I’m expecting The Fountain DVD to drop through my letterbox tomorrow. I can’t wait to see it. The Gods have sure had it against me so far with it’s crappy U.K. release but very soon I shall get to see one of my most anticipated movies of both 2006 and 2007!!
One extra that will be lacking on the DVD is an audio commentary track from it’s director Darren Aronosfky. Now I love my DVD commentary tracks and believe it or not they sometimes end up being a deal breaker when it comes to my DVD purchases of films that I like but I’m not sure I want on DVD.
Now Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Christopher Nolan and Quentin Tarantino are four of my favourite directors but they never or very rarely do any commentary tracks. That’s cool though, and although I’m bitterly disappointed I won’t get to hear their thoughts on everything to do with their movie, I can understand if they aren’t comfortable doing them.
But when a director wants to do one but the studio doesn’t want them too, that pisses me off even more. From Aronofsky’s blog …
so the dvd came out.
happy that it is in the world.
hope more folks will get to see it.as many of you can tell it is light on the extras as compared to my previous dvd releases.
everything at the studio was a struggle.
for instance: they didn’t want to do a commentary track cause they felt that it wouldn’t help sales.
i didn’t have it in me to fight anymore.
whatever.so:
niko, my friend who did the doc on the dvd came up with a novel idea.
we recorded a commentary track ourselves.
we’re gonna post it on a site soon, http coming soon.
you can play it and watch the flick and hopefully you’ll enjoy it.i do hope to do a big special edition at some point. but for that to happen the dvd is gonna have to sell.
i got a lot of extras in my bag so who know maybe if you all write to criterion they’ll get interested (suggest the fountain as a title: mulvaney@criterion.com).
Good for Aronofsky I say and a nice thank you to the fans who have gone out and bought his DVD.
The studio’s are such dumb-asses though. Would it really make any difference to the cost of production of the DVD if you added a commentary track… I don’t think so!
When will the studio’s learn that cover art, extra’s and commentary tracks really make a difference to consumers?
source – cinematical
2 Comments
Sorry about Aronofsky not getting to do a commentary track. Wonder what the reason behind the studios decision was. Why did they think it wouldn’t help sales?
But it’s nice to also know I’m not the only one who looks to see if there’s a director’s track before buying a DVD. That and trailers. Far as I’m concerned those two things should be standard on EVERY DVD release.
Shame some of the greatest directors out there, Spielberg especially, don’t do DVD commentary tracks. Tarantino will do them for other people’s movies, (Hostel, Sin City) but not for his own. Pretty weird.
Stephen Sommers and Robert Rodriguez however do them for all their DVD’s. Let’s hope one day everyone will.
How funny, for this is the exact reason I put it back down on the shelf when I was at Best Buy.
No sale for Warner.
No sale for Best Buy.
I keep my money.
I have plenty else to watch at home, but you HAVE to make me want to complete that purchase! (Marketing 101).