The cover of the 2010 Alien Anthology set.
The Alien Anthology is a 2010 six-disc Blu-ray box set which, for the first time, brought Alien, Aliens, Alien3 and Alien Resurrection to high definition home video.
The set contains remastered high definition transfers of not only each of the four theatrical films in the Alien franchise, but also their respective alternate versions (the Alien Director's Cut, the Aliens Special Edition, the Alien3 Assembly Cut and the Alien Resurrection Special Edition). The set also brings together, for the first time, all of the bonus material from every home video release of the Alien movies up to that point, including materials previously exclusive to the 1991/1992 LaserDisc releases, the 1999 "Legacy" VHS and DVD releases and 2003's Alien Quadrilogy DVD set, along with new never-before-seen bonus material exclusive to this set.
Overview
The Alien Anthology set features six Blu-ray discs, the first four of which contain high definition transfers of the four films in the series in both their original theatrical and alternate versions. For Alien and Alien Resurrection, these alternate cuts are the same as those found on the 2003 Alien Quadrilogy set. However, the Special Edition of Aliens and the Assembly Cut of Alien3 have gone through additional work specially for this set — James Cameron personally oversaw the correction of certain mistakes in the extended cut of Aliens, while for Alien3, some of the original voice actors re-recorded dialogue in several of the added and extended scenes to cover previous poor sound issues.[1]
Disc five contains the extensive 2003 making-of documentaries for each of the films, originally produced for the Quadrilogy set. Of these, the documentary on Alien3, Wreckage and Rage, is for the first time presented in its entirety — the version included in the Alien Quadrilogy was cut by over 20 minutes at 20th Century Fox's behest, to remove negative comments about the studio made by the cast and crew. Also included on the disc are numerous "Enhancement Pods", essentially deleted scenes taken from the documentaries, which provide additional depth and detail on the making of the movies.
Disc six contains a wealth of additional bonus material, including videos, still images, script drafts and further documentaries. Virtually all of the special features and supplements from previous releases of the Alien movies (including an archive of the special edition LaserDisc box sets, with all their image galleries and other unique content) are included, as well as new exclusive bonus material. Owing to the increased storage capacity of Blu-ray, the previous five discs of special features from the Quadrilogy set have been condensed to just two Blu-ray discs, which hold approximately 60 hours of bonus video content and over 12,000 still images.[2]
Some of the Alien Anthology discs have since been reused for several other box-sets, including in the 2012 four-disc Blu-ray set of the same name, the Prometheus to Alien: The Evolution Blu-ray box set and the individual single-disc Blu-ray releases of each of the films in the Alien series.
Contents
Disc 1: Alien
- 1979 theatrical version
- 2003 Director's Cut with Ridley Scott introduction
- Audio commentary with director Ridley Scott, writer Dan O'Bannon, executive producer Ronald Shusett, editor Terry Rawlings, and actors Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton and John Hurt
- Alternate audio commentary with Ridley Scott (theatrical cut only)
- Final theatrical isolated score by Jerry Goldsmith (theatrical cut only)
- Composer's original isolated score (theatrical cut only)
- 7 deleted and extended scenes
- Deleted footage marker (Director's Cut only)
- MU-TH-UR Mode interactive experience with Weyland-Yutani datastream
Disc 2: Aliens
- 1986 theatrical version
- 1992 Special Edition with James Cameron introduction
- Audio commentary with director James Cameron, producer Gale Anne Hurd, Alien effects creator Stan Winston, visual effects supervisors Robert Skotak and Dennis Skotak, miniature effects supervisor Pat McClung, and actors Michael Biehn, Bill Paxton, Lance Henriksen, Jenette Goldstein, Carrie Henn and Christopher Henn
- Final theatrical isolated score by James Horner (theatrical cut only)
- Composer's original isolated score (theatrical cut only)
- 16 deleted and extended scenes
- Deleted footage marker (Special Edition only)
- MU-TH-UR Mode interactive experience with Weyland-Yutani datastream
Disc 3: Alien3
- 1992 theatrical version
- 2003 Assembly Cut (restored version)
- Audio Commentary with cinematographer Alex Thomson, B.S.C., editor Terry Rawlings, Alien effects designers Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff, Jr., visual effects producer Richard Edlund, A.S.C., and actors Paul McGann and Lance Henriksen
- Final theatrical isolated score by Elliot Goldenthal (theatrical cut only)
- 31 deleted and extended scenes
- Deleted footage marker (Assembly Cut only)
- MU-TH-UR Mode interactive experience with Weyland-Yutani datastream
Disc 4: Alien Resurrection
- 1997 theatrical version
- 2003 Special Edition with Jean-Pierre Jeunet introduction
- Audio commentary with director Jean-Pierre Jeunet, editor Hervé Schneid, A.C.E., Alien effects creators Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff, Jr., visual effects supervisor Pitof, conceptual artist Sylvain Despretz, and actors Ron Perlman, Dominique Pinon and Leland Orser
- Final theatrical isolated score by John Frizzell (theatrical cut only)
- 11 deleted and extended scenes
- Deleted footage marker (Special Edition only)
- MU-TH-UR Mode interactive experience with Weyland-Yutani datastream
Disc 5: Making the Anthology
- The Beast Within: The Making of Alien
- Superior Firepower: The Making of Aliens
- Wreckage and Rage: The Making of Alien3
- One Step Beyond: The Making of Alien Resurrection
- Enhancement Pods
- MU-TH-UR Mode interactive experience to access and control Enhancement Pods
Disc 6: The Anthology Archives
A multitude of images, videos and additional documentaries arranged by film and split between pre-production, production and post-production galleries.
Trivia
- Reception to the Alien Anthology set has been overwhelmingly positive, with many reviews praising its treatment of the films themselves and the huge volume of in-depth special features it contains.[3] Some have even cited it as the Blu-ray set by which all others should be judged.
- Among the material released for the first time on the Anthology set, perhaps the most notable is a deleted scene from Aliens where Ripley discovers Burke inside the Atmosphere Processor, cocooned and impregnated with a Chestburster, whilst searching for Newt. For years, still images of the scene had been in circulation, but the Alien Anthology set represents the first time this footage has been available for fans to view.
External Links
- Official website (now a redirect to the Alien Facebook page)
- Alien Anthology at Amazon.com
- Alien Anthology at AvPGalaxy.net
References
- ↑ Alien Anthology Hits Blu-ray, Dark Realm Fox
- ↑ Tribbey, Chris. "'Alien Anthology' Boasts 60 Hours of Bonus Content".
- ↑ "Blu-ray.com - Alien Anthology Blu-ray Review". Retrieved on 2014-01-10.