• Commentary by Writer/Director Craig Brewer

• Conflicted: The Making of Black Snake Moan

• Rooted in the Blues

• The Black Snake Moan

• Deleted Scenes

PRIDE - WIDESCREEN

Special Features:

• Director Commentary

• Deleted and Extended Scenes

• Music Montages

SHOOTER - WIDESCREEN

Special Features:

• 7 Deleted Scenes

• Survival of the Fittest: The Making of Shooter

• Audio Commentary by director Antoine Fuqua

• Featurette: Independence Hall

 

The accidental-pregnancy comedy “Knocked Up” owes some of its box-office success to scenes that didn’t even make it into the movie.

In recent weeks, Universal Pictures has posted several deleted scenes from the comedy online, advertising “restricted clips” in Web ads and the bonus material on television, too. Since then, the clips have racked up more than one million viewings combined on the film’s official Web site and YouTube, where fans have copied and traded the clips.  

One scene, in which a “Knocked Up” character elaborately details his desire for more graphic sex between male actors in the movie “Brokeback Mountain,” has been viewed at least 493,000 times on YouTube. “Knocked Up” has already earned at least $73 million in U.S. tickets, more than any other R-rated comedy since Twentieth Century Fox’s “Borat.” 

(Source: Wall Street Journal)

Special Features:

• Deleted Scenes

• Commentary with Director Katja Von Garnier and Olivier

  Martinez

BREACH – WIDESCREEN 

Special Features:

• Breaching The Truth: Get an Insider’s Look at How Robert Hanssen’s Story Was Brought to the Screen.

• Anatomy of a Character: A Powerful Look at How Chris Cooper Became Robert Hanssen for the Film.

• The Mole (As Originally Aired on Dateline 3/05/01): Uncover More Intriguing Facts About Double Agent Robert Hanssen in this In-Depth Profile.

• Feature Commentary: With Writer/Director Billy Ray and Former FBI Operative Eric O’Neill.

DADDY’S LITTLE GIRLS

• Audio Commentary by Tyler Perry

• Extended Church Scene

• Atlanta Aquarium: Working Underwater

• Tyler’s Team: Cast and Characters

• Introducing the McClain Sisters

GHOST RIDER: 2-DISC EXTENDED CUT 

Special Features:

• Never-Before-Seen Footage

• Commentary with Producer Gary Foster

• Commentary with Writer/Director Mark Steven Johnson and Visual Effects Supervisor Kevin Mack

• 3 Making of Documentaries: Spirit of Vengeance, Spirit of Adventure, Spirit of Execution

• Sin & Salvation: Featurettes Chronicling 40 Years of Ghost Rider Comic Book History

• Animatics

THE HUSTLER: 2-DISC COLLECTOR’S EDITION 

Special Features:

• Three All-New Featurettes: Life In The Fast Lane: Fast Eddie Felson And The Search For Greatness, Milestones In Cinema

• History: The Hustler, Swimming With Sharks: The Art Of The Hustle

• Audio Commentary By Paul Newman, Film Historian Jeff Young, Film Critic Richard Schickel And More!

• Trick Shot Analysis Of Five Scenes

• How To Make The Shot Featuring Five Scenes

• Two Additional Featurettes, Photo Gallery And More!

PRIMEVAL

• Croc-umentary: Bringing Gustave To Life

• Deleted Scenes

• Audio Commentary with Director Michael Katleman and Visual Effects Supervisor Paul Linden

Special Features:

• Directing The Virgin- The director’s video diary of life on the set.

• Assembling The Ensemble - Hilarious footage of the cast auditions.

• Reel Comedy Roundtable - Join director Judd Apatow, star Steve Carell and the cast as they share their unforgettable stories from the set.

• Steve Carell – Uncensored: Unedited takes of Steve Carell creating side-splitting scenes.

• Sneak Peak Of Knocked Up - The next big comedy from the co-writer/director of The 40-Year-Old Virgin

• Preparing For The Next Big Game - Rehearsals of the riotous poker scene.

• Cinemax Final Cut - An inside look at the most memorable and outrageous scenes.

• And Much, Much More!

