Paul's Brain Trust - Once In A Lifetime Blade Runner Opportunity

Please read this.

I reckon that the greatest film of 2007 was Blade Runner: The Final Cut. It was also the best DVD set of last year - easily. And the Alien Quadrilogy boxset might still be the best DVD boxset on the market at all.

None of these things could have existed without Paul Prischman. He was a producer, or worked on the production team, on these and many more DVDs to treasure.

I remember the first e-mail I ever received from Paul, completely out of the blue. Just making conversation about something I had posted here. He was just a film fan, reading around - like me, and quite like you too.

The conversation went on through more e-mails and telephone calls. It didn't take long at all for me to realise how thoroughly decent Paul is, how knowledgeable, enthusiastic, interesting and, most importantly, I feel, how nice. As yet, I haven't had the pleasure of meeting Paul face to face, but I would like to call him a friend. He's definitely been a good friend to film ick.

Some good friends of Paul's have now set up a charity called Paul's Brain Trust. Why have they done this? Because Paul has been diagnosed with "particularly aggressive" cancer in his brain. Because, while Paul does have medical insurance, it won't cover everything. And because they love him.

I dare say you've probably loved his work - on the DVDs I mentioned above, or on the discs for Monster House, Spider-Man 2, or countless others. Please, then, check out the Brain trust page. Just click on over and see what they're up to. You'll be amazed, actually - for example: a very special screening of Blade Runner, right there alongside the lot where it was shot, with Ridley Scott attending and carrying out a Q&A... and much, much more.

Keep your eyes on the Brain trust site (and here, too) for more. Fingers crossed, we'll be able to raise some support for Paul via film ick too.

Thanks for reading.

Criterion Going On The Love Parade

The wacky animal teaser on this month's Criterion newsletter seems to suggest a forthcoming release for Ernst Lubitsch's The Love Parade. Excellent.

Coens Missing From the Chacun Son Cinema DVD

Of the 33 shorts made by a varied selection of world famous directors premiered at Cannes this year, only one is missing from the DVD release, and that's World Cinema by the Coen brothers.

Does anybody have any idea why it's missing? Hopefully it will be included on the No Country for Old Men DVD. I'd hate to see it vanish forever.

Thinking Caps On: A New Pile Of Disney Mysteries

The good work at The Disney Enquirer continues, with another long list of Mouse-owned domain names dug up for our consideration. This stuff really gets me going - and there's bound to be something in this lot that tempts you too.

Firstly, there's a heap of new DVD and Blu-Ray domains: Saludos Amigos and The Three Cabelleros are coming to DVD, just in time to tie-in with their new Epcot attraction; The Frog Princess now has a DVD domain ready registered even while the production race is far from the final furlong; Finding Nemo's Blu-Ray release can't be far away either.

Other domains seem to reveal the names of previously unannounced TV shows: Aron Stone, Baby Sitter Fighting Force, Twitches 2, Kid Knieval, Lucky Breaks, Shezow, Rules of 57th Street, Truman and Tre.

Who Shrunk Daniel Funk is the first in an upcoming series of books from Lin Oliver - Disney have registered a series of associated domains, so can we look forward to a new film franchise based on the books? Or just a spin-off TV show?

And how about a sequel to Meet the Robinsons? Certainly looks like one is coming - Meet the Kids was on the list too and Robinsons fans will see straight away how that would pan out. Direct to DVD, no doubt.

Most interesting, however, are a series of 'Vision' branded domains - Prince Caspian, Enchanted and Pirates of the Caribbean all have 'Vision' websites alongside their main pages. The Enquirer speculates this might be related to Disney 3D, the branded Real-D process that Disney have been pushing lately. If they're right, that's great for all of us - Real-D is amazing. I'm suspecting that 'Vision' might just be a Video on Demand service, however. If you ahve any clues, please fire them over.

What a line-up. I'm already champing at the bit for Saludos Amigos and The Three Caballeros.