Why So Blu?

‘Spartacus: Blood and Sand’ Gets a Blu-ray Date!

The moment of truth has finally arrived!  The moment we all have been waiting for!  If you can read the headline above and are completely unaffected by it, then you don’t have a pulse.  That’s right folks, Anchor Bay Entertainment has officially announced the Blu-ray release date of the Starz TV series Spartacus: Blood and Sand – The Complete First Season.  The epic television series will be released on Blu-ray on September 21st in a high-end collectible book-style packaging. As a Blu-ray exclusive, four episodes have been personally selected as “Directors’ Cut Extended Episodes,” featuring content too risqué, even for cable TV.  Enhanced digital effects have also been added to several of the episodes.  Pre-order your Blu-ray set today and check out the full press release below from Anchor Bay and Starz.  I hate wishing the summer away, but I’m counting down the days already!  And best of all, it also gives me yet another reason to post a Katrina Law (Mira) picture below.  Double yea!

“A Bloody Good Time.” – The Washington Post

ANCHOR BAY ENTERTAINMENT UNLEASHES

“SPARTACUS: BLOOD AND SAND

The Complete First Season”

ON DVD AND BLU-RAY™ SEPTEMBER 21ST

Four-Disc Set Contains All 13 Episodes, Armored In High-End Collectible Packaging and Armed With Bonus Features

Four Director’s Cut Extended Episodes Blu-ray™ Exclusive

Beverly Hills, CA – “SPARTACUS: BLOOD AND SAND,” the monumental Starz Original series comes home when Anchor Bay Entertainment releases the critical and audience smash as an heroic four-disc DVD and Blu-ray™ September 21st. SRP is $59.97 for the DVD, with $79.97 for the Blu-ray™. Pre-book is August 25th. Both the “SPARTACUS: BLOOD AND SAND – The Complete First Season” DVD and Blu-ray™ are clad in high-end collectible, book-style packaging.

Executive produced by Rob Tapert, Sam Raimi, Joshua Donen and Steven S. DeKnight, “SPARTACUS: BLOOD AND SAND – The Complete First Season” on DVD and Blu-ray™ promises to take fans even deeper into the deadly brutality of gladiator games and the decadent machinations of Roman society with hours of bonus features delving behind the scenes into the making of a modern epic, including interviews and commentaries from the actors and filmmakers, augmented with rare production footage exploring the series’ ground-breaking visual effects, production and costume design.

Enhanced digital effects have been added to several of the episodes, and as a Blu-ray™ exclusive, four episodes have been personally selected as “Directors’ Cut Extended Episodes,” featuring content too risqué, even for cable TV!

“SPARTACUS: BLOOD AND SAND,” the most highly anticipated original series in the history of Starz Entertainment, premiered on January 22, 2010 and was an instant hit with viewers and critics. The Miami Herald called it “compulsively watchable,” while the Associated Press remarked that the series “grabs you with visual pizzazz.” Entertainment Weekly declared it “the not-at-all guilty pleasure of the season,” while US Weekly gave it “3.5 out of 4 stars.” With a renowned international cast including John Hannah (theMummy films), Peter Mensah (300), Manu Bennett (30 Days of Night), Nick E. Tarabay (“Crash”) and Lucy Lawless (“Xena: Warrior Princess”), and a star-making turn by UK-born and Australia-based Andy Whitfield in the title role, “SPARTACUS: BLOOD AND SAND” literally re-wrote the book for television series.

“SPARTACUS: BLOOD AND SAND” was inspired by the actual slave of the Roman Republic, who in 73 BC led a slave revolt that grew to more than 120,000 fighters. Torn from his homeland and the woman he loves, Spartacus (Whitfield), a Thracian warrior captured by Romans, is enslaved into a gladiator training school owned by Batiatus (Hannah) and his wife Lucretia (Lawless). He is forced to fight daily for his life against deadly foes, under the brutal whip of trainer Doctore (Mensah). He is condemned to the brutal world of the arena where blood and death are primetime entertainment. But not all battles are fought upon the sands. Treachery, corruption and the allure of sensual pleasures will constantly test him and his masters.

Against all odds, Spartacus’ rebellious instincts, his intense love for his wife Sura (Erin Cummings) and his powerful fighting skills drive him to win a series of near-impossible battles – setting in motion a revolution against the tyranny of Rome. To survive, he must become more than a man, more than a gladiator. He must become a legend.

The legions of “SPARTACUS: BLOOD AND SAND” fans who have been anticipating the second season, were excited to learn earlier this month that Starz will air a six-part prequel in early 2011 that tells the story of the gladiator school before Spartacus arrives. It will focus on Batiatus and Lucretia, as well as some new characters that will be introduced.

The bonus features on “SPARTACUS: BLOOD AND SAND – The Complete First Season” are anything but spartan. Hours of featurettes, behind-the-scenes footage, audio commentaries, interviews, and outtakes will get the “thumbs up” from the casual Thracian to the die-hard Roman!

DVD and Blu-ray™ bonus features:

• Featurettes:

Gladiator Camp

History Rewritten

Make-up Effects

The Hole

And more!

• Audio Commentaries

• Episodes with Enhanced Digital Effects

• Behind-The-Scenes Footage

• Bloopers

• Trailers

Exclusive Blu-ray™ bonus feature:

• Four “Directors’ Cut Extended Episodes” personally selected by Executive Producer Rob Tapert