A DVD Bonanza for Fans of Classic Horror

If you own a DVD player, and you have a love of shock cinema made prior to 1961, then today is a very big day for you. Not sure why, just one of those lucky coincidences I guess, but a veritable windfall of classic terror "drops" today, as the kids say. I'm talking not one, not two, but three major releases. Let's get right into it.

The Picture of Dorian Gray

Warner Home Video is finally making this 1945 gem of an Oscar Wilde adaptation available on DVD for the first time, believe it or not. I'm thinking maybe news of another version being mounted may have been the motivation. Check out Angela Lansbury back when she was hot. Oh yeah, and she was nominated for an Oscar, too.

Psycho - Special Edition

Believe it or not, this is the first time Hitchcock's most famous film has ever gotten the deluxe "special edition" treatment as a stand-alone. It's part of Universal's Legacy Series, and even without the inevitable treasure trove of bonus features, it would be worth seeing, simply because it's still one of the finest movies ever made.

Ray Harryhausen Gift Set

You may recall that a Harryhausen gift set came out from Sony a couple years ago, featuring special editions of 20 Million Miles to Earth, It Came from Beneath the Sea and Earth vs. The Flying Saucers. This is the same bunch, except this time both black-and-white and newly colorized versions (supervised by Harryhausen himself) are included. Not quite worth $80, I say. Sure, you fancy-shmancy Blu-Ray people also get a fourth flick, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad--but do you get the adorable Ymir action figure? Huh? Do ya?? Didn't think so.

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Prince Caspian's Ben Barnes to Play Dorian Gray

The Hollywood Reporter broke the news today that British actor Ben Barnes, who played the title role in this weekend's box-office champion The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, has been chosen to star in Ealing Studios' British adaptation of Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray.

The new film version, which was first covered here in the Vault some months ago, begins shooting at the end of July. Oliver Parker, who seems to have specialized in translating Wilde's work to the screen, wil direct. Barnes also appeared in last year's sci-fi also-ran Stardust.

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Dorian Gray Gets a New Picture

There aren't many true horror fiction classics that are begging for a new film adaptation, but Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray is one of them. And now it will be happening, according to Digital Spy, which reported earlier today that a British movie is in the works.

Despite the fact that the novel (Wilde's only one) has been adapted for the small and large screen on 13 different occasions over the past century, there's really only one that's considered to be worthy of mention. That's the 1945 production starring Hurd Hatfield in the title role, along with Peter Lawford, Donna Reed and a young Angela Lansbury, back when was hot (if such a thing is imaginable). And it's not even available on DVD, believe it or not.

This new adaptation will be directed by Oliver Parker, who previously adapted Wilde's stage plays An Ideal Husband and The Importance of Being Earnest for the screen. The story of a vain and corrupt man who puts off his own aging process by transferring his age into a painting of himself, Dorian Gray is decidedly darker material than Wilde's stage work, and Parker acknowledges that, saying he is "going for the horror-thriller angle of the story. It's different [from] adapting one of Wilde's plays."

Parker is no stranger to horror, having played roles in the first two Hellraiser films, as well as Nightbreed, another Clive Barker project. This one could be very interesting.

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