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Info: Theatrical Trailers...

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Stunningly, studios have begun to offer fewer and fewer DVDs that contain the original theatrical trailers and TV spots. I don’t understand this. In regions other than R1, trailers are still included. Why have the people at Universal, Sony/MGM, Buena Vista and occasionally Paramount decided that Americans don’t like trailers?

Personally, as I read in Entertainment Weekly once, I have to say that trailers are like little short films. Assuming you watch them, they end up in your memory as part of the filmgoing experience. Maybe a movie had a fantastic trailer that was innovative and imaginative, but the film itself failed to live up to the hype. Maybe the trailer contains a plethora of footage not in the final film or included on the DVD. Maybe the trailer was just damn cool in its own way and it has nothing to do with what you thought when you saw the movie.

In any case, I’m getting pissed off seeing more and more trailers get the boot. I always feel weird, suggesting projects when I have neither the tools nor the talent to do anything myself but maybe I can find some like-minded people and get them riled up enough to participate. Has anyone thought about making a DVD that compiles important, noteworthy, missing or generally cool theatrical trailers or TV spots? This is preservation, in my opinion.

Anyway, just thought I’d ask.

As for a list of things to be included, here are a couple. It’s a very short list but I haven’t thought about it and I will update the list from time to time.

Theatrical Trailers…

Brick (2006)* [Red-Band Theatrical Trailer]
The Cable Guy (1996)
Comedian (2002) [Theatrical Trailer]
Dawn of the Dead (2004) [Theatrical Teaser and Trailer]
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) [Theatrical Teaser and Trailer]
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986)
The Fifth Element (1997)
A Fish Called Wanda (1988)*
George A. Romero’s Land of the Dead (2005) [Theatrical Teaser]**
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (2005) [“The Guide on Trailers” Internet Trailer]
Jarhead (2005) [Theatrical Teaser and Trailer]
The Magnificent Seven (1960)
Misery (1990)* [Theatrical Teaser and Trailer]
Predator (1987)
Slither (2006)* [Red-Band Theatrical Teaser, Green-Band Theatrical Teaser, Red-Band Theatrical Trailer]

TV Spots…

The Weather Man (2005) [“Whip It”]

*Based on the track record of the studio in question, there is a special edition on schedule/to be released that will not include the trailer.
**From what I remember, there are two different versions of this teaser trailer. I believe the original featured footage from Dawn of the Dead (1978) and Day of the Dead (1985), while the one I linked (the first result on Google) is the version that only features footage from Night of the Living Dead (1968). If anyone can find or has the teaser that contains footage from all three films, that/both would be great to preserve on this DVD.

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This could be a cool project, but a tough one to pull off. I'd personally like to see a whole series of trailers discs. Maybe a Sci-Fi one, a romantic comedy one, one for horror, 80's John Hughes films, etc.

I totally agree that trailers are cool little movies. I think the best part would be that I could watch quickie versions of comedies that are just too stupid to watch the whole thing. You get all the good moments without the filler. This wouldn't be a hard series to make, the tough part would be gathering the material.
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I too love trailers and have been collecting them for years. I like the idea of compilation discs. I was going to dub them "Trailer Park" and "Trailer Park Strikes Back" etc...
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Any collection would have to have the trailer for Seinfield's movie "Comedian". Hilarious!
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Originally posted by: Sluggo
Any collection would have to have the trailer for Seinfield's movie "Comedian". Hilarious!


I haven't seen that yet. I want to though.

Since I like all types of film I thought of maybe doing DVD compilations by year of release.

Another thing that is great about some trailers is sometimes they include footage that didn't make the filnal cut or in some cases they are specifically shot for the trailer. For example the teaser for Space Balls. Remember that one? "Just space? Where are the balls?" Mel Brooks.
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Both.

Oh my god!! I just watched it and almost wet myself.
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Does the R1 Episode III bonus dvd contain trailers, nostalgy trailer and tv spots?
Fez: I am so excited about Star Whores.
Hyde: Fezzy, man, it's Star Wars.
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Yup. I'm assembling them for a SW Trailers disc that should be out this spring. But I'm keeping it all under wraps for now.
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Some of these can be found on other DVDs but compiling them should be a task. I remember seeing the "Brick" trailer upon starting up a few several DVDs over the past few months.

