Cinematical

Get ready for a Dirty Harry overload, kids: Warner Brothers announced yesterday that 2007 will see reissues of all five Harry Callahan films, as well as the release of a new videogame based on the character. Because the announcement was made at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (aka E3 3E, which our gamer brother Joystiq is covering like crazy), the DVDs were presented simply as supporting material for the game's big launch but, given the work that it sounds like is going into the DVDs, I'm thinking that was more about the audience than Warner's actual view of the relationship between the releases.

The game will feature the unmistakable voice of Clint Eastwood (who is, he said, stoked to get to pretend he's 40 again), reprising his role as Callahan, as well as those of Gene Hackman, who will voice Lieutenant Al Bressler (played in the movies by Harry Guardino) and Laurence Fishburne as a new character named Reverend Carlton Clay. The movies, meanwhile, will be released together in an epic box set, and are expected to feature commentary from Eastwood as well as "footage from the vaults," among other luscious extras. Sweet sweet sweet.

While I personally couldn't really care less about the videogame, if it's what gave Warners the push they needed to treat these movies right, I'm all for it. Now if we could just get someone to make a Chimes at Midnight game ...