Wing Commander Movie Rereleased on DVD (November 17, 2011)

[ChrisReid]

Fox's rerelease of the Wing Commander movie is here! Unfortunately, the disc is virtually identical to the original release with the same cut of the film and included features present. It has a very slick new box cover though, and the retail price in the US is just $5.99 (about $11.98 in Canada). The new 2011 packaging is displayed on the left and the 1999 version is positioned on the right of the first shot below.

​

"Starship Troopers" meets "Top Gun" in this no-holds-battle for the future of mankind. A vicious alien race, the Kilrathi, has discover the coordinates to Earth and is heading our way with plans of the total destruction. Now it's up to two young hotshot fighter pilots to blast their way through the Kilrathi's defenses and save their planet from this new breed of enemy.

--
Original update published on November 17, 2011

 

[Nomad Terror]

So, if it's exactly the same, why the rerelease?

 

[Triple-B]

Maybe the old release was out of print?

 

[TheFraix]

How hard can it be to insert some additional new features, such as the Behind the Scenes or Making Of featurette that CIC is hosting?

 

[Nomad Terror]

Maybe the old release was out of print?

Has there suddenly been a spike in demand for the movie to warrant a reprint?

Don't get me wrong, I'm one of the ones who loved the movie, and I was pretty excited about buying an updated print of it. I don't know if I want to buy the exact same pressing, though.

 

[Quarto]

I would figure the original print was fairly small - that was back in a day when most people actually didn't have DVD players. So yeah, there must be enough demand to warrant a reprint, now that there's so many more people out there with DVD players. It's just a pity it's not a Blu-ray edition...

 

[Nomad Terror]

I would figure the original print was fairly small - that was back in a day when most people actually didn't have DVD players. So yeah, there must be enough demand to warrant a reprint, now that there's so many more people out there with DVD players. It's just a pity it's not a Blu-ray edition...

We're well past the DVD era, though. Sure, people still play and buy DVDs, but we're generally moving towards streaming media. Instead of a new DVD print I think pushing the HD version to Netflix and others would be more relevant.

 

[Quarto]

We're well past the DVD era, though. Sure, people still play and buy DVDs, but we're generally moving towards streaming media. Instead of a new DVD print I think pushing the HD version to Netflix and others would be more relevant.

I don't think that really matters. As long as there's demand, they'll keep releasing DVDs, and this doesn't actually clash with a Netflix release - they can do both.

 

[ChrisReid]

Yeah, you guys aren't looking at it from Fox's point of view. Blu-rays might be the future, but DVDs are still the bread and butter of the industry now. They're selling great, and Wing Commander has sold well enough to get a new print. And it's a lot more difficult to change the content of the disc than you're thinking. First, they'd have to know that the material we have exists. Off the top of my head, I don't even know exactly what all we have and what would make the best extra features. Then you'd have to review it, have a legal team look into its origins and validate what's acceptable to include, and then have someone actually design a new disc with new menus. Having an artist make a new sleeve is way way easier, and that's what's amazing about this - the fact that they did that at all. I would actually be surprised if the art was new... it could have been lying around for 12 years and just got pulled from the archives for the new printing.

 

[Worf]

And don't forget if the new material doesn't fit, the whole movie has to be re-encoded and re-processed so it all fits on the DVD. And re-processing is NOT what you want.

It's easier to just re-press an existng movie. Heck, if their stock is good, they may have the original pressing discs. In which case it costs practically nothing to do a re-release.

 

[cff]

No, honestly... the technical side is rediculously easy. Probably one day work. I agree with Chris tho, the whole preprocessing - selecting what to add and to check the legal aspects. Now thats a whole different thing.

 

[AD]

And don't forget if the new material doesn't fit, the whole movie has to be re-encoded and re-processed so it all fits on the DVD. And re-processing is NOT what you want.

It's easier to just re-press an existng movie. Heck, if their stock is good, they may have the original pressing discs. In which case it costs practically nothing to do a re-release.

No, not really. THe original release is a single layer disk with nearly no extras save about 2 minutes of tv spots and trailers. (a 1 min one and two 30 second ones IIRC). Besides which the movie is only 1h and 40 min... Though I suppose maybe double layer disks are more expensive but I can't see it being prohibitively so.

However, most of the factors Chris mentioned about getting the right licensing and finding suitable source copies of the material as well as building new disk menus would be where the expenses lie. I don't think it would have been prohibitively expensive, but still the suits would look at the added expense and say "why can't we just repackage the old release?" It doesn't make sense but Fox also doesn't really care.

In the meantime I can at least rent the HD version on xbox and itunes.

 

[ChrisReid]

However, most of the factors Chris mentioned about getting the right licensing and finding suitable source copies of the material as well as building new disk menus would be where the expenses lie. I don't think it would have been prohibitively expensive, but still the suits would look at the added expense and say "why can't we just repackage the old release?" It doesn't make sense but Fox also doesn't really care.

And I don't think this should even be taken in a negative light - it's not like Fox dislikes Wing Commander. Obviously they don't, they just rereleased it with a cool new cover!

They are an entirely different scale of business than, for example, the awesome company looking to rerelease the Wing Commander Academy series. For VEI, it's worthwhile for them to skim the internet looking for extras and adjusting their packaging to fit with all that, because that's what will help them sell the couple thousand copies of the set that they're able to get produced. It's catered to a hardcore market.

Meanwhile, the vast majority of the people FOX is selling to literally have never even heard of the Wing Commander games, and most of their customers have zero interest in the extras we host at the CIC. Presumably they have a back catalogue department that rereleases new movies every week based on what's sold through and is due for a reprint. I can't imagine that these people have even actually seen most of the movies that they're handling, and they surely don't know about the extensive fan communities that exist for each one, nor the potential for hidden special features out there.

And this is all good for us! We're getting attention from both sides of the publishing market. VEI is recreating something amazing, because that's their market, and FOX is going to sell through bajillions of copies of the new disc (eventually), which will find their way into the homes of potential new fans that will then find us here. Someday they or Chris Roberts will probably even make a mass market Bluray.