I don't have much info on this as yet, but apparently it was announced at the San Diego Comic Con this weekend that Shout! Factory (under its Scream Factory label) will be bringing
Stanley Donen's 1980 space gothic,
Saturn 3, to Blu-ray disc, possibly before the end of the year. As I find out more about this release, I'll pass it along.
Previously issued by Artisan Entertainment on DVD about a decade ago, with a fuzzy, unattractive, 4x3 "full-frame" transfer, the film is long overdue for a proper, widescreen anamorphic home video release, and getting it in 1080p HD is icing on the cake. Hopefully, this edition will include some extras - perhaps even the deleted
"Blue Dreamers" sequence.
Saturn 3 stars
Kirk Douglas, Farrah Fawcett, (a completely re-dubbed)
Harvey Kietel and a truly nifty evil robot named Hector. The movie was conceived by
Star Wars production designer
John Barry, who also intended to direct it before his untimely passing - and it still bears his unmistakable visual style. It's easy to argue the film's dramatic merits, but the cinematography by
Billy Williams and superb production design of the movie are gorgeous to behold -
Saturn 3 is one of the coolest-looking space films of the
Space: 1970 era, and should benefit greatly from the high-definition treatment.
I'm personally very excited by this news, and can't wait to add
Saturn 3 to my Blu-ray collection.
UPDATE: Shout! Factory has confirmed that the
Saturn 3 Blu-ray will be released in December. I know what I'm getting for Christmas...
Awesome news indeed. From what I understand this will be released under the Scream Factory label in December 2013.
ReplyDeleteThe set design in this film is very striking and should look stunning on blu-ray. Many of the effects are indeed dated but the set design alone is worth getting this blu-ray for.
Scream Factory has been coming out with some real gems. I was hoping someday this would make it to blu-ray. Let's hope they include some of that rare deleted footage.
Wow, I remember all kinds of articles about this flick in Starlog back in da day, but I've never seen it. Must check this out!
ReplyDeleteI'm going to take credit for this. I started bombarding Shout! Factory with requests for this as soon as the "Lifeforce" Blu was announced, telling them it was the perfect follow-up. Yep. Totally my doing. :)
ReplyDeleteThank-You Franklin!
DeleteAwesome, Franklin! Nice job. And kudos to Shout Factory for listening to customer feedback and suggestions.
DeleteI love this movie -- and it's shot in Farrah's prime. Decent effects and story too. And while the acting is a bit wooden (thank you Harvey Keitel), it's still a fun movie. Oh, and wasn't Harvey's lines dubbed by another actor?
ReplyDeleteThe soundtrack is also interesting -- almost too epic for the movie, but still fitting for the flick.
Farrah's prime, yes. But you can already predict that the internet will be rife with comments about Kirk Douglas' heiny in 1080p. That notwithstanding (and the fact that even now he's still a badass old dude), I can't wait to upgrade from the awful 4:3 DVD.
DeleteHarvey's voice was dubbed apparently because he had such a terrible time making Saturn 3 that he didn't want anything more to do with it once shooting was over. It was beset with problems, and it was a miracle it was completed at all, then when it was hardly anybody went to see it.
ReplyDeleteHere in the UK for some reason the BBC show it late night every six months or so. It's really easy to watch at that time in the evening. I'd love to see the deleted scenes.
Hydroponics...
Scream Factory is doing some amazing work. It's like they're intent on taking the lead as the Criterion of genre films. Lets hope they keep it up for a long time.
ReplyDeleteAll right! This is one of those that slipped past me back in the day. I've never seen it. Look forward to finally checking it out...
ReplyDeletewow!!! really???
ReplyDeleteI contacted the owners of that title months ago and they said they had no plans to do an HD Scan for Blu-Ray.
So I bought the PAL Widescreen anamorphic dvd.
AWESOME!!
Fantastic! I too have a soft spot for this film. I saw it in the cinema when it came out, and occasionally still watch it to this day -- there are some truly great moments in it, and the design is fantastic. The opening scenes are so cold and impersonal, it really sets the tone for what Earth must be like in that future.
ReplyDeleteYou sir have the best SF blog on the internet today -- thank you so much for all these great articles.
It is really amazing news! This movie is one of my favourite of my childhood, and to my sorrow, I have never found it in HD. I just found this post and I'm very glad about to read it.
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward the release of this BluRay. I hope it will be sold in my country too.
Ed Bishop has a cameo an astronaut at the end of this film. You don't see his face, he's covered in a dark helmet. But you hear him speaking, and one of his lines mentions the word shadow!!! (Like the SHADO organization from the U.F.O. show)
ReplyDeleteBring back Straker!!!!