DVD Pitch Session: Clash of the Titans

Welcome to the DVD Pitch Session, a new feature on Pop Culture Zoo where we break down some of the most notable absences from DVD shelves. With every film that sees a collector’s-edition-uber-box-set find it way to store shelves each Tuesday, there are countless others that have yet to be enshrined in this glorious medium. The DVD Pitch Session is devoted to giving these forgotten films a voice and hopefully expediting a release more fitting of their cinematic glory.

Clash of the Titans was one of the greatest epics I watched as a kid. Sadly, the only DVD available of this classic is a bare bones snap-case edition – and I hold the term “snap-case” as a curse word in my dictionary. So to give it proper honor I demand a sweet two-disc edition of Clash of the Titans. This release should highlight all the wonders oozing from the movie that gave me sword-wielding, flying-horse-riding, cyclops-killing dreams as an awkward youth.

The first needed addition to this set would be a documentary on Ray Harryhausen’s brilliant stop-motion animated creatures. Special emphasis should be paid to the Medusa and the Kraken, which scared the hell out of me when I first saw the film at 9 years old. The documentary could talk at length about other great Harryhausen classics (Jason and the Argonauts, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad), considering that Clash of the Titans was the last film he was actively involved with in creating visual effects. Additionally, a documentary could address how the art form of stop-motion animation is largely absent since the advent of CGI.

Second, a featurette highlighting Burgess Meredith’s performance as Ammon, as well as his other landmark appearances in Rocky and as the voice of Golobulus in G.I. Joe: The Movie. Actually, the feature could highlight all the mighty actors from the film including Maggie Smith (who was amazingly hot as Thetis), Laurence Olivier, Ursula Andress, and Jack Gwillim.

An audio commentary of this film is an absolute must and should feature Perseus himself, the mighty Harry Hamlin. Maybe he could do the commentary in-character… no, that’s a terrible idea. Other surviving members of the cast including Smith, Andress, Judi Bowker and anyone else involved in the film’s production could be included in one or multiple commentary tracks. Finally, bring in a Greek Mythology expert to talk in a featurette about the classic characters and how the movie portrayed them in relation to their historical context. I’d love to hear him explain the historical origins of the robotic owl.

The good news is that the movie is being remade by Louis Leterrier (Incredible Hulk, The Transporter) to be released in 2010. I imagine at that time there will be a special edition out to cash in on the film’s renewed exposure. We will see how their edition measures up to mine. Although, just releasing a non-snap case version would be good enough to pry money out of my wallet. But if they don’t release another edition, I am going to hunt down someone at MGM and kick the snap-case out of them.