DVD NEWS? THIS COULD BE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !

WELL PEOPLE, HERE'S AN ANSWER I GOT FROM CRITERION AFTER WRITING ABOUT THE RELEASE OF ROBINSON CRUSOE ON MARS DVD! IT LOOKS LIKE THIS IS IT!!!

Subject: Robinson Crusoe on Mars DVD
Date: 6/4/2007 5:31:30 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time
From: [email protected]


Hi,

Thanks for writing to us with your questions about our forthcoming
ROBINSON CRUSOE ON MARS DVD. Yes, forthcoming! The rumors are indeed
true, and I'm happy to be producing this release. I'm sorry it's
taken me so long to get back to a couple of you who wrote some time
ago, but -- as you'll discover in this e-mail -- the reason is
because I didn't have complete answers for you til now.

A few of you asked if the copious supplemental material of the
laserdisc will be presented on the DVD, and my answer is "yes and
no," with a somewhat lengthy explanation.

On the LD, aside from the theatrical trailer and the terrific audio
commentary (both of which will be included on the DVD, with the
trailer being presented in a new 16x9 transfer), the supps were
presented in the old standby of a stepped-through stills gallery
format. For a viewer, this entails a great deal of time reading
snippets of text off of the TV screen.

Ideally, I'd like to make all of the information and material
included on that LD available again, but not in that (for lack of a
better term) "laserdisc-y" mode. So other formats/options will come
into play with the DVD release. We're currently at work on a way to
present the excerpts from Ib Melchior's original screenplay that's
more user-friendly. (Just FYI, the original LD had about 120 pages of
Melchior's material to read on screen. That truly is a lot of text to
read on one's television, and to blow out one's retinas.)

The other major text piece, Robert Skotak's history of ROBINSON
CRUSOE ON MARS, entitled "Retroview", will be made available on our
website. I received permission from Mr. Skotak to present it in this
fashion, and because a good amount of it is actually summarized by
Skotak in his own contribution to the audio commentary, I didn't feel
as if I would be robbing the DVD of content. This way, the text can
be read and scrolled through on one's computer (granted, someone
would still be reading off of a screen, but a scroll bar is
considerably more user-friendly than snippets of text that must be
stepped through one by one), and the supplement will still see the
light of day.

The extensive stills that peppered both of these LD text supplements,
along with the production sketches and promo art, will make their way
onto the DVD with a certain degree of reformatting and
reorganization. I can't say that every single one will make it onto
the DVD, because I'd prefer not to include images that deviate from
the film itself nor ones that simply present a shot from the film
that can be seen if the viewer pressed "pause" while watching it.

In addition, there will be a couple of new surprises, and, most
importantly, a truly gorgeous new anamorphic transfer that really
does justice to Winton Hoch's terrific cinematography. I feel
confident in saying that you've never seen RCoM look this stunning.

I hope this answered your questions (and added fuel to the fire of
your interest in this disc). Thanks again for writing.

Best,
Curtis Tsui

WELL, THIS , INDEED, SOUNDS LIKE GOOD NEWS TO ME. I realize this still seems to be a ways off yet but I for one am excited!!!