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Media
Information > Media DVD Coverage 
Archive
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| Updated September 24, 2007 DVD
NEWS DIGEST
1 -
300 Warner Home Video
A veteran independent DVD supplier has produced a new fitness series aimed at mothers, a group of more than 82.5 million American women. All six videos in the series focus on the weight-loss success of a woman who, after the birth of her second child, weighed more than 200 pounds. The concept of a fitness series specifically targeting moms was an idea that has never before been done, said the producer. "The fitness business has always been cyclical. ... Initially, it was routed in celebrity-driven titles like Jane Fonda. It then maneuvered itself through a series of branded series, and most recently it's become an arena for expert instruction, featuring people who can really teach and inspire."
Pirate DVD vendors operating between the border control points between Hong Kong and Shenzhen, South China's biggest boomtown, have dropped in number from more than 1,000 to 50 in the past few years due to pressure from Mainland authorities. In the latest effort to choke off the supply of pirated discs to Hong Kong consumers, 62 law enforcement officers, acting on tips from the Motion Picture Assn. [MPA] and Japanese rights holders, raided eight pirate DVD vendors this month. Sixteen DVD vendors were arrested and 8,800 optical discs seized, according to the MPA.
Two American sniffer dogs who found millions of pirated DVDs while on loan to Malaysian authorities will receive medals of honor when their six-month assignment ends soon. Black Labradors Lucky and Flo will be celebrated at an awards ceremony before they return home to New York, said Nor Hayati Yahaya, the Motion Picture Association's manager for Malaysia. Lucky and Flo — on loan from the U.S.-based association — have helped uncover pirated DVDs and equipment worth $6 million since they came to Malaysia in March, Nor Hayati said. The cases led to 26 arrests.
Despite DVD's saturation as an entertainment medium, many classic movies are still unavailable on disc. Film fans have long wondered whether little-remembered films would remain in Hollywood's storage vaults but after years of concentrating largely on well-known classics, studios now are releasing hundreds of pre-1970 movies on DVD annually. Just within the past few weeks, studios have released a number of significant old movies on DVD for the first time, including 1951's "Ace in the Hole," Billy Wilder's scathing look at newspaper sensationalism, and 1950's "Caged!," a gripping women's-prison drama. Also on tap: Kenneth Branagh's celebrity-studded 1996 "Hamlet" and the first talkie of all time, 1927's "The Jazz Singer." Lesser-known films noirs, musicals, and cult classics are also appearing in stores, and nearly every winner of an Academy Award for Best Picture is now available. There are two major reasons for the new trend: viewers are willing to spend cash and DVD is here to stay. Before around 2004, Warner Bros. waited to release many movies on DVD because it wanted to make sure the technology wouldn't fade out, says studio executive George Feltenstein. Now, the studio is working to "carefully mine our vaults and restore, remaster, and release anywhere from 150 to 200 [pre-1970s] movies a year," he says. While all of Netflix's 100 most-rented movies are recent releases, more than 80,000 subscribers have given ratings to "The Lost Weekend," the Ray Milland classic about alcohol abuse. And DVDs of the "Thin Man" comedy series from the 1930s and 1940s have sold more than a million copies, according to Feltenstein. Still, there are literally thousands of movies – good, bad, and in-between – that have yet to make it to DVD. Warner Bros., which has the largest movie catalogue of any studio, has only released about 1,400 titles on DVD out of 7,000 total in its library. end
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