Ridley Scott's Gladiator slashes onto Blu-ray this September, first in Paramount's Sapphire Series

Universal Pictures International Entertainment has announced the long-awaited Blu-ray release of Ridley Scott's historical epic Gladiator in the UK. The feature-packed release will ship on two BD50 discs when it touches down in this country on September 7, before rolling out to other international territories during September and October. Paramount Home Entertainment will be releasing the same Blu-ray package in the US and Canada on September 1.

The first disc will house the 155min theatrical cut and 171min director's cut of the movie (presumably via seamless branching), plus audio commentaries for both versions, deleted scenes and new U-Control features. The latter, accessible from both cuts, include The Scrolls of Knowledge, which re-purposes the Are You Not Entertained? trivia track from the previous DVD with additional links to new behind-the-scenes featurettes at key points, plus Visions From Elysium: Topic Marker, which allows users to 'tag moments of interest throughout the entire film, allowing them to create "shopping lists" of topics to learn more about from the features on Disc Two'.

The second disc includes the Visions of Elysium: Topic Portal allowing users access to further content from the tagged moments on Disc One, the seven-part 200min documentary Strength and Honor: Creating the World of Gladiator (with 155mins of new U-Control picture-in-picture content), plus The Making of Gladiator (25mins), Gladiator Games: The Roman Bloodsport (50mins), Hans Zimmer: Scoring Gladiator (21mins), Maximus Uncut: Between the Takes with Russell Crowe (8mins), My Gladiator Journal by Spencer Treat Clark (text and photos), VFX Explorations: Germania and Rome (24mins), Production Design and Galleries (10mins), Storyboard Demonstration (14mins), Multi-angle Storyboard Comparisons and Galleries (15mins), Ridleygram Galleries, Costume Design Galleries, Photo Galleries, five deleted and alternate scenes, two trailers and 20 TV spots!

Discussing the release, Eddie Cunningham, President of Universal Pictures International Entertainment stated, 'I am delighted that we will be releasing Gladiator on Blu-ray internationally this year. Gladiator is an important title in Universal’s Blu-ray strategy as it will resonate with a large cross section of mainstream consumers, giving us an ideal opportunity to showcase the incredible capabilities of the Blu-ray format as we move into our busiest trading period of the year'.

The Sapphire Series
Gladiator is the first release in Paramount’s new Blu-ray Sapphire Series, deluxe presentations of landmark movies. It will be joined by special edition BD releases of Braveheart and Forrest Gump.
The former will feature over two hours of new extras, including interviews, interactive timelines and two featurettes: Smithfield: Medieval Killing Fields and Battlefields of the Scottish Rebellion.
The Gump extras have yet to be confirmed. Gump director Robert Zemeckis says: ‘I'm delighted that Forrest Gump is going to be a part of Paramount's Sapphire Series so that fans can enjoy it at home with pristine picture and sound along with a wealth of special features to give the film context.’