We hope you’re as excited as we are that Vanilla Sky is finally (finally!) out on Blu-ray! We put lots of TLC into the release — which is why it took so long — but we hope you’ll find that the wait was worth it! There’s new artwork and menus, and a slew of new bonus features, all to accompany the original extras that were on the first DVD release back in 2002. Let us know what you think of the new deleted/extended scenes, especially the Alternate Ending.
In celebration of the upcoming Vanilla Sky Blu-ray, we will be sharing (for the first time), a scene extension or deleted scene from the Vanilla Sky shooting script a few times each day. Some of this will be seen on the upcoming Blu-ray, while others will remain exclusive to the script. We hope you like them.
Jeff on the set of Elizabethtown. Picture courtesy of Jeff Wexler.
Jeff Wexler has been working in the film industry since he was an intern on Harold and Maude back in 1971. His career spans more than four decades with such varied films as Foul Play, Being There, The Natural, Spaceballs, Independence Day, Fight Club and Mission Impossible III. We spoke on location working on his sixth film with Cameron, Aloha.
Looking back on your 40 year career in the film industry, I read that you had no plans to follow in your dad’s footsteps (preeminent cinematographer Haskell Wexler). Tell us how working a summer job on Hal Ashby’s Harold and Maude changed your life?
I had been on sets with my father probably since about the age of two. I was very familiar with what goes on when making a movie but when I started to think about what I would do “when I grow up” it never crossed my mind that I would work on movies. I spent 5 years in college preparing to teach sociology at the college level. One summer I think my father felt that I had been in school long enough and needed a summer job. Of course he got me a job on a movie, working as a production assistant in the Art Department on Harold and Maude. I had known Hal Ashby from times spent going to dailies with my father, visiting the editing room (Hal was an Academy Award winning editor on several movies my father had shot), so I was quite comfortable on the set again, with people I knew. What I was not prepared for was how I felt, for the first time, being on a movie, not as a visitor but as a participant. I fell in love with the movies. When the movie wrapped I made the decision: teaching was out — I would pursue a career working on movies.
Describe to our readers the duties of a Sound Mixer?
I am a Production Sound Mixer and it is the responsibility, with my crew, for all the sound that is recorded during production. This is primarily dialog recording, but we also record sound effects, ambiences, music (sometimes live performances depending on the movie). Many others will work on the soundtrack for a movie in post production (i.e. sound designer, sound editorial, foley, music composer, re-recording mixer, etc.) but the production sound recordings are the primary and fundamental basis for the movie.
It’s almost here! After many, many months of work (and your infinite patience), the Vanilla Sky Blu-ray will be released on June 30th. Listen, we know that our promised May date did not come to fruition, but it wasn’t due to a lack of effort. Sometimes scheduling delays are unavoidable for a variety of reasons, but with Warner officially announcing the release, the June 30th date is now final.
In addition to the brand new cover art (pictured above), the Blu-ray will include the theatrical version and the extended/alternate ending version (complete with commentary by Cameron on this alternate ending). Here’s a list of the extras:
Here’s an exclusive first look at the back cover and BD disc art:
To all Vanilla Sky fans out there eagerly awaiting the new Blu-ray (as we are!):
Sincerest apologies for the constant and consistent delays in the release date for the Vanilla Sky Blu-ray. There have been more than a few roadblocks on our way to bringing this to you, but we have fought our way through and have landed on a May 5, 2015 release date, one that will NOT push any further! The biggest reason for these delays is that we want to ensure that the package is absolutely the best it can be, PACKED with extras (Original ending, anyone? Deleted and extended scenes? Director commentary on most of the extras?!? and much, much more). We promise it will be so worth the wait!
One of the great challenges in revisiting a film after all this time is the clearance dotting of the “i”s and crossing of the “t”s — and we’d rather take the time to ensure that we can include as much as possible, rather than chalk it up to “oh well, we can’t clear it in time, let’s just pull (insert extra feature here) from the Blu-ray.” We’d rather push the release and include the near-impossible than release something that is less than we know it can be. Simple as that.
So, with that in mind, again please accept our sincerest thanks for your unending patience, and please be sure to let us know what you think of the release once the blessed day is upon us. And know that all of the blood, sweat and tears that went into it was for the purpose of shedding more light on those not-quite-so forgotten gems, those moments we hated losing for the greater good of the film back in the day, and to give everyone a deeper look into those majestic Vanilla Skies….
Greg
Editor Joe Hutshing, Gilcrest & Ng – Untitled Hawaii Editorial – March 28, 2014
Here’s the latest picture from Untitled Hawaii courtesy of Cameron. It’s editor Joe Hutshing hard at work on a scene with Bradley Cooper (Brain Gilcrest) and Emma Stone (Allison Ng). Joe has worked his magic previously on Jerry Maguire, Almost Famous and Vanilla Sky.
Neal Preston is one of rock’s most celebrated and iconic photographers. Neal’s relationship with Cameron nearly goes back to the beginning of his illustrious career. We chatted with Neal on location in Hawaii about his career, his new iBook Led Zeppelin: Sound and Fury and much more.
When did you first meet Cameron? I know you guys worked together at Circus magazine and Rolling Stone, but had you met earlier while he was writing for the San Diego Door or Creem?
You know, I actually don’t recall the very first time we met — but I know that around the time we met he was definitely writing for the San Diego Door. I remember my girlfriend Bobbi (who was a publicist with rock p.r. agency Gershman, Gibson and Stromberg) shoving a copy of the Door in front of me, virtually demanding that I “read this kid’s stuff!! He’s only 14 years old!!!!”
Yeah, he could write, but what was far more astounding to me was that he was a really good ping pong player. There was a ping-pong table in the rec center where he lived. I was 5 years older than him, yet he probably beat me 80-90% of the time. I hated losing to him, more than he ever knew. In fact I’m still upset about it.
Deep in the Vanilla Sky archives…
As you might have heard, Vanilla Sky was scheduled for release on Blu-ray later this month. Cameron and the crew at Vinyl Films have been working hard on some long promised additional extra features and Paramount has generously provided some extra time to make sure this will be the definitive release of the film.