ALEX RIDER: OPERATION STORMBREAKER – WIDESCREEN   

Special Features:

• From Page to Screen

• The Stunts

• The Horse Chase

• Creating the VFX for Sayle Tower

• Casting Alex

• Martial Arts Master Donnie Yen

• Theatrical Trailer

APOCALYPTO

Special Features:

• Becoming Mayan: Creating Apocalypto

• Deleted Scene with Optional Commentary by Writer/Director/Producer Mel Gibson and Writer/Co-Producer Farhad Safinia

• Feature Audio Commentary by Writer/Director/Producer Mel Gibson and Writer/Co-Producer Farhad Safinia

EPIC MOVIE: UNRATED

Special Features:

• Audio Commentary by Writers/Directors Jason Friedberg & Aaron Seltzer

• Breaking Wind: An Epic Journey into the Sounds of an Epic Movie - Audio Commentary of Burps, Farts and Beaver Lines (if you like that sort of thing)

• How Gratuitous Chase the Beaver Icon to Find More Eye-Popping Features

• Everyone Loves Beaver: Epic Hook Ups Featurette

• Outtakes

• Alternate Ending

• Epic Porn: What Would Your Porno Movie Be Called? Featurettes

• Hot Or Not: Character Turn-Ons and Turn-Offs Featurette

• Fox Movie Channel Presents Making a Spoof and In Character with Fred Willard

• Die Libre: Winning Short Film from the Epic Movie Viral Video Contest

FAY GRIMM

Special Features:

• Making of Fay Grim

• Higher Definitions: Fay Grim Episode

• Deleted Scenes

• Hal Hartley’s Fay Grim Trailer

FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS: 2-DISC SPECIAL EDITION

Special Features:

• An Introduction by Clint Eastwood

• Six Brave Men

• The Making of an Epic

• Looking into the Past

• Words on the Page

• Visual Effects

• Theatrical Trailer 

LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA: SPECIAL EDITION 

Special Features:

• Red Sun, Black Sand: The Making of Letters From
  Iwo Jima - An inside look at the creation of the film with all key players.

• The Faces of Combat: The Cast of Letters From
  Iwo Jima - Cast members introduce the characters they portray in the film.

• Images from the Frontlines: The Photography of Letters From
  Iwo Jima - A still photo montage.

• November 2006 World Premiere at Budo-kan in
  Tokyo

• November 2006 Press Conference

THE THIRD MAN: CRITERION COLLECTION (2-DISC EDITION)

Special Features:

• Video introduction by writer-director Peter Bogdanovich

• Two Audio commentaries: one by filmmaker Steven Soderbergh and screenwriter Tony Gilroy and one by film scholar Dana Polan

• Abridged recording of Graham Greene’s treatment, read by actor Richard Clarke

• Shadowing The Third Man (2005), a ninety-minute feature documentary on the making of the film

• Graham Greene: The Hunted Man an hour-long, 1968 episode of the BBC’s Omnibus series, featuring a rare interview with the novelist

• Who Was The Third Man? (2002), a thirty-minute Austrian documentary featuring interviews with cast and crew

• The Third Man on the radio: the 1951 “A Ticket to Tangiers” episode of the series The Lives of Harry Lime series, written and performed by Orson Welles; and the 1951 Lux Radio Theatre adaptation of The Third Man

• Illustrated production history with rare behind-the-scenes photos, original UK press book, and U.S. trailer

• Actor Joseph Cotton’s alternate opening voice-over narration for the US version

• Archival footage of postwar Vienna

• A look at the untranslated foreign dialogue in the film

• PLUS: A booklet featuring essays by Luc Sante, Charles Drazin, and Phillip Kerr

Starring: Denzel Washington, Paula Patton, Val Kilmer, Jim Caviezel and Adam Goldberg 

Written by Bill Marsilii and Terry Rossio 

Directed by Tony Scott 

128 mins 

Starting out as a murder mystery, Déjà Vu turns into a hybrid sci-fi, romantic thriller done with all the verve and flamboyant style from director Tony Scott (Top Gun, Spy Game and Domino). Denzel plays a cop who finds a dead woman (Patton) at the scene of a ferry explosion. The medical examiner pins her death as occurring a few hours before the explosion. Now Denzel knows she’s the key to solving the investigation and finding the terrorist(s). With the help of a top secret government surveillance operation via satellite and finally a time travel device (yes, take that narrative leap) to go back a few days earlier to piece together the mystery to save the woman and prevent the ferry explosion. 

