Congrats, WB.  You’ve just found a new way to alienate part of your customer base.

Engadget has posted an article talking about how Netflix has agreed to let Warner Bros. delay getting them copies of new releases until 28 days after they’re made available for sale.  Even worse, Netflix is apparently in talks to have similar arrangements with other studios.  The upside is that Netflix will be getting more catalogue streaming content from WB.

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Update:  Classicflix.com has just issued a correction saying their source was wrong and this is nowhere to be found on Paramount’s release schedule.  I might just have to finally import this.

There are more movies out there in the world that people wish would come to DVD than you can count, but there’s one film at the top of most people’s lists.  Well, it looks like we can finally cross John Huston’s classic, The African Queen, off that list.

Classicflix.com is reporting that Paramount has scheduled the film for release on October 13th as part of the Paramount Centennial Collection series.  This is great news for fans of great cinema, but MIGHT be a disappointment for HD geeks.  None of the other Centennial Collection films have been release on BluRay, so it’s probably a pretty safe bet that this one will be DVD only.  Stranger things have happened, but don’t get your hopes up too terribly high.  No special features have been anounced yet, but I’d frankly buy a single-layer flipper disc if it meant I got this on DVD.

I discovered this movie on VHS purely by coincidence at least five years ago and have been eagerly waiting for this glorious news.  I’ve embedded the trailer below.

It’s no secret that everyone here at ScreenGeeks absolutely adores the Swedish vampire movie Let the Right One In.  We even devoted an episode to this gem of a film.  I was absolutely psyched to see it at WalMart for $15 on DVD.  I haven’t picked it up yet, and it looks like that’s a good thing.

Icons Of Fright just recently posted that the subtitles for the US DVD release of Let the Right One In are significantly different from what was seen in the theatrical cut.  Specifically, the subtitles are dumbed down to the point that humor and depth was lost so people with a low IQ can keep up with the film.  Seeing some of the changes, it’s entirely appropriate that many around the web are calling these “Twilight subtitles”.  The move has been dumbed down just for people who actually thought that Twilight was an insightful movie and a unique take on the vampire genre.  Essentially, the theatrical cut is Robert De Niro in Awakenings when the chemicals work, and the DVD cut is De Niro in his catatonic state.

Yesterday, Bill Hunt over at The Digital Bits did a little more digging and found out more news that is equally satisfying and frustrating.  DVD distributor Magnet had heard the film geek outcry and will be releasing the DVD with the theatrical subtitles intact.  You’ll be able to tell as on the back of the case, the subtitles will be labeled “English (Theatrical)”.

I’m sure that those who bought the crappy version are wondering how to go about exchanging for the version that should have been release in the first place.  Well, this is where the frustrating part comes into play.  To quote Magnet in the Digital Bits column, “There are no exchanges”.  Yeah, thanks for nothing, tools.  Essentially, Magnet has screwed over the people who wanted to support this movie from the beginning to show that there’s an audience for this kind of intelligent film in the US.  They’re saying that you need to buy it again.  Oh, and the subtitle issue is on the BluRay version, too.

Seeing the niche films that Magnet releases, this just doesn’t make sense.  Why in the world would you ever want to enrage your customer base?  At this point, I really think that people who bought the original release should wait until a good rip is made available with the correct subtitles at various BitTorrent sites, and just download it that way.  Those of you who purchased this dvd in good faith that this would be what was released are being milked.  There’s no reason to give these jokers another dime of your money.

Should you have purchased the dvd and want to share your displeasure with this situation, you can e-mail them at dvd@magpictures.com.

Good friend of the site, Brad Rusk from Colorado’s own Horrorfest, just e-mailed me and told me that Return to Sleepaway Camp has not only finished filming, but it has been picked up by Magnolia Pictures and will be released to DVD on October 14th.  He got the word from someone close to the production of the film.

The Sleepaway Camp series is cult-classic slasher film series.  I know that Barry is going to be extremely curious to check this out.  Click the picture below to get a sneak peak at the first trailer preview.

I’ve really made a point of not bringing video games to ScreenGeeks too often just because it isn’t our focus.  This news, however relates directly to movies, tv, and home viewing.  I first read about this over at Major Nelson’s Twitter page and it’s been posted officially by XBox 360 Fanboy that Netflix is partnering with Microsoft to bring content to XBox Live.

This is HUGE news for those of us who have both XBox Live and Netflix.  Details haven’t come out about how it’ll be downloaded, download limits, etc., but my guess would be that you’ll be able to access a good chunk (if not all) of the current Netflix Watch It Now library, which has titles that number well over 10,000.  And now it’s becoming official why Microsoft has been dragging their feet on putting out a Bluray drive.  It’s never been a secret that Microsoft wants to work toward digital downloads as opposed to an HD media, and this just shows that they’re ready to start working down that path.  Oh, and I’m psyched for it!

If there’s ever been a complaint from DVD collectors in the US, it’s that the good editions never come out here.  Japan and the UK both got an amazing version of the Alien Quadrilogy stored in an alien head, Japan and the UK also got a really cool version of I Robot complete with a bust of Sonny that holds the discs, and Japan got the 6-disc Grindhouse experience.  I’m the proud owner of the Korean Limited Edition Big Fish that is a little different than the US version.  Why can’t we ever get good stuff like that here?  Things have gotten better with the special releases of The Office and even the glorious Office Space box set, but we’ve still been getting the short end of the stick for years.

Apparently, those days are over.  The Digital Bits put up an article about a bunch of uber-dvd sets that will be coming out, and they look amazing.  If the Batman Begins set price point of $28.99 is any indication, these could also be VERY affordable.

I’ll let you click the link to check it out, but I’m posting my personal favorites below:

Thanks to the good gentlemen at Geek Radio Daily, I’ve found out that the 90’s MTV classic, The State, will finally be making an appearance on DVD.  According to the article over at CHUD, the set has been complete since last year, but the release has been delayed until a reunion show can be made for Comedy Central.  If you’ve never heard of The State, why should you care?  Well, you shouldn’t…except that without The State, the creative minds behind Reno 911! would have never met and we’d never have that show.  As a refresher, I’ve embedded one of my favorite skits from the show.

Sometimes people ask me why they should go region-free.  This is the most recent example.  Right now, Amazon.jp has put up pictures of the new 6-disc set coming for Grindhouse.  I do this mostly to make Josh drool, but it looks awesome.  It will have both of the 2-disc editions of the films already released in the U.S. (but with an added DTS track).  The fifth disc is the theatrical cut of the Grindhouse experience and the sixth disc is bonus material that is theoretically exclusive to Japan.  It looks outright awesome.  In case you’re interested and don’t want to do the conversion, this set will put you back about $85 shipped from Japan.  Here’s the cover, and pics of the insides after the jump.

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I know that this news is old as dirt, but this story shockingly really hasn’t hit the web yet.  Not only has Darren Aronofsky launched his own site over at darrenaronofsky.com, but he also put up his recorded commentary for The Fountain when he launched the site a couple of weeks ago.

If you love or even admire The Fountain, I’d highly recommend giving it a listen.  I’ve only had the chance to listen to it from work without the movie, but it’s a great listen where Aronofsky doesn’t explain the movie, and that’s something I appreciated.

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