Danny Cannon dropped by my office this morning and mentioned that the Eleventh Hour DVD boxed set is now scheduled for October 2009 release. Danny's had a hand in the presentation and the quality specs, so technically the set should be well up to snuff.
I Googled to see if any public announcement had been made before mentioning it here, as I'm not in the business of breaking confidences, only to find that it's been on Warners' own DVD site for a few days already. According to TV Shows on DVD, pre-orders will ship on October 20th but here's an odd thing... if their information's accurate, the discs won't be available in stores but sold online-only as 'manufacture-on-demand' under the Warners Archive program.
Make of that what you will. In the course of the day it's been suggested to me that healthy sales may lead to a wider release with extras, commentaries and the like. Warners know that I'm up for a contribution if they want to call on me.
But how you achieve healthy sales with a product that has no retail presence is another question altogether...
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Not to mention the fact that it is only available to those in the US. How are we supposed to show our immense support for this show when millions are left out?
It has been a couple of angry and confusing days over at Planet Hood.
Well, I hope that mentions like this one on your blog will help boost sales. If this goes well, maybe JB/WB might be persuaded that this is a viable product and bring the series back!
I see the DVD set of the British version in video and bookstores everywhere in LA... I can't imagine that the Bruckheimer show can seriously be considered more of a niche product than its predecessor.
I wish WB would at least release the DVDs through Amazon.com as well. Personally, I didn't even realize there was a wbshop.com. How many people will actually find the DVDs there?
Is there an award for least promoted DVD package? I don't believe in conspiracy theories but this makes absolutely no sense to me.
The TVShowsonDVD piece says:
"On many of the film titles previously made available through this service, we will later notice that the titles (including pictures of the Warner Archive packaging) will appear as listings at other online sellers, including Amazon...but at a mark-up of at least five dollars, sometimes more."
I can understand the "manufacture-on-demand" program for more obscure film titles, but it seems strange for a series that had a strong core audience.
Could it just be that given the current situation, Warners are starting to tighten their belts and the Eleventh Hour set is a victim of bad timing?
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