'Tales of the Black Freighter' DVD Details!
Filed under: Action, Animation, Horror, Warner Brothers, Fandom, Newsstand, Home Entertainment, Movie Marketing, Comic/Superhero/Geek
Tales of the Black Freighter was always my favorite part of Watchmen and as much as I'm looking forward to the film, it's the DVD spin-off that keeps me awake at night. We've got details on the animated DVD -- which unfortunately hits shelves on March 24 instead of before or on Watchmen's release date of March 6.
Tales of the Black Freighter is a comic book within the graphic novel, a gruesome pirate story that has very little to do with pirates, and everything to do with what's going on in Watchmen itself. It follows the lone survivor of an attack by the dreaded Black Freighter, and his desperate journey to get back home before the Freighter attacks his town. It's a nice little journey into madness, depravity, and horror as the sailor realizes what the ultimate goal of the Freighter is. Good stuff. I only wish it could have been done live action -- but at least they snagged Gerard Butler to voice the main character. The adaptation runs 30 minutes -- and oddly is carrying a PG-13 rating (Blu-Ray is currently Unrated) despite previous reports that it would be R.
Also on the DVD is the Hollis Mason tell-all, Under the Hood. A combination of CG and live action, it sees all the necessary Watchmen actors reprising their roles to tell the history of the first costumed adventurers, the Minutemen. DVD extras on both regular and Blu-Ray include a first look at The Green Lantern (it's not specified whether it's the much hoped for live-action version, or a preview of the animated film), and Story Within A Story: The Books of Watchmen. The Blu-Ray version also includes a digital copy of the film.
At some point, this will be incorporated into an ultimate DVD release of Watchmen and be interspersed through the film the way it is through the book. But can you really wait that long to watch it? Check out larger images of art below.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1-30-2009 @ 5:40PM
The Colonel said...
If you take a closer look at the list of blue ray extras in the photo gallery, it does specify that the Green Lantern piece is 'animated'. Lame.
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1-30-2009 @ 6:59PM
Elisabeth said...
Ah! My bad. When I posted it, all I had was the tiny one...my editors must have had a nice high-res version of the box.
I'm not surprised its the animated one really ... poor Green Lantern, he's just sitting there with his script and director!
1-30-2009 @ 11:45PM
Cyhort said...
I might have to check this out. Tales of the Black Freighter was easly the best part of the Watchmen comic which I thought was incredibly overrated and not very good. I'll be skipping the movie but I might pick up this DVD.
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1-31-2009 @ 3:25PM
lemmoncracker said...
Seems strange for this to be released separately from the movie. The studios seem to really get behind animated videos that are released concurrently with their blockbusters. I imagine they usually sell well, but this seems like a stretch.
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2-01-2009 @ 2:27AM
Joan said...
With Gerard Butler on board for this aime production of The Black Freighter, I am in, and so are all the people I work with. I have seen lots of his work from Attilla(Great) to Phantom (excellent) 300 ( Stupendous )and one little item on GB Net careers, called ' Please'. an Award winner. Gerry is a natural when it comes to the darker side this is just made to measure. He is one of the best actors in Hollywood. Zach knows what he is doing and with the enormous following Gerard Butler has Black Freighter could out sell Watchman. Watch it fly.
Joan
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