-episode, 4-DVD set Futurama Volume 3 is being released by Fox Home Entertainment, and features commentaries (one episode with dual commentaries), deleted scenes, easter eggs, and more. MSRP is $49.98, and Amazon is currently taking preorders at $34.99. On the same day, Rhino Home Video will be releasing Mystery Science Theater Collection Volume 5, a four-DVD set featuring "Time Chasers" from Season 8, "The Touch Of Satan" from Season 9, and -- from the final Season 10 -- "Merlin's Shop Of Mystical Wonders" and "Boggy Creek II." MSRP will be $59.98, with Amazon currently taking preorders for $41.99. In addition to the films, the set will feature film intros by Mike Nelson (reportedly longer than the short, self-conscious ones in Volume 4), and full-length interviews with Mike and Kevin Murphy.

Where to buy this week's big titles: For the big releases this week, the best in-store prices are... Lion King 1-1/2: $15.99 at Target and Circuit City, $17.99 at Best Buy and CostCo. Intolerable Cruelty: $16.99 everywhere. Angel Season Three: $36.99 at CostCo, $39.99 at Circuit City, $45.99 at Target and Best Buy ($10 off at BB with the purchase of any other season). We will update this list as necessary.

Star Wars trilogy out on Sept. 21: Lucasfilm and Fox Home Entertainment have announced the release of the original Star Wars trilogy on Sept. 21^st, in a format similar to the Indiana Jones set: the films will be sold only in a four-disc box set, with the fourth disk set aside for bonus materials. The three films -- Star Wars (later modified to Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope), The Empire Strikes Back and The Return Of The Jedi, will be presented in the "Special Edition" cut, and although prices and specifications are still being worked out, the set will likely sell for around $50, and will contain audio commentaries by the cast and crew, including Lucas. The timing of the set is interesting, as Lucas has repeatedly stated that the films will not be released on DVD until all six films are ready (the final film will not be released theatrically until 2005) -- and, given that the set is coming out before then, there is the question of why it is being released so far in advance of the more typical November dates. Although the official reason given was so that the DVDs can rebuild interest in the franchise in advance of Episode III, there is talk that Lucas may be concerned about the advent of the HD DVD format (as evident at CES), and wants to release his crown-jewel films in the current DVD format before HD makes serious inroads and people decide to hold off for the newer format.

Tower files for bankrupcy: Tower Records and Video is, unsurprisingly, preparing to file for bankrupcy protection today. Tower -- once a leader in music sales thanks to its unprecedented stock size -- cited competition from online sites such as Amazon, which cut into the esoteric-music market, and discounters such as Walmart, which lessened Tower's sales on hit titles.

10% off at Borders: A new 10%-off-your-total-purchase Borders coupon is now available, valid through January 12^th. Print it out, then bring it to your local store for the discount. The discount is valid on both regularly-priced and sale-priced items, including DVDs. This offer excludes previous purchases, purchase of gift certificates, non-stock special orders and periodicals.

Oscar nominees: LOTR: The Return Of The King scored eleven Oscar nominations this morning, including director Peter Jackson (also nominated for "Director Who Looks Most Like One Of His Fans"). Master and Commander was right behind with ten, and Whale Rider's Keisha Castle Hughes supplants Isabelle Adjani for the youngest Best Actress nominee in history. Not surprisingly, Gigli was nominated for nine Razzies^®, followed by The Cat In The Hat (a.k.a. The Dr. Seuss Mortification Project) and From Justin To Kelly, each with eight Razzies^®.

Where to buy this week's big titles: For the big releases this week, the best in-store prices are... Star Trek VI: $14.99 at Best Buy. Alice In Wonderland: $17.99 at Circuit City, $19.99 at Target and Best Buy. Friends Season Six: $24.99 at Fry's, $29.99 at Circuit City ($10 off with the purchase of any other season), $32.99 at Target. House Of The Dead: $17.99 everywhere. We will update this list as necessary.

Star Trek autograph opportunity: Director Nicholas Meyer (Star Treks II and VI, The Day After, and the upcoming Creation) will be autographing DVDs of the two-disk Star Trek VI Special Edition on the title's street date next Tuesday, January 27, at 7:30PM at Borders Westwood in Los Angeles (1360 Westwood Blvd., Westwood), and on Saturday, January 31, at 4:00PM at Borders San Rafael in San Francisco (588 Francisco Blvd. West, San Rafael).

Paramount to distribute PBS DVDs: Judy Harris, Executive Vice President, PBS Businesses & Development, today announced that Paramount Home Entertainment will be PBS Home Video’s new video distribution partner for the U.S. and Canada, beginning April 5, 2004. PBS Home Video is currently best known for the documentaries and miniseries by Ken Burns (The Civil War and Baseball, among others), the Teletubbies franchise, and The American Experience specials.

Where to buy this week's big titles: Now that the holidays are over, it's time to start getting down to some serious buying -- or, in the case of this week, serious viewing of the titles we've purchased over the past two weeks that we haven't had time yet to watch. For the blockbusters -- well, blockbenders, maybe -- this week, the best in-store prices are... Out Of Time: $15.99 at Circuit City, Fry's and Target, $17.99 at Best Buy. Underworld: $15.99 everywhere. Uptown Girls and, for those who didn't get the Quadrilogy (still $61.99 at Costco), the individual Alien movies: $19.99 everywhere. We will update this list as necessary.

Where to buy this week's big titles: For the blockbusters this week, the best in-store prices are... Sex And The City, Season 5 (we appear sitting next to Sarah Jessica Parker at the wedding in the final episode, "I Love A Charade"): $29.99 at Target, $32.99 at Best Buy and Costco, and $34.99 at Circuit City. American Wedding: $15.99 just about everywhere, packaged with a free t-shirt at Circuit City or a free can cooler at Best Buy (Update: or a free snowglobe at Blockbuster). The Order: $19.99 everywhere. S.W.A.T.: $15.99 at Target and Circuit City, $16.99 at Best Buy. We will update this list as necessary.

When is that new movie coming to DVD? Another quiet week in theatrical premieres with the exception of Lord Of The Rings, so the only new title added this week is Something's Gotta Give, being prepped for an April street date -- and the studios have set precise street dates for Brother Bear, Good Boy! and The Rundown. The online stores have begun offering this week for presale: Radio, Runaway Jury, Under the Tuscan Sun, Intolerable Cruelty and Dickie Roberts. By this time next week we should have the targeted release month for the three-hour twenty-minute Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of the King (which will then see a subsequent multidisk "extended edition" release with a running time of approximately a fortnight). For the complete list of when current theatrical features are expected on DVD -- before they're officially announced, and before you'll hear about it anywhere else -- click here.

Disney price cuts: As promised, we've added to our Price Cuts pages approximately one hundred new price reductions from the Disney / Buena Vista family of studios (including Miramax), scheduled to take effect from January through March.

Price cuts!: At long last, we've updated our Upcoming Price Cuts page with four hundred recently-announced price reductions, with most becoming effective early January. In September several studios requested that we do not post upcoming price cuts, believing that early publicity would cannibalize sales of the announced titles at the current price. Over the past three months we've held continuing conversations on the topic with these studios, presenting data to the contrary, and now most of them (though not all) have relented -- allowing us to once again re-launch our Price Cut pages. Another hundred titles will be added by Wednesday, from the Disney / Buena Vista family of studios.

And a third 15% off at Borders: What's that you say? The second three-day Borders coupon expired yesterday? Borders is using yield-management techniques to maximize sales this season, releasing a string of three-day coupons and keeping an eye on the results. (One lesson has been that a short-term coupon has more "urgency" than a one-week expiration, and sales per coupon have been up as a result.) In any case, the day after the expiration of the previous coupon, a third three-day 15%-off-your-total-purchase Borders coupon is now available, valid through this Sunday, December 14^th. As always, print it out, then bring it to your local store for the discount. The discount is valid on both regularly-priced and sale-priced items, including DVDs. This offer excludes previous purchases, purchase of gift certificates, non-stock special orders and periodicals.

When is that new movie coming to DVD? It's been a quiet week in theatrical premieres, so we only have three new titles added this time around: Bad Santa will see its DVD release next November (look for it to street the same Tuesday as Elf, which is aimed at a different demographic and will therefore not cannibalize sales). Closer to home, The Last Samurai and the Jessica Alba-starrer Honey are both being positioned for release in May. For the complete list of when current theatrical features are expected on DVD -- before they're officially announced, and before you'll hear about it anywhere else -- click here.

And another 15% off at Borders: Two days after the expiration of the previous coupon, a second three-day 15%-off-your-total-purchase Borders coupon is now available, valid through this Thursday, December 11^th. As always, print it out, then bring it to your local store for the discount. The discount is valid on both regularly-priced and sale-priced items, including DVDs. This offer excludes previous purchases, purchase of gift certificates, non-stock special orders and periodicals.

15% off at Borders: A short-expiration 15%-off-your-total-purchase Borders coupon is now available, valid through December 7^th. Print it out, then bring it to your local store for the discount. The discount is valid on both regularly-priced and sale-priced items, including DVDs. This offer excludes previous purchases, purchase of gift certificates, non-stock special orders and periodicals.

Best Buy coupon: We have a coupon good for $15 off any purchase of $150 or more at BestBuy.com. The coupon is valid for three days, next Tuesday through Thursday, 12/9-12/11; the orders include free shipping, or -- if you're in a hurry -- you can physically pick up your online order at any Best Buy brick-and-mortar store.

When is that new movie coming to DVD? Yes, it's been a while; this (normally) weekly chart was last updated back in August due to extenuating circumstances, but is now returning to its regular schedule. We here at VideoTropic appreciate the e-mails and comments, and we're happy to finally return this column to life.

