Davis-Panzer has informed us that their high-def Blu-ray Disc release of
Highlander: The Series - Season 1 , which will be sold exclusively online via
LegendaryHeroes.com, has been delayed once more. The most recent schedule had the set shipping in 10 days, on October 31st (Halloween Day). The reason they had for pushing the set back that far, from a previously-planned mid-September release, was because "the German audio turned out to be edited-down versions of the tracks, without all the dubbing that should be found."
Now Davis-Panzer finds that they won't be able to meet the October 31st date, either, due to a combination of circumstances. The schedule was already fairly tight, because the entire nation of China - where the authoring and replicating on this title is being done - took some time off of work recently for a national holiday this month: the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China (the current communist government there). But the real trouble began when the studio made the above-described edits to the German audio tracks on their own show. The intention is to release this
Season 1 Blu-ray set to the German market, and a contract is already in place with a German distributor for that. However, the German government, we're told, apparently has fairly strict regulations on making the sorts of edits needed, in this case, to provide fans with proper dubs. So Davis-Panzer has needed additional time to ensure that they were, of course, abiding by those regulations. And then, we're told, Murphy's Law stepped in to be certain that anything else which could go wrong, did: some equipment broke down in the final stages of doing all of this work!
Is the project cursed? Nah, probably not...this is just the sort of fun which happens from time to time in the real world of trying to get product manufactured. Most studios keep quiet about these kinds of details, hoping to avoid having egg on their face. Kudos to Davis-Panzer for proving that "it only looks easy," and explaining to all of us that sometimes circumstances really do get beyond one's control, and forces a delay to something we're all desperately waiting for. It also shows that they care about this project, and want to put it out the best way possible, and not cut a corner just to make an artificial deadline.
What's the new street date? Davis-Panzer isn't ready to set one yet. After all, they know they've disappointed fans already with a few dates they haven't been able to make, and they want to make darn sure this time that they get a handle on the situation and can keep the next schedule that they set. They still think that
Highlander: The Series - Season 1 on Blu-ray will be out before 2009 ends, though. Stay tuned, and we'll tell you the new shipping date, just as soon as they finalize it.
