A question and some blather

Well, that's interesting. Question for marycrawford or elke_tanzer or any other Hercules folks out there, since my own knowledge is primarily Xena-based. Has there been a rerelease of Hercules Season 1? Or will there be, more accurately, since the release date is apparently next Tuesday. Deep Discount is listing it at $11.99, and that's... cheap. Really cheap. Too cheap? Is there a catch, like it's really "$11.99 and your immortal soul" or "$11.99 but we're making the discs out of cheese now" or something? Oh wait, Amazon has it too, for $14.99. Gosh. What goes on here?

I'm also intrigued by the forthcoming Xena 10th Anniversary set. Oooh, mysterious! Will it be something remastered, re-extraed and repriced? Will it be a "Best of"? Will it be some sort of arc plot theme set, like the X-Files mythology ones will be? You know what would be a super-fabulous release, Anchor Bay? The lost Alexander episode. I would have to devise a whole new coolness scale to measure that. The sheer possibilities...


And FSM posted the last part of their Top 40 Most In-Demand Composers in Hollywood yesterday, "the least surprising, most predictable part of the list, the names that have pretty much stayed the same for the last three years." Heh. Pretty much, yeah. In fact, the only changes from last year are that Horner and Shore have flipped places, and that Harry Gregson-Williams jumped the pack to grab the #10 spot. Seriously, what the heck? I like Gregson-Williams well enough, but that surprised me. How did he pull assignments like Kingdom of Heaven, Domino, and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe? It isn't a bad thing, but... Media Ventures, dude. I'm starting to wonder if there's something to all those "Media Ventures is backed by the Mafia/ the Illuminati/ Satan/ Bill Gates" snarks. I don't really have a strong opinion as to who I'd rather see as #10, I suppose. If I were the Film Score Fairy, I'd wave my wand and ping Bruce Broughton, or maybe Gabriel Yared, but that would raise eyebrows, too ("Dear Warner Bros.: While I know Troy was not really considered a success for you, please consider releasing Gabriel Yared's score for it, as it is widely considered one of the most desirable and accomplished unreleased scores in recent years. And I want it a lot. Thank you."). And it's rather sad to look at the complete list and not see Jerry Goldsmith or Michael Kamen anymore. sniff.

Anyway, if you're curious but too lazy to click (heh), the top ten:

10. Harry Gregson-Williams
9. Alan Silvestri
8. Randy Newman
7. James Newton Howard (I'm currently obsessed with his Atlantis score. Again.)
6. James Horner
5. Howard Shore
4. Hans Zimmer
3. Thomas Newman
2. Danny Elfman
1. John Williams (surprise!)

And the quote that most caught my eye: "The much desired ten-disc set of Shore's Rings music is unlikely to arrive this year...". On the one hand, darn. On the other, whew, I still have time to scrimp and save! Because that's going to be one pricey set. I shudder to think. Now how about an update on Doug Adams's book, guys?


Argh, how is it Friday again? Wasn't it just Friday, like, three days ago? I'm so tired.