Due to the long interval since the last update, nearly everything that appears on this week's chart is new. The more interesting items include Elf, not surprisingly with the furthest-off release date (November '04), and Brother Bear, the last traditionally-animated feature in Disney's pipeline, in March (before the theatrical release of Home On The Range, which was actually completed before Bear but has been on hold). April will be a big month for SF and fantasy films, with the planned streeting of the disappointing Cat In The Hat and Haunted Mansion, as well as Timeline, Matrix Revolutions and Gothika.

Where to buy this week's big titles: For the blockbusters this week, the best in-store prices are... Pirates of the Caribbean: $14.99 at Target and Wal-Mart ($14.49 regionally), $15.99 at Circuit City and Best Buy. If you received a mailing, then this weekend you can pick it up at Best Buy for 10% off, or $14.39; it's $12.99 at Blockbuster with a trade-in of any acceptable used DVD. Alien Quadrilogy: $61.99 at Costco, $67.49 at Best Buy with the "Coming Attractions" 10%-off coupon. We will update this list as necessary.

Blockbuster bargains: Unusually good bargains may be found at some Blockbuster locations. As a result of the DVD trade-in offer that the company is running through December 22^nd -- in which a customer can purchase some A-list titles for $12.99 each with the trade-in of a used DVD -- many Blockbusters have set up a used-DVD table for those traded-in titles, and stickered them at $4.99 each. These "pre-viewed" titles also fall under the current buy-two-get-one-free offer, resulting in three used DVDs for $10; a Blockbuster membership card is not necessary for the purchase. Next week's $12.99-with-trade-in title, incidentally, is Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse Of the Black Pearl.

Disney Treasures postponed to May: Citing an inability to manufacture sufficient numbers of the special tin packaging to meet unexpected demand for the titles, Buena Vista has postponed the release of the four titles (originally due to street on December 2^nd) until May 18^th. Buena Vista had expected a 20% increase in orders from the first two waves, but the advance orders for the third wave was 50% above that figure. The four titles in the wave are The Chronological Donald, Mickey Mouse in Living Color: Vol. 2, Walt Disney on the Front Lines and Walt Disney's Tomorrowland.

Where to buy this week's big titles: For the blockbusters this week, the best in-store prices are... Tomb Raider: Cradle of Life: $15.99 at Circuit City and Target, $17.99 at Best Buy with a free promotional "Secrets of..." DVD. It's $12.99 at Blockbuster with a trade-in of any acceptable used DVD, but you'd be better off selling the used DVD for $10 on Amazon Marketplace. Lord Of The Rings: Two Towers (4-DVD Extended Edition): $23.99 at Fry's, $24.79 at Costco, $24.99 at Best Buy, Circuit City and Target. Santa Clause 2: $15.99 at Circuit City. We will update this list as necessary.

Tremors, Tremors IV: The Universal Studios made-for-video prequel, the less-than-imaginitively-titled Tremors IV: The Legend Begins, will be released January 2^nd at an MSRP of $26.98 ($19.95 MAP). Included in the "Prequel Pack" will be a free copy of the original theatrical Tremors. Both titles are rated PG-13; the prequel will feature a commentary track and other bonus features. Prior to street, the Sci Fi Channel will air an all-day Tremors festival on December 26^th, which will include sneak previews of some of the DVD features.

Where to buy this week's big titles: For the blockbusters this week, the best in-store prices are... Terminator 3: $15.99 at Best Buy with a free CD-ROM (and at K-Mart without). JFK (Special Edition): $15.99 at Best Buy ($14.40 with the 10%-off-any-drama-DVD coupon in Best Buy's recent free silver-cased "Coming Attractions" DVD). Dumb and Dumberer: $17.99 at Circuit City. We will update this list as necessary.

15% off at Borders: In advance of the November 14^th-17^th 20%-off coupon (see Breaking News for October 28^th), a 15%-off-your-total-purchase Borders coupon is now available, valid through November 14^th. Print it out, then bring it to your local store for the discount. The discount is valid on both regularly-priced and sale-priced items, including DVDs. This offer excludes previous purchases, purchase of gift certificates, non-stock special orders and periodicals. The discount on electronics and video games is 10%.

Where to buy this week's big titles: The rule of thumb in 2003 seems to be that expected blockbuster titles (except for box sets) should be purchased at brick & mortars on the week of release, since the prices almost always trump the online stores; everything else should be preordered online for the best price. For the blockbusters this week, the best in-store prices are... Finding Nemo: $14.99 at Circuit City with a free mousepad (and at Target without), $15.99 at Best Buy with a free Nemo CD/DVD wallet. Update 11/4: There is a 10%-off-any-Disney-DVD coupon in Best Buy's recent free silver-cased "Coming Attractions" DVD, which may be valid to reduce Best Buy's price to $14.49. Adam Sandler's Eight Crazy Nights: $17.69 at Costco, $17.99 at Circuit City. Star Trek Deep Space Nine Season 6: $84.99 at Costco. The X-Files Season 8: $99.99, everywhere. We will update this list as necessary.

20% off at Borders, Waldenbooks, and Brentanos: A 20%-off-your-total-purchase Borders coupon is now available, this one valid November 14^th through the 17^th. Print it out, then bring it to your local store for the discount. The discount is valid on both regularly-priced and sale-priced items at Borders, and only on regularly-priced items at Waldenbooks and Brentanos; in addition, the discount on DVDs is 10% at Waldenbooks only, 20% elsewhere. This offer excludes previous purchases, purchase of gift certificates, non-stock special orders and periodicals. The discount on electronics and video games is 10%.

Free Scary Movie 3 Promo: Best Buy's 12-minute promo DVD for Scary Movie 3, previously having been advertised as free with purchase of either Scary Movie 1 or 2, is actually being distributed free with any DVD purchase. These promos are generally shelved next to the other Scary Movie titles in "Comedy," although some stores may vary.

Fox planning a direct-to-DVD 24: Fox is in discussions to bring a direct-to-DVD version of its real-time thriller 24 to the market. The DVD-only format would feature a new storyline that unspools in real time over an eight-hour period, and would feature a different cast than the TV series. The TV series season box sets, big sellers for Fox with over a million sets sold, would continue to be released on DVD; the new direct-to-DVD series would be an extension to the 24 brand.

Where to buy this week's big titles: The rule of thumb in 2003 seems to be that expected blockbuster titles (except for box sets) should be purchased at brick & mortars on the week of release, since the prices almost always trump the online stores; everything else should be preordered online for the best price. For the blockbusters this week, the best in-store prices are.. Indiana Jones Trilogy: $34.99 at Eckerd's, $42.99 at Costco. Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle: $15.99 at Target. 28 Days: $19.99 everywhere. Battlestar Galactica: $79.99, Circuit City. We will update this list as necessary.

MST3K news: Rhino has at least temporarily backed off their season-box plans for Mystery Science Theater 3000, and will be releasing their fourth 4-DVD set on November 11^th. Titles in the set will be Girl In The Gold Boots, Hamlet, Space Mutiny, and Overdrawn At The Memory Bank., all from the Sci-Fi Channel years. Mike Nelson will be newly-filmed introductions for each episode. The MSRP, as in previous sets, will be $59.95.

Rolling Stones in Best Buy exclusive: The Rolling Stones have signed a deal that gives Best Buy a four-month window as the as the exclusive retailer for the band's new Four Flicks four-DVD set. The set, containing more than 50 songs and previously unreleased footage, will hit Best Buy (and BestBuy.com) on Nov. 11; MSRP will be $29.99.

We're back: We're back from our conference in Chicago. As usual, responding to interim e-mails will be our first priority; all replies should be out no later than noon EDT today.

Dude, Where's My Sequel?: From Fox Home Entertainment, December 9^th sees the release of the direct-to-video sequel, Dude, We're Going To Rio. Nobody at Fox can explain why.

Billy Crystal to host the Academy Awards: The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Science will be announcing today that it has chosen Billy Crystal to return as host of the 76^th Academy Awards, his eighth hosting gig and his first return since 2000.

The Meaning Of Life resolution: Universal Studios Home Video has told us that they will be remastering Disc 1, and are offering to replace the current defective discs. VideoTropic readers are asked to call Universal at (800) 433-4673 and request a prepaid mailer; use it to return DISC 1 ONLY for a replacement, which Universal expects to be available in mid-November.

Free 9/11 DVD: The U.S. Department of Labor is offering a free DVD, Up From Zero, on the September 11^th destruction of the World Trade Center and the reclamation of Ground Zero in the months afterward. To request a copy, go to http://www.dol.gov/opa/dvd/index.htm and fill in the form with your name and mailing address. Delivery will take four to six weeks.

The Meaning Of Life defect: We have spoken with Universal Home Studios about the mastering defect on Disc 1 (the feature film disk) of Monty Python's The Meaning Of Life. Universal was previously unaware of the problem; the information has now been "pushed upstairs," and we hope to hear from them shortly regarding the problem and any potential solution(s). The mastering defect appears to be a lag between interlaced frames, that becomes evident when elements of the frame are in motion. The defect does not affect the sound, and Disc 2 -- the special features disc -- is mastered correctly.

Universal reduces CD prices: As the first major label to "get it," Vivendi Universal's Universal Music Group (not part of the General Electric/NBC merger) plans to sharply drop prices on CDs in an effort to bring customers back into retail stores and boost music sales. In a press release yesterday, Universal Music said it will reduce wholesale prices and implement a $12.98 manufacturer suggested retail price on virtually all of its top-line CDs in the U.S, currently stickered with MSRPs as high as $18.98. Top-line cassettes will also be lowered, to an MSRP of $8.98, and the new prices will also apply to the label's catalog releases. Retailers are expected to offer the lower prices by as early as October 1^st.

