Serenity is now on sale in Italy! Region 2 disc, dubbed in Italian, subtitles in English, Italian and Croatian.
Extras should be the same as the other R2 discs:
Buy it at Terminal Video Italia.
Details have been released for the German versions of Serenity. Aside from the different (and pretty cool) cover, they seem the same as the UK and Australian versions. Single-disc version:
There’s also a limited edition German version of the Australian 2-disc set, which includes all of the previous plus Question & Answer Session, Extended Scenes, Take a walk on Serenity, and The Green Clan.
Cinefacts.de was nice enough to collect links for the different versions (and the UMD version) so I’ll just point you there.
Australians had to wait the longest for their DVD, but they got more than anybody. This is a 2-disc set with lots of tasty extras. Oz Browncoats also get “A Filmmakers Journey,” a Joss Whedon Q & A Session (filmed at Sydney’s Fox Studios), Extended Scenes, “Take a Walk on Serenity,” where the cast and Crew take us on a special tour of the Serenity ship, and “The Green Clan,” a featurette on cinematographer Jack Green.
There are also some limited editions versions available from different outlets. EzyDVD has a collector’s tin (left), and JB Hi-Fi has a slipcase edition (right). Same discs inside, just cooler containers.
Also, according to the Serenity Oz website, if you purchase the DVD at either Dick Smith Powerhouse stores or WOW Sight & Sound stores (in QLD and NT only) and get a free mouse pad. I believe it’s walk-in only, check the links for a location near you.
You Browncoats across the water have been waiting reasonably patiently, but for your trouble you get more stuff on your DVD.
You still get the movie, the commentary by Joss, the deleted scenes, yadda yadda, but you also get “A Filmmakers Journey,” a 20 minute documentary that follows the story from the script to the screen. So you got that going for you.
Buy: Amazon.co.uk
HMV.co.uk has an exclusive R2 deal that includes 6 “artcards,” whatever they are. The movie is the same.
Got my copy last night and watched it immediately. You need this. Even if you’re not a Buffy/Angel/Firefly fan, if you’ve ever been interested in writing for TV or movies (or anything, really), you need to see this writer talk about it with no punches pulled and genuine affection for his craft.
What it is, is an hour-long talk given by Joss Whedon after receiving the Science Fiction Screenwriter of the Year award at Screenwriting Expo 4. He answers questions about his career, how he writes, how to make stories real, and why he feels the need to jerk our hearts around all the time. And because he is Joss, it’s funny and revealing and insightful. A lot of his comments were ones we’ve heard before in different interviews here and there, but it’s great to hear him just sit back and discourse for awhile. And fidget. And talk into a tiny, tiny microphone. And crack the audience up.
Also, he is introduced by Nathan Fillion, and that introduction is worth the price of the DVD. Nathan: “Then there was Firefly, the story of a handsome man,” (audience laughter) “No, I’m going to say, an extremely handsome man. Good show. Nice try. Cancelled.”
Joss goes into more details than I’ve heard before on his time at Roseanne and his movie experiences, and even talks about what writing Alien Resurrection taught him (besides “always direct your own work”). Bringing Sigourney back, even though the audience wanted her back, was a challenge to make believable. And he felt he’d hit on something very emotional and universal when Winona Ryder says, “Look at me, I’m disgusting.” Joss: “And I did it with a robot and a clone, so I was in heaven.”
He talks about metaphor and how each thing you write has to have some layer, some meaning, even if it’s only there just to showcase a perfect moment like, say, putting Willow in an eskimo coat so Oz would see her. Buffy was about high school and the journeys you go through. Angel was about atonement; what you do when you have to make up for something (he referenced alcoholism). “No one becomes who they wanted to be. Except Nathan, who’s totally at ease with his talent and good looks. I really hate the guy… and yet want him to hold and comfort me.”
He talks about being a writer, and being a good writer, and how to hire good writers. And he talks about the differences between TV and movies: “TV is feminine. It wants to talk about the problem for seven years. Movies want to get it done and get out.”
The talk is an hour long, and there is a Q and A clip that actually only includes maybe three questions. Also, for some reason the DVD wouldn’t let me go back to the menu from the middle of the talk; clicking on “Menu” just made it blink. I had to fast-forward through to the credits screen and let it jump back to the menu page by itself. That may have been my player, but I haven’t had that happen with any other DVD. Just sayin’. Note: there is some occasional strong language.
Watch the trailer at creativescreenwriting.com . But buy it at FanDone so your cash goes to a fellow Flan.
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The Southern Asia version of the movie. It contains the same features as the UK version (but coded NTSC) and includes Chinese subtitles.
If you want to be a completist but prefer to pay for your ripped copy, you can buy the Hong Kong VCD version of Serenity for a lot cheaper than the DVD. This is the complete movie in English, with Chinese subtitles.
The quality of VCDs cary wildly but generally they’re about the level of a good video copy. Most VCD movies are on 2 discs (as this is) because you can only get about 70 minutes of video on a CD. Many DVD players will play it, as will your computer and some handheld players.
However, I have no idea if Universal or our BDHs see any revenue from this. Just sayin’.
To be a browncoat, you really should start here.
Joss Whedon’s short-lived, badly treated TV show didn’t last long on television. But the DVD set has been a best-seller for several years now, winning new converts with every viewing. All 14 original episodes (in the correct order and everything) plus bloopers, features, commentaries, and more.
“Five hundred years in the future, there is a whole new frontier, and the crew of the Firefly-class spaceship Serenity is eager to stake a claim on the action. They’ll take any job, legal or illegal, to keep fuel in the tanks and food on the table. But things get a bit more complicated after they take on a passenger wanted by the new totalitarian Alliance regime. Now they find themselves on the run, desperate to steer clear of Alliance ships and the flesh-eating Reavers who live on the fringes of space.”
The funniest drama and the most exciting comedy you’ll ever see.
When you walk out of every new movie shaking your head and wondering why you bother to keep coming, when you can’t understand why you pay such high prices for cheap snacks so you can sit surrounded by rude people to watch inferior entertainment, it is almost cathartic to see a movie like “Serenity.”
It’s science fiction, set 500 years in the future in the aftermath of a galactic civil war in which the powerful Alliance won over the underdog Independents. A brilliantly gifted young girl, tortured and surgically altered by an unknown group, is rescued by her brother and hidden on a smuggler’s ship captained by an honorable man who continues to fight for his independence long after the war is over.
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