Audio Video News

Not exactly April Fools' Day, but close: <A HREF="http://www.whv.com/">Warner Home Video</A> announced last Tuesday that it will celebrate the annual Masters Golf Tournament with a reissue of the 1980 film <I>Caddyshack</I> on April 6. The Special Edition reissue package will include the original comedy starring Chevy Chase, Rodney Dangerfield, Bill Murray, Ted Knight, and Cindy Morgan, as well as <I>Caddyshack: The 19th Hole</I>, a new documentary including outtakes, rare footage, and interviews with the film's stars, producers Jon Peters and Mark Canton, and director Harold Ramis. Fans will also learn more than they ever wanted to know about Bill Murray's nemesis in the film, the indestructible gopher.

R<I>ichard Harris, Vanessa Redgrave, Franco Nero, David Hemmings, Lionel Jeffreys, Laurence Naismith. Directed by Joshua Logan. Aspect ratio: 2.35:1 (anamorphic). Dolby Digital 5.1 (English), Dolby Digital 5.1 (alternate music-only track). 180 minutes. 1967. Warner Bros. 12238. Rated G. $24.95.</I>

Michael Nesmith could soon be back in the business: The former Monkee has been awarded $47 million by a jury in a Los Angeles Federal-court case. The judgment came Tuesday, February 2, after the jury found the <A HREF="http://www.pbs.org">Public Broadcasting Service</A> guilty of fraud, breach of contract, and contract interference over a video-distribution deal it signed with Nesmith's now-defunct Pacific Arts Corporation in 1990. Malfeasance by PBS caused the demise of Pacific Arts, jurors decided.

In a world of Amazon.coms and Wal-Marts, it takes a well-funded, compelling idea---or a very sharply defined niche market---to successfully set up shop. In the spirit of tightly defining a selling space, a new website has been launched by <A HREF="http://www.projectorcentral.com">ProjectorCentral</A>. The site is designed to create a very "vertical" Internet-based marketplace for buyers and sellers within the A/V and projection industry. It's intended as a "community environment" where industry professionals can trade ideas and information as well as products and services.

When is a choice not a choice at all? When the same product comes in different packages. In April, the Disney/Pixar computer-animated hit movie <I>A Bug's Life</I> will hit the stores in four different boxes. Each box will highlight a different character from the film. The intention is to grab the children's-video market by its eager eyeballs.

On January 19, <A HREF="http://www.filmscouts.com">Film Scouts</A> announced the Internet premiere of the legendary film <I>Koyaanisqatsi</I>, which will occur at 7 pm PST, Sunday, February 7, 1999. Originally released in 1983, the film was produced by Francis Ford Coppola and directed by Godfrey Reggio, and it features a score by Philip Glass. The Web debut of <I>Koyaanisqatsi</I> is presented by Film Scouts in collaboration with the Internet Protocol Multicast Initiative (IPMI) as the centerpiece of the IP Multicast Summit, an event showcasing advancements in IP multicast technology.

Although the original intent behind digital television was simply "better quality," the unfolding format will create unimagined opportunities for both Internet entrepreneurs and makers of widescreen computer displays, according to a recent report from electronics-industry observers <A HREF="http://www.mcgweb.com/">The McLaughlin Consulting Group</A>. The implementation of HDTV was the stated agenda by those involved in its design and rollout, but the biggest opportunities won't befall broadcasters, satellite providers, or traditional makers of television sets, the report says. In fact, many of the original participants might not reap the full rewards of the new technology.