Warners price cuts: We've updated our Upcoming Price Cuts page with a hundred and sixty recently-announced price reductions from Warner Brothers, with most becoming effective either September 2^nd (single-disk titles) or September 16^th (multidisk sets and collections).

T3: The Rise Of The Machines out on November 11^th: Terminator 3 will be released by Warners in a 2-DVD set on November 11^th, with a MSRP of $29.95 ($22.95 MAP). The announced features include:

• Two Commentaries with the Stars and Director Including Jonathan Mostow, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Nick Stahl, Claire Danes and Kristanna Loken
• Introduction by Arnold Schwarzenegger
• Revealing New Footage
• On-Set Gag Reel
• T3 Visual Effects Lab: Four Interactive Effects Labs That Let Viewers Build Their Own Rip-Roaring Action Scene
• Skynet Database: Integrated Profiles That Contain Original Written Material and Behind the Scenes Profiles Mixed with Visual Effects to Create a Stylized Dossier
• Terminator Timeline
• HBO First Look Documentary
• The Making of the Video Game
• Galleries of Storyboards, Dressed to Kill Costume/Production Designs, and Posters
• Toys In Action
• Film Trailers – Alternate and International Trailers
• Video Game Trailer – Terminator 3 Rise of the Machines from Atari
• PC Game Trailer

South Park, Season 3: December 16^th is the date set for the release of the third-season box set of South Park. The previous two season sets were released on Warner Brothers; the seventeen-episode three-DVD Season 3 set is being released on the Paramount label, the studio that owns video rights to the 1999 South Park movie.

20% off at Borders: A 20%-off-your-total-purchase Borders coupon is now available, this one valid August 21^st through the 24^th. Print it out, then bring it to your local Borders store for the discount; for the first time on these Borders coupons, though, is the notation that the total purchase (before discount) must exceed $50. This offer excludes previous purchases, purchase of gift certificates, non-stock special orders and periodicals. The discount on electronics and video games is 10%.

Legally Blonde 2 date change: Filling in the hole left by the Indiana Jones date change, MGM has announced that Legally Blonde 2 -- with a different target demographic than that of Finding Nemo -- has had its street date changed to November 4^th.

Indiana Jones out two weeks early: Paramount has officially announced that it has moved up the release date of its Indiana Jones Trilogy box set to October 21^st, thereby avoiding having to compete with Disney's November 4^th release of Finding Nemo.

Disney Treasures Wave 3: On December 2^nd, Disney is releasing the third in their aluminum-cased Walt Disney Treasures sets. Titles this time around are:

• Mickey Mouse in Living Color 2
• Chronological Donald
• Walt's Tomorrowland
• On the Front Lines

Correction: Our news item about Kevin Smith postponing release of Jersey Girl due to the was incipient bombing of Gigli

was incorrect. A reader has informed us (and this was confirmed with View Askew) that the film was postponed so as not to conflict with Matrix: Revolution; Smith announced the postponement at "Wizard World," held at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia on May 31^st. Jersey Girl was filmed during the summer and fall of 2002 in Philadelphia and nearby Paulsboro. VideoTropic regrets the error.

Jersey Girl postponed: Kevin Smith's Jersey Girl, starring Gigli's Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez, has reportedly been pushed back from an originally-scheduled November '03 theatrical release to sometime in 2004 in the belief that putting more space between it and Gigli may help the film's prospects.

"Gobble, Gobble": Ben Affleck and J. Lo's Gigli is sizing up to be the first DVD release to feature a feature-length audio apology. The film opens in theaters tomorrow, and will likely close the following Thursday.

James Bond Megaset: MGM is releasing all 20 MGM James Bond films together in three special-edition gift sets Nov. 18^th. Volume 1 was released in October, and will be re-promoted along with Volumes 2 and 3. The Volumes are split up as follows:

Volume 1:

• Dr. No
• GoldenEye
• Goldfinger
• Licence to Kill
• The Man With the Golden Gun
• The Spy Who Loved Me
• Tomorrow Never Dies

• From Russia With Love
• You Only Live Twice
• Diamonds Are Forever
• Moonraker
• For Your Eyes Only
• The Living Daylights
• The World Is Not Enough

• Thunderball
• Octopussy
• On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
• Die Another Day
• Live and Let Die
• A View to a Kill

$5 off Daredevil: Fox Home Entertainment has made available a $5-off coupon, redeemable "at most retailers." To get the coupon, click here. Note that the link uses a relatively invasive plug-in from bricks.coupons.com that will resize your browser window, and permits the coupon to be printed twice. This coupon can be used in conjunction with the bundle offer being seen at many retailers, offering $5 off when both Daredevil and Solaris are purchased together.

When is that new movie coming to DVD? It has become a tradition that summer popcorn movies get released on DVD in time for the holiday season, and this year is no exception. December will see Pirates Of The Caribbean, T3, League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and Legally Blonde 2 (as well as Bad Boys 2 and the animated Sinbad).  Earlier, in time for the Thanksgiving family get-togethers, we'll see Charlie's Angels 2 (in a 2-DVD set for even more throttle), Dumb and Dumberer, Rugrats Go Wild, Finding Nemo and Bruce Almighty.  October's big releases will be 28 Days Later (with both endings), The Hulk (which should see more interest on DVD than it did in the theaters), and - of course -- Matrix Reloaded. For the complete list of when current theatrical features are expected on DVD -- before they're officially announced, and before you'll hear about it anywhere else -- click here.

Gigli Reloaded: The movie whose filming sparked the romance of Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck, Gigli (pronounced "Jeally"), opens August 1^st; prerelease talk points to this film getting an early DVD release in a bargain-basement multipack with Glitter, Swept Away, and Crossroads. The film stars Affleck as Gigli, a kidnapper, who falls in love with Ricki (Lopez), a lesbian gangster sent to assist him; after testing atrociously with screener audiences, the stars were brought back to refilm several scenes enabling Lopez's character to be recast as a hetero. Many now-puzzling comments about her being "unattainable" remain in the film, however -- and it was this unattainability that originally was the whole point of the story. One can't help but think that if 2001: A Space Odyssey were done today, after test screenings HAL would be recast with Crispin Glover as an unstable technician. The reviews of Gigli should be interesting...

And another 20% off at Borders: For this week, Borders has a 20%-off coupon good for one CD or DVD, and valid until July 27^th.

20% off at Borders, again: Another 20%-off-your-total-purchase Borders coupon is now available (this one not redeemable at Waldenbooks and Brentano's, however). It's valid this weekend, July 18^th through July 20^th.

Matrix: Reloaded on Oct. 14: Warners confirmed last night that it will be releasing the 2-DVD Matrix: Reloaded DVD and VHS on Oct. 14^th, three weeks prior to the theatrical opening of the third installment, Matrix: Revolutions. Special features included in the set are:

• Go behind-the-scenes with the cast and crew.
• The Matrix Unfolds: a look at the Matrix phenomenon.
• The Freeway Chase: How they did it.
• Get Me An Exit: Matrix-inspired design and advertising.
• The MTV Movie Awards Reloaded
• Enter The Matrix: The making of the groundbreaking game.
• What Is The Animatrix?

20% off at Borders, Waldenbooks, Brentano's: A 20%-off-your-total-purchase Borders coupon is now available, this one valid July 11^th through July 14^th. Print it out, then bring it to your local Borders/ Waldenbooks/ Brentano's store for the discount. This offer excludes previous purchases, purchase of gift certificates, shipping charges, non-stock special orders, used or out-of-print titles, newspapers, magazines, comics, and membership fees. The discount on DVDs is 10% at Waldenbooks, 20% elsewhere; the discount is good on already-discounted merchandise at Borders only (elsewhere it is only valid on non-sale items); and the discount on games and electronics is 10% at all three chains. At Borders, this coupon may be combined with the "Borders Preferred" discount.

It's dead, Jim: The signs are pointing to the death of Star Trek, at least for the immediate future. Videogame publisher Activision announced that it is ending its agreement with Viacom to publish Star Trek-related video games, and has filed a breach-of-contract suit against the media company in the Superior Court of the State of California for letting the franchise "stagnate and decay." Activision signed a 10-year licensing deal with Viacom in 1998. A spokesman for Activision states that "Viacom has released only one Star Trek movie since entering into (the) agreement ... and has recently informed Activision it has no current plans for further Star Trek films. Viacom also has allowed two Star Trek television series to go off the air, and the remaining series suffers from weak ratings." The last Trek film -- Star Trek: Nemesis -- earned a disappointing $43 million domestic box office, although home-video sales and rentals have nearly equaled the theatrical gross.

Battlestar Galactica: On October 21^st, timed to coincide with the start of publicity for the December premiere of the Sci-Fi Channel's miniseries remake, Universal Home Video will be releasing a six-DVD Battlestar Galactica box set, containing all 24 episodes of the original 1978 series. The set will include newly-produced bonus materials and never-before-seen footage, including an interview with series creator Glen A. Larson and series stars' Richard Hatch (Apollo), Terry Carter (Col. Tigh) and Anne Lockhart (Sheba). The episodes will be re-mastered from original source material, and will feature both a newly created 5.1 Dolby Digital surround track and the original monotrack. MSRP for the set will be $119.98. Universal will also be releasing the original Battlestar Galactica feature film (MSRP $19.98), which will include a $10 coupon good toward purchase of the box set.

Barnes & Noble Coupon!: Barnes & Noble has a $10-off-$50 coupon, good for this week only -- June 23^rd through midnight (EDT) on the 27^th.

Price cuts: We've just updated our Upcoming Price Cuts pages with 93 price reductions from Disney, Buena Vista and Miramax, on titles effective August through October.

