Moments after my editor asked me to write this article about The Exorcist coming to Blu-ray I had a three-paragraph nostalgia trip spill out of my brain. It was a little too deep to waste on a release notice like this, so I’ve decided to bank that story for the time being and unleash it on you all when I actually get my geeky mitts on the Blu-ray for review.

Let’s just agree that I can’t hardly wait for that moment. Anyhoo, this upcoming 2-Disc Digibook Blu-ray package, to be released on October 5, 2010, will contain both the original 1973 theatrical release and the Y2K Director’s cut re-release, along with two feature-length documentaries, commentary tracks by both director William Friedkin and writer/producer William Peter Blatty, interviews, storyboards, and a bunch of featurette-level material and trailers.

I wanted a copy before all that jazz, so I’m already a happy camper. Check out the Red-band trailer for the Blu-ray release and a full rundown of features here after the jump.

W
Directed by Oliver Stone
Starring Josh Brolin, Elizabeth Banks, James Cromwell, Ellen Burstyn, Thandie Newton
Lionsgate

Long gone were Presidents Kennedy and Nixon when Oliver Stone decided to dissect them back in the 1990s and those two films (JFK and Nixon) turned out just fine. With President George W. Bush, Stone is not only dealing with a sitting president, but is dealing with the fact that good ole W is among the most discussed presidents of all-time.

Go ahead, try and turn on a news station that isn’t discussing this man’s calamities. It’s impossible. That fact alone would dissuade most directors. But Stone handles W’s issues and dilemmas with a keen understanding and a unique freshness that results in a fascinating foray into W’s desire to break away from his family’s name, but at the same time be accepted by them. Let the debates begin.

Stone’s tactic isn’t to give the audience a lecture or a PowerPoint presentation on the 43rd President of the United States. W (Josh Brolin) isn’t like Lincoln or Washington, or, any president for that matter. Most of them are made out to be monuments, not alcoholic, spoiled, feckless men like the young W. Those prestigious presidents would fill the movie screen in searing dramas and portraits of history that would be directed by the likes of Spielberg.