The Passenger Marks Nicholson's First-Ever Commentary

Jack Nicholson does his first-ever DVD commentary track on Director Michaelangelo Antonioni's The Passenger, a 1975 flick that is just now seeing a DVD release.

Nicholson has publically stated that the filming of the movie was the biggest adventure he's ever had while shooting a picture.

The Passenger stars Nicholson as television reporter David Locke who, while on location in Africa, decides to switch identities with a dead man whom he discovers in the hotel room next to his own.

The single-disc release contains the original director's cut of the movie, with about seven minutes of footage that has never been seen before by American audiences.

Star Trek To Beam Back Down In 2008

Trekkies everywhere rejoice! Paramount plans a major re-launch of the franchise in 2008, and they've found the right man to helm the project: J.J. Abrams, the creator of Lost and Alias, and the director of Paramount's big tent-pole picture this summer, Mission Impossible III.

The new Star Trek movie will focus on the first meeting of Captain James T. Kirk and Mr. Spock, with presumingly new actors taking over the roles played by William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy. No word yet on whether Shatner and Nimoy will be offered cameo roles in the movie.

Ironically, this new idea is quite similar to one pitched by Harve Bennett (producer and writer on Star Trek II, III, IV & V) shortly before the final storyline for Star Trek VI was finalized back in the early 1990's. At that time fan outrage was so strong about anyone other than Shatner and Nimoy playing the Kirk and Spock roles that Paramount decided to go in a different direction with their next Trek flick (which resulted in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country). Bennett was so upset at his idea being rejected that he disassociated himself with the franchise. No word yet on how much of Bennett's concept, if any, is going to be used in this new Star Trek film.

The last Star Trek motion picture, 2002's Star Trek: Nemesis, was a box office disappointment - bringing in only $43 million, making it the worst-performing of the 10 Star Trek movies. Last year, Paramount decide to cancel the only remaining television series based on Gene Roddenberry's universe, Star Trek: Enterprise.

HD-DVD Launches...With A Whimper

Today marks the first "official" day Toshiba's HD-DVD players go on sale, although a few lucky(?) consumers were able to grab players a day or two early, depending on the retail store. Toshiba players are only being sold at a limited number of online stores, and a handful of brick & mortar locations, such as Best Buy, Sears and Wal Mart. Toshiba only shipped about 10,000 players, which means each store is only getting 3 or 4 players each at this time.

Buyers will be hard-pressed to find any HD-DVDs to play in their new players, as the only releases as of today are Warner's The Last Samurai and Phantom of the Opera, as well as Universal's Serenity.

Toshiba's low-end player, the roughly $500 HD-A1, is getting mixed reviews from "techies" on the Net, who have managed to test the new players - with some praising the new format, while others are disappointed in the new technology's improvement over standard DVD.

Today's launch, of course, only marks half of the High Definition format war. Sony's Blu-Ray players are due to get their launch in late June/early July - and only then will consumers be able to compare and contrast formats, with the marketplace to determine the ultimate "winner".

For more information about High-Definition DVD, Click Here.

New Look At DVD Empire

In case you haven't visited DVD Empire lately, we've updated our look!

The Home Page now features a new release section that includes tabs to both a Bestsellers section and Preorders section. Each section features six "hot" titles in that category. The middle of the page continues to feature Recently Announced DVDs that are available for preorder. The bottom of the page is now reserved for special sales and promotions - or just a really cool release we think you should take a look at!

Product pages have been updated as well, with a new toolbar in the middle of each product page providing links to that title's Empire Reviews; Customer Comments; Suggestions; Used Products; Box Cover; and Screen Shots.

More updates and new features are coming to DVD Empire soon, so we'll keep you posted as we continue to upgrade the look of our site.

As always, Customer Feedback is not only wanted, but needed! Tell us what you think!

Here's Looking At You Kid...

The Writers Guild Of America has named Casablanca as the greatest movie screenplay of all-time in a list of 101 that was released on Thursday.

Rounding out the top 10 are the screenplays from The Godfather; Chinatown; Citizen Kane; All About Eve; Annie Hall; Sunset Boulevard; Network; Some Like It Hot; and The Godfather, Part II.

Of course, the good news is that all these great flicks are on DVD and available for purchase.

No word on how close Showgirls was to making the the final cut...