Universal releases 5½ minute sneak peek at DVD
Our friends at Universal Studios Home Video have notified us of a brand new 5:40 video clip they have published on their site, which gives a brief but highly insightful peek at the year's most anticipated DVD release.
The streaming video clip gives a first-hand look at several of the features contained on the 3-disc set, including audio & video samples of commentaries, interviews, outtakes, deleted scenes, and menu features. The material is just under six minutes long and does a great job of showing some of the material on the upcoming DVDs.
Our international readers who already have their sets will notice some subtle differences in the animation of the menu screens shown. Also, a snippet of commentary is heard from Michael J. Fox — confirming his participation in the set.
The layout for Universal's Back to the Future Total Axess site is also shown, with some of the upcoming content being discussed.
Three Windows Media streaming video clips are available for various connection speeds — 56k, 128k, and 300k. Check it out!
In other DVD news, the current issue of Video Business magazine contains a small mention about the upcoming marketing campaign for Back to the Future. The magazine contained an article about DVD Marketing campaigns for 4th Quarter 2002, and featured a quote from Ken Graffeo, executive VP of marketing at Universal Studios Home Video.
Graffeo was quoted as saying that the studio is treating both E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and the Back to the Future trilogy like new releases, with marketing at an "event level." The article sited promotional partnerships with Wendy's, Kodak and Toyota, but did not distinquish as to whether both titles were covered by the same partners or not. Graffeo went on to describe the campaigns as "multi, multimillion dollar."
Tom Wilson will be appearing at this year's "Chiller Theatre" show in Rutherford, New Jersey. The show runs for three days on October 25-27, but Tom will only be appearing on the 25th & 26th to sign autographs & meet fans.
Due to the nature of this show, BTTF.com will not be presenting a booth, but I will be in attendance with Tom. If plans go accordingly, I expect to have some prototypes of some brand new BTTF toys for viewing that will be available in December as a tie-in with the upcoming DVD release in the U.S.
This is expected to be Tom Wilson's only other appearance this year, and with the show happening a mere seven weeks prior to the release of the Back to the Future trilogy on DVD, you won't want to miss out!
For more information on the show, please visit the Chiller Theatre website at http://www.chillertheatre.com/.
Lastly, I've learned from Bob Gale that sadly, the Region 1 DVD for Back to the Future Part III will only contain the one deleted scene.
As you will remember, recently Bob indicated that the scene with Doc handing Marty his gun in the 1955 Drive-In parking lot was recently located. Unfortunately though, it appears that the proper permissions for use of the clip weren't gathered in time to make it onto the disc, due to the time constraint on getting the final extras together. Thus the clip won't be included.
Also, the storyboard to screen comparisons feature found on the international release has been dropped from the R1 release as well in order to avoid image degradation in the compression process. Thus, this now becomes a feature exclusive to international edition.