Best Buy sells Musicland and Suncoast: Best Buy announced this morning that it has sold its money-losing 1,100-store Musicland chain to Sun Capital Partners, a Florida-based private leverage buyout firm. Musicland's Suncoast video stores were generally the only money-making portion of the chain, which had become a drag on Best Buy's stock.

More TV series: Now available for preorder are the first-season box sets for Alias, E.R., 12 O'Clock High and Will & Grace, and the third-season set for Mr. Show.

10%-off Borders coupon: A 10%-off-your-total-purchase Borders coupon is now available, this one valid today through June 15^th. Print it out, then bring it to your local Borders store for the discount. As usual, this offer excludes previous purchases, purchase of gift certificates, shipping charges, non-stock special orders, used or out-of-print titles, newspapers, magazines, comics, and membership fees, and the 10% may be combined with the "Borders Preferred" discount.

When is that new movie coming to DVD? This is our first update to this popular feature in several weeks following our site issues, so there are an unusually large number of new and changed titles. November will see the release of X2: X-Men United in a 2-DVD special edition, and October's big titles will be Matrix Reloaded (in both a multidisk SE and bundled with The Animatrix and the original film), and Bruce Almighty; the latter may be pushed to the beginning of November thanks to its unexpected opening-weekend box-office numbers.  First-time preorders are now up for August's Agent Cody Banks, Bringing Down the House, Rob Zombie's House of 1,000 Corpses, The Hunted, Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, and all of the big movies that will street in July. For the complete list of when current theatrical features are expected on DVD -- before they are officially announced -- click here.

T2 too extreme: In response to a large number of complaints regarding the shredding of the plastic case when removed from the Terminator 2 Extreme Edition metal wrap, Artisan Entertainment has agreed to replace any damaged or destroyed double-disk Amaray keepcases. If you were affected -- and you probably were -- call Account Services at (800) 650-7099 (8:30am - 5:30pm PDT) with your name and address, and they will ship out a replacement.

MST3K news: Rhino Home Video's originally-planned >i>Mystery Science Theater Collection 4 has been put on hold, perhaps due to the January 15^th Supreme Court decision in the case of Eldred v. Ashcroft that effectively lengthened copyrights and pulled many of the MST3K films out of the public domain. However, Rhino has just hinted at what they are calling an "exciting" MST3K release for Q4 2003; if Rhino or Best Brains were able to secure rights, then a box-set of the first season's thirteen episodes may be possible.

The Outer Limits: Season 2: MGM will be releasing the 17-episode Season 2 Outer Limits (original series) box on September 2^nd in both Region 1 and Region 2. The MSRP will be $69.99, which to us seems pricy compared to the $79.99 32-episode first season set.

Bowling For Columbine to street, at last: Michael Moore's rumination on gun culture in the U.S., Bowling For Columbine, will at last hit the street on August 19^th after being delayed since April 22^nd. The $26.98 MSRD DVD will include a transcript of Moore's Oscar speech and photos from the award telecast; AMPAS would not grany clearance to include video.

We're back: We had several unexpected problems with VideoTropic while changing servers last week, but the more egregious have been repaired and we're finally back. We will be updating our databases and features on Monday, and would like to thank everyone for their understanding and patience over the past few days.

Futurama officially dead: Fox has formally cancelled Futurama, a move expected since the halt in production of new episodes last year.

Indiana Jones on DVD: Paramount has announced a November 4^th street date for the 4-DVD set "The Adventures of Indiana Jones: The Complete DVD Movie Collection," at an MSRP of $49.95. Although there will be no commentary tracks on the three movie discs, the fourth disc will be densely filled with documentaries and extras, according to Jim Ward, V.P. of Marketing at Lucasfilm. The set (being restored at Lowry Digital Images) will be available in both fullscreen and widescreen versions.

May DVD Empire coupons: We currently have three coupons for DVD Empire, each valid until the end of May:

• 500900 -- $5 off $50
• 500925 -- $10 off $150
• 500941 -- $15 off $250

10%-off Borders coupon: A 10%-off-your-total-purchase Borders coupon is now available, this one valid May 1^st through May 11^th. Print it out, then bring it to your local Borders store for the discount. As usual, this offer excludes previous purchases, purchase of gift certificates, shipping charges, non-stock special orders, used or out-of-print titles, newspapers, magazines, comics, and membership fees, and the 10% may be combined with the "Borders Preferred" discount.

Girls on trampolines: Volume 1 of the first season of The Comedy Channel's The Man Show has been announced for a June 17^th DVD release. MSRP is $29.98, and details of the title are still pending.

When is that new movie coming to DVD? Michael Moore's Bowling For Columbine will finally see the light of DVD day on August 19th. Theatrical films new to the list this week are Bulletproof Monk, Holes, and Malibu's Most Wanted, all being prepped for a September release, and the box-office and critical disappointment Dreamcatcher, in a single-DVD release in August. For the complete list of when current theatrical features are expected on DVD -- before they are officially announced -- click here.

...And even more price cuts: We've just updated our Upcoming Price Cuts pages with 65 price cuts from Fox scheduled between May 20^th and June 3^rd, including many "A" titles such as X-Files: Fight For the Future, Entrapment, The Banger Sisters, and others. June 3^rd has now become the biggest date for price reductions in the history of DVD, in terms of the total number of titles affected among all studios. Update, 4/22: We're aware that the Price Cuts page which lists current reductions is broken. We should have it repaired later today; in the meantime, the page listing future scheduled reductions is operational.

Borders coupon update: The 15%-off-your-total-purchase Borders coupon mentioned here on the 15^th and valid until April 25^th) is good outside the Fort Lee, NJ area. Although there have been occasional reports of particular stores (or, more precisely, personnel) rejecting the coupon due to one of the two conflicting statements on the coupon, it is being accepted at Borders stores nationwide, and is valid in the Borders national scanner database.

...And still more price cuts: We've just updated our Upcoming Price Cuts pages with fifty more price cuts scheduled between June 3^rd and July 1^st, this time around from Columbia TriStar. Titles include the classic Ray Harryhausen fantasies Jason and the Argonauts, The Golden Voyage of Sinbad, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, and Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger, the 1950s science-fiction classics 20 Million Miles to Earth, First Men in the Moon, and Earth vs. the Flying Saucer, as well as the Superbit release of Panic Room.

When is that new movie coming to DVD? There's been relatively little movement this week. The only title new to the list is last week's #1 movie Anger Management, which should join the other actor-driven comedies Head of State and Bringing Down the House for an August release. Bringing Down the House, incidentally, has been given an official release date of August 5^th. Dates have also been announced for Final Destination 2 (August 22nd), and The Quiet American has been moved up two weeks to August 15th. First-time preorders are now up for Daredevil (in widescreen and fullscreen versions, July 29th), and Biker Boyz (in widescreen and fullscreen versions), and Tears Of the Sun (both June 10th). Keep an eye out this week for new preorders for Solaris and Bringing Down the House.

...And more price cuts: Dropping from $24.99-$29.99 to $9.99 are sixteen titles from Image Entertainment -- titles which should rightfully be given away for free in an open box by the door (Hollywood Vice Squad, Godmoney, etc.). The price drop was effective April 1^st, and appear on our Current Price Cuts page.

15% Borders coupon?: A 15%-off-your-total-purchase Borders coupon is available, this one valid through April 25^th; the coupon specifies "Valid only at Borders Fort Lee-area (NJ) locations," and in a separate spot states "Redeemable in all area Borders stores." Print it out, then bring it to your local Borders store for the discount. As usual, this offer excludes previous purchases, purchase of gift certificates, shipping charges, non-stock special orders, used or out-of-print titles, newspapers, magazines, comics, and membership fees, and the 10% may be combined with the "Borders Preferred" discount. If you have coupons from other geographical areas please let us know and we will post then, as well as any reports on out-of-area redemption.

Disney/Buena Vista price cuts: We've just updated our Price Cuts pages with sixty price cuts scheduled between June 3^rd and July 1^st from Disney, Buena Vista, and the BV family of studios.

Harry Potter hits the streets: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is selling briskly today, although reportedly not at the rate seen on release date of the first film. The cheapest mass-merchant brick-and-mortar price is $14.99 at Target and Circuit City, with Target offering a free 2-liter bottle of Coke (Coca Cola is a merchandising partner of the film).

Universal price cuts: We've posted Universal's June 3^rd price cuts, which will include A.I. Artificial Intelligence (both widescreen and fullscreen versions, dropping from $29.99 to $19.99), A Beautiful Mind (widescreen and fullscreen, also dropping to $19.99), and Big Fat Liar (dropping from $24.99 to $19.99), among others. Also added are four "B" titles dropping to $14.98 on May 6^th: Seduced: Pretty When You Cry, Rock My World, The Street King, and Looking For an Echo.

When is that new movie coming to DVD? New to the list: Piglet and Head of State are set for the dog days of August, while September will bring The Core, A Man Apart, Phone Booth, View From the Top, and What A Girl Wants. Travolta's Basic is being dumped the Tuesday following the 4^th of July in a short three-month window, and Solaris and Daredevil finally have official dates: both will street on July 29^th. First-time preorders are now up for six of the titles: November's Santa Clause 2, July's How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days (fullscreen and widescreen versions) and Shanghai Knights, and June's Dark Blue, Deliver Us From Eva ( fullscreen and widescreen versions), and Old School (in three versions: R-rated fullscreen, and unrated fullscreen, and unrated widescreen). For the complete list of when current theatrical features are expected on DVD -- before they are officially announced -- click here.

