This past weekend was the "
Star Wars Celebration Europe," held in London, and it's no surprise that LucasFilm exec Rick McCallum was an honored guest there. In fact, Warwick Davis ("Wicket" in
Return of the Jedi, among other roles) personally interviewed McCallum, and a 13.5-minute recording of that interview can be found
at the official Star Wars blog. McCallum drifts into talking about
Young Indiana Jones at one point, mentioning how he and George Lucas used the show - which was the first TV series to sport digital-based special effects - as a way to develop their ability to bring digital FX to the level they felt they needed to move forward with the prequel
Star Wars trilogy. About 8 minutes into the recording, Davis has McCallum answer viewer questions, and since McCallum brought up
Young Indy, the second question he's asked is about when that show's DVDs are coming out.
McCallum gives a release date of October 13th for the
The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles - Volume 1 DVD set, but we're sure he had a mix-up when he was put on the spot like that. The 13th of October is a Saturday, and an unlikely release date in either the USA (which gets DVD releases on Tuesdays), or even in Europe (which gets DVD releases on Mondays). As
we've reported here at TVShowsonDVD, the release date the studio provided a week ago today is
October 23rd. So when McCallum said the 13th, he probably meant the 23rd. Unless they're doing something REALLY special with a Saturday release!
What about the Volume 2 and Volume 3 DVD sets? It looks like there will be a 3-to-4 month gap between releases. McCallum said that, after the mid-October release, then "they" (the next set) will come out in
January, and then "just right after
Indy IV" for the final set. The fourth
Indiana Jones film, supposedly called
Indiana Jones and the City of Gods (title has not been officially announced yet, even though filming has begun), is targeted to hit the box offices around the world on May 22, 2008. So
Late May/Early June sounds like the timetable to get the final batch of episodes.
McCallum also noted that they have made around 100 historical documentaries in the last three-and-a-half years, to go along with these episodes on DVD, so these discs will be packed. Our thanks to all the readers who wrote in and told us about this info, starting with Sebastian Goettling of Germany, who was able to attend in person and wrote to us and let us know. Stay tuned for further updates.
