Criterion just announced its December slate, and while things are pretty thin, they are finally delivering a powerhouse they teased ages ago: Guillermo del Toro’s debut feature, the vampire parable “Cronos.”
Out December 7th and featuring an eye-popping sleeve designed by “Hellboy” creator Mike Mignola, the new deluxe edition of “Cronos” features a new transfer, supervised and approved by del Toro with new and improved English subtitles (also approved by del Toro). On the special features side of things, we get two audio commentaries, one featuring del Toro and the other with producers Arthur H. Gorson, Bertha Navarro and co-producer Alejandro Springall. We’ll also get treated to “Welcome to Bleak House,” a video tour by del Toro of his office (what he’s described as his “man cave”), featuring his collectibles and personal work. (Hopefully we’ll get a peek inside his Haunted Mansion room!) There’s also “Geometria,” a 1987 short film by del Toro which the director just finished this year, plus an interview about the film. The special features are rounded out by new video interviews with del Toro, Navarro, and actor Ron Perlman; a vintage video interview with actor Federico Luppi; a stills gallery; the trailer; and a booklet featuring an essay by critic Maitland McDonaugh and excerpts from del Toro’s notes for the film. At some point del Toro had talked about packaging the special edition of “Cronos” with a replica of the Cronos device, but sadly that is not in the cards for this release.
Additionally for December, Criterion is bringing David Cronenberg’s gooey, mind-bending sci-fi classic “Videodrome” to Blu-ray (also out December 7th). The release will be an HD port of the wonderful disc that Criterion released a few years ago, with all the special features intact including multiple commentaries, documentaries (both new and vintage), and Cronenberg’s 2000 short film “Camera.” We can’t wait to see James Woods reach into his vagina wound in high definition!
That’s it for new releases; the last “announcement” is a delay of the DVD release of the “America Lost and Found: The BBS Story” box set (which, as we noted earlier, will include “Five Easy Pieces” and “Last Picture Show” among others, and will totally kick ass). The Blu-ray will apparently still be on schedule for November, while this baby has been kicked back to December 14th. Whatever format you get the box set in, we’re sure it’ll be amazing, and reading Larry McMurtry’s fantastic recent memoir “Hollywood,” in which he devotes a fair amount of time talking about BBS and the movies contained in this box set, makes us even more pumped.
Whether you want vampires, weird television signals, or influential American movies from the late 60s/early 70s, we’re sure these new titles will be on every film fanatic’s Christmas/Hanukkah list for sure.
Criterion also put up thumbnail images of the cover art for all films in the BBS Box Set.