More TV series: NBC has announced full-season DVD box sets of the TV series Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman (Season 1, April 29^th), Homicide (May 27^th), Profiler (June 24^th), Kingpin (July 22^nd), Will & Grace (August 12^th), Providence (October), and -- God help us -- Saved by the Bell (Seasons 1 and 2, Sept. 2^nd). A five-disc 25th anniversary set of Saturday Night Live is also due in July, and a full-season box set of Little House On the Prairie is currently in the works.

April DVD Empire coupons: We currently have three coupons for DVD Empire, each valid until the end of April:

• 476791 -- $5 off $40
• 476793 -- $10 off $150
• 476795 -- $15 off $250

Futurama, Season 2: The second season of Matt Groening's Futurama, when the series began hitting its stride, has been announced for September 2^nd.

10% Best Buy coupon: Best Buy stores are offering 10% off on most items, including DVDs, CDs, video games and consoles, through tomorrow. Click here for the coupon; print it out, and bring it in. One coupon per person and household if the cashiers remember you, and is not valid for online purchases at Bestbuy.com. Although not necessarily valid on sale prices, it may be combined with bundled specials; for instance, the Nintendo Gameboy Advance SP (with bundled free carrying case) for $99 - $9.90.

When is that new movie coming to DVD? New to the list: Stephen King's Dreamcatcher, is being planned for a September DVD release; if it does well this opening weekend, look for a 2-DVD set. Agent Cody Banks will likely be out in August, before the school year begins and the film's target demographic gets too busy to rent or buy. As mentioned in our "Breaking News," now that the Oscars are done most of the eagerly-expected titles have had official release dates announced (and are being offered for presale by the online stores) this week. Besides the titles already mentioned yesterday, preorders are now up for Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, The Quiet American, Jungle Book 2, Kangaroo Jack, and Wes Craven's They. For the complete list of when current theatrical features are expected on DVD, click here.

Oscar DVDs announced: Following the Academy Awards, a slew of A-list titles have been officially announced for DVD release, including About Schmidt (June 3), Frida (2-DVD set, June 10), The Hours (June 24), and Gangs of New York (July 1). Other major titles will be announced within days, and we will be updating our "When is that new movie coming to DVD? page by tomorrow.

Chicago, Madonna the big winners: As expected, Chicago wa the evening's big winner, with five Oscars including Best Picture (although its sole acting win was Catherine Zeta-Jones for Supporting Actress). Other big winners were Nicole Kidman for The Hours, Chris Cooper for Adaptation, and -- surprisingly -- Adrien Brody in The Pianist beating out Daniel Day-Lewis's turn in Gangs Of New York. On the Razzies front, following the opening musical number "All That RAZZ!," Britney Spears and Madonna tied for Worst Actress. The sucktastic Swept Away became the first film to win both Worst Picture and Worst Remake, as well as the achievement of being the lowest-grossing Worst Picture in the 23 years of Razzies (less than $600,000; even Pauly Shore movies make more money). Its other awards were for Worst Screen Couple and Worst Director. Madonna also copped Worst Supporting Actress for her role as a fencing instructor in Die Another Day. Madonna and Guy Ritchie are the first Husband-and-Wife / Worst-Director-and-Worst Actress Razzie winning team since John and Bo Derek.

Barry Diller quits Universal: Barry Diller has resigned as co-CEO of Vivendi Universal Entertainment (which includes Universal Studios and Universal’s theme parks). Diller said that he felt it was appropriate while the company entertains bids for VUE’s assets.

Matrix unloaded: Without commenting on details, Warners has cancelled the planned April 29^th release of The Matrix Special Edition DVD. The studio will instead re-release both the original Matrix and the two-pack Matrix / Matrix Revisited DVDs with price reductions, at $19.99 and $34.98, respectively. Both releases will include a mail-in movie ticket for May 15^th's The Matrix: Reloaded and a $3 mail-in rebate for The Animatrix DVD, still scheduled for June 3^rd.

Adaptation set for May 20^th: Columbia TriStar has announced that the quadruple-Oscar-nominee Adaptation will be released to home video on May 20^th in a $26.98 MSRP Superbit DVD.

Half.com to close: eBay has announced that they intend to shutter Half.com sometime in Q4 2004, as the auction site completes absorbing the merchandise, user IDs, customer feedback and log-on processes into appropriate categories on their own site. eBay purchased Half.com in July, 2000, hoping to turn it into a competitor of Amazon.

Die Another Day details: MGM has released the specs for the first 2-DVD Bond film, Die Another Day. The details are as follows:

Harry Potter now filming: Second-unit filming began last night at London's Borough Market for the third book, Harry Potter & The Prisoner of Azkaban, and they have now been joined by the main cast and the primary filming unit for scenes centering on the Knight Bus.

Price Cuts Again: We've posted six new price cuts on some MGM A-list titles. June 7^th will see The Terminator (Special Edition, with new packaging) dropping from $26.98 to $19.98, to coincide with Artisan's T2: Extreme Edition and the theatrical release of T3: The Rise Of the Machines. On May 6^th -- a huge day for price cuts from many studios -- MGM will be dropping five titles from $19.98 to $14.95: Robocop, the 1980s remakes of Blow Out and Dressed To Kill, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and Get Shorty.

Really, Really Special Editions: Joining the June release of Universal's The Fast And the Furious: Tricked-Out Edition and Artisan's T2: Extreme Edition, and from MGM the three-DVD Dances With Wolves: Special (but not Extreme, Ultimate or Tricked Out) Edition, MGM will also be releasing a three-DVD "Director's (but not Extreme, Ultimate, Tricked Out, or otherwise Special) Edition" of John Woo's Windtalkers. The set will be a four-page fanfold digipak with an MSRP of $39.95. Disc 1 will contain the film itself along with 20 minutes of new footage and three commentary tracks. Disc 2 ("Beyond The Story") will feature the documentary "The Code Talkers -- A Secret Code of Honor," a WWII tribute piece "American Heroes: A Tribute to Navajo Code Talkers," and a featurette on the music of the film. Disc 3 ("Behind The Scenes") will include a multi-angle versions of four key scenes, four "fly on the set" scene diaries, an "Actor's Boot Camp" featurette, and the standard photo gallery and biography pages.

Dances With Wolves: MGM has announced the DVD release of the extended version of Dances With Wolves for May 20^th. The original 181-minute feature was released in its theatrical version, then an expanded 236-minute version on laserdisc several many ago; more recently the 181-minute cut was released on DVD, while an extended 223-minute version was sold on VHS (the releasing studio, Image, elected to release the theatrical version of the film on DVD because the 6-channel soundtrack elements did not exist for the additional scenes). MGM will be releasing the 236-minute version (with "never-before-seen additional scenes," assuming you never saw the laserdisc) in 5.1 Dolby Digital and 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen, which will be an improvement over the slightly matted 2.50:1 widescreen of the previous DVD incarnation. Two commentary tracks will be included (one with Kevin Costner and Producer Jim Wilson, the second with Director of Photography Dean Semler and Editor Neil Travis), as well as documentaries and featurettes. MGM will be promoting the DVD with a "Buy-1-Get-1-Free" offer: along with the purchase of the Dances With Wolves DVD, you may choose from a selection of forty (40) MGM Special Edition DVDs, with MSRPs ranging from $14.95 - $29.98.

Additional Price Cuts: As promised, we've updated our Price Cuts pages with a massive price reductions list from Warner Bros., New Line, National Geographic, and some smaller studios (including the Warners-distributed Stanley Kubrick titles, dropping from $5 to $19.98 on June 3^rd); we've also added thirty new price drops from Universal and Twentieth-Century Fox, including Mulholland Drive, dropping from $32.98 to $19.98 on April 1^st.

More Price Cuts: We've added another twenty-three (23) price reductions from Columbia/Tri-Star, including A Few Good Men (Special Edition) (dropping from $29.95 to $14.95 on May 6^th) and Christopher Nolan (Memento)'s debut film Following ($24.95 to $19.95 on April 1^st). By tomorrow we will be posting an additional 150 price cuts from Warner Bros., New Line, National Geographic, and other studios.

New Price Cuts: On our Price Cuts pages we've just posted another 80 titles that are scheduled to be effective in April and May (and a few which were cut by surprise just this past week) from Disney and Buena Vista.

Oscar nominations: Thirteen is the number. Chicago leads with 13 nominations, and Meryl Streep -- failing to earn a best-actress nomination for The Hours -- has a supporting-actress nomination for Adaptation, giving her 13 career nominations and passing Katharine Hepburn as the most-nominated actor/actress ever. The major categories are:

Best Picture:
• Chicago
• Gangs Of New York
• The Hours
• Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers
• The Pianist

Best Actor:
• Adrien Brody (The Pianist)
• Nicolas Cage (Adaptation)
• Michael Caine (The Quiet American)
• Daniel Day-Lewis (Gangs of New York)
• Jack Nicholson (Abouty Schmidt)

Best Actress:
• Salma Hayek (Frida)
• Nicole Kidman (The Hours)
• Diane Lane (Unfaithful)
• Julianne Moore (Far From Heaven)
• Renée Zellweger (Chicago)

Best Supporting Actor:
• Chris Cooper (Adaptation)
• Ed Harris (The Hours)
• Paul Newman (Road To Perdition)
• John C. Reilly (Chicago)
• Christopher Walken (Catch Me If You Can)

Best Supporting Actress:
• Kathy Bates (Abouty Schmidt)
• Julianne Moore (The Hours)
• Queen Latifah (Chicago)
• Meryl Streep (Adaptation)
• Catherine Zeta-Jones (Chicago)

Best Director:
• Rob Marshall (Chicago)
• Martin Scorsese (Gangs of New York)
• Stephen Daldry (The Hours)
• Roman Polanski (The Pianist)
• Pedro Almodóvar (Talk To Her)

The full nominee list may be viewed at http://www.oscar.com/nominees/nomineelist.html.

