Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins...

[antnield]

First they faked his death and gave him a new identity. Now a top secret organisation is training a former New York cop to combat corrupt forces operating outside of the law. His mentor, Chiun, is an ageing Korean master of the martial arts who can run on water and dodge speeding bullets.

Born on the pages of Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir’s The Destroyer series of men’s adventure novels, Remo Williams was placed in the capable hands of Bond director Guy Hamilton (Goldfinger, The Man with the Golden Gun) for his big-screen outing. Fred Ward (Tremors) plays the trainee assassin, with Academy Award-winner Joel Grey (Cabaret) occupying the role of Chiun.

With its classic set-piece atop the Statue of Liberty, much-loved score by Craig Safan and a healthy sense of its own silliness, Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins… offers up a cracking slice of mid-eighties action.

SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS:

- High definition digital transfer
- Newly created and exclusive content including interviews with cast and crew!
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by The Red Dress
- Collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film and more!
- More to be revealed closer to the release date

[antnield]

Full specs:

SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS:
- High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation of the film from a digital transfer prepared by MGM Studios
- Original uncompressed Stereo 2.0 PCM audio
- Isolated Music and Effects soundtrack
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- Audio commentary with producers Larry Spiegel and Judy Goldstein
- Remo, Rambo, Reagan and Reds: The Eighties Action Movie Explosion – all-new feature-length documentary from High Rising Productions focusing on a decade of cinematic destruction and Remo Williams’s place among the carnage. Includes new interviews with genre expert Bey Logan, Remo producers Larry Spiegel and Judy Goldstein, celebrated directors Sam Firstenberg (American Ninja) and Mark L. Lester (Commando), producers Don Borchers (Angel) and Garrick Dion (Drive), filmmaker and scholar Howard S. Berger and Professor Susan Jeffords (author of Hard Bodies: Hollywood Masculinity in the Reagan Era)
- When East Met West – Joel Grey reflects on his turn as Chiun
- Changing Faces – make-up expert Carl Fullerton discusses his Oscar-nominated work on Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins…
- Notes for a Nobleman – composer Craig Safan talks about his classic score
- Theatrical Trailer
- Reversible Sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by The Red Dress
- Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the origins of Remo Williams by Barry Forshaw and an on-set report from American Cinematographer magazine

[domino harvey]

No Fred Ward?

[antnield]

Beaver.

[Adam X]

No Fred Ward?

That's unfortunate. There really should be more Fred Ward in the world.
Much like The People Under the Stairs with an absent Everett McGill & Wendy Robie.

[MichaelB]

I can't speak for these specific releases, but agents are generally approached upfront with regard to stars who are still alive - but if they say no or want an unrealistic amount of money, I'm afraid that's that.

[colinr0380]

I'm sure this has nothing to do with the Fred Ward absence, but there's a great story by Bey Logan on the old Hong Kong Legends commentary for the fun Ninja In The Dragon's Den about trying to get the famously combative lead of the film Conan Lee (whose big star-making role this was but who ended up leaving the industry to return to the US - he turns up for a couple of seconds early on as an extra in the alley fight in Big Trouble In Little China. And another couple of seconds as a henchman to Jet Li in Lethal Weapon 4) to join in the commentary with him. Logan mentions getting a bizarre list of demands that apparently involved having to clean Lee's apartment every week and making him a cheese sandwich every other day, so they gave up! Which is a shame really as it would have given Conan Lee a chance to talk in depth about his career, such as it was.

[domino harvey]

I was going to suggest there may have been health issues that kept him away, but it looks like he's still working and was in 2 Guns last year, so it may very well be extreme demands or general embarrassment over the part that kept him away. Ward's such an immensely likable screen personality that I will hold onto the belief that his reasons were not jerky ones until proved otherwise

[MichaelB]

Mondo Digital.

[Adam X]

Ok, I think I'm sold.
That review plus Fred Ward makes for a pretty enticing release. That '80's centered doco sounds really interesting too.
Thanks Arrow, for continuing to put such great efforts into the contextual extras.

Just about to watch Action Jackson for the first time, which now seems oddly appropriate.

[manicsounds]

bluray.com

[antnield]

Cine Outsider.