Some trailers that I wouldn't mind seeing (mostly because they weren't released with the DVDs I bought!):

Spider-Man 2. It's missing its teaser trailer (the one opening in the cafe) which I prefer over the one on the DVD. I know it's included on the DVD of "The Missing."

Spider-Man. Everyone knows about the WTC teaser. It's been rumored that it's escaped onto a magazine exclusive DVD. Also, the first theatrical trailer is not included on the DVD release. Luckily, it was included on a Best Buy exclusive disc for Spidey 2!

Titanic. The trailers, etc. were included on the 4-Disc Collector's Edition internationally, but not here in the States!

Unbreakable. This is probably one of the first cases in the disappearing trailers trend.

A.I. I believe this is missing one of its three trailers.

Batman Begins. Only the teaser is included. I much prefer the second one.

Harry Potter films. Same with Batman Begins. I believe the teaser is featured on all of them, not the full one.

King Kong. I haven't checked this one out yet. Are the trailers included with the Production Diaries or 2-Disc SE?
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TotalMovie magazine releases trailers and other goodies/oddities on DVD's. Anyone have a collection of all of those? I have the first one with the Troops feature.

-TheSluggo
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I have that DVD magazine with the spiderman WTC trailer. I also believe I have many of the TotalMovie DVDs.
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the WTC teaser of Spider-man was officially released on a movie magazine on DVD named Moviefxmag. I have it.

MovieFx Website

there is a very good forum about trailers: www.movie-list.com. You can download rare trailers, even vob and HD trailers if you pay.
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Hmm. The idea of paying for advertisements doesn't really seem very attractive to me.
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Originally posted by: droidguy1119
Added a couple more links. I made a note at the bottom about the Land of the Dead teaser, can anyone confirm this?



Yes. Originally it included audio with the video of Dawn and Day footage. I have it somewhere.
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Universal doesn't have trailers on their discs? But don't they have those stupid start up previews? And worse Universal usually doesn't have a link to them from the main menu like Disney does with the Sneek Peeks section. This actually sounds like a really cool project. I would be interested in seeing those start up previews included as well, but that way they would be more organized and not play when you're excited to watch something else. The only thing about dvd previews I hate is when they automatically start up for a dvd playing. It would be cool to see all the previews for the Disney Platinum editions included on one disc, for example.

For trailers that are missing.
Fifth Element: I think there are plenty included for the Regions outside 1.
Harry Potter: Azkeban only had one, the disc was missing the Choir Song teaser. Goblet had the cool one with shots of the trio from all four years but there should be others. Menu design for movie 4 sucked.
Dragonslayer: early 80's movie with nothing else on the dvd, not even the trailer.
Dune: Did the new R1 extended edition have the trailer, I heard it didn't. A widescreen vhs tape did plus a preview for other features with the theme "Science Fiction is now more popular than ever."

Take back the trilogy. Execute Order '77

http://www.youtube.com/user/Knightmessenger

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Dune again is Universal, so, no. There actually have been a couple of releases from them that snuck through with trailers, including Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (their last truly great Special Edition DVD I can remember), their re-issue of The Thing (undoubtedly because it's a re-issue) and, bizarrely, October Sky, but on the whole they haven't included trailers on 99/100 of their releases in the past two years.

Also, I think the teaser trailer for The Fifth Element is hidden on the now out-of-print R1 flipper DVD of the flick.

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1 The Guard | 2 The Tree of Life | 3 Another Earth | 4 Drive | 5 Contagion

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the WTC spiderman Trailer is amazing. It's not even a trailer but a great little short film seperately shot. You have to see it!


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Originally posted by: Cassius76
the WTC spiderman Trailer is amazing. It's not even a trailer but a great little short film seperately shot. You have to see it!


Actually it was shot to be part of the film but left out due to 911

The Thing has an elusive teaser trailer. It features footage of the arctic and comes up to a block of ice. This has been confirmed by Universal. Why they didn't include it on their DVD is unknown.
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According to that Thing website, Outpost something or other (check The Thing thread in this forum), that was an unused trailer, I think. In any case, if someone magically found it it'd be great to see.

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Originally posted by: RIJIR
Actually it was shot to be part of the film but left out due to 911
Not true. It was filmed exclusively for the trailer. There is one shot of Spidey that was used in the final film, but it wasn't intended for it. Sam Raimi just liked it.