Borders coupon: Another 10%-off-your-total-purchase Borders coupon is available, this one valid today through February 14^th. Print it out, then bring it to your local Borders store for the discount. As usual, this offer excludes previous purchases, purchase of gift certificates, shipping charges, non-stock special orders, used or out-of-print titles, newspapers, magazines, comics, and membership fees, and the 10% may be combined with the "Borders Preferred" discount. Note that while the coupon states that "original coupon must be redeemed," the printout for this week's coupon is considered the original. This coupon is redundant with the previously-posted 10% coupon (which is valid until the 17^th).

Online orders to be taxed: An agreement reached between 38 states and the District of Columbia last November went into effect this week, requiring some online retailers -- known entities include Toys "R" Us, Wal-Mart, Target, and Marshall Fields, although others may be involved -- to begin charging sales tax on orders that ship after February 2^nd. In exchange for signing onto the agreement, the retailers will not be held liable for back sales taxes they may owe. There is currently a moratorium on so-called "discriminatory" Internet sales taxes (i.e., taxes that wouldn't be levied on offline sales, such as telephone or catalog orders) that expires in November.

The Sopranos vs. Best Buy: James Gandolfini and seven other cast members of the HBO series The Sopranos (Lorraine Bracco, Edie Falco, Michael Imperioli, Steven Van Zandt, Tony Sirico, Robert Iler and Jamie-Lynn Sigler) have filed suits against Best Buy in Los Angeles County Superior Court. According to the suit, in February 2002 Best Buy ran an ad in newspaper inserts for a DirecTV promotion, in which a publicity picture of the cast from the show was included.

Batman Returns, again: Chris Nolan, director of Memento and Insomnia, has inked a deal to revive the Batman franchise for Warner Brothers. Details of the project not known at this time, but we assume that the plot will reveal that 1997's Batman and Robin was only a fever dream.

Amazon.com free shipping: Amazon.com has announced that it is keeping its free domestic U.S. "Super Saver" shipping on orders of $25 or more for the rest of the year, according to Amazon's CFO Tom Szkutak. Analysts credited the free shipping incentive for boosting Amazon’s sales in 2002, leading to this afternoon's announcement of the e-tailer's second-ever quarterly profit.

Amazon.ca free shipping: Amazon.ca announced today that they will be offering free "Super Saver" shipping throughout Canada on orders of $39CAD or more (or roughly $25 US) for the duration of 2003. Although the offer does not carry over to shipping addresses outside of Canada, this is a sign that Amazon.com may keep its $25-or-more free shipping. More as we hear it...

10% in-store Borders coupon: Borders has released a 10%-off (your total purchase) coupon good only at its brick-and-mortar stores until February 17^th. Click here to display the coupon; print it out, then bring it to your local Borders store for the discount. The offer excludes previous purchases, purchase of gift certificates, shipping charges, non-stock special orders, used or out-of-print titles, newspapers, magazines, comics, and membership fees, and the 10% may be combined with the "Borders Preferred" discount. Note that while the coupon states that "original coupon must be redeemed," the printout for this week's coupon is considered the original.

Site fix: We've repaired a problem that had affected some of our users related to a film's summary description in the "DVD Details" pop-up window. The Details window is linked to the "New Titles" list that appears in VideoTropic's right-hand column, as well as to titles mentioned here in Breaking News. The information should now be complete for all users.

Harry Potter set for April 11^th: Warner has set a street date of April 11^th for the 2-DVD Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. MSRP for the set -- available in both widescreen and fullscreen versions -- will be $29.95. Per Warner Home Video, features for the set include:

• Nineteen additional/extended scenes;
• Self-guided tours, which for the first time include background characters, that give viewers an up-close experience, allowing them to linger on the details of the Chamber of Secrets, Dumbledore's office and Diagon Alley -- including places never shown in the film, such as more Diagon Alley shops, the sitting room in Dumbledore's office and more;
• Interviews with Daniel Radcliffe (Harry), Rupert Grint (Ron), Emma Watson (Hermione) and other cast members who talk about making the film, favorite scenes, what their friends think and more;
• An exclusive interview with author J.K. Rowling and screenwriter Steve Kloves about rendering the adventure to the screen;
• Fun-filled activities allow viewers to escape the Forbidden Forest, sneak into the Chamber and more;
• Visit Lockhart's class, and get a closer look at his photos and memorabilia through the use of still galleries.

• The One VoiceDVD technology will allow users to navigate through the DVD-ROM features and access set-top features using only their voices;
• An animated, interactive Hogwarts timeline provides important dates in Hogwarts history with mini pop-up videos from the Harry Potter films;
• A slider puzzle challenge featuring motion video;
• Printable magic trading cards to collect and share with friends;
• Jigsaw puzzles, matching challenges, downloadable screensavers and more.

CSI to be fullscreen?: The first-season CSI: Crime Scene Investigation box set (6 DVDs, March 25^th) will apparently be full-frame, not widescreen. The Paramount show is produced in 16:9 1080i high-def, and is shown that way on digital HDTV CBS affiliates; non-HD full-frame broadcasts are cropped from the widescreen feed.

Armageddon, Part 2: With a $17.7 million box office, Kangaroo Jack was the #1 film of the weekend, guaranteeing a theatrical sequel and a depressing stream of made-for-videos.

New titles: Now available for preorder from at least one online store are:

• The Ring (3/4)
• 8 Mile (3/18)
• Maid In Manhattan (3/25)
• The Truth About Charlie (4/1)
• Red Dragon (4/1) (also available in a movie-only version)
• Treasure Planet (4/29)
• X-Files: Season 7 (5/13)
• Dark Angel: Season 1 (5/20)

Mixed results at the Golden Globes: There was no Titanic-like sweep at the Golden Globes, with Chicago winning for Best Comedy/Musical, Actor/CM (Richard Gere) and Actress/CM (Renee Zellweger), The Hours for Best Drama and Actress/Drama (Nicole Kidman), About Schmidt for best Actor/Drama (Jack Nicholson) and Screenplay, and Adaptation for Best Supporting Actress (Meryl Streep) and Supporting Actor (Chris Cooper).

MST3K Collection 2 details: The next 4-DVD Mystery Science Theater Collection (MSRP $59.95, streeting February 11^th) will contain:

• Angel's Revenge (Season 6, Mike)
• Cave Dwellers (S3, Joel)
• Pod People (S3, Joel)
• Shorts Vol. 1 (featuring "The Home Economics Story," "Junior Rodeo Daredevils," "Body Care & Grooming," "Cheating," "A Date With Your Family," "Why Study Industrial Arts?" and "Chicken of Tomorrow")

Tentatively scheduled for April 8^th is Collection 3, with:

• The Sidehackers (S2, Joel)
• The Unearthly (S3, Joel, with shorts "Posture Pals" and "Appreciating Our Parents")
• The Atomic Brain (S5, Mike, with short "What About Juvenile Delinquency?")
• Shorts Vol. 2 (featuring "Catching Trouble," "What To Do On A Date," "Last Clear Chance," "A Day At The Fair," "Keeping Clean & Neat" and "The Days of Our Years")

When is that new movie coming to DVD? For new theater releases, quite a few titles have been moved into April -- making it a bigger release month than the usual big-release month of May. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Analyze That have been moved up from May, and Punch Drunk Love (4/1) moved back from March, to join Sandler's Eight Crazy Nights. With April socked in, many less-imposing films have been moved back into March, including Eminem's 8 Mile, Jackass, and a surprising two-month leap for Maid In Manhattan (which should be available for preorder any minute now). As for newly-available presales, the online shops are now beginning to Half Past Dead, Friday After Next, Jackass, and The Ring (as well as the oiginal Japanese version, Ringu, for the first time on video). For those visitors new to VideoTropic: This list compiles word that we receive from the studios on when movies currently in theatrical release are being prepped for video; generally, we first hear shortly after opening weekend. Like television schedules, these are subject to revision as each studio sees what other studios are planning; but because an exact release Tuesday has not yet been signed off on those titles appearing here without parenthetical dates, we aren't yet including them on our Upcoming Titles pages. Titles and dates in red are new to the list.

October 2003:
• Santa Clause 2

July 2003:
• Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

June 2003:
• Antwone Fisher
• Chicago
• Gangs of New York
• Just Married

May 2003:
• About Schmidt (5/1)
• Catch Me If You Can
• Drumline
• The Emperor's Club
• The Hot Chick
• Solaris
• Star Trek: Nemesis
• They (Wes Craven)
• Two Weeks Notice
• The Wild Thornberrys

April 2003:
• 8 Crazy Nights (Adam Sandler)
• Analyze That (Moved from May)
• Bowling For Columbine (4/22) (Moved from March)
• Die Another Day (James Bond)
• Far From Heaven
• Frida
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Moved from May)
• Punch Drunk Love (4/1) (Moved from March)
• Red Dragon (Moved from March)
• The Transporter
• Treasure Planet (4/29)

March 2003:
• 8 Mile (3/18) (Moved from April)
• Abandon (3/18)
• Empire (3/18) (Moved from May)
• Friday After Next (3/25) (Moved from 3/18)>
• Ghost Ship (3/28) (Moved from April)
• Half Past Dead (3/4) (Moved from April)
• I Spy (3/11)
• Jackass: The Movie (3/25) (Moved from April)
• Jonah: A Veggie Tales Movie (3/4)
• Maid In Manhattan (3/25) (Moved from May)
• The Ring (3/4)
• Swimfan: (3/11)
• White Oleander (3/11) (Moved from 3/18)

February 2003:
• Brown Sugar (2/11)
• City By The Sea (2/18)
• Formula 51 (2/4)
• The Four Feathers (2/18)
• Full Frontal (2/11)
• Igby Goes Down (2/4)
• Knockaround Guys (2/25)
• My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2/11)
• One-Hour Photo (2/18)
• Possession (2/11)
• Road To Perdition (2/25)
• Rules of Attraction (2/18)
• Spy Kids 2 (2/18)
• Stealing Harvard (2/18)
• Sweet Home Alabama (2/4)
• Swept Away (2/11)
• Tuck Everlasting (2/25)
• The Tuxedo (Jackie Chan) (2/25)

January 2003:
• About A Boy (1/14)
• The Banger Sisters (1/28)
• Blue Crush (1/14)
• The Bourne Identity (1/21)
• Fear Dot Com (1/14)
• Master of Disguise (1/28)
• Serving Sara (1/28)
• Simone (1/21)
• Tadpole (1/21)
• Undercover Brother (1/14)

The future of free shipping: Jeff Bezos of Amazon has mentioned in a news conference at CES that he will speak about the future of Amazon's free-shipping promotion during the company's quarterly earnings conference call on Jan. 23^rd. Currently, basic shipping is free on most items in orders of $25 or more; in VideoTropic's estimate, it is likely that Amazon will revert to its original threshhold value of $49 in February. We will be covering the call as it happens.

