Resurrection edition

The Resident Evil series has been pretty ambitious about its DVD special features. The first DVD release ("Special Edition") was solid enough, with five featurettes and commentary from Paul W.S. Anderson, producer Jeremy Bolt, and leads Milla Jovovich and Michelle Rodriguez - but the later "Deluxe Edition" added a visual effects commentary, a good half dozen more featurettes, an alternate ending, preview of RE 2 from Fangoria, etc.

The DVD treatment of the sequel, Resident Evil: Apocalypse, is worthy of the Criterion Collection. Three separate commentary tracks (filmmakers, cast, and writer/producer), previews, twenty deleted scenes, cast outtakes, a six-part making-of feature, a poster gallery of fan-submitted designs, and featurettes on special effects, the emergence of female action stars in film, and my favorite, Corporate Malfeasance: a featurette "on the real world similarities to the Umbrella Corporation."

As efforts are ramped up for the September 21 theatrical release of Resident Evil: Extinction (a restricted red-band trailer has just hit, complete with various types of head-busting), Screen Gems will release a 2-disc RE package on September 4th, Resident Evil: Resurrected Edition. There's already a set of the first two films, but there are always new special features to pack in.

The new edition will sacrifice some of the features of the earlier editions, so real fans will have to keep the old ones and still buy the new one. Specifically, the new set will feature a photo gallery, a new preview of RE 3 (and a voucher for a ticket), and various featurettes, including an Undead Boot Camp segment, Diary of an Apocalypse, a Memory Retension Division feature, and a Zombie Dog P.O.V. test - Murnau would be proud!

Most interesting, however, is a "bridging scene" to connect parts 2 and 3 of the series. Though early reports had claimed it would be newly shot footage, it's been revealed that it'll consist of clips from the first two films, albeit with newly recorded voiceover (in character) by Milla Jovovich. Could it be the first example of canonical material recorded for a DVD special feature? Rebuttals welcomed.