RT on DVD: National Treasure 2, Diary of the Dead, Plus Salo News!
Plus, new dates for Gossip Girl on DVD and more.
Exciting announcements abound this week (Fearless Director's Cut! A new Little Mermaid movie! Gossip Girl on DVD!) while Nicolas Cage's treasure-hunting adventure sequel, National Treasure: Book of Secrets, tops new releases.
Jet Li's Extended Fearless Comes to Region 1!
Jet Li's "final" wu-shu epic -- not to be confused with regular old action films and Hollywood fluff like The Forbidden Kingdom, in which he continues to star -- was a modest success with American audiences when it opened in 2006. But the original cut, which featured an additional 35 minutes of footage and an entire subplot starring Michelle Yeoh, was never released in the U.S. ....until now! Universal has announced the July debut of Jet Li's Fearless: The Director's Cut, which will include the original theatrical, unrated, and 141-minute director's cuts along with deleted scenes and a featurette. Look for the two-disc release this July 8.
Similarly exciting news, different demographic: they're making a new Little Mermaid movie! Prequel tale The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning will hit shelves August 26 and tell the story of how Ariel -- redhead, ocean princess, collector of whose-its and whatz-its galore -- became the girl she was, before she turned into a dissatisfied, soul-trading teenager who longed to become human, get legs, find love, etc.
OMG, kids!
The best show you won't admit to watching (unless you're a fourteen-year-old girl, in which case it's mandatory viewing) is coming to DVD this August! See what's got the Facebook generation abuzz by checking out the soapy goings-on among the posh Manhattan private school crowd. Extra features slated for the 5-disc package include unaired scenes, a gag reel, featurettes, and a download of the first source novel, as read by Christina Ricci. Like we said, OMG!
OMFG, nerds!
Lastly, earning the exclamation "OMFG" is news that Criterion has moved forward with their long-awaited release of the most notorious film not currently available on DVD: Salo. Pier Paolo Pasolini's anti-Fascist tale of moral and physical degradation was told in such graphic detail that the film was banned in many countries; out of print for years, DVDs of Salo had been going for hundreds of dollars in recent years. Criterion now shares details of the two-disc August release, which will include a documentary about the film, a documentary about the final scene, new interviews, and more.
Click for this week's new releases!


jack giroux
Ill rent National Treasure, even thought its a crappy rip off version of the Indy flicks (which are amazing). Ill rent Diary of the Dead, I like Romero. I might even rent Strange Wilderness to see how bad it is. Thats cool there releasing a FEARLESS DIRECTOR'S CUT.
May 19 - 06:47 PM