It’s a convoluted concept but one filled with a certain amount of intrigue. There are the requisite gadgets and car chases, all shot dexterously. But with so many clues and questions, Déjà Vu does a demand a second viewing in telling its story of love through a parallel universe because of how clues are laid out that you might want to revisit again. All throughout, the performances are excellent and setting of New Orleans is especially unique, considering the film was shot right after Hurricane Katrina. 

THE SPECIAL FEATURES: 

The Surveillance Window 

This special feature is an interesting and unique meshing of 2 usual staples of special features – the audio commentary and behind-the-scenes moments and interviews. It’s a seamless behind the scenes experience with producer Jerry Bruckheimer, director Tony Scott and screenwriter Bill Marsilii as they take you to certain moments in the film where they peel back the curtain and unveil some of the filmmaking techniques.   It starts out as an audio commentary and when it reaches a certain point in the film, it stops the film and goes into the behind-the-scenes moments. When it’s done, it comes back to the film and the audio commentary continues. It’s an efficient way to dole out a lot of information without the excessive menu navigating without smaller featurettes. I wish more films would employ this method on their DVD special features section. 

The commentary and behind-the-scenes material are chockfull of information that both filmmakers and film buffs can take something away from. Among the salient points: 

• Tony Scott’s struggle with trying to find a spine to bridge the story between sci-fi and the real world
• Bill Marsilii’s talks about his collaboration with Terry Rossio and the genesis of the project. Marsilii does get into the minutiae of the narrative to explain all the clues and jumps.
• The anatomy of a ferry explosion through interviews with stunt and special effects coordinators. Scott used 16 cameras to cover the explosion and spent half a day on camera positioning alone. He also eschewed the use of CGI.
• Scott likes working with Denzel because he delivers and he’s tough. The director likes to give a real life model for his actors to hang his characters on and in this case he found one for Denzel’s character in Jerry Rudden, an ATF agent.
• A segue into the make-up effects for Paula Patton’s dead body on a morgue slab
• Marsilii speaks and shows and example of Scott’s ability to open up scenes and give them a visual sense
• A look into the main design of the lab where the time shift and time travel occurs with interviews from the cinematographer Paul Cameron and production designer Chris Seagers.
• Scott insists that HD is great for low light and night scenes but not for daylight because the contrast ratio doesn’t hold up well. He employed the Panavision Genesis HD camera for the night sequences.
• The challenge of shooting 40 minutes of the story in an enclosed space, i.e. the lab and how Scott works around that visually – this is a great tip for shooting in enclosed spaces.
• An overview into the use of Light Distance and Ranging (LIDAR) as an effect in a motion picture. Déjà Vu is the first movie to employ this technology. Used mostly as measuring device in engineering and surveying, it can render an image in a 3-dimensional space.
• Scott insists that style is dictated by the world of the story. He feels the movie is about the science of surveillance that segues into time travel.
• Scott breaks down a car chase. He asserts that the secret of a great car chase is an idea behind it and in Déjà Vu it’s another time travel gadget. The car chase in question here incorporates the use of the Ultimate arm crane, a truly nifty tool that allows the camera to get some amazing moving angles.
• Scott storyboards every shot. He’s known to wake up at 4 in the morning to do his storyboards but complete the more complex shots months earlier.
• The setting for the story was originally Long Island and Scott had scouted
  Washington DC and Seattle as possible locations because of access to ferries.  The production finally decided on New Orleans. Scott says the city’s sense of mystery supports the love story. The production was ready to roll in October but disaster struck when Hurricane Katrina hit and left New Orleans incapacitated. Despite this setback, the production team decided to wait till February of the following year to shoot there.
• Scott uses a lot of cameras for coverage. For even a basic scene with two people in a room, he will use a minimum of 4 cameras. Denzel likes working with Scott for this reason:

“That’s one of the reasons I like working with Tony because he uses a lot of cameras we don’t have to do a lot of set-up. He’s got all of that in one. So it allows me to get a little more over the top and to improvise so that if something good happens, something spontaneous happens he has it in a variety of angles.”

