South Pacific (mini-series) - BBC Earth's New Hi-Def Documentary Comes to DVD and Blu-ray as 'Wild Pacific' *UPDATE: Price, Extras, New Trailer*

This landmark series explores the sheer scale and majesty of the largest ocean on Earth, the isolation of its islands, the extraordinary journeys wildlife and humans have gone through to reach these specks of land, and what happened to both after their arrival. Unimaginably vast, the Pacific is 99% water and only 1% land - you could fit the whole of the world's landmasses into it and still have enough room for another Africa! The distance between these islands can be huge - literally hundreds or thousands of miles - but somehow, life made it there. Isolation does curious things - animals evolve and adapt in strange ways. Witness flesh-eating caterpillars, giant crabs capable of opening coconuts, geckos that can breed without any need of a male, frogs that have never been tadpoles... Beyond cliched images of swaying palms and idyllic beaches, this is the real, immense and surprising South Pacific.

Earlier this month, BBC Two in the U.K. began airing the 6-part documentary mini-series South Pacific, which was made in co-operation with The Discovery Channel and filmed entirely in high definition. The series is produced by Huw Cordey (Planet Earth) and narrated by Benedict Cumberbatch (The Other Boleyn Girl). Episodes include "Ocean of Islands," "Castaways," "Endless Blue," "Ocean of Volcanoes" (scheduled for broadcast this coming Sunday), and two more which have yet to air.

Although the program hasn't quite finished its British run yet, BBC Video's new nature-based division, BBC Earth, has announced this morning that they (along with distributor Warner Home Video) will release the production in North America on July 14th, in both standard DVD and high-def Blu-ray Disc. However, to avoid confusing Americans between this show and the classic '50s musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein, they have decided to re-title the releases as Wild Pacific.

Both the Blu-ray and DVD versions will come on 2 discs, running approximately 300 minutes. Widescreen video (in stunning 1080p high-def on the Blu-ray) is accompanied by English Stereo audio and an option for English subtitles. Pricing and bonus material (if any) have yet to be announced with the early information this morning, but we'll update you when we get that. Hopefully there will be some extras, though...especially one on the "super slo-mo high def" techniques which were used underwater for the first time in this production. One of the BBC's promos for this release is a clip of Australian surfer Dylan Longbottom riding a wave off the coast of the Caroline Islands, shown in super slo-mo hi-def. We've got a look at that spectacular clip for you, courtesy of the BBC's post at YouTube. Below that we have the package art for Wild Pacific (a.k.a. South Pacific) on Blu-ray Disc and DVD:


UPDATE: BBC/Warner has just updated us with some additional information about these releases. The high-def Blu-ray Disc release will be priced at $34.99 SRP, while the standard DVD release will cost $29.98 SRP. Bonus material consists of 10 minutes of behind-the-scenes footage after each episode. Also, a new online trailer, separate from the video clip shown below, is now available. Finally, it's worth mentioning that this mini-series will begin airing on the Discovery Channel just a couple of days prior to these home video releases, so it's practically a simultaneous introduction in the States for the show, both on-air and on disc.