Sci-fi & fantasy

Oscar-winning film director James Cameron yesterday confirmed that his sci-fi epic Avatar will be hitting DVD and Blu-ray (in the US, at least) on April 22.

During a tour of New York promoting his own and the film's Academy Award nominations, the filmmaker told journalists that, 'It's all right on schedule...  read more »

The HCC Movie Awards 2009 special edition is now available online and as a free download!

Welcome to the first ever Home Cinema Choice movie awards. If you've been wondering what Blu-ray discs are best to show off your home cinema system, then look no further. We've auditioned hundreds of platters to find the very finest in picture and sound quality – not to mention uncover the best examples of special features available and applaud the extraordinary efforts made by studios when it comes to remastering older classics for hi-def...

It’s arguably one of the greatest horror movies ever made. And now Dario Argento's horror classic Suspira comes to Blu-ray.  The Italian splatter classic has undergone a brand new high definition transfer courtesy of Nouveaux Pictures and Cine-Excess.
The BD comes with a host of freshly commissioned extras including a new documentary featuring director Dario Argento and composer Claudio Simonetti alongside a feature length audio commentary by Argento experts Alan Jones and Kim Newman.

Released this week, it tells the story of  read more »

James Cameron's Avatar, the most successful 3D movie ever, and the film 3D evangelist Panasonic is basing its 3D Blu-ray and TV launch plans on  for 2010, looks certain to debut on Blu-ray in standard 2D format.

During an exclusive technology briefing at Fox Studios in LA, chief technologist Danny Kaye downplayed Avatar’s anticipated 3D debut, telling HCC: ‘Do not make the assumption that  read more »

Following an aborted launch several months ago, Warner Home Video has now confirmed that The Lord of the Rings: The Motion Picture Trilogy will be coming to Blu-ray in the US on April 6, 2010.

As previously announced, this boxset will only include the theatrical cuts of the three fantasy epics, with the Extended Editions being held back to a latter date to  read more »

You may not have quite realised it yet, but humanity finds itself on the brink of a new form of cinematic entertainment. Quite simply, the act of going to the flicks and sitting down to watch a movie will never be the same again after December 17, when James Cameron's sci-fi adventure Avatar opens at UK cinemas.

Some ten years in the making, the self-confessed 'King of the World's latest $200million blockbuster will change the way that we perceive and enjoy  read more »

An unseen version of the second pilot episode of the original Star Trek TV series looks likely to be one of the key reasons to beam up the pending six-disc Season 3 release of the series on Blu-ray.

Trekkies (Trekkers?) will finally be able to enjoy the original cut of Where No Man Has Gone Before, the first episode to feature James T Kirk, with footage previously edited from the broadcast version, alongside a different opening monologue and theme. It will be presented on BD in  read more »

After several seasons of being exiled to Earth, the end of The Three Doctors (the first storyline from the show's tenth season) saw John Pertwee's Doctor finally being given free-reign to roam the cosmos once again. While the subsequent adventure Carnival of Monsters found the time traveler and his companion Jo (Katy Manning) trapped inside an alien sideshow attraction, the next story Frontier in Space truly embraced the space-faring concept with a  read more »

One of the year's hottest titles is undoubtedly Sony Pictures Home Entertainment's forthcoming blockbuster Terminator Salvation. Touching down on DVD and Blu-ray in the UK on November 23, the film finally gives fans of the Terminator franchise a chance to witness the future war between the mankind and Skynet's robotic legions.

HCC was lucky enough to recently receive an advance copy of the UK Blu-ray release for  read more »

‘A friend of mine likes to say: We Won! All of us geeks and nerds, we now control the (movie) industry. It’s marvelous. All our childhood fantasies have come true!’

Len Wein, one of the most influential comic writers of the 1970s and 80s, and creator of badass X-Man  Wolverine, is reflecting on how the comic book world has evolved into the most significant creative and financial driver for modern Hollywood. Clearly the idea  read more »

‘The great thing about the Blu-ray format,’ says X-Men Origins: Wolverine director Gavin Hood, ‘is that it finally makes it possible to have a real cinema experience in the home – and that’s important. There’s nothing worse than sitting in the cinema with some guy chewing his popcorn in your left ear… I’d rather be at home. It’s also helping us, as filmmakers, preserve the quality of what we’ve made for a longer lifespan.’

I’m in LA, having a one-on-one with Gavin Hood. Like any press junket, there’s a revolving door of journalists all eager for onset tittle-tattle. I’ve got more important things on my  read more »

‘I’m very proud that with X-Men we launched the comic book genre. We opened it up for Spider-Man and Iron Man.’ Lauren Schuler Donner is the Hollywood producer responsible for bringing Marvel’s X-Men characters to the big screen and she’s briefing an international press corp about her involvement in the franchise, not to mention the upcoming Blu-ray release of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, out in the UK next week. It’s day three of HCC’s Wolverine Week, and as I’m about to find out, Donner is keen to talk about both the development of the Wolverine story as well  read more »

The success of George Lucas' epic sci-fi saga has always been intrinsically tied to the phenomenal success of its associated merchandise. Throughout the latter years of the 1970s and more than half of the '80s you couldn't go into a shop without tripping over Star Wars ephemera, be it duvets, bubble bath, wallpaper or, best of all, Kenner's range of 3.75-inch action figures.

When the franchise returned to the big screen at the tail end of the '90s it was the same again, and thanks to endless videogame spin-offs that  read more »

‘When I look back at it now, there were a lot of people who thought I was crazy,' says Lauren Shuler Donner. 'I remember a reporter from Entertainment Weekly who asked me: why are you doing an X-Men movie? There had been a couple of other comic book movies –Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Superman, Blade… some really awful, some fantastic – but no one had done it since then. But I had a basic philosophy that everything comes from character. So I didn’t set out to make a comic book movie; we grounded the characters, made them  read more »

‘Making a movie as big as this, with so many people involved, is like surfing a big wave. Sometimes you’re flying and it’s going great and sometimes the damn thing is about to crash on your head. You just have to try and make it inelegantly through and get back onto the good wave.’

Director Gavin Hood is nothing if not candid. It was never going to be easy making the world’s most popular mutant a critical and commercial hit, but with X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Hood appears to have beaten the ankle breakers and scored some major pipelines. The sharp-clawed fantasy has  read more »