The Prisoner Viewing Order
The order in which you view episodes of The Prisoner is one of much debate and it's widely felt that it's up to the viewer to really make their own mind up. About the only thing agreed upon is that the order in which the episodes were aired is not a very good order at all.
So here goes with yet another viewing order for The Prisoner as I currently feel it should be...
- Arrival (it's definitely the beginning)
- Dance of the Dead (before Free For All because of the first time no.6 visits the town hall and no.6 says he's new)
- Free For All
- Checkmate (has to come after Free For All because this is where he puts the "who are the prisoners and who are the warders" theory into practice, whereas he declares his intention in Free For All)
- Chimes of Big Ben (? - Seems a fairly early plan but no particular clues as to it's position)
- The General (comes before A,B & C because Colin Gordon's No. 2 is confident here and stated as the "new" no.2)
- A,B & C (after The General with Colin Gordon's No.2 obviously weaker and on his second chance, and he's not the "new" no.2)
- The Schizoid Man (often seems to go back to back with The General, so stuck it close to it).
- Many Happy Returns (Has to come before Hammer into Anvil as Thorp becomes a number 2... though arguably he's not the same character. Other than that it could fit in anywhere mid to late series given that it has the feel of No.6 having been in the village for a while)
- It's Your Funeral (not sure if this should be earlier given that No.6 hasn't heard of jamming yet)
- A Change of Mind
- Hammer into Anvil
- Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling (a bit of a break from The Village)
- Living in Harmony (quite where this goes I don't know but it was made later so here it goes. Doesn't really have any connection to the rest of the episodes though)
- The Girl Who Was Death (could go anywhere. Again a kind of break from The Village and again was shot later).
- Once Upon a Time (now we're back on track)
- Fall Out (very obviously the end)
So there you go. There are probably hundreds more combinations that people have, this is just one of them. I may revise it next time I watch the series 
Star Wars original theatrical versions at last… but!
So Lucas has finally given in to pressure and decided to satisfy the fans and release the original Star Wars trilogy theatrical versions as seen in the 70s and 80s (sans Special Edition enhancements) on DVD.
Fantastic, but George has decided to test our faith in the original trilogy and give us it in it's most raw form by using non-anamorphic, low resolution laserdisc transfers as the source! It would appear he believes by asking for the original versions we would be hypocrites for wanting those versions cleaned up and sourced from a high definition transfer (the kind of thing that film preservation purists at Criterion do after all ).
This is nothing short of just sticking two fingers up to the fans.
Of course this does allow for better future releases on DVD and then HD versions later, consistently going back on his word
As always, more information at www.originaltrilogy.com
Oh, and to make it worse the covers for the DVDs are awful new versions inspired by the original posters rather than the brilliant original posters. Artwork and details of the DVDs here.
P.S. If you have the SE versions, you have to re-buy them to get these versions, and if you have the laserdiscs or the fan DivX versions derived from them you aren't getting anything new anyway
It’s Donner’s Superman II… but not by Donner
Richard Donner speaks in an interview on his new film 16 Blocks, and also on the new Bryan Singer Superman Returns film and the so called 'Donner cut' of Superman II, which it turns out he's not doing himself. He says on helping out with the project, "I can't because it's so long ago and the little bit of footage that I looked at, I would never shoot like that now in a million years, I mean it was a different way, a different style, different interpretation."
More of this in Dark Horizon's exclusive interview.
At present the new cut of Superman II will feature on an impressive 14 disc! Superman set, probably due for release prior to the release of Superman Returns featuring theatrical and director's cuts of both Superman and Superman II, plus remasters of Superman III and IV (though there are doubts about the extended Superman IV turning up on the set), plus two cuts of Supergirl!, and plenty of extras no doubt. This set may potentially be a High Def release also (Blu-Ray and/or HD-DVD).
Donner’s Superman II potentially going ahead as an SE DVD in 2006
If the rumours are to be believed, Warner Bros and Ilya Salkind have negotiated a deal to do the long desired Directors Cut of Superman II with Richard Donner's footage, for a Special Edition DVD next year.
http://www.supermancinema.co.uk/daily_planet/news/index.shtml
Also, if anyone's wondering what Donner's original version would have been like, there's a good screenplay here...
Forget Spielberg’s War of the Worlds, this is the best… ever!
At least it's the best WOTW version... ever, if watched in this edited form 
...
Lucas speaks on film preservation
"I am very concerned about our national heritage, and I am very concerned that the films that I watched when I was young and the films that I watched throughout my life are preserved, so that my children can see them. -- George Lucas, speaking out against the colorization of black and white films "
Funny that, when George doesn't want anyone to see his own films as they were released at the cinema and on video for a decade.
More here, with a petition to sign:
