x x x Home Video. ------
VIDBITS
'Philadelphia' continues to hang onto the No. 1 slot on the Billboard national video rental chart with 'The Pelican Brief' runnerup. 'Ace Ventura: Pet Detective' remains third with 'Tombstone: and 'Grumpy Old Men' rounding out the top five. Two newcomers this week: the Whoopi Goldberg sequel 'Sister Act 2: Back In The Habit' is eighth and the X-generation comedy 'Reality Bites' 10th...
'The Flintstones' will be abba-dabba-doing it on video beginning Nov. 8 (with a $20 price tag), according to MCA/Universal. As previously noted, Fox's summer action hit 'Speed,' as well as 'Maverick' and 'City Slickers 2' are expected in November also. Now comes word that 'Wyatt Earp,' 'Blown Away' and 'I Love Trouble' and maybe 'True Lies' will hit video in December... Turner Home Entertainment reportedly has set a Sept. 23 date for 'Baseball,' the video version of Ken Burns' 18 hour epic, as a nine-cassette package ($180) or as individual tapes ($25 each). That would come right in the middle of the series' Sept. 18-28 showing on PBS...
The British government estimates about one-fifth of all money raised annually for the outlawed Irish Republican Army comes from the sale of pirated videocassettes... Disney's 'Aladdin' has opened its overseas run in high-flying fashion, with 400,000 copies shipped to Australian outlets, equalling Down Under best-seller 'Beauty And The Beast.' Disney expects to sell 16-17 million 'Aladdin' videocassettes abroad, topping both 'The Jungle Book' (15 million) and 'Beauty' (12.5 million), according to Variety.
'The Dark Crystal,' Muppet master Jim Henson's exceptional, highly imaginative 1983 fairy tale fantasy of good versus evil and first full- length, all-creature film, has returned to the home video shelves at a new low price ($14.99). The elaborate design (two years for the eyes alone) and construction needed for the creatures, some operated by cable, remote control or hand puppetry, some built to accommodate actors encased in fiberglass, latex foam and other materials, prompted Henson to create The Creature Shop, initially manned by some 60 specialists in such diverse fields as watch repair and ceramics...
Today, the Creature Shop, based in London, builds characters for movies of all sorts around the globe, ranging from 'The Bear' to 'The Flintstones,' from the Jedi sage Yoda in 'The Empire Fights Back' to 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.' In some cases. creatures are needed to stand in for animals that seem to get hurt but really don't, as in the case of dogs mauled and sent flying, or so it seems, by 'The Bear'...
'After 'The Dark Crystal,' Jim wanted to keep his team together,' says John Stephenson, a 'Crystal' newcomer who became creative supervisor for The Creature Shop. 'We can design and manufacture characters for almost anything.' For the current hit, 'The Flintstones,' 'We designed 20 characters -- all but two of the creatures. In addition to our movies, we have done 10 to 15 television commercials.' Among the latter, the time-warp meeting between the Energizer rabbit and King Kong, and Carling's feisty spider. 'We're at work now on 'Babe' and will be doing 'Mary Reilly' and a film about the Loch Ness monster and some Henson projects,' Stephenson adds. Plus there's a new system involving computer-animated characters. The Muppets have come a'ways. ------
Billboard's Top 10 videocassette rentals: 1. Philadelphia -- Columbia TriStar Home Video 2. The Pelican Brief -- Warner Home Video 3. Ace Ventura: Pet Detective -- Warner Home Video 4. Tombstone -- Hollywood Home Video 5. Grumpy Old Men -- Warner Home Video 6. In the Name of the Father -- MCA/Universal Home Video 7. The Getaway -- MCA/Universal Home Video 8. Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit -- Image Entertainment 9. The Piano -- LIVE Home Video 10. Reality Bites -- MCA/Universal Home Video
