At the Great Northern, you can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave.
What's better than a cup of good, hot, black coffee? Well, nothing. But almost as good is the announcement of the "Twin Peaks: Definitive Gold Box Edition" DVD box set (due Oct. 30, 2007), which will include both seasons of the show and -- for the first time ever on DVD -- the two-hour pilot episode! Not only that, but two versions of it: the one that originally aired on ABC, and the "European" version (with its own bizarre coda/ending) that was released in theaters overseas.
Oh, and that's not all. According to the My Two Cents blog at The Digital Bits:
You'll also get Log Lady introductions for each episode, never-before-seen deleted scenes, production documents, the 4-part "Secrets from Another Place: Creating Twin Peaks" documentary (includes "Northwest Passage: Creating the Pilot," "Freshly Squeezed: Creating Season 1," "Where We’re From: Creating the Music" and "Into the Night: Creating Season 2"), the "A Slice of Lynch" retrospective roundtable discussion video, the "Return to Twin Peaks" featurette, 13 TV spots, 3 image galleries (The Richard Beymer Gallery, Unit Photography and Twin Peaks Trading Cards), 3 Georgia Coffee commercials, Julee Cruise's "Falling" music video, 8 interactive maps and Kyle MacLachlan's monologue and "Twin Peaks" sketch from "Saturday Night Live." The episodes have all been remastered from the original negatives (a process personally supervised by Lynch) and will be presented in the original full frame aspect ratio with audio in both newly-mixed Dolby Digital 5.1 and the original 2.0.Consider the new, two-disc DVD edition of Lynch's most recent feature "Inland Empire" a warm-up for this.
As for Lynch's own view on DVD extras, refer to Sean Axmaker's MSN Movies column quoted previously:
I believe talking is OK separate from a thing, but a commentary track that goes along through a film, I think, is maybe the worst possible thing a person could do. From then on, the film is seen in terms of the memory of that commentary and it changes things forever. [...]Obviously, I disagree with Lynch on the "commentaries" -- which provide one of the best ways of studying a film. But I see his point: When it's the filmmaker, rather than a third party (like a critic or a scholar) who is doing the talking, it makes the comments seem limiting, more like a statement than than an interpretation of the film. And Lynch does not like to put strictures on interpretations of his work. (I've seen him, in audience Q&A sessions, tell people when they're just flat-out, off-the-charts wrong about second-guessing his intentions, though.)There are things in "More Things That Happened" [a selection of additional scenes on the 211-minute second disc] that give a feeling that could be like a brother or sister to the film. It's like if you know a family, but you haven't met the sister yet. You go over to Ohio and meet the sister, and it adds more to the feeling of the whole family.
(Thanks to Jeff Shannon for passing along this news.)
Didn't the second season just come out a few months ago? They shouldn't have released a version at all until this one—it was insulting to release the first season without the pilot.
Anyway, maybe I'll finally give the series a look now.
Now, I will finally allow myself the enjoyment of watching it for the first time. About time they release the first 2 hour bit.
Good lord. I'm pretty lukewarm on Lynch, but reading about all the goodies this set will have gave me goosebumps. Just having the pilot alone -- nevermind two versions of it! -- makes it worth the price of admission. The last time I saw it was when it first aired, and I was, er, somewhere in the vicinity of ten years old if I have my timeline right. I am so damn glad my parents watched good TV and let me watch it, too, even if it was (for the most part) way over my head. Getting thrown in the deep end really is the best way to learn sometimes.
I find myself in the weird position of liking Lynch the commentator far more than Lynch the filmmaker. I can see his concern about commentary tracks, but was unable to express why I agreed with him -- but you did quite a good job of that, Jim. "Official" interpretations are the deadliest poison imaginable to living art. Cell phones (or their encouragement of synapse-short attention spans) aren't far behind it on the list.
Sweet.
I found the original DVD packaging so irritating that I bought the much of the series on VHS from a local video store when they were phasing out videotape--except I don't have a VCR. Now I can finally have it all in one place.
Y'all should certainly give the series a try (and "Fire Walk With Me" if you've not seen it). "Twin Peaks," most of it anyway, is fan-f***ing-tastic. Two friends and I decided to watch the series years ago while we were home during a college winter break--we only got through the first season before my friends had to go back to school. I was supposed to wait until spring break (when we'd all reconvene on our hometown) to watch the rest with them; I had another week off though and my friends were all gone. So I secretly watched the rest of the series and then re-watched it with them later a couple months later. I never told them. I like to think they did the same when they got back to school. It was so addictive.
Thanks for the good news. It will go next to my Chinese(?) DVD knockoff of said pilot, scored in a sleazy pawnshop.
Very loving fond memories of the SNL skit too... Lynch is a good man and a class act.
(And Mr. Emerson, please pardon my n00b-- I have the enthusiasm of a puppy sometimes.)
I'm so insanely excited about this. It's long, long overdue. Don't tell anyone, but I too have a bootleg DVD of the pilot. I'm looking forward to purchasing this official box set.
Now they need to get to work on the Larry Sanders show.
This is great news, but man, that is the worst cover art! The title isn't even centered correctly!