CriterionCast

Early Look At Artwork For Videodrome And Seven Samurai Blu-ray’s

Earlier today, Amazon quietly updated the Blu-ray pre-order pages for David Cronenberg’s Videodrome, and Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai. These Blu-ray’s were themselves, quietly added to Amazon’s listings back in May, alongside pre-order pages for Lars Von Trier’s Antichrist, and Terrence Malick’s The Thin Red Line (which was just announced for a September release).

The cover art isn’t the best quality on Amazon, so I was able to get some higher res images for you lucky readers, which I’ve included below, above their respective DVD covers in the Collection. Clearly, they aren’t changing things up with these Blu-ray releases, only slightly changing the graphic design of the logo, and in the case of Seven Samurai, simply adding the circular Blu-ray sticker is enough for us. I’m absolutely fine with them keeping the Seven Samurai cover art as it was with the latest 3-Disc edition, released a couple year ago, as Neil Kellerhouse is one of my favorite Criterion cover artists.

I like the re-vamping of the Criterion spine logo on the Videodrome Blu-ray, giving it a nostalgic, analog video feel. They’ve also gone and included a new, yellow Criterion C in the corner, as well as subtly changing the location of Cronenberg’s name above the title.

It seems highly likely that the addition of artwork to these pre-order pages would indicate that these two titles will be among the October releases. Since Hausu wasn’t announced as a September release, going against the New York Times initial announcement in May, it is also likely that we’ll see Obayahshi’s comic horror film find it’s way into the Collection, just in time for Halloween.

What do you think of the subtle changes to these Blu-ray covers? Were you expecting a complete revamping of the artwork? What other films do you predict will be released alongside these titles in October? Click on the images to take you to Amazon, where you can pre-order / purchase the respective titles.




Ryan Gallagher

Ryan is the Editor-In-Chief / Founder of CriterionCast.com, and the host / co-founder / producer of the various podcasts here on the site. You can find his website at RyanGallagher.org, follow him on Twitter (@RyanGallagher), or send him an email: [email protected].

6 comments

  • These have actually been up since june 11th ( http://forum.blu-ray.com/blu-ray-movies-north-a…). There's also much speculation over on the Criterion thread over at blu-ray.com to them since Criterion themselves haven't confirmed these covers, although it would make sense to use the already existing artwork, save the minor changes Videodrome seems to have helping it fit in better with the current Criterion asthetic. Seeing as how they still haven't even confirmed “The Thin Red Line” artwork on their site, I would say these are optimistic hopefuls, but not actually verified.

  • Good to know! I love blu-ray.com as well. The final images for these covers were officially sent, and I'm pretty secure in thinking they're official. I've heard that we'll get a final, official release of the Thin Red Line artwork next week. I cannot wait to see what we get for Antichrist, and I have to assume that we'll get artwork for the Darjeeling Limited, similar to the other Wes Anderson titles in the Criterion Collection.

  • Right on. I am also excited to see what we get for Antichrist. That movie has so much excellent imagery. I'm fond of the UK Blu that has the rusty scissor cover, but I'm sure Criterion will bring their A game with it. Maybe for Darjeeling we will get another art-inspired Wes Anderson cover so it'll fit in nicely with the others. More than anything, though, i want my HAUSU BLU! hehe.