Costco coupon: This week, the Price/Costco warehouse club is distributing in-store coupons, valid January 13-19, good for $4 off a selection of Buena Vista DVDs normally tagged at $12.99 . The selection "varies by store"; shown on the coupon are Amelie, Kate & Leopold, Bridget Jones's Diary, and Tombstone. All titles will be taken from the Buena Vista January $19.99 DVD Showcase; a list of the titles in the showcase is available here. For those who cannot get to a Costco this week, VideoTropic has a limited number of the coupons available. If you need a coupon, send us your mailing address via our Contact page form, and we will fulfill requests in the order they were received. Requests must be made through our Contact page form (not the supplied e-mail link), and because of the limited number available we must limit requests to one per person per address.

Grammy nominations: Click here to view the 61-page list of 2003 Grammy^® nominations.

DeCSS is free again: The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to rule on a long-running dispute over the DVD descrambling utility DeCSS, effectively making the software distributable once again. The case was first brought against Matthew Pavlovich by a coalition of movie studios and electronics manufacturers in 1999, but the emergency stay was dropped by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor on Friday, essentially removing the case from the Supreme Court's docket.

Muppets sold: At long last, the Muppets have been sold. German licensing firm EM.TV (not to be confused with EdTV) has signed a letter of intent to sell the domestic U.S. rights to the Muppets to former UPN head Dean Valentine for an undisclosed price. Some years ago Disney -- which owned a minority stake in the Muppets -- had intended to purchase the controlling stake, but the agreement was nullified upon the death of Jim Henson, and EM.TV (who will retain a 50.1% majority stake of the equity under the agreement) purchased the company outright in 2000. EM.TV had been criticized with letting the characters languish, and it was only in an attempt to boost the franchise's value that they permitted Buena Vista -- still a minority stakeholder -- to allow Muppet titles to begin appearing on DVD (such as The Muppet Christmas Carol and the Best Of The Muppet Show series) and TV (It's a Very Muppet Christmas Movie, for NBC).

Yet more price cuts: As promised earlier, we've just posted another thirty price reductions on our Price Cuts pages, most being reduced to $10-15 and effective immediately. Studios include Fox, Universal, and Leo.

Updates: We've been following the problems with the framing on the Back To The Future trilogy, and will be reporting on Universal's reply later on. In the meantime, we've finished major updates to both our Upcoming Titles and DVD New Announcements databases (including price and release date corrections), and will be expanding our Price Cuts pages with new additions. We here at VideoTropic would also like to take this opportunity to thank you for your comments and suggestions over this past year, and to wish you all a wonderful Christmas.

And even more price cuts: We've just posted another 42 titles on our Price Cuts pages, including titles from Anchor Bay, Avalanche, First Look, Image, Trimark, and Ventura. This is the third set of price reductions we've posted this week, and there are more to come.

Futurama coming: VideoTropic gave you an exclusive on this a few weeks ago, but it's now official: Fox will be releasing Futurama: Volume One on March 25^th, with an MSRP of $39.98. The three-disc box set will feature an audio commentary on all the episodes (where does Matt Groening find the time?), as well as the animatics for "Space Pilot 3000", eight deleted scenes, a featurette, and an interactive still-and-video gallery. This is actually a first-season box set with thirteen episodes, but the odd airing schedule of the show resulted in nine episodes being aired March-May 1999, followed by the remainder of the season's production -- four episodes -- airing 9/26/99 - 11/14/99, with the second season beginning the following week. As of this writing DVD Empire is the first online store to offer the title on preorderat the price of $31.98.

And more price cuts: We've just posted an additional hundred and ten price cuts, including Universal and some more Disney / Buena Vista titles. This brings the two-day total to over three hundred, and there are more to come...

The return of price cuts! The justifiably popular Price Cuts pages are back on the external VideoTropic site after an absence here of several months. We've got just short of two hundred new titles listed from Fox, Warners, Disney / Buena Vista, New Line, and other studios, including a large number due for price cuts in the first week of February; most of these were announced too recently to be reflected in the online stores' databases, although this is expected to change within the week.

CDThen: CDNow's domain now redirects browsers to Amazon; a "CDNow" co-branded header is now the last visual vestige of the one-time top-trafficked music website. CDNow is still reflected in the back-office, however, as the site's somewhat more extreme video title selection is now available through Amazon, which had previously shied away from the more hardcore adult titles. Because the redirects are not title-specific, VideoTropic will be removing CDNow from its store list this week.

Star Trek news: With the theatrical opening of Star Trek: Nemesis looming for next week, Paramount has announced that the next Star Trek film to be presented in a double-disc special edition, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, will be released on March 4^th. As promised in the audio commentary for ST3: The Search For Spock, the DVD will include a feature-length commentary with both Leaonard Nimoy and William Shatner; also included will be another of the series' excellent text commentaries by "The Star Trek Encyclopedia" writers Michael and Denise Okuda. The supplementary disc will contain twelve featurettes, as well as storyboards and other featurettes. Voyage Home was the highest-grossing Star Trek Film until the ninth film in the series, First Contact, which surpassed the earlier film due to increased ticket prices rather than larger audience. In other Paramount / Star Trek news, with the seventh and last Star Trek: The Next Generation season set being released later this month Paramount has announced its new boxed-set series: Deep Space Nine: Season 1, a six-disc set to be released on February 25^th.

CDNow shifting operations to Amazon: With the shuttering of CDNow's Fort Washington offices and the laying-off of its thirty-three remaining employees there, CDNow's online operations will now be run by Amazon in a partnership that retains CDNow's website (currently run by BeMusic here in New York), but shifts services to Amazon. We are trying to determine the extent of the services that Amazon will be assuming within ordering and fulfillment; if they are to be fully responsible for stock, then we will be seeing massive inventory and price changes (both up and down) effective December 3^rd. Information about this shift has been released slowly over the past week, and we will continue to keep close watch on developments. If you have any CDNow gift certificates, safety urges applying them before the end of the month.

VideoTropic welcomes Amazon.ca: We are pleased to announce that Amazon.ca, the Canadian site of Amazon.com, has joined our database listings. Due to the current exchange rate (currently about $CAD 1 = $US 1.57), very significant savings can be had on many titles for U.S. customers by ordering through Amazon.ca. For instance:

• X-Files Season 6:

  List price:	$149.98
  Amazon.com:	$112.49
  Amazon.ca:	$ 78.46

• The Outer Limits, Season 1:

  List price:	$ 79.96
  Amazon.com:	$ 59.97
  Amazon.ca:	$ 38.21

• Star Trek: TNG, Season 7:

  List price:	$134.99
  Amazon.com:	$ 99.99
  Amazon.ca:	$ 75.30

Stanley Kubrick DVD: At last, the bonus DVD Stanley Kubrick: A Life In Pictures will be available separately from the multidisk Stanley Kubrick Collection. On December 10^th, Warners is releasing the DVD packaged with the similarly-named book by his daughter Christiane Kubrick. The list price is $50 for the set ($40 for the book alone), and is available from Amazon for $37.48 and free shipping.

And the number is...: $87.7 million for Harry Potter, putting it in third place behind Spider-Man's $114.8 million and the $90.3 earned by the first Harry Potter film.

We're back: Most of you have noticed that we've been away on business for the past week. As always, our priorities are to respond to our most urgent e-mail inquiries, then update the site data; corporate customers should expect replies before noon today.

Borders / Waldenbooks / Brentanos coupon: Borders has posted a coupon for 20% off purchases between November 15-18 at their brick-and-mortar stores, as well as sister stores Waldenbooks and Brentanos. Maximum DVD discount is 10% at the latter two chains, but apparently 20% at Borders; discount is also 10% for electronics and videogames at all three chains, and is not valid on periodicals or special orders.

Clothes call: Amazon has launched their Apparel store with an offer from the good old days: a $30 Amazon.com promotional certificate with any apparel purchase of $50 or more. Details are here. The fine print is as follows:

• The promotional certificate is good on non-apparel items (such as DVDs and electronics);
• It will be e-mailed within six (6) weeks of the order;
• The certificate will then be good for six (6) weeks from the date of the e-mail;
• It cannot be used at international Amazon sites such as amazon.ca, or at Amazon Z-Shops or for Amazon's co-branded partners such as Circuit City or Office Depot.

