SteelBook Alert: With a Bit of a Mind Flip…

The SteelBook collecting scene has been pretty busy lately. In addition to recent theatrical features, a bunch of notable catalog titles are scheduled for reissue in metal case packaging.

Earlier this year, UK retailer Zavvi offered an exclusive SteelBook edition of James Cameron’s ‘Aliens’. At the time, it seemed strange that none of the other titles in the franchise would receive the same treatment. I suppose it’s not too much of a surprise to find them announced after all. These, however, are not exclusives.

When given the option, I generally recommend that American shoppers purchase from Amazon UK rather than Zavvi, because Amazon deducts VAT during checkout while Zavvi doesn’t. If you live outside the UK, your final price will be lower at Amazon. On a couple of the listings below, I’ve provided links to both retailers, because Amazon didn’t have any photos for ‘Alien’ (I’d feel bad about swiping the images from Zavvi without crediting the site) and hasn’t yet opened the preorder for ‘Alien: Resurrection’.

In any case, the artwork on these three ‘Alien’ cases is classy enough, though very familiar from past poster art and video editions. ‘Resurrection’ has the least exciting design.

‘Alien’

Available at: Amazon UK or Zavvi
Release date: April 14, 2014
Price: £19.99
Region code: Region-free

‘Alien 3’

Available at: Amazon UK
Release date: April 14, 2014
Price: £18.50
Region code: Region-free

‘Alien: Resurrection’

Available at: Amazon UK or Zavvi
Release date: May 12, 2014
Price: £19.99
Region code: Region-free

‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’

Available at: Amazon UK
Release date: May 12, 2014
Price: £18.50
Region code: Region B (unconfirmed)

I’m not particularly a fan of ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’, but if I were, this case art is pretty hilarious and awesome. I especially like the back cover instructions for how to do the Timewarp dance.

‘The Day the Earth Stood Still’ [1951]

Available at: Amazon UK
Release date: May 12, 2014
Price: £18.50
Region code: Region B (unconfirmed)

Forget the crappy remake with Keanu Reeves, this is the original sci-fi classic. I like the vintage poster art style of the case.

‘Nosferatu, The Vampire’ [1979]

Available at: Amazon UK
Release date: May 19, 2014
Price: £14.72
Region code: Region B

For almost two decades, Werner Herzog’s remake of F.W. Murnau’s 1922 classic ‘Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror’ was unavailable on home video, until it was finally resurrected from obscurity with a DVD release in 1999. Now it’s also coming to Blu-ray with both its English and German versions remastered for high definition. (Herzog filmed the movie in both languages, using alternate dialogue takes for each version.)

The SteelBook from BFI features the standard poster art that has been used on past video editions, but it looks nice on the case.

Incidentally, if you’d like to compare the remake to the original film, that one also got an interesting SteelBook from UK label Eureka! late last year.

8 comments

    • Ever since seeing the directors cut I appreciate the film much more. It’s pretty amazing what a few minutes of restored scenes can do to the flow and logic of that movie.

      • Actually, ‘Alien³’ is not really a director’s cut. Fincher has disowned the movie, and refuses to even mention it on his resume (it’s notably absent on the ‘David Fincher: Biographical Notes’ feature on the Panic Room DVD). Charles de Lauzirika and his team assembled as many usable scenes as they could. That’s why it’s not even called a “director’s cut” on the DVD or Blu-ray, because Fincher didn’t give input (but also didn’t say “no” to an extended cut made by outsiders). Same with ‘Resurrection’ in its extended version – made without Jeunet, but with his blessing.

        • Josh Zyber
          Author

          The extended cut of Resurrection is a gag, not meant to be taken seriously or watched as a canonical version of the movie. Jeunet laughs about the cheesiness of the new opening in his audio commentary.

  1. Darn you Josh for Getting me hooked on these things. I have like 40 of them now. And on top of that I ended up getting an Oppo BD player so I could mod it to play the region B ones.

  2. Bryan

    I have to second Tim’s comment – my wallet definitely hates you Josh for getting me hooked on Steelbooks. (My Blu-Ray collection thanks you though! 🙂 )

  3. njscorpio

    With all the great new Criterion titles coming out, I can’t afford to collect all the Steelbooks too! But, I do like that Rocky Horror one, and it’s also something I don’t currently own in any format.

    As for the Alien ones…I’m a huge fan of the series. HUGE. But I wouldn’t double dip for this. I have the DVD box set, the Blu-Ray box set, and both AVP movies on DVD & BD. I think that is enough, unless a new release actually provided new content.

    For me, editions like this are the best when it’s something I’ve been itching to buy, but hasn’t come out on BD yet. Like ‘True Lies’.

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