Actor Willem Dafoe (THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST) narrates this feature-length documentary examination of America's 400+-year infatuation with the science and industry of whaling, which originally aired as an episode of PBS's AMERICAN EXPERIENCE series. As written and directed by Ric Burns, the film posits the idea that whaling is as traditionally integrated into "Classic Americana" as virtually anything else. The program approaches its subject chronologically, beginning with a look at whaling's role in the early 17th century, and tracing the pursuit through mid-19th Century, Civil War-era America, when close to 80% of the whaling ships in the world originated in American ports. The film also touches on issues economic and environmental. Special features include a panoply of deleted scenes that take a closer look at whales, the whaling industry and the history of Nantucket Island, and a wealth of bonus reenactment footage that features sea shanties sung aboard a whaling ship christened The Charles W. Morgan. (120 hr.)

Night Of The Living Dead: Reanimated Shambles Across North AmericaWild Eye Releasing and MVD Visual report that the North American DVD release of Night Of The Living Dead: Reanimated will be July 27.The film is a collaborative artistic mash-up of director George Romero's cult classic, with nearly 150 international artists/animators 'envisioning' sequences from the original 1968 Night Of The Living Dead feature, through their artwork, with no restrictions on style, media or process - resulting in an 'art show' interpretation placed over the original's audio track."...With work ranging from oil paintings to comic illustrations and sock puppets to CGI and stop-motion - "NOTLD:R" not only pays the respect due to this most important work in horror history, but encourages viewers to experience the film in a brand new light that bursts with the humor and horror of a new generation of artists...""This DVD is like a portable horror or zombie convention," said Wild Eye's Rob Hauschild. "We wanted to recreate the experience that fans have had around the country, where they've enjoyed NOTLD:R at film fests, on horror host TV shows, at zombie-themed events, and pop culture gatherings like the upcoming screening during Comic-Con's opening night (Thursday, July 22)."Following ...

A contemporary retelling of H.G. Wells's seminal classic, the sci-fi adventure thriller reveals the extraordinary battle for the future of humankind through the eyes of one American family fighting to survive it.

Bill Phillips, director of the soon-to-be-released Canadian western Gunless, says he wanted to give moviegoers something that plays with conventional expectations for the genre."We wanted to surprise people in many ways. We pushed the western north of the 49th parallel and played with expectations that people have — put them on their ear," Phillips said Tuesday in an interview with CBC News."It's a very specific genre — and that seems like a good reason to make it. You have an instant audience — it seems like everybody, or everybody and their dad, loves westerns."People kind of know they're going to get "big sky and horses and shootouts," he added. The film was shot in and around Osoyoos, B.C.Yet no one jumped at the chance of making a Canadian western, even though the Canadian West has been a convincing backdrop for many U.S. films and mini-series such as Into the West and Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.Phillips, whose previous film credits include psychodrama Treed Murray and caper film Foolproof, with Ryan Reynolds, had never shot a western but he admits being a fan."I thought, let's take something iconic about the classic American western and bring it to Canada. We literally ...

Dorothea Carothers (Dede) Allen, a film editor acclaimed for her work on classic American movies such as Bonnie and Clyde, Dog Day Afternoon and The Hustler, has died at age 86.Her son, Tom Fleischman, told the Los Angeles Times his mother passed away Saturday at her home in Los Angeles, days after suffering a stroke.Allen is noted for shaping the look and sound of American movies.A pioneer in her field, she became the first film editor in 1967 to get a sole credit on a movie — for Bonnie and Clyde, starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway.She was also nominated for Oscars for Dog Day Afternoon, Wonder Boys and Reds.Allen edited or co-edited 20 major movies over four decades and collaborated with directors Arthur Penn, Sidney Lumet and George Roy Hill, and actor-directors Paul Newman, Warren Beatty and Robert Redford.Allen embraced European methods of editing by beginning sequences with close-ups or jump cuts and then bleeding the sound under from the next shot while the previous scene was still on screen.Born in Cincinnati on Dec. 3, 1923, Allen attended Scripps College in Claremont, Calif., but left school to take a job as a messenger at Columbia Pictures. She started working ...

Sony Pictures Classics has announced that they have acquired the North American distribution rights to Woody Allen's new London-set drama You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger , starring Antonio Banderas, Josh Brolin, Anthony Hopkins, Freida Pinto and Naomi Watts, with plans to release it in the Fall. This will be the second Woody Allen release through Sony Pictures Classics who distributed his comedy Whatever Works last summer.