Spider-Man defeats Monsters: The DVD release of Spider-Man sold 5.5 million DVDs and 1.5 million VHS copies on street date (Friday, November 1^st)), passing the previous record held (briefly) by Monsters, Inc., which sold 5 million (total DVD + VHS) on its release date. By this morning, Spider-Man has reportedly sold 8.5 million DVDs (plus another 2.5 million VHS tapes). Much of the success of this title has been the low $18 wholesale price-point set for the DVDS, with many stores such as Wal-Mart and Circuit City carrying the title for $14.99 as a loss leader.

Apocalypse watch: In the battle between Good and Evil, Armageddon-watchers are calling this a draw. For the forces of Good, Madonna's Swept Away was kicked out of theaters for a theatrical release of only two weeks (the video release will be announced just as soon as the glass master is checked out by the Centers For Disease Control). However, the forces of Evil -- in a staggering triumph -- gave Jackass: The Movie the number one spot this weekend with a box-office take of $22.7 million.

New Review: We've posted our preview of The Sum Of All Fears (Collector's Edition), hitting the streets on October 29^th.

Site updates: We've added a new feature to our site in order to help you find the information you're looking for. Links in the "New Titles" list in our right-side frame will now open up a pop-up window containing available details of the title, as well as a list of current online prices and appropriate links to the title's page at each store (note, you must have pop-up windows enabled for now; we're working on an inline version for newer browsers). We've also used this pop-up for the list of films in our Breaking News feature "When is that new movie coming to DVD?" In the future, this will be added for titles as they become available for preorder; this generally occurs a few days after official dates are announced by the studios.

Roger Rabbit on March 25^th: Buena Vista is prepping its groundbreaking live-with-animation collaboration Who Framed Roger Rabbit? for release as a 2-DVD set on March 25^th. The set will include the audio commentary from the previous laserdisc release, two scenes from an "Invisible Man" movie where actors were filmed doing their scenes with rubber dolls being held and carried around by people approximating where the toon characters would be drawn in later (at least one of these scenes also appeared on the laserdisc), the three Roger Rabbit shorts (1989's Tummy Trouble, which played with Honey, I Shrunk The Kids; 1990's Rollercoaster Rabbit, which played with Dick Tracy; and 1993's Trail Mixup, which played with A Far Off Place), a 15-minute featurette entitled Who Made Roger Rabbit which features new footage of the title character, again voiced by Charles Fleischer, and animated menus that were recently filmed at Hollywood's Ren-Mar Studios (which in the film stood in for the fictional Maroon Studios).

Phone Booth to be delayed?: Mirroring the delay last year of Warner's Collateral Damage and Disney's Big Trouble due to unforeseen thematic echoes of September 11^th, Fox is considering pulling Joel Schumacher's from its planned November 15^th theatrical release date due to some plot similarities to the D.C.-area sniper attacks. The film (which takes place in New York City) concerns a randomly-selected man (Colin Farrell) who is trapped in a phone booth by a deranged sniper (Kiefer Sutherland).

Best Buy changes their privacy policy: Best Buy will be changing their privacy policy on October 27^th. The new policy permits them to share customer information, including credit card info and personal preferences, with other "Best Buy companies" (which includes BestBuy.com, Media Play (MediaPlay.com), Sam Goody (SamGoody.com), Sun Coast (SunCoast.com) and Future Shop (FutureShop.ca) (click here for the old policy, and here for the new one). In what is an unfortunate trend, the new privacy policy is opt-out rather than opt-in; Best Buy is sending e-mails to its online customers which includes a customized link to an opt-out page for that account. Opt out requests must be received no later than November 4^th. If you have not received an e-mail, Best Buy claims that you may also opt-out in any of the following means:

• Call 1-888-BEST BUY
• Send an email with your current contact information to PrivacyManager@bestbuy.com
• Send a request with your current contact information to:

In the not-too-distant future...: Sneaking in under the radar, Rhino is releasing the 4-DVD Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection Volume One on November 12^th. The set includes the four top fan-requested episodes, Catalina Caper (with Joel, from the second season), Bloodlust, The Skydivers, and The Creeping Terror (all from the sixth season, with Mike), along with the four films complete without commentary, original theatrical trailers for the first three titles, and "interactive character wheel packaging, including moveable spaceship pull tag." MSRP for the collection has been set at $59.95, and as of this writing is not yet available for preorder at the major online stores.

New Review: We've posted our look at The Scorpion King (Collector's Edition), due out today in both widescreen and pan & scan versions.

Lord Of The Rings PPV delayed: New Line has decided to delay the airing of the 3-1/2-hour extended version of Lord Of The Rings on DirecTV for one week, until December 1^st.

*Yawn*: No, VideoTropic has not been on vacation; with the studios having completed their important Q4 slate, this has been one of the quietest DVD news weeks in months. This should be changing this week, however, with at least some January announcements due. We have also been working on a new list of price cuts, as well as a few new additions to the site.

Extended Lord Of The Rings PPV: DirecTV will be premiering the "exclusive for DVD" 3-1/2-hour extended version of Lord Of The Rings (due out from New Line on November 12^th) only thirteen days after the release of the DVD. The pay-per-view presentation is incurring the anger of video retailers as a violation of their agreed-to window, but the move actually falls within a gray area; does the extended version qualify as a new movie, or does it remain under the legal terms of the original release? (We here at VideoTropic suspect that this will be the "shot heard 'round the world" in the adaptation of window agreements to cover modifications to the original title.) The original version of the film began running on DirecTV PPV on September 5^th; for an additional $1, DirecTV customers have also been able to view an hours' worth of extra footage, culled from the previous release of the DVD -- with the exception of the 10-minute behind-the-scenes peek at the sequel, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, billed as exclusive to the upcoming 4-DVD set. For their part, DirecTV claims that the inclusion of the trailer was "a mistake" -- yet the preview continues to run.

Minority Report on December 17^th: Fox and DreamWorks has confirmed a street date of December 17^th for its Tom Cruise summer movie Minority Report, adding yet another title to an already-crowded fourth quarter. Releasing to stores on the same Tuesday as the trilogy, the title will have no MSRP and a MAP (Minimum Advertised Price) of $19.99.

Amazon & Office Depot: Amazon has entered into a multi-year agreement with Office Depot that permits Amazon to sell Office Depot merchandise on the Amazon site (at http://www.amazon.com/office). As in Amazon's partnership with Circuit City, customers purchasing from the site may choose between having the items shipped, or picking them up at their local Office Depot store.

Sex & The City reminder: This Sunday's episode, "I Love a Charade," is the season finale. For our part in it -- sitting next to SJP (Carrie) at Nathan Lane's wedding, and dancing at the reception (look for the blue blazer) -- we have been tapped for the Bess Flowers Award for "Outstanding Nameless Non-Speaking Extra in a Comedy Series." Send us an e-mail if you catch the show. Or if you know who Bess Flowers was.

Bertelsmann to sell online book units?: German media giant Bertelsmann AG’s new management appears to be quietly dropping its e-business departments. They are holding preliminary talks with Amazon to sell its primary online book site bol.com, and appear to be ready to sell their 35% stake in bn.com (Barnes & Noble's online site). Bol.com is the company's major book-and-music site in Europe and Asia and is the world's second-largest online bookseller, although at $90 million in annual sales it is a distant second to Amazon.

New review: From a personal standpoint probably the toughest disk we've had to review, this morning we've posted our look at next week's 9/11: The Filmmakers' Commemorative Edition. On the lighter side, we're also finishing up our examination of this week's Star Trek: The Next Generation: Season 4, and hope to have it posted soon.

Upcoming Special Editions: We've updated our Upcoming Special Editions page with details on Special Editions currently in development, based on information from the studios, trade newspapers and other sources. New titles and updated information on previously-listed titles are highlighted in red. This new update includes details on such films as Eight Legged Freaks, Lilo & Stitch, Spider-Man, Star Treks III and IV, and The X Files: Season Six.

About A Boy delayed: For reasons unknown, Universal has delayed the release of the Hugh Grant starrer About A Boy from October 22^nd to December 24^{th (apparently hoping to sell it as a last-minute Christmas gift?).}

Buy.com increases free shipping: Amazon's June 18^th announcement of free "Super Saver" shipping for orders over $49 set off a price war among the major online players. The offer helped boost Amazon's profit figures for the quarter, and so -- beginning today -- Amazon will be halving the minimum-purchase requirement, to just $25. No time-limit has been set for this offer, but if successful it may run at least until the end of the year.

Even more TV box sets: Continuing from our August 13^th Breaking News item, Universal has announced upcoming box sets for Law & Order (Oct. 15, six discs, 22 episodes, $99.98 MSRP) and Baretta (Oct. 29, three discs, 13 episodes, $39.98 MSRP) in October. Being prepared hurriedly for DVD release are season box sets for:

• Battlestar Galactica
• Dragnet
• Earth: The Final Conflict
• Emergency
• Magnum P.I.
• Quantum Leap
• Sliders
• The Rockford Files

Official title announcements: Our popular Upcoming Hits Breaking News item has been saying this for weeks, but it's now official: MIB 2, SL 2, XXX, and Lilo & Stitch are confirmed for Q4 of this year. Early this morning, Columbia TriStar announced a street date of November 26^th for the double-disc Men In Black II, at an MSRP of $26.98 (MAP $19.95), and has promised Stuart Little 2 and XXX (yes, sequelphiles, there is an XXX 2 in the works) before the end of the year. Disney has also confirmed a December 3^rd date for Lilo & Stitch (coming soon: L&S: the direct-to-video sequel, L&S: the Saturday-morning TV series, and L&S: the McDonalds Happy Meal toy promotion sequel), the first time the studio's big summer animation has gone to video in the same calendar year.