• Scott cites his editor Chris Levinson as being crucial in keeping the pace and timing of his film level. Scott and Levinson’s first cut of the film came in at 2 hours 3 mins.  He estimates that in his films usually 1 page of script translates to 2/3 of a minute on film
• It’s also interesting to note that Scott admits some mistakes in shooting certain scenes. He cites a scene between Denzel, Val Kilmer and Bruce Greenwood and felt the scene would have played better if Denzel and Kilmer took off their shades and one could see their eyes. Advice to directors: shoot your actors without shades so you can see their eyes.

Scott doesn’t skimp on the special features of his projects, something his shares with brother Ridley Scott. In this special feature, he is very engaging about his process and we really get to see some useful behind-the-scenes moments that allow us a great deal of access into the creative process. 

Deleted Scenes: 

Roughly about 8 minutes cut from the film 

1. Church choir – small insert of a gospel hymn that Denzel’s character, adds a small spiritual dimension
2. A scene between Denzel and Kilmer where a turtle story figures prominently
3. A montage scene in the lab where Denzel and the surveillance team pore over Paula’s belongings and observe her in her apartment through the time portal
4. A scene where a character on the ferry recognizes Claire as she makes her way to the ferry
5. The ending where the character and her daughter (played by Elle Fanning, Dakota’s sister) come to Claire’s side in the aftermath of the explosion

Extended Scenes:

The extended scenes just add more exposition and tone to the scenes and not a loss at all if they were cut.

1. The opening scene just adds quick elements of introducing the surveillance equipment that would orient audience when they see it later
2. The brutality of the scene when Caviezel douses Claire with gasoline and punches her had to be toned down
3. A scene where Carlin shares more info with Claire

The Déjà Vu DVD is worthy alone for the ‘Surveillance Window’ special feature but because of the dense story, it’s a film that may beg for repeat viewings.

Special Features:

• Audio commentary by film historian Ginette Vincendeau

• New interviews with Lhomme and editor Francoise Bonnot

• Archival video excerpts, including on-set footage and interviews with Melville, cast members, writer Joseph Kessel, and real-life Resistance fighters

• Jean-Pierre Melville et “L’Armee des ombres (2005), a short program on the director and his film

• Le journal de la Resistance (1944), a rare short documentary shot on the front lines of the final days of German-occupied
  France

• PLUS: a booklet featuring critic Amy Taubin, historian Robert O. Paxton, and excerpts from Rui Nogueira’s Melville On Melville

THE FOUNTAIN - WIDESCREEN

Special Features:

• Inside The Fountain: Death And Rebirth - Gallery of 6 Featurettes Exploring the Movie’s Various Periods and Settings

• The Interview

• VFX Step by Step

• Inside the Director’s Mind: Scene to Storyboard Comparison

• Peter Parks Bonus - Macro Photography Loop

• Theatrical Trailer

PAN’S LABYRINTH: 2-DISC PLATINUM SERIES

Special Features:

• Video Prologue by Director Guillermo Del Toro
• Feature Audio Commentary by Director Guillermo del Toro
• Marketing Campaign
• The Power Of Myth featurette: A discourse on the use of fairy tale mythology in Pan’s Labyrinth
• Pan and The Fairies (El Fauno y Las Hadas) featurette: A comprehensive look at the prosthetic and visual effects crafted for the film
• The Color and the Shape featurette: Del Toro unravels the intricate color and texture coding present in all his work
• The Charlie Rose Show featuring filmmakers Del Toro, Alfonso Cuaron and Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu
• DVD Comics: Animated plates present prequel stories for The Giant Toad, The Fairies, Pan and The Pale Man
• Director’s Notebook:
  ·Interactive menu pages access video pods that feature exclusive interviews with Del Toro
  ·Lost Character: El Hombre de
  Madera
  ·Torture of The Maquis
  ·The Phases of the Moon
  ·Iconography: Echo… Echo..
  ·The Underground Kingdom: Miniature Construction
  ·The Mill: Set Design
• Multi-Angle Storyboard / Thumbnail Compares
• VFX Plate Compare: Guillermo Del Toro and The Green Fairy
• Galleries: Production Design, DDT Creature Design & Production Scrapbook

STOMP THE YARD - WIDESCREEN

Special Features:

• Battles, Rivals, Brothers - The Story of Stomp The Yard

• Filmmaker Commentary

• Extended Dance Sequences: Get Buck & Opening Battle

• Deleted Scene: The Clean Up

• Gag Reel