David Cronenberg’s Videodrome Blu-ray Set For An Early December Criterion Collection Release

Next Wednesday, September 15th, Criterion should be announcing the December 2010 titles that will close out the year for their DVDs and Blu-rays. 2010 has been an incredible year for fans of the Collection, and we will certainly be posting our favorites of the year, closer to December (in time for those holiday wishlists).

We recently spoke on what we might expect to see from Criterion this December, and it looks like one of our predictions is certainly going to find it’s release. Earlier this year, Amazon posted several Criterion Blu-rays that were available for pre-order, far in advance of Criterion actually officially announcing them. We saw Antichrist, The Darjeeling Limited, The Thin Red Line, Seven Samurai, and David Cronenberg’s Videodrome all listed as Criterion Blu-rays. Every one of those has since been announced, save Videodrome.

Well it looks like on December 7th, we’ll finally be getting our Videodrome Blu-rays, thanks to a heads up from HighDefDiscNews, which didn’t list a source for their news. I’ve since discovered, thanks to Image Entertainment’s pre-booking page for the title, that it will in fact be released on December 7th, barring any unforseen roadblocks in the production process.

Image doesn’t list any details for the Blu-ray release, but I’d say it’s safe to assume that it will be a comparable edition to the original DVD that Criterion put out a few years back.

The artwork appears to be the same (we posted a few months ago) save the newly colorized block around the “Criterion Collection” spine logo (see below).

Since we already know that Criterion will be releasing the BBS box set on DVD in December, that only leaves Guillermo Del Toro’s Cronos as an unsure release. Even though we wrote about Del Toro’s statement that Cronos would be available on Criterion Blu-ray this December, at Comic Con Guillermo did hedge his statement a bit on stage for Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark. He simply said “next year from Criterion”, but that could have just been a slip of the tongue on his part. I really cannot wait to get my hands on Cronos, hopefully with some amazing artwork by Mike Mignola, or maybe some original art from Del Toro himself (he sketchbooks are often found as supplements on his DVDs).

Are you excited about the Videodrome Blu-ray? What other Cronenberg films would you like to see find their